Our flights to Ft. Lauderdale on Friday (all 3 of them) were smooth and on time. After a good night’s sleep and a late breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the pier. There were 6 ships departing Saturday morning and traffic was bad. Once we got inside, it was a 45 minute wait to get checked in, the longest it has taken since online registration was instituted. They kept our passports, which always makes us a little nervous, but we are supposed to get them back in a day or two. Once on board we headed to lunch in the open dining room rather than face the crowds in the buffet. It was lovely, quiet and relaxed. We have a nice balcony cabin on the starboard side on deck 10 (Caribe deck with the larger balconies.) Just before we left, we received an email from Princess, via our travel agent, offering an “upsell” to a suite or mini-suite for the last leg of our cruise which begins on March 4. By the time our agent called, the suites were gone, but we did upgrade to a mini-suite for a very reasonable extra charge. That will be nice. So we’ll have to pack and move, but it will be worth it.
Sunday and Monday were sea days and we took it very easy. I still wasn’t 100% over a cold and had little energy anyway, so that was fine. Our dinner table mates are a delightful couple from England. They have a wonderful sense of humor and we are already very comfortable joking and teasing each other. We’re actually at a table for 8, but the other 4 haven’t shown up once. Ah well, their loss. Last night we ran into the people with whom we shared a dinner table on our cruise in 2013, also delightful English people. They’re also doing the whole 49 days, so since our new friends will leave after 32 days, maybe we can move to their table for the last leg. Small world.
Today (February 3) was St. John’s, Antigua. The first thing we learned is that it is NOT pronounced an-ti-gwa. It is an-ti-ga. We did a tour through the small towns and villages and to the various forts and lookout points of the island. The best part was at Nelson’t Dockyards, but we were running late and didn’t get to stay there long. They gave us a rum punch drink made with their 150 proof rum. I had a ginger ale because I was so hot, but Michael said it actually had rum in it! He took a nap when we got back to the ship while I did a load of laundry. Should have had the rum punch.
T-Mobile now has free international data and texting, so I tried that out. Of course cell phone towers are all over the island, but it still took me around 20 tries to get a text through to the kids. However, after that it worked just fine. Perhaps the problem was the message I got from T-Mobile when I turned on the phone in port that said “Welcome to Jamaica”.
Tomorrow is St. Lucia.

I was hoping to put pictures here, but that doesn't seem to be working. Probably because the internet is SO S-L-O-W. Hope to figure that out.

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