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Red Carpet Inn kitty
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Monday, February 10, 2025'Tis the day for leaving the land for the open seas. We didn't exactly
rise with the sun this morning, but neither did we dawdle departing our Fort
Lauderdale lodgings. Before we left, a local feral cat took up what we assume
was his traditional lounging spot outside our door; he was not at all keen on
being handled, but he appeared otherwise healthy and seemed comfortable enough
around us (he probably knew we were cat people). I hope he will be okay for
the long haul.
During our single-night stay in Fort Lauderdale, we had only a limited view of
the city, and I'm sure there are plenty of lovely places for residents and
visitors alike to enjoy, but we mainly experienced Just Another City in
Florida, as apart from St. Augustine, they seem to blend one into another into
another into another along the state's eastern coast.
Check-in on the ship went smoothly, so once settled into our suite, we headed
for lunch in the Windjammer, the standard Royal Caribbean buffet-style
restaurant on board. A very good martini accompanied. Afterward, Terry and I
planted ourselves in the exclusive Crown Club lounge, (membership to which is
one of the perks he & Beth have earned for cruising, like, a lot, and
which fortunately extends to their guests of peasant status). We hung out for
about an hour, drank coffee, and yakked until we both finally had to get up
and go pee.
Dinner was in the main restaurant, and we secured a
table in a nice, quiet corner where we met a nice couple, Andy and Mary Beth
from Missouri. I had some excellent escargot and some sad fried chicken. Can't
win 'em all, I reckon. The drinks were superb. Afterward, we settled ourselves
in the Irish Pub, Hoof & Claw, for a couple of 1970s trivia contests, one
for music and one for general history. Our foursome won both (these people are
really old). Then we wandered about the ship, listening to tunes, dancing
(well, some of us did; not me), and finally returned to our quarters for a
hard crash and burn.
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View of Fort Lauderdale from the lounge of the
Liberty of the Seas, prior to departure
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Tuesday, February 11, 2025
On a not-at-all-cruise-related topic, today is release day for my newest
novel,
The House at Black Tooth Pond, from Crossroad Press, in paperback and ebook, with the audiobook to come
soon. Preorders have been healthy, and the response from those who've already
delved into it is enthusiastic. To be sure, I hope this thing flies like
Rodan, the Flying Monster. If you've been good enough to pick up the book,
might I please prevail upon you further to leave a review, particularly on
Amazon.com, since it is, for better or for worse, the most strategic sales outlet.
For
Terry and me, our morning began pretty early. While Ms. B. and Beth slept in,
he and I went down to
Chops Grille, one of the ship's many restaurants,
which offers free breakfasts to suite guests. It was fairly good—scrambled
eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, and lots of coffee; satisfying but not
superlative, which is typical of cruise ship food. Afterward, we decided to
try our luck at the casino. I've always been partial to Blackjack, so I spent
30 or 40 minutes at the table; I was in the black for a little bit, but as so
often happens, I stuck around just long enough to lose a wee bit. Thankfully,
it really was a wee bit. I've got lots of chips left, so I will be returning
for a rematch, probably this evening.
I needed my regular daily
exercise, so I did some laps around the ship until I reached my goal of 5,000
steps (and I put in a few extra). I've averaged over 9K a day on this trip,
and by tonight, I will have no doubt put in quite a few more. The
Liberty is not at all a small boat, so I get almost 1,000 steps per lap
around the deck.
The gang decided that, since we have free room service in the suite, we should
have lunch delivered. And we did. Smoked potato soup and butternut squash
risotto for me. The soup was better than the risotto. We shared a couple of
bottles of Italian red wine—an Amarone and a Nebbiolo—both of which were
superb. Then some folks went for naps and some went for blogging. The latter
might have been me.
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Celebratory toast to the success of
The House at Black Tooth Pond. Good wine!
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Moon over the Caribbean, viewed from the lounge of
the
Liberty of the Seas
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As afternoon moved toward evening, we settled in at the Suites Lounge
and had a few nibbles along with a couple of drinks. They make a killer gin
martini here (several of them, as a matter of fact). We finally dragged
ourselves over to dinner, and tonight I destroyed some delicious calamari and
a seafood linguine, which was probably the best dish I've had on the ship so
far. The service, as always, was exemplary. Andy and Mary Beth again provided
pleasurable dinnertime companionship.
For afters, Terry and I again
ventured to the casino, and this time I won at least most of my money back
from this morning. There was a bourbon tasting at the nearby duty-free shop,
but it was only a couple of shots of Jack Daniels green label and Jack Daniels
single-malt, the latter of which was actually pretty good, though I didn't
consider either a necessary purchase.
By now, we all had worked up
a pretty good tired, so we retired to our quarters, where I finished up
today's blog entry. All in all, an invigorating and satisfying day,
particularly since the announcements I posted about
The House at Black Tooth Pond seemed to be especially well
received. Tomorrow, CocoCay in the Bahamas. And me, I'm bushed, so g'night.
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
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| Ship butts |
We woke up to see the Royal Caribbean–owned CocoCay Port outside our windows
rather than open sea. We had ordered a continental breakfast to be delivered
to our room, so once we snarfed it down, we made our way down to the gangway
and over to CocoCay. First target for me (and Terry, who accompanied me to
make sure I didn't fall into the ocean and drown) was a number of Adventure
Lab cache stages, which turned out to be quick and easy.
There are
several beach areas on CocoCay, so we found a nice, shady spot for our base
of operations. Brugger and I soon wandered out into the crystal blue
water...which turned out to be pretty icy, at least at first. We heard—second
hand, so I can't really verify it—that there was a shark watch for our beach,
so we didn't paddle out but so deep, and not for too long. We saw no sharks,
but Kim and I bounced a lot of lines from Jaws off each other. Mostly,
we hung out on the beach, drank spritzes, and had a nice lunch from the nearby
pavilion.
Mid-afternoon, we returned to the ship. Terry and I woke
ourselves back up with a couple of mugs of Juan Valdez in the Suites Lounge,
while our respective spouses took power naps.
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Chill Island Beach on CocoCay
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Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas (our ship, on the left) and
Voyager of the Seas (on the right)
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Thursday, February 13, 2025
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The view from our suite balcony first thing this morning
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The Nassau Cathedral.
Do you see the geocache?
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As is typical when we're on a cruise, we woke up to a new view outside
our balcony this morning—a whole bunch of cruise ships packed in tight at the
Nassau port. Ours was one of several already docked and another one—a Disney
ship—came steaming in as I watched.
That meant the Nassau cruise
port was crowded as motherfuck.
After another continental breakfast
in our suite, I headed into town to hunt a few caches. There were several
Adventure Lab stages, a couple of virtuals, and a physical cache, which lurked
at the nearby cathedral. The sanctuary was the only place I found in this
teeming madhouse of a town that was relatively serene; in fact, I sat in a pew
for a bit so I could write my cache log. As far as caching went, success on
all counts. Terry and Beth opted to stay on board the ship today, but
eventually, Ms. B. arrived on the scene. We found ourselves a taxi over to
nearby Paradise Island and the
Atlantis Resort, which is a sprawling, luxury development, with a grand hotel, a massive
outdoor aquarium, casino, shops, restaurants, a harbor full of massive yachts
(none of them are mine, at least not yet), and a virtual cache.
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Non-Euclidean horror guarding the entrance of
the Atlantis
Casino; this might give me second
thoughts about gambling there.
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Oddly, almost all the restaurants in the surrounding area were closed,
even at noon. We finally found a tropical-themed spot called
Sip-Sip, which was open, where I had some of the best chicken wings I've ever
tasted. The server asked if I was okay with a lot of spice, and of course I
am, but these really weren't that spicy. The flavor, though...
hooooey! All kinds of good.
After our lunch, we navigated to
the virtual cache, which is at the western end of the Atlantis, but I've gotta
say, getting to that point from the eastern end took some doing. We went
through the outdoor aquarium, which is in itself a labyrinth, but a very cool
one. We saw sharks, manta rays, stingrays, horseshoe crabs, and all kinds of
exotic fish. Eventually, we figured out how to reach our target, and I
gathered the information necessary to claim the cache.
By then, Ms.
B. and I had grown weary of the oppressive crowds, so we took a taxi (filled
to the brim with people!) back to the port and fought our way back aboard the
Liberty. I finally managed to revive myself with a shower and worked on
the blog for a bit.
My impression of Nassau from today was not that
favorable, but I might sing a different tune when the place is not so
jam-packed with tourists (assuming there's ever a slow time). It's fair to say
that Nassau has changed radically in the 60 years since
Thunderball was made (it's one of my favorite James Bond films),
but I admit I had the movie theme going through my head as I wandered the town
caching. I'd certainly be willing to give the place another shot, if we ever
have the opportunity, though there are certainly many other destinations I'd
put well out in front.
Tonight, being our last night on board, we kept things pretty mellow. Terry and I visited the casino for a last fling, and for a refreshing change, I am coming home in the black, gambling-wise. I'll take it!
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The cathedral interior; it was the only peaceful place I found in Nassau
the entire day
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A few yachts in the harbor near Sip-Sip at Atlantis
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Holy cow, a spot that's not teeming with human beings!
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Stingray at the Atlantis Aquarium
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Old Dude and Brugger at the Atlantis Casino (we did not gamble).
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L) Ms. B. hanging with another monster at the Casino; R) Pirate Republic
ale at Sip-Sip
Friday, February 14–Saturday, February 15, 2025
Once we disembarked from the ship, we found a fantastic breakfast in Fort Lauderdale at Joe's Diner (which comes complete with signs bearing the iconic "Eat at Joe's" slogan). Since Terry and Beth have another cruise coming up in a couple of days, they had booked themselves a small AirBnB not far from the cruise port, and we accompanied them there to hang out until it was time for us to leave for the airport. Before heading out, Brugger and I walked to a nearby park and snagged a geocache.
At last, it was time to say goodbye to our friends. At FLL, Ms. B. and I checked in and found that our flights appeared to be on schedule. The first leg took us to Charlotte, where we had time for an early supper and a drink before the connecting flight into Greensboro.
Well, there was supposed to be a flight to Greensboro.
We boarded the plane on time, sat for a little bit, and then the pilot announced that the co-pilot had not shown up, so they were canceling the flight. As you might imagine, it was a disgruntled bunch of passengers that turned around and marched back off the plane. Only thing is, American Airlines had not officially canceled the flight, so the gate crew advised us to hang out for a while until they received the official verdict from the tower.
Yep, canceled.
So, we—along with everyone else on the flight—had to visit the customer service desk to make alternate arrangements. Charlotte is less than a couple of hours' drive to Greensboro, and numerous people decided to rent cars. However, doing so meant that American Airlines would not offer any reimbursement. They told us that if we rebooked our flights for the next day, they'd give us vouchers for a hotel, Uber rides there and back, and two meals at the airport restaurants. Our luggage would be sent to Greensboro on the first flight out the next day, so it would probably precede our arrival.
Though it was mighty inconvenient, we opted for the latter, with a flight to GSO at 9:35 a.m. on Saturday. Since all our clothes were in our checked bags, we nothing to wear but the clothes on our backs, though—thank Yog!—we had carried small necessities, such as our medications, toothbrushes, electronic devices, and such with us as we always do. Anyhoo, while this mess was a major pain in the ass, I'll reluctantly give AAL credit for living up to their end of the bargain as far as finally getting us back home.
Regardless, American is pretty much on my shit list because, in the last three years, every significant flight foul-up I've experienced has happened on American. I'd written them off a while back, but we did decide to give them another shot last year, and they came through with flying colors.
Not this time, alas.
