Ft. Lauderdale

We fly to Ft. Lauderdale to get on our cruise ship. We’ve visited Ft. Lauderdale before when we went on a cruise to the Amazon River. We flew in two days before the cruise left to make sure our luggage arrived safely before we got on the ship.

We had an early start, leaving for the airport at 5 am, then a flight to Huston, TX and to Ft. Lauderdale arriving a bit after 3 pm EST.

We ate dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant across the street, we tried their specialty, kataif. Brought half of our meal back to the hotel for tomorrow night as we have a refrigerator and a microwave. Shopped at Dollar Tree for a receipt folder and clips to use for clothes pins. Got chocolate at Five Below.

We will visit Flamingo Gardens to see some local wildlife the day before we get on the ship.

It rained hard in the morning, we delayed our departure to Flamingo Gardens since we didn’t want to walk around in the rain. We arrived around 10:30 am. Found out that the café is closed today, there are a few snacks available for purchase in the gift shop.

Went to the 11:30 and 3:30 wildlife show and walked the entire route.

There are a number of peacocks roaming free.

There are also cats roaming free. You are not supposed to pet them, but some of the cats don’t know that and will come up and rub on you.

There is an aviary where injured birds are rehabilitated. There were lots of Black-crowned Night Herons in it.

Floyd and Jane Wray bought this land and built a home and citrus fields on it. Their home is now a museum and has been restored to its 1933 condition. They also started the botanical gardens.

Birds we saw flying free:

Boat-tailed Grackle Muscovy Duck White Ibis Egyptian Goose Yellow-crowned Night Heron Common Gallinule Red-bellied Woodpecker Palm Warbler Pileated Woodpecker Turkey Vulture

Flamingo Gardens is a wildlife rehabilitation center, so they have many injured animals. They have an otter breeding program that has produced 34 offspring to return to the wild or other breeding programs. The otters were playing with non-stop energy when we watched them.

The wildlife show had a skunk named Pepperspray that was owned as a pet for two years, then became very destructive to the home, burrowing into the couch among other behaviors. You can get a license in Florida for a pet skunk, you need to have the scent glands removed.

The café was closed today, so we got some ice cream bars at the gift shop and had those before the 3pm tram tour, but the tour didn’t go? Saw the 3:30 show, which was similar to the earlier show.

Came back to the room and then went out to walk and shop for AAA batteries for the iPad keyboard. Also saw exercise bands at Five Below since we forgot those.

Ate the leftovers from last night for dinner. Had some of the chocolate we bought last night.

While eating breakfast, someone burnt some toast, setting of the fire alarm. Donna came down and we talked for a bit while they cleared each part of the building and got the alarms turned off.

The Holland America app stopped showing our boarding passes this morning. It was intermittent, Donna did get them on her phone, but I never did till I got on the ship’s Wi-Fi. I’m guessing what happens is that the system of record for boarding passes is transferred to the ship and that’s related to the problem. We got boarding group 1, and then had to wait 45 minutes till boarding. We were able to get into our cabin when we boarded as it was ready.

We did a self-guided tour of the ship and fitness center.

I worked on the puzzle before dinner and then again after the show, we finished that one and then I spent 30 minutes on another one.

This is the biggest ship we’ve been on, 2700 people, the previous ships have been 2400 and 1400 people. It’s also the highest deck we’ve had for a cabin, we’ll see how much the rolling of the ship affects us. We’re also in the front, so we’ll feel it if the ship pitches up and down. During our Drake Passage crossing to Antartica, Donna considered the motion as rocking her to sleep, others were sea-sick.

The show tonight was a classically trained violinist, but she played mostly pop and show tunes. She did a good job.