Saturday

Great night’s sleep. Woke up a couple of times and felt the choppy Atlantic. It’s already been more oceany (is that a word?) than our previous two ocean trips that were like being on lakes. Breakfast in the World Cafe (which is phenominal) was grand (as usual). No food pictures this morning. After breakfast we read for a bit in one of the lounges and then did a walking tour of the ship. The Hide is a great speakeasy type bar that only serves drinks from 9 pm onwards. It’s a great place to sit, read, and hide all day. We also walked by the Restaurant (where we will eat tonight) and Manfredi’s, the Italian restuarant with great steaks (where we will eat three other nights). We also watched part of a kayak briefing in the Aula, the ship’s beautiful theater/auditorium/lecture hall. We didn’t need to stay for it because we won’t be kayaking. We will be doing one Zodiak tour and one Special Operations Boat tour – more about those when they happen.

There are library areas located all around the ship, but we have our own library in the suite. Some great books. I am now reading Fake History by Otto English. Here’s the library (with the television screen in the middle tuned to the live bow camera).

Weather is still nice and we sat on our balcony for awhile. As an expediation ship, the Polaris in general doesn’t have outdoor balconies in its staterooms. Instead, they have Nordic balconies. There is a floor-to-ceiling picture window that open downwards from the top to the halfway point, thereby creating an indoor “Nordic” balcony. The four Explorer Suites (and the single Owner’s Suite) have that but also have outdoor balconies. The pictures below show our Nordic picture window and our small balcony. (The wet look is not from rain – they just passed by with a hose washing things down.)

We met John and Donna at lunch in the World Cafe and then again at Happy Hour (5:00 pm) in the Living Room lounge. The bartender there is also named John, and he makes the best vodka gimlet (Grey Goose, of course). Nice music.

DInner tonight was in The Restaurant (reservations-required). My lobster and scallops highlighted the meal. Wine was excellent.

After dinner drinks were in the Explorer’s Lounge. And then off to bed.

THURSDAY NIGHT

Had dinner again at the hotel and listened to some cool music. We chatted a bit with the musician since it wasn’t crowded at all.

FRIDAY

Had breakfast, repacked, and checked out. Drove to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale and turned our car into Budget. There were a slew of people with tons of luggage waiting for the shuttle bus, so we grabbed a cab with another couple and shuttled to the ship that way. Checked the bags in with the ship porters. Then we had to wait about 90 minutes to board as the Coast Guard and the Health Authorities had not completed their inpection of the ship. (Staff reductions and budget cuts!) There were five cruise ships in port today.

Finally boarded and immediately accessed our Explorer Suite. We got upgraded from the junior suite we had booked to the Explorer Suite. Wow, is it nice.

Then it was time to explore, eat lunch, meet up with John and Donna from our last cruise, nap, unpack, and get ready for drinks and dinner. More about all that tomorrow (Saturday) when we we will be at sea headed to Charleston, South Carolina. We sailed at 8:00 pm. Before that we watched three other way bigger ships depart: Celebrity Beyond, Holland America Rotterdam, and Celebrity Something-or-Other. (Our ship is 390 pasengers.)

Very tired after dinner and drinks. Food is grand! More tomorrow.

Wednesday

Up at 5:00 am. 6:00 am ride to the Airport. 8:30 flight on American Airlines to Miami. All good and uneventful.

At Miami Airport we had a Budget Car reserved. Usually we use Alamo where we can go directly to the car without interacting with the counter. Budget doesn’t have that option. The counter was a mob scene. But Budget does have Express Check where you can go to a secondary counter in the garage. We found.another some lesser mob scene. So there was a thirty minute wait to get the car. We had reserved an intermediate size SUV (like a Ford Edge). We got a HUGE Chevrolet Suburban. Too big but acceptable. The we hit I-95 for the 29 mile ride from Miami Airport to our hotel in Fort Lauderdale. Yikes. 90 minutes! Bumper-to-bumper the whole way. And I couldn’t figure out how to use the navigation system in the Suburban. So I used Google Maps on my phone, but that app wouldn’t speak out the directions like it should. (I figured out later why.) So we did finally get to the Residence Inn Intracoastal in North Fort Lauderdale, but not without stress. We had a few drinks and a nice simple dinner in the hotel restaurant before hitting the sack. (Why is it called the sack?) Great views from our balcony.

THURSDAY

Our hotel is the Residence Inn Intracoastal Il Lugano located right on the Intracoastal just south of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. That’s where we used to spend a couple of weeks every year as our winter break from Boston. We had breakfast at the hotel and then decided to go for a ride. We drove down A1A all the way to where to meets US1 near the Cruise Port that we will depart from tomorrow. Lots of new high rises along the beach. Then we backtracked the same route, passed by our hotel, and drove north as far as Pompano Beach before doing another U-turn.

On the way back we stopped and parked in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea ($8.00 for two hours). Our main stop was the Village Pump, a local joint filled with Bostonians. We had Cape Codders and decided to stay for lunch. Elaine had a patty melt while I had a bowl of clam chowder and six delicious Blue Point oysters. We had a short walk around the beach area before heading back to the hotel for balcony time, nap time, and blog time. Tonight it will be a quick meal in the the hotel bistro and then bed. Gotta rest up for the gruelling cruise starting tomorrow.