DAY 1 Jan 13 - Fort Lauderdale Embarkation

Originally known as Lake Mabel, Port Everglades was in 1927 officially established as Fort Lauderdale's man made deep water harbour and has since then become one of South Florida's strongest economic engines.

Each year there are more than 5,300 ships movements at the port making it a diverse maritime operation that includes both a thriving cruise industry with a reputation as the "world's best cruise port," and a growing cargo business that firmly establishes Port Everglades among the nation's top seaports and passenger cruise terminals.

Just a few months ago Port Everglades became an even more impressive port with the addition of an enormous 240,000-square-foot new cruise terminal (terminal 18) facility which was opened in November 2009. This has become the largest cruise terminal in the world to serve a single ship, Royal Caribbean's band new ship Oasis of the Seas, which arrived from its Finish shipyard at its new home port last month as seen in the picture above.

This $75-million terminal will accommodate 5,400 passengers and their luggage. There will be 90 check-in counters, seating for 3,000 people, 22 processing booths for U.S. Customs and even a children's play area.

The Oasis of the Seas vessel (pictured below) is a whopping 40 percent bigger than the previous ship to hold this prestigious status. She is the first of two 225,282-ton, 5,400-passenger vessels with her sister ship Allure of the Seas expected to be launched this summer. Both will be based in Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades making it an even more important and dominating centre in the world of cruising.

For us it's a simple journey from our home in Naples (on the opposite coast of Florida) to Fort Lauderdale, a distance of 100 miles across a dead straight highway, known as 'Alligator Alley', which forms part of Inter State 75 (see map below).

Our friend and chauffeur Tom duly arrived at 9.00 this morning to pick us up for the approximate two hour drive to the ship. We only had a minimum of hand luggage with us as the main baggage consisting of 5 bags, as previously mentioned, had been collected the previous week by FedEx and hopefully would be there awaiting us in our suite on the Prinsendam.

The exodus from Naples was slightly saddened by us having to say good bye to youngest daughter Amsy, husband Paul and little baby grandchildren Jackson and Alabama who had just flown in from a frozen UK on Sunday night. Two days with them all was just not enough time as we wouldn't be seeing them again until nearly the beginning of May. The other half of the family we saw for nearly a week earlier in January while they were over In Florida spending a few days before taking a cruise round the Caribbean and down to the Panama Canal. So at least we have seen the family prior to our long absence on the high seas.

Although the ship doesn't sail until 11.00 tonight we intend to be on board early, have some lunch, inspect our cabin, explore the ship and then dear Maria will begin the task of unpacking the cases! Our travel agent CSI have invited us to a 5.00 o'clock Bon Voyage cocktail party, organised exclusively for their clients, in the spacious Crows Nest Lounge at the very top of the ship. Friends and hosts for this cruise, Henk and Lucia, accompanied by Tom Baumann (the President of our travel agent company CSI) will be hosting the event and it will give us an opportunity to renew some acquaintances and meet new friends and fellow voyagers.

We note that Fort Lauderdale has two other cruise ships in port today; the Zuiderdam (another Holland America Line ship) and the Pacific Princess both scheduled to depart port this evening for warmer climes.

We did indeed arrive quite early in Fort Lauderdale, after an uneventful journey, for an 11.30 embarkation but quickly found out that because of dry-dock issues (work not finished on board) we would be delayed. Indeed we were not ultimately allowed on board until 2.00 when we immediately went to the 11th deck Lido buffet restaurant for lunch. While awaiting boarding in a specially designated area for suite passengers and those with a '4 star' status we recognised and spoke to many people we had met on previous HAL cruises especially from our 2007 world cruise. It's amazing how HAL attracts so many repeat passengers.The very first of these familiar faces we saw were that of old friends and our travel agents hosts for this voyage, Henk and Lucia Barnhoorn. What a lovely start to the cruise we thought.

Our 5.00 o'clock(CSI paid for) cocktail party in the lovely elegant Crow's Nest lounge was a great success with a generous flow of alcohol available from the free bar supported by some delicious hot appetizers. Our travel agent did us proud.

Due to this generosity of our hosts it is probably better I post now and continue the rest of the day's blog in the morning when my head is a little clearer!!.