Hercules barber and a broken wrist on the Royal

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After all the talk of bad weather yesterday through social media, we woke this morning to torrential rain. Our plan to walk back over to the Southport Shopping Centre was cancelled as, although we could have easily taken the car, after breakfast we decided it best to just head for the port. We first took the car back to the airport. Who would have thought that the 2 mile journey could be so stressful; for Roisin, our designated driver (!) and for Chris who had one eye on the satnav and one eye on the road signs. Even for midday on a Monday, the traffic was bumper to bumper (or fender to fender as they say over here!!) The other quirk is that all the exits on the highways and interstates are filter lanes so unless you are confident of which exit to take, you need to keep moving over in to the next lane to avoid an early exit and the danger of advancing from 'a bit' lost to ‘completely' lost!! We were happy to let drivers in to the flow of traffic but as soon as we needed to change lanes we were sure to get a honk or toot from some impatient motorist behind.

We took a taxi from the airport to Port Everglades. The taxi driver, originally from Somalia was very friendly. His choice of music was ironic; Illegal Alien by Sting followed by some catchy ditto by One Direction. There must have been a subliminal message there somewhere!!

As we neared the port gate, our new Somali friend, whilst fumbling for his phone said ‘Photo, photo'. That was a strange request but not to disappoint, Roisin and I took up a pose in the back of the cab. The taxi driver turned and with a teethy grin pointed to a rather surly border guard bending down, peering in to the car window. Ah! Photo ID, I whispered to Roisin as we both fumbled for our passport. The cab driver had been multi-tasking. It just shows you how easy it is to misread a situation!!

After unloading the taxi with our luggage, the taxi driver took me by the hand and shook it vigorously. He repeated this with Roisin. This was probably nothing to do with the honour of driving us the few miles to the port but more about the $10 tip I gave him!!

Check in was painless. As I learned from Yiannis, one of the customer service staff on board, this may have been due to only 700 passengers embarking in Fort Lauderdale. The capacity of the Royal Princess is 3,600 guests so that's still a fair few who are staying on for back to back cruises. I'll have to suss them out during trivia as I'm sure they'll have all the answers!!

We received our cruise card that serves as our cabin key as well as identity card and method to purchase extras whilst on board. We passed security, had a customary ‘welcome aboard' photo taken and were stepping on to the Royal Princess within fifteen minutes of handing our suitcases to one of an army of porters. Without further ado, we headed straight for our cabin M101. If we were in a hotel we could have boasted about being in room 101 but cabin 101 doesn't have the same ring to it!! This cabin, or stateroom as they are referred to, is classed as a deluxe balcony. It includes a king size bed, a settee, ample storage space with plenty of coat hangers, a desk, mini bar and 40 inch flat screen TV….oh! and not to forget a balcony! These staterooms are either directly above or directly below the bridge so we see what the helmsman sees. The only other time we were in a forward facing cabin was on the Sapphire Princess. I remember receiving a phone call during the evening whilst getting ready for dinner. It was the officer of the watch who requested that we close the balcony curtains as the reflecting light was affecting the navigation systems. I didn't want to alarm Roisin at the time but I seem to recall the Titanic having forward facing cabins!!!

Since that event in 2010, it is reassuring that lessons have been learned and I like to think I was responsible for the notice that has since appeared on the balcony doors to all forward facing cabins. It reads: ‘Curtains must remain closed at night to prevent interference with the ship's navigation!!'

Princess cruises are celebrating 50 years this year. All the staff have a special name badge with a commemorative gold ribbon. The Princess logo known as the ‘Sea Witch' has been adapted to signify a numeral ‘5-0'. There are souvenirs a plenty to celebrate this half century milestone as well as later in the voyage we should experience culinary delights to celebrate how the food has developed over this time.

Rather than ‘pay-as-you-go' for drinks there are packages widely available at $49 per person per day so if there are two of you in a cabin, both have to pay this amount. That's $78 per cabin per day. $780 for the whole voyage. Whilst this ‘offer' would not suit Roisin and I, there are those who have perched themselves at the bar within five minutes of embarking who will think the drinks package is a ‘snip' at that price. I bought a coffee card for a reasonable $29. Although coffee and tea is freely available in the buffet (Horizon Court) this card allows complimentary and slightly better quality tea and coffee at any of the bars as well as 15 speciality coffees or gelato from the International Café. Here you can also choose from a selection of pasties, pies and fancy sandwiches as well as a large selection of cakes; a sort of Greggs for the seasoned traveller!!

During our lunch in the Piazza, deck 5 we were serenaded by a string quartet. A middle aged man sitting with his back to me, commented to his wife, ‘The Phantom of the Opera. I adore this' as the violins started on the chorus of ‘Don't Cry for Me, Argentina!!'

‘It's from Evita dear', she replied.

‘…but of course', he retorted.

This man was obsessed with Phantom of the Opera for the quartet had no sooner struck the final chord to this Andrew Lloyd Weber classic than the man learned over and said to the cellist who happened to be the nearest, ‘Do you have any tunes from ‘Phantom of the Opera' in your repertoire?'. Thankfully they didn't!!

There are two sittings for dinner, the early sitting starts at 5:45pm and the late sitting at 8pm. Known as traditional dining, you are allocated a table which you must stick to for the duration of the voyage. We have chosen ‘anytime' dining. This does as it says on the tin and two of the three dining rooms on board caters especially for this option. You can specify if you would like a table for two but as these are of a premium, you may have to wait. In such cases, you receive a pager that flashes when your table is ready. Tonight we were feeling rather lazy so didn't bother changing for dinner. We ate in the Horizon buffet then popped down to the Piazza for coffee while listening to the funky sound of ‘New Deal'. This band is five piece who alternate the lead vocal so as to keep the customer interested. Their repertoire ranged from the Rolling Stones, the Kinks through to James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, even the Shirelles. Will you still love me tomorrow got the New Deal treatment although the name of this group sounds more like a Government ‘back to work' initiative rather than a versatile cabaret band!!

Now for the drama. A lady, Noreen, who we learned is a frequent traveller and well known to the crew and staff, fell over on the dance floor. It turns out she broke her wrist, a typical dancer's injury by the common way she fell.

It can be a battle field out there, especially those who aspire to being on Strictly Come Dancing and think they own the dance floor. That's why seeing me on the dance floor is rarer than spotting a Blue Toed Booby in Widnes!! And when I am spied on the dance floor I'm usually taking a short cut from the bar with a few drinks my hand!

Several of the entertainment team came to Noreen's assistance. Viki, one of the entertainment team who used to be a life guard is a trained first aider so made Noreen, who was in good spirits throughout despite her obvious pain, as comfortable as possible until a paramedic arrived five minutes later. This didn't stop a few individuals complaining, calling Viki's intervention ‘Disgraceful' and when the paramedic arrived asked where the doctor was.

He's in the medical centre', replied Viki.

What's he doing?' the passenger snapped back. Then nodded his head toward to paramedic why was, by this time, kneeling down beside the hapleass Nora and said sharply, ‘He's not the doctor.'

‘The paramedic has the necessary equipment to assess and deal with the situation'. Viki wasn't backing down from this verbal attck

Someone else was videoing the incident throughout. During this Noreen was laughing and joking with the staff. It's a pity other passengers couldn't follow her lead.

Our first quiz of the voyage was: ‘Movie posters and quotations'. We scored 13/20 with the winners hitting a very credible 18. Our report card at this juncture would say ‘Must do better' and better we did. The evening quiz was: ‘Where in the world?' We scored 18/20 sharing the lead with one other team. It was time for a two-way tie Break for which we have a very poor record (won 1 lost 9):

‘How many people in India die from snake bites each year?'

Roisin was quick to say, ‘50,000?'

‘No, that's far too high. Say about 10,000?' I said.

Viki collected the papers. ‘Oh! We have two very different answers but one definite winner. One team said 15,000 and the other team 1,500'.

I turned to Roisin, ‘I thought you put 10,000. It's probably something like zero.'

‘And the correct answer is…50,000!!' If looks could kill!! Luckily the bottle of champagne came our way as nearest the ‘bull. It makes a change from just speaking it!!!

Viki, one of several Brits on the Entertainment Team, handed us our prize. She said, ‘Someone actually complained before the trivia began that the pencils weren't sharp enough!! When I told him that I didn't have time because I'd been attending to a lady that had just broken her wrist he said: So! That's not good enough. You should have made time.'

Thankfully these nobs are few and the majority of people are on board to have fun.

Before we reach our first destination we have two days at sea. This is time to acclimatise, explore the ship (or in our case refamiliarise ourselves with the layout!) relax, soak up the sun and enjoy it while we can for after this, the ports will come thick and fast.

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Photos

Poor turnout at the 2nd trivia
Word has got around that the Scrambled Egg Heads are in town!!!

Chris holding the bottle of ship champagne
I think the quiz master said 'ship'!!