Wanderung 19

Meandering the Mediterranean

Transatlantic Cruise

April - May 2009

Friday April 3rd, 2009, Embarking in Ft. Lauderdale

Bob:

After a quick breakfast I turned off the water, turned down the heat, turned off the electricity to non-essential circuits, and we were ready to go. The taxi came exactly as requested at 7:15 and dropped us off at National Airport around 8:00. U.S. Airways had converted its check-in procedure to be all self-sevice, so there was an unruly and frustrated crowd of passengers milling around the self-service kiosks. After we payed our extra $30 to check two bags (!), the tags were put on our luggage by a surly attendant who brusquely told us to take it over to the TSA screening. Of course, we didn't know where that was, but a fellow passenger who had been waiting in vain while trying to catch the attention of one of the U.S. Airways personnel, told us that the TSA screening was back around the corner from the check-in area. The process was so cold, impersonal, and hostile that I had to wonder if U.S. Airways has some kind of corporate death wish. Why else would they set up a process guaranteed to create dissatisfied customers?

Our flight was delayed by almost an hour (more disgruntled employees??), and at the end I was starting to get antsy about missing the boat (literally). I had originally thought we would get in at 1:00 and the ship would leave at 5:00, giving us a four hour cushion to get from the airport to the ship. But then Monika read the ship was leaving at 4:00 rather than 5:00 and the plane's arrival was delayed to 2:00, so suddenly our cushion had been cut in half to two hours! Fortunately, there were no further delays. The taxicab ride to the ship was both cheap ($14 rather than the $34 for the HAL shuttle), quick, and convenient, so we arrived on board before 2:30, settled into our cabin, and called our family to tell them we had arrived safely.

Monika:

The taxi came on time at 7:15 when we left our home where the bing cherry tree just started to bloom. My guess is that when we come back in a month there will be small cherries. Despite rush hour traffic we arrived at National airport by 8:00. US Airways charged $15.-- per suitcase and was not very helpful about how self check-in worked. A seasoned traveller helped us figuring out the ins and outs. But we managed to get our boarding passes, check our luggage, and wait for our flight by about 8:30.

Boarding was supposed to start by 9:50 for our 10:20 flight but did not until 10:10. Then they were boarding by zones. We were in row 8 and had zone 7 printed on our ticket. But when almost all people had boarded and they still had only called zone 3, we decided to board anyway. Of course, the plane was full, but we did manage to stow our carry-on luggage. Alltogether our experience with USAirways was not really pleasant. If I have a choice between US Airways and, for instance, JetBlue or Southwest I certainly would prefer the latter airlines where we always had helpful, friendly agents.

Bob:

We were very happy with our stateroom overlooking the stern. Besides being unusually roomy, it had large glass doors to let in light and a big veranda with a great view of the sea behind us. We were surprised to find a bottle of champagne awaiting us as well as coupons for various things including one for a free picture that we planned to use before the end of the cruise.

Monika:

We did get to Ft. Lauderdale by 1:30 and, surprise, our luggage made it too. After a short taxi ride we embarked on the Noordam our home for the next two weeks. Our stateroom was beautiful, bigger than what we had before with a nice big veranda at the stern of the ship and even a real honest-to-goodness bathtub!

Bob:

Hooking up with Lois and Phyllis, we had a nice relaxing dinner in the aft dining room on deck 2 as deck 3 was reserved for assigned seating. But since there were 4 of us we were assigned a table for 4 and just had a good old family chin-wag over the marvelous 4-course dinner. Being 3 pounds overweight, I tried to keep the calorie count down, but that is quite difficult to do when faced with multiple courses of delicious, high-calorie fare! How do other folks on strict diets cope with cruise ship cuisine? One young woman we met actually travelled with a bathroom scale, but I just couldn't see adding the bulk and weight of a scale to our luggage.

During dinner our ship, the Noordam, eased away from the dock and out the channel at the Port Everglades harbor. Along the way we passed various freighters as well as pleasure craft like sailboats, motorboats, jet skis, and such like. The strangest thing I saw was what looked like a nuclear attack submarine chugging slowly along on the surface just offshore. After we cleared the harbor I walked a few laps on the promenade deck (deck 3 on the Noordam) while Monika and Lois listened briefly to a string quartet before coming out to join me. We watched the lights of the east coast of Florida slide by in the darkness as we followed the Gulf Stream north a bit before ultimately turning east to pass through the Bahama Islands. Being pretty exhausted by that point, we just read a bit and turned in for the night.

Monika:

We went up to the Lido buffet for a quick lunch, where Lois caught up with us. She and Phyllis had gotten to the ship already earlier and had lunch. We went down to their cabin and chatted for a while, before we went up to our cabin, where our suitcases had arrived for our unpacking pleasure -- I was happy to see that the wine I had smuggled in 7-Up bottles had made it OK.

We met for dinner and had our first Gourmet meal in the beautiful dining room. Afterwards Lois and I went to listen to a string quartet and were rather disappointed, since they were not that good. Hopefully, they will get better as the cruise progresses. We all were tired after a long day and just went off to bed.

Copyright 2009 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
Index
Prolog Map of Transatlantic Cruise Map of Northern Italian Bus Trip Map of Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Epilog

April 2009
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