Emerald Princess: Flight to Florida

Hello from the beautiful Emerald Princess! This cruise is a different experience for us for several reasons: 

1. It’s only our second time ever sailing on a Princess ship (and the first time was shaken up by a hurricane, so this is our first proper sailing).
2. We’re visiting four new ports—more about those later!
3. At ten nights, it’s the longest cruise we’ve ever taken.

With all of that, we’re bound to have some new experiences, so I’m planning to blog a few times during this trip to share the fun.

Our day started out very nice—and also very early! Both of us were tired since neither had been able to sleep the night before. (I was just too excited, Shirley afraid we would oversleep.) Anyhow, we were up and on time to the airport. Traffic was very light. I guess that’s normal that time of the morning—did I mention it was 5 a.m.? We’re never out that time of the morning, and I guess unless you’re a police officer, truck driver, or someone catching an early flight at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, there wouldn’t be a need to be.

Our arrival at RDU and our check in went very smoothly; we passed through airport security and went right to our gate. I was starving, so I was very pleased to find a cinnamon-sugar peanut butter bagel that didn’t cost a fortune! It was only $2.50 so I was very happy, and so was my hunger. We waited at gate 25 for about 20 minutes, and our plane started boarding. We got on the plane, found our seats, and were off.

Shirley, when it comes to flying, is only nervous about one part: the take-off. This time she really did very well—except for the screaming, you would have never known that it frightened her. (Just kidding. She didn’t leave fingernail marks in my arms, so she did okay.) I put on my headphones after we got up about 10,000 feet and listened to Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly. (This is my third time through the book, and it is absolutely wonderful. I hear something new each time.) I must have fallen asleep during our two-hour flight. Shirley woke me up sometime during the flight and had ordered me a Diet Coke, which I drank and went back to sleep.

As approached Miami International, I was amazed at all the development along the Ft. Lauderdale/West Palm Beach shoreline. Since I used to live in Florida, I couldn’t help wondering when the next “Andrew” was going to come through, with those big expensive homes and condos in its crosshairs. But let’s not think about that too much; this is vacation, right?

Our landing at MIA was very smooth. I was a bit nervous when I saw the runway wet—I’ve had a couple occasions that my car has hydroplaned on wet roads at 60 or 65 mph, and here is this very large 737 landing at about 175 mph. But the captain got us stopped and taxied to the terminal without incident. Our plane got to MIA 15 minutes early, but it took us 20 minutes to get off the plane. I did notice that there was a little girl on the other side of the aisle who didn’t make a sound the entire flight, which surprised me. You see, I feel like I’m a crying baby magnet; if I go into a store or restaurant, there is going to be a screaming child next to me. But this little girl on her way to Managua, Nicaragua, was very sweet and quiet.

We got off the plane and found the MIA airport, at least the terminal we were in, very modern and inviting. The signs directing us to the baggage claim were not very clear as to when we were to turn, so Shirley and I walked past the escalator we needed to the other end of the terminal and then back. We got on a monorail to be transported to the main terminal, which we found to be old and well used. We got to the baggage claim area, collected our suitcase, and found the TriRail shuttle. The TriRail is a rail system that runs between MIA and West Palm Beach. It has a minimum cost, but it’s cheaper than a taxi. We rode the TriRail to the Ft. Lauderdale airport, where we got a cab to Port Everglades Pier 21 and met the Emerald Princess.

As we approached, both of us knew that the size of this ship was almost overwhelming (more on that later). We arrived at the pier and got in a long line to go inside the terminal. We stood in one place for about 15 minutes, and then that line started moving. I guess from the time we started moving until the time we were at our stateroom was another 20 minutes. Our room is an inside stateroom, one of the smallest ones we have been in. Princess is not known to have large staterooms, but when you think about it, you really don’t spend much time in the room anyway; you’re out and about. We’re just glad to be on the ship!

Check back soon to find out about the ship and our exciting new ports!