Day -3 to -1 September 7-9, 2018

We began our long awaited Golden Wedding anniversary trip with a nice flight from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale. Mt. Rainier was out in its full resplendent beauty. After collecting our luggage we caught the hotel shuttle to the Holiday Inn Express on FL89. With the flight time and loss of 3 hours in time zone changes, we checked in around 7pm.

We ventured across the 4 lane highway (visualize playing the video game 'Frogger') and did a little shopping at the strip mall for some give away school supplies and had a light Subway sandwich for dinner. Back at the hotel we cooled off in our room. I should mention that this hotel is undergoing significant renovations and there is a temporary lobby. Also there are no in room safes or lobby safe deposit boxes. It does have an excellent breakfast menu in a pretty cramped room and an outdoor swimming pool. And so ended Friday before the cruise.

Day -2 Saturday, September 8, 2018

It was a leisurely get up morning as our son was not planning to arrive until around 11am for a visit. He ended up arriving closer to noon, and after they checked in we played frogger again to have lunch at the McDonalds across the highway from the hotel. We spent the remainder of the day just hanging out with him and his girlfriend and blended family of 3 teenage boys. It was a good time to catch up as we had it seen him in about 8 years. For dinner we ate at the Old Heidelberg restaurant which was quite good but the teenagers weren't thrilled with the menu.

Day -1 Sunday, September 9, 2018

It was another leisurely day. After breakfast and after our son checked out of the hotel, we headed over to the Ft. Lauderdale beach (we took an Uber) where we enjoyed several hours together until the thunderstorms came. We said our goodbyes and my wife and I started walking the 4.5 mikes back to the hotel. We took shelter during some especially rainy times, enjoyed a view of the Allure of the Seas cruise ship from the high bridge which opened while we were there.

Back at the hotel we cooled off in the air conditioning and I began to look at flights home. Normally we fly standby, but I couldn't find an available flight. However, I came across a super bargain on the United Airlines site. For $244pp departing two days after the cruise disembarkation, we booked a flight from Papeete to San Francisco. Since it was so cheap, I upgraded us to Economy Plus. 

By the time I turned off my phone at 1:30am, the Maasdam hadn't left the shipyard at Freeport in the Bahamas but was due in to Ft. Lauderdale at 5am.  

Tomorrow we board. Stay tuned.