Day 2 - Monday 1 April

As you've seen, we had a walk round locally, mainly to look for a bank branch so that we could pay a cheque in with Elizabeth having to remind me that, in the US, you don't tell the cashier you want to "pay a cheque in", you tell them you want to "make a deposit".  I'm not sure that phrase sounds quite right to English ears, but hey-ho.

Our cabin follows the usual pattern ....

We languished back in our room, doing the blog and trying to get the extra layers we had now shed into our already full cases - well Graeme had that problem in any case.  Finally 10 to 11 came round and we set off downstairs.  We checked out and waited for our shuttle to the cruise port.  A member of staff in the holding area asked us if we'd like a shuttle to the airport on our last day.  At $16.50 each - plus tax? - it sounded a gamble worth taking as the ship would probably charge at least $20 plus tax for the same service.

So off we set.  There were only two ships leaving today, ours plus Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas so the port wasn't over busy.  Our driver asked us to stay on board while he got all the bags unpacked from the trailer.  What he really meant was that he wanted time to find one of their Teamster Union porters to place the cases around so that the porter could then blackmail passengers into offering him a sign of 'gratitude' for placing them on a trolley and then taking them a few yards to the terminal building.  And with that, complaint No. 1 was already in the bag for when I next went to the Guest Relations desk.

We joined a sizeable queue - I mean 'line' to get into the terminal building and waited patiently.  Progress forwards was slow but sure and we were finally about to cross the threshold when we were stopped to allow a group of around 100 prospective passengers to push in ahead of us.

Well, that was all too much for the fair-minded Mr A who promptly went up to the queue master to ask why that had been allowed to happen. I asked him if those people were somehow better than us - he said 'No' so I asked why they had been allowed to push in like that.  He shrugged his shoulders.  I went to his colleague who was the one who had actually appeared with the group concerned and asked him the same questions.  By now there were murmurings of encouragement coming from the passengers around me so, feeling emboldened by this, I waited for his response.  His reply was that they were a group.  I pointed out that we were too - a group of similar size - who had been waiting patiently, but it was clearly not going to change the check-in policy of encouraging behaviour that ran so counter to the British habit of queuing and politely waiting one's turn.  Complaint No. 2 was now also in the bag!

Room with a view ....

And in we went, up the escalator and towards security.  We ended up in the queue next to the entry point for disabled passengers.  We were next to be seen by the man at the head of the queue who was checking that we were all on the right cruise when a disabled passenger arrived in the line next to us.   Of course she would take immediate precedence over us and was checked and allowed to pass, followed by the tribe of Abu-Ben Adam, all of whom seemed to be at least distantly related to the disabled woman concerned.  Mr A's blood pressure was rising to match the temperature outside, but he wasn't sure that this minor episode in itself deserved to become Complaint No. 3!

Intracoastal Waterway

And on we went and finally we found the priority check-in lane that important Concierge-class passengers like us were entitled to use.  We got into conversation with the couple behind us who were Concierge class for the first time and who were clearly enjoying the thrill - as we were - of being allowed to push in before the other mere plebs on board!  They turned out to be Canadians who were travelling with another couple.

We were motioned to a desk, went through the usual formalities, got our treasured sea pass cards and off we went.  We were greeted with a half glass of kir royale as we stepped on board and then headed for our exclusive dining room for Concierge class guests.  We had just put our carry-on bags to one side when the four Canadians appeared as if from nowhere and we were promptly shown a table for 6.

Florida - the Sunshine State with 350 sunny days per year and a rare sight here - solar panels!

We all got on like a house on fire, sad to say, particularly with one of the two couples. The husband, Mike, was a retired primary school teacher who still did supply work and his wife, Maria, was a school secretary.  They said they were smitten with our accents so we promptly adopted a celebrity-like presence as they hung on our every word!

Freighter entering port

Such a change to meet people with a North American accent who despise the Donald at least as much as we do, but who can't decide which Monsieur Trudeau they loathe more.  And to cap it all, they weren't too happy generally with their next door neighbours further south.  They have a good awareness of the old country, they have relatives who live in places like Leeds and they don't have connections with Ireland and think that it's just down the road from us in good old England!

Ice cream on demand - one of the small pleasures of life on  Celebrity cruise

But they are sad people who admitted to following every twist and turn of the Brexit saga.  In a flash, the guru with the much-envied British accent started to cringe with embarrassment at the thought of these people having nothing better to do in their lives than watch a bunch of all expenses paid apologies for politicians thrash it out in that quaint place called Parliament!

They've done around 25-26 cruises as a group of 4, including at least with MSC so we really were starting to get worried about them.  Having told us that they lived near Toronto, we imagined that, like us, they had flown down the day before.  Had they been our our plane, we wondered?  Well no, they had driven down!  I asked how long that took and the answer was 'only two and a half days'!  The non-teacher couple said they had a two-bedroom condo in Kissimmee so had stayed there the previous week.

Our lunch came to an end as the PA announcer told us that all cabins were now ready and of we went to find our own little haven on board.

Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas

Our cases hadn't appeared so we unpacked the few items we had with us and soon agreed there was less storage space than before, but that the mini bar fridge was at least as large as ever.  With our drinks on board included in the cruise fare we decided it was time to find an outdoor bar while the clock ticked round to the time of the compulsory muster.

Our cabin steward - sorry, I mean 'Stateroom Attendant'!

Muster came and went - a screen presentation of a James Bond-like adventure to highlight the dos and don'ts of safety on board.  After the initial rush for the lifts had died down we returned to our cabin to be greeted by the sight of two large, pink suitcases so it was unpacking time in earnest.  At the same time we realised we were on the move.  We were just enjoying the sail out from the port when there was a knock on the door.  Our cabin steward wanted to introduce himself.  He's from Indonesia and has been with Celebrity for between 6 and 7 years.  He was very pleasant but had a surprisingly poor command of English considering how long he's had a life on board with English speakers. And we now couldn't get rid of him.  I was just feeling that, by now we must be half way to the Cayman Islands, when he finally decided to move on.

We started to look through our papers.  Now, where were the details of that art auction we didn't want to go to or the wine tasting event for only $125 person that we'd been trying to resist on every other cruise?  But then came the surprise.  We must be losing our touch on this cruise life we have as it suddenly dawned on us that we had very quietly become Elite cruisers. After not that many cruises with Celebrity we had been elevated to a status we could only ever have dreamed of barely a few years ago.  On the bed was a sheet listing all the cocktail parties we were now invited to, some of which were bound to include a chance to shake hands with El Capitan and tell him what a fine job he was doing as the ship's master.  Were we going to be able to cope with an on board social life that had, quite without warning, moved up into overdrive?

Our first cruise sunset this time round

More later .....  Elizabeth is still in the Land of Nod but it's already 7.30am our time and time to get to breakfast before all those non-Concierge class, non-Elite class cruisers arrive.  "Elite-class", now I like that.  It sounds like a class of dinghy that Ben Ainsley would win Olympic medals in!