Cruise ships leave Fort Lauderdale by slipping through a quasi-canal out to the open water, during which we can spot some of the other floating palaces from our balcony.
We take our turn with the other ships and watch this Royal Caribbean behemoth, the Allure of The Seas, turn around before taking our turn behind it in the convoy out to the open water. It looks similar to the Jewel of The Seas, which we enjoyed on our September 2009 transatlantic cruise. We don't spot a climbing wall on the Allure though.
Finally we're out to sea and Tom and the rest of us are admiring the lights of Fort Lauderdale.
Sisters-in-law Ellyn and Kathy are already having a good time.
Our travel agent learned that HAL was offering last-minute bargain prices for suites on this six-night cruise. There were several hundred fans aboard for the purpose of watching singer Johnathan Coulton, better known as JoCo, on their own JoCo Cruise Crazy voyage. This also guaranteed we wouldn't be the only geeks aboard. As a result, for the first and probably last time in our cruising careers, we enjoy the suite life, just down the hall from Mr. Coulton and his family. Aren't we special?
We treated ourselves to some terrific lunches and dinners in the Asian specialty restaurant, the Tamarind, we watched shows, shared the odd cocktail on our adjoining balconies with Ellyn and master-bartender Tom, played Spades, strolled around the decks, and had a splendid time, just as we always do when we travel with Tom and Ellyn.
What an excellent start to our 2011 travel year.
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