What a day! We woke up at 3:30 am for our 5 am car to the airport. The driver showed up early and we left the house at 4:45 arriving at the airport at 5:15. After checking our 2 bags and going through security, we had MacDonald's breakfast and proceeded to our gate. At 6, they cancelled our 7:15 flight due to some mechanical problem and they had no substitute plane. They booked us on the 10:20 flight in a different terminal and we took the SkyLink train to the new gate and waited for boarding to begin about 4 and a half hours later. This new flight was to arrive in Ft. Lauderdale at 2 pm and as far as we knew, the ship was to sail at 4. Just before boarding time, they announced that the new crew was in a different terminal and we waited for 30 minutes for the to show up. The pilot managed to make up some of the time and we arrived at 2:15. As luck would have it, our bags came out nearly last and the Holland America agent was holding a bus for us. We boarded the ship around 3:15. After the safety drill at 4, we found out the the ship would not sail until 10 pm so we needn't have been so stressed out. We ran into several passengers from previous cruises. Some we know as friends and other that we recognize. We also saw some crew members from prior cruises.
Since our shipped baggage was already in the cabin, we started unpacking and trying to find a place for it all. We went up to the Crow's Nest to see Don, Jeff, and several others. At 8, we went to dinner and we have the same favorite table in the dining room that we had 2 years ago. They had a sail-away celebration from 9 to 11 with free drinks. We walked through and took some pictures before going up to the Crow's Nest to visit with Don until 11 when we went to the cabin to unpack our last 2 bags. We went to bed at around 12.
