Sunday 14 October - day 54 - Coral Princess Panama Canal Cruise Embarkation Day

Today we join the Coral Princess - a pretty significant change of pace from the Oasis of the Seas.  Oasis has a maximum passenger capacity of 6,296 while the Coral Princess carries less than 2,000.  Other differences are fairly significant too - for example Oasis is over 225,000 tons while Coral Princess is just under 92,000.
Had an interesting time getting to the ship - we again went with the shuttle company the hotel uses.  They hadn't shown up by 12:15, and the young lady at the hotel called to check why - based on the response she got, it was pretty clear that they were somewhat overwhelmed.  Anyway, not long after that the man showed up and loaded up our luggage - interrupted by a short sharp rainstorm.
We started off towards the cruise port but then he got a call about 21 people needing a shuttle ride - and these shuttles only hold 10 - 15 people.  I gather that the shuttle company has recently taken on the job of taking people from a particular long-term cruise car-park to the ships, and to me it seems they don't have quite enough shuttles on the road to get the job done. So, we went off to the car park, only to have a much more impressive storm hit - it was just pouring with rain and there's almost no cover in this car-park; only a tiny shaded area barely big enough for the passengers who were waiting, and even then, they and their luggage were getting wet.  
Our driver had hoped to pick up passengers for only one of the ships currently in port, but the storm put paid to that. Eventually we got the shuttle full but then when we arrived at the port it took forever to get to a point where we could unload.  He went to the Coral Princess first, and it took us at least 20 minutes to get to a point where the four Coral passengers onboard could exit the van.  I assumed that this was because it's peak season but the driver assured me this is not the case, three ships in a day is only starting to get towards their peak season numbers.  Apparently May through around a few weeks ago is their slow season - only the two monster Royal Caribbean ships (Allure and Oasis) and the Carnival Freedom are based here then.  But, during October other ships start gradually coming back for the peak season until there can be 6 or more ships here on a single day, meaning that more than 30,000 people might need to be moved into or out of the port in that one day.
The port authority and cruise companies are clearly trying to improve the infrastructure - Princess for example will soon be moving to a new pier with undercover parking for shuttles etc, as will Carnival over the other side of the docks.  However, it doesn't seem to me that they're doing anything to make it quicker or easier to get shuttles / buses / taxis in or out of the place, you'll just be less likely to get wet / die of heatstroke while you're waiting  :-)
I'm really glad we came before peak season (although I had no idea that we had done so!!)
This is our first cruise with Princess as "Platinum Captain's Circle" members - which means we have previously done either 5 cruises or 50 cruising nights with Princess (or P&O).  One of the only useful benefits this gives us is Preferred Check-in - we got to go to a separate check-in desk where there was no-one waiting, then instead of having to wait for a boarding group, we go to go straight on - including getting to skip to the front of the line of a boarding group that was patiently waiting in a queue.  Problem is, those people have no idea what's happening - as far as they're concerned, we're just jumping the queue.  However, it was much quicker than waiting in line, so I'm not going to complain.
Bottom line is though, it took the best part of 2 hours to get from our hotel room to our cabin, whereas the previous week with the Oasis it took only around half of that time.  Part of that was due to delays with the shuttle, but the rest was because the building where you board the Oasis and Allure, and the surrounding shuttle / bus / taxi areas have all been purpose built with the knowledge that any time the dock is in use, it's because they need to get 6,000 people off the ship, and another 6,000 on.  That's definitely not the case with the dock where the Coral Princess was waiting.
However, once onboard all of that ceased to be an issue.   Although we have never been on the Coral Princess before, all the Princess ships are set out in a somewhat similar way, and to be honest, it almost felt like coming home.
The emergency drill was more complex than the one on the Oasis - for example Princess insists that you have your life jacket with you at the drill, and that you are capable of putting it on.  And, something we had never seen before - they also practiced the process of leaving our Muster Station the way it would happen if we were going to go to the lifeboats.
Sailaway was delayed because of delays with loading luggage.  We and the Carnival Freedom were both due out at 4pm and the Allure at 5.  The Freedom finally left at around 5pm but we were delayed further - we finally left at about 5:20, with the Allure still waiting for us to get out of her way  :-)
We then had to go straight to dinner.  When I booked this cruise, there was no option for "anytime" dining - they only had traditional dining, that is, where you go to either the 5:30pm or 8:00pm session each night, and sit at the same table with the same same passengers, and with the same waiters looking after you.  We'd much rather use Anytime Dining, but as I said, it wasn't an option.  Imagine my annoyance when I discovered that in the meantime they have made Anytime Dining available, but hadn't given us the option to change.  However, it isn't too bad so far.  Our table only has four seats and although we were presumably meant to have two other people with us, they didn't show up last night so we got to have a nice quiet meal by ourselves.
And, although I was expecting high seas and had taken a sea-sickness tablet in preparation, it wasn't too bad at all.

Saturday 13 October - day 53 - leaving the Oasis of the Seas and back in Fort Lauderdale

It's always sad leaving a cruise, even when you've got another one coming up  :-)
Again, the organisation around getting everyone of the ship was seriously impressive.  We had breakfast and then lazed around in our cabin for a while.  There was an interactive display on the TV letting us know which 'number groups' had been called for departure, so we could see when it was getting close to time for us to go.  Around 9am we went to the designated departure area - because we have sailed with Royal Caribbean before we had a special area set aside but really it was hardly necessary, the 'normal' waiting areas were quite ok as well.
After we left the ship, there was a long queue waiting to go through CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) but that's obviously all about the number of CBP staff that are available, not something Royal Caribbean can control.  And, in any case, even though the queue was long, it moved quickly and we were out and looking for our ride back to the hotel in no time.
We had pre-booked our return trip to the hotel with the shuttle company back at the start of the cruise.  Of course you can't predict when you'll be ready to be picked up, but they said that they aim to have a shuttle waiting as soon as you get off the ship, and it certainly worked for us - there was one right there and we were back at the hotel by about 10am.
Of course, the minor problem was that this is about 5 hours too early to check in.
However, we had a plan which was to get a taxi to Sawgrass Mills - a huge shopping centre about 17 miles away.  A couple of reasons for picking this one - it's often recommended as the best of its type in the area mostly because of the large number of outlet stores, and it also has a USPS office (post office) that's open all day (most USPS offices only open for a couple of hours on Saturday).
The reason we wanted USPS was because we hoped we would need to send back our postal votes for the ACT elections.  The voting papers weren't available until long after we left Australia, so we had asked Elections ACT to send the postal voting papers here, and amazingly they were actually waiting for us today.  However, in order to be counted they have to be posted by 20 October and they have to arrive back in Oz before 26 October, so today was really our only chance to get them sent.
We ended up going to Sawgrass Mills by shuttle rather than taxi - they quoted a set price of $40 each way which is about $10 less than the taxi fare is likely to be.
We found the USPS office and posted off the voting papers, so that's all good.
We also picked up a few bits and pieces that we needed, but mostly we just looked around the shops.  I've never seen so many shops in one place  :-)
I also had a classic example of American 'over-catering' for lunch - a "small" Tuna Salad from a shop in the Food Court.  It consisted of a paper plate the size of a regular dinner plate completely covered at least 2 inches deep with shredded lettuce, then some carrot and tomato, then probably a cupfull of tuna, then some olives and dressing.  It took me about 25 minutes to eat it, and I can't imagine how big the 'large' salad would have been!  It was really nice.  And the price was amazingly low to someone who's accustomed to Canberra prices - the salad and a medium pineapple-mint smoothie (the size of an old-fashioned milk-shake, and also absolutely delicious) - was $US9.16.  That's about $8.95 on today's exchange rate - and I'd bet that if it was possible to get such a thing in Canberra the price would be more like $12 to $15.
We got back to the hotel just after 3pm, and our room was ready.  We got a bit of an upgrade - they've put us into one of their 'handicapped' rooms so there's heaps of space including a completely separate bedroom.  Nice...
We spent most of the afternoon on housekeeping stuff - mostly washing clothes - then watched a bit of TV and crashed.

Friday 12 October - day 52 - Day 7 on the Oasis of the Seas (at sea, again)

Had an earlier start today.  We got to the Windjammer for breakfast at about 8am and it was almost empty, so we presume a lot of people had a really late night last night.
It's actually one thing that's really surprising about this ship - although there are 6,000-odd passengers on board, it rarely appears crowded - apart from the Windjammer, around the lifts just after a show has finished, and sometimes near the shops when there is a sale on.  I think they organise the crowds really well.
Today I got a tattoo - a temporary airbrushed one:

We were supposed to go to a show at 3m today, but the seas have been quite rough today compared to the rest of the trip.  The show is called "Come Fly With Me" and involves a lot of high-wire acrobatic work, and it would have been too dangerous for the performers to try it in these conditions.  It was rescheduled to 8pm when they believed the seas would be better. 
It started as promised, although they did warn us that they'd have to stop the performance if the seas got any rougher.  Fortunately they didn't, and we got to see the most amazing show - singers, gymnasts, high wire work, acrobats - it was just amazing. 
Today I had my one real problem onboard.  I mentioned earlier that I had prepaid for 15 digital copies of photos, but today I could not get anyone to explain to me how / when I'd be able to pick them up.  I talked to four different people in the photo area before I sort of got an answer.  I did eventually get a CD but I have no idea whether I'm going to be able to get the photos off it - they say not to try until you've got a 'reliable' internet connection, and that's not going to happen until we get home.  I hope it works, as I've seen prints of all of the photos and there are some good ones there!

Thursday 11 October - day 51 - Day 6 on the Oasis of the Seas (at sea)

Paul's birthday.  Started the day with a sleep-in, then a really late breakfast in a really crowded Windjammer Buffet.  Apparently late for us is actually proper wake-up time on a cruise  :-)
Today there was a Walk for Wishes charity event - for each $10 you paid you got a Tshirt and to join in to an organised 1 mile walk around Deck 5 (on the walking track).  Royal Caribbean donates the profits to the Make a Wish foundation and also helps sick kids and their families come on cruises.  Paul didn't take part, but I did.   They sold lots of Tshirts, but most people didn't come on the walk.  I guess they figured that they had done their bit by making the donation, and I will admit, it was very hot.
 The walk was done at quite a slow pace, and a few of us moved out in front and lost track of the main group (in fact, we lapped a few people). 
Of course, today was Paul's birthday so we had booked dinner at Chops Grille - one of their specialty restaurants.  As usual, the food and service was excellent.
Afterwards we blew away some more money at the Casino, and then crashed.

Wednesday 10 October - day 50 - Day 5 on the Oasis of the Seas (St Martin / Sant Maarten)

Just a short overnight hop to Phillipsburg. We were meant to be off the ship by 8:15 to join our excursion, but at 8am they still hadn't started allowing people off the ship.  I was a bit worried - with my experience on other cruises, if you're leaving the ship first thing, it can take 30 minutes to get ashore, because there'll be throngs of people waiting to go through security.  And this one has closer to 6000 passengers rather than the 2,000 to 2,500 that have been on those other cruises.
As it happened, there was no need for worry at all - we just got a lift down to gangplank level, followed by an escalator through the purpose built arrival area, and there we were.  No queues, no delays.  Brilliant organisation!

Today's tour was "Butterfly Farm and Marigot" and it turned out to be one of the best "shore excursion" type tours we have done so far, even including all the little mini-tours on our two coach tours.
The tour guide (Jose) is an American and he barely stopped talking through the whole trip - some jokes, some stuff about himself, but the vast majority of his talk was about the island - both historical and current information.  He did a really superb job, and completely destroyed my theory from yesterday that Americans aren't interested in history, as everyone seemed to really enjoy the tour.
The butterfly farm is a small tourist attraction run by an ex-patriot Englishman and his family. They have a large enclosed area where they raise butterflies (obviously) and they run a short tour for each group, explaining a little about the butterflies and moths and how they grow and live. You can then wander around and try to get a butterfly to sit on you (if you like) or just take photos or simply look at them.  We also got a free (quite small) rum punch part-way through the tour - apparently the smell can attract the butterflies  :-)

The island itself - well, let's just say, of the three Caribbean islands I've seen so far, if someone held a gun to my head and forced me to pick one to return to, it would be Sant Maarten.  It's two completely separate countries on the one island - part French (who call it St Martin) and part Dutch (who call it Sant Maarten).  Today the ship is moored at Phillisburg which is the capital of the Dutch side, but the tour today took us to both parts of the island, including Marigot which is the capital of the French side. 
You'd think that on an island this small - it's apparently the smallest island in the world that's shared between two countries - that they'd share infrastructure, but they don't.  They have:
* separate power and water plants (not even the same sort of power - the French side is 220volts, the Dutch is 120)
* separate money - the Dutch here decided to stick with their florin and not start using the Euro, the French went over to the Euro - but actually on both sides they'll accept $US, just a lot less graciously on the French side
* separate schools
* separate fire and emergency services, etc etc etc. 
They're also quite different in other ways - for example the French - as they do everywhere - are trying to keep their part of the island very French.  On the other hand the Dutch - knowing that their only real source of income is tourism and that most of the tourists will be American - have embraced the American way of life.  For example, the only American food chain you'll find on the French side is a Subway, but on the Dutch side there are apparently multiple occurrences of McDonalds, KFC, Quizno, Wendy's etc etc etc. 
Apparently there's a waiting list a mile long in France in the Gendarmerie for posting to St Martin.  They get a 6 month posting, they can bring their immediate family, and they get a 40% wage increase while they're here (because everything is so much dearer).  Regardless of the money, to most people this seems like a holiday, not a posting - there's very little crime on the island. 
Once we got back to the ship, we had lunch, and I ate far too much.  The on-screen display was saying that the Windjammer Buffet was full, so we decided to go to the Seafood Shack.  I had three of what they call 'jumbo shrimp' - actually each of them contains two halves, each of which is as big as a huge prawn.  This was served with garlic butter and a HUGE salad.  That's not so bad really, but then I topped it off with a Banana Split.  That was seriously wrong of me.  Nice though  :-)
We were all supposed to be on board at 4:30pm for a 5:30 sail-away.  We shared the dock with the Carnival Dream, and I believe their sail-away was scheduled for 30 minutes before ours.  However, passengers for both ships arrived back quite late.  Both ships eventually got underway - the Dream went first and there was lots of shouting and waving good-bye between the ships.

For dinner we went to the dining room and had a three course meal. Tomorrow's breakfast and lunch has to be fruit and salad and lots of walking around the deck - because we're going to Chops Grille for dinner - for Paul's birthday - and we know that we'll eat far to much there   :-)

Tuesday 9 October - day 49 - Day 4 on the Oasis of the Seas (Charlotte Amalie).

It's quite a long cruise from Nassau to Charlotte Amalie - even with leaving Nassau in the middle of the day on Sunday and cruising quite quickly, we still don't get to leave the ship at Charlotte Amalie until 9:30am at the earliest.
First impressions - based on the view from our balcony - are of a pretty, tropical island but I understand that this one is also quite commercialised, of course aiming at the tourist trade.
Paul and I have booked a shore excursion to St Johns - another island in the US Virgin Islands.  It's supposedly not as commercialised and is largely a National Park, along with a couple of expensive resorts and some private housing (I gather generally owned by the rich and famous).
It's going to be quite hot today, but the trip is only 4 hours so we should survive.  I hope.

If you click on the photo above you can just see an arrow pointing at our cabin.  This ship is simply enormous!!

This is the dock at St Thomas just as we arrived.

Same dock a few hours later.

OK, we're back now.  It was a very hot day - even the local tour guide commented on the heat.  Anyway, the first part of the trip was a 45 minute ferry ride from St Thomas to St Johns.  I have no idea why it didn't occur to me to take a seasickness tablet, but as it happened I was ok, although the ride was fairly choppy.  The tour guide on the ferry pointed out some homes of famous people etc and also talked a bit about the history of the islands (not much though)
We got off the ferry and into our tour bus - there must be hundreds of these things on both islands - commonly a Ford F100 or something similar with a few rows of seats in the back and a roof overhead, but no sides.  Still, it wasn't too uncomfortable.  Basically he took us around part of the island, showing us some resorts, beaches, and various bits of really lovely scenery.  It was a little too much like an advertisement to try to encourage people to buy houses on the island - I'd like to have been given more information about the history and geography of the island but I can only assume that sort of information isn't really appreciated by the passengers on Caribbean cruises. 

 There are iguanas everywhere!

Trunk Bay - claims to be one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world.

One interesting piece of information - the normal price for milk in the US is around $2 to $3 per gallon; on the island it costs anywhere from $9 to $12.  On the other hand, you can get rum for around $3 per gallon on the island.
We then went back to the dock for the ferry ride back to St Thomas.  There were four separate tour groups who had caught the same ferry, and we were all supposed to be there in time for the ferry to leave at 2pm, but one of the tours was about 15 minutes late. As it happened, this was a crucial 15 minutes, as a tropical storm started pelting down on us just as the ferry docked.  There was no-where to run - and actually I didn't really want to as first because it was so cool.  Unfortunately, by the time we got through security, most of us had already gotten pretty wet, and there was a fault in the roof right over the exit door from security and water was just pouring down on us.
Anyway, we finally got onto the ship and back to the cabin, by which time the rain had stopped.  We'd have been fine if it wasn't for that 15 minute delay - it's not a huge drama except that it's so hard to dry your clothes on this ship - there's no self service laundry so the only option is to send it off to be washed (not cheap!! - and anyway, you still have to do something with it until they pick it up) or to hang it all around the cabin, which isn't so good for dripping wet things. 
We've got all the wet stuff on the balcony for now, but we'll have to bring it inside later as you really can't leave stuff on the balcony while the ship is underway  :-)
On the brighter side, when we came back to our cabin we were greeted by some early "Happy Birthday" decorations:

We were all supposed to be on board by 5:30pm today, for sail-away at 6pm.  There was always a risk of problems, because the 5:30pm they're talking about is ships time.  However, local time is an hour earlier, and as Paul found out today, your phone is just as likely to automatically set itself to local time.  I don't know if that's what happened, but I do know that a bunch of about 50 passengers got off a ferry and onto the ship at about 10 to 6.  I was a bit surprised that the captain waited for them; I guess it was probably less of a drama here as it's only a fairly short trip to our next stop.  They certainly copped a stack of ironic cheers (and actually, some not so polite jeers) from people already onboard.  Anyway, we got underway only a little late. 
Paul and I are going to try the main dining room for dinner tonight, for the first time.  However, we didn't have lunch until around 4:35 so we are going to leave dinner for a while yet :-)

Monday 8 October - day 48 - Day 3 on the Oasis of the Seas (at sea)

Today will be pretty much a day of rest.  We went to the buffet for breakfast, then did 2  circuits around the walking track. 
Then we went and checked out our photos - they have a facial recognition thing going so mostly they can automatically put your photos in a folder, rather than you having to hunt them down.  They took three photos when we got off the ship yesterday  and two of them were automatically identified, one wasn't.  Not too shabby.  We have prepaid for digital versions of 15 photos which they claimed beforehand was a special, but in fact can be bought for the same price on board.  Won't fall for that one again - it's actually better to wait and see how many photos you want.
However, here's a couple of the photos we ended up getting:

After lunch we went to the theatre to see their production of the Broadway show "Hairspray".  It was really quite well done - earlier this year they telecast the Oasis of the Seas performance during the Tony awards.
We then did some more exploring, wandering and resting for the rest of the afternoon.
After dinner we went to another show - this is one of their water shows in the Aqua Theatre, with lots of diving, splashing, acrobatics, trampolining and high wire work too.  If it was on land, you'd think it was a fairy impressive show, but the fact that it's all happening over a pool on a cruise ship is seriously impressive.
Finished the evening off with another walk - one and a half times around the walking track and then a general wander around the ship.

Sunday 7 October - day 47 - Day 2 on the Oasis of the Seas (Nassau)

I woke up this morning just before 6 and wandered out onto the balcony to watch us come into port.  A lovely sight, athough my camera wasn't really up to taking a picture with that small amount of light. 
We only get to spend a few hours in Nassau, and we didn't book a shore excursion.  I had found a walking tour detailed out on the internet, and we decided to follow it.

There were four cruise ships in Nassau today - Oasis of the Seas, Norwegian Sky, Carnival Dream and Majesty of the Seas - totalling just under 14000 passengers. 
Traffic near the docks was chaotic - almost every car we saw seemed to be either a small tour bus or a taxi taking people around and showing them the sights.  Here are some of the things we saw:

 Nassau Parliament House

 Nassau Public Library - almost all of the civic buildings are painted pink

 Towards the Queens Staircase - this huge area was chipped out of the rock by slaves.

 The Queens Staircase, of course also built by slave labour.

 Sandy, trying to work out where we should go to next (outside Providence House).  This is where the walking map failed us because of some roadworks.

 At Fort Fincastle

Paul taking photos of the cruise ships from Fort Fincastle.

After our walk, we wandered back through the tourist areas around the dock.  I looked in a few jewellery stores - the prices looked ok and they seemed to be doing a roaring trade.  However, if I buy any jewellery on this holiday, it will almost certainly be something with an emerald or two in it, in Colombia.
Finally we fought our way back onto the ship, had a bite to eat and then crashed -  it was a really hot day and a tiring walk.
I woke up in time to take a few pictures as we left Nassau. My thoughts on Nassau are very much like my thoughts on Papaeete - not a place I want to go back to.  This isn't particularly disappointing though - we aren't really on this cruise to see the sights anyway, but to see the ship. 
Dinner tonight was at one of the specialty restaurants - the Solarium Bistro.  They serve what passes for low calories food on this ship - no individual menu item is over 500 calories.  Of course, once you've paid the cover charge, you can eat as much as you want, which kind of wrecks the low calorie idea  :-)
Anyway, we both had really nice meals - Paul had turkey rissoles for an appetiser and lamb for his main course, while I had a cold cucumber and yoghurt soup followed by a bison tenderloin. We also shared two 'sides' with the main course - a mango coleslaw and mushroom risotto. Then we both had berries and creme caramel for dessert.  Absolutely delicious, and for $18.20 each ($20 US), an absolute bargain!
Finished off the night by losing some money at the Casino   :-)

Saturday 6 October - day 46 - Day 1 on the Oasis of the Seas

I knew that by the time we got to Fort Lauderdale - after two weeks on a coach tour with 'motel only' accommodation - I'd be desperate to stay in a place with a kitchen.  So, we had a room at the Candlewood Suites last night.  $123 for the night for a room with a decent bed, a table big enough to put two laptops on (at last!), at least 8 available power points (some of the hotels have something in the room plugged into every single power point!), separate bathroom, and a full size stove, fridge, microwave, dishwasher etc.  Best value room for the whole trip.
They have a regular shuttle for the cruise port at 10:30 each day at $8 each, but that's a bit early for us - the port is less than 2 miles away and boarding doesn't start until 11:30.  And when it does, the cruise line starts with their 'priority' customers - which we aren't  :-).  However, the hotel will also organise a shuttle at any time you want - all apologetic because it has to cost more - a grand total of $10.00 each!  So, we're staying in the comfort of the hotel room until 11:30 or so (American hotels seem to all have much later check-out / check-in times than Australian ones).
Turns out that the shuttle company only wanted $8 each for the shuttle anyway.  It's all good.
Getting on-board the ship was a bit stressful but only because it was so quick - usually you expect to have to wait in the queue for long enough to get sort yourself out (eg find your passport etc)  but we were straight through security and then check-in really quickly.  We had been given our SeaPass cards and were having our welcome photos taken in no time.  At 12:05 we were still sitting in the shuttle at the hotel, but even with a drive of a couple of miles to the cruise port, we were on board by around 12:35 - I think we were lucky with our timing, but it was also very well managed.
The ship - Wow.  It's huge.  Royal Caribbean's way of getting people onboard means that you can't go into your cabin until it's ready, which is usually about 1pm.  We found a spot to wait and got into our cabin without any drama.
We then started our exploration of the ship - there's just so much to see and do that there's no way I'll be able to mention it all.  However, I will say - we were a bit hungry by this time so we went to Johnny Rocket's for a late lunch.  For a $4.95 cover charge you can have as much as you want to eat - we got onion rings and chips (you get them as soon as you sit down!) plus I had a hot dog and Paul had a burger.  Unlike normal American food, these were quite small - I guess on the theory that if you want more you can get it anyway.  But, they were both absolutely delicious.  We also had a milkshake each - so thick that they offer to give you a spoon to eat them with! and again, delicious.  Later in the cruise, we found out that Johnny Rocket's is actually an American burger chain, they've been around since 1986 and have a couple of hundred on-shore outlets.
After this - for obvious reasons! - we both did two full circuits around the walking/jogging track on Deck 5 - about 1.3 kilometres altogether.
After some more wandering we have seen large chunks of the ship, but we're still not really certain where anything is.  They have a pretty good help system though - huge touch screens near all the lifts where you can search for places and even get directions on how to get there from where you are, plus a 'what's on now / for the rest of the day' display if you're looking for things to do.  The TV in the cabin (a huge LCD screen) also has a fairly good - although somewhat slow - interactive display, including really useful things like an indicator telling you how busy it is in each food outlet so you don't traipse all the way to a particular restaurant only to discover that there's a half hour wait to get in.
That's all for today - we're on our way!!!
The somewhat uninspiring view of Fort Lauderdale from the balcony of the cabin:

The view down to the Aqua Theatre from deck 11.  The blue area where the people are walking is a cover over  really deep pool  which is the 'aqua' part of the aque theatre.  The small area further back is the stage - a large chunk of it turns over during the show to reveal a large trampoline that they use in their shows:

Our balcony:

Central Park - this is on deck 8, so we're one deck up.  You can see some cabin balconies above, but we chose one that overlooks the sea rather than the park:

 Back of the ship, the big screen and the platforms you can see are also part of the Aqua Theatre - they dive from those platforms into the pool during the show!

 Sandy on deck as we leave Fort Lauderdale:

Friday 5 October - day 45 - to Fort Lauderdale

In theory this is the last day of the coach tour, but since it consists of waking up in the hotel and leaving - no coach or driver and no tour guide anywhere - I don't see how Cosmos gets away with calling it part of their tour.  It's the same as cruise lines though - they insist on counting the day where they kick you off the ship as the last day, even though you basically just wake up and leave!
The only problems we had today were caused by me.  However, since I pretty much organised the whole day, I think I get to take the credit for everything that went right too  :-)
And actually, I didn't cause too much trouble, it's just that I caused it in the worst possible place - the airport security check.
First, I didn't understand how I was meant to stand in the security scanner, and once I worked that out, the lady made me back out of it because she needed to recalibrate it.  No idea if I caused that problem or not!
Then, they pointed out to me that in the drama of taking my shoes off (everyone over 12 goes through without shoes) while at the same time trying to manage crutches and a backpack, I had forgotten the most basic requirement of security scanning - to take the laptop out of the bag.  Or, to be more correct, the laptops - I was carrying both of them as part of our plan to make sure that our checked luggage wasn't too heavy and our carry-on wasn't too large.  Anyway, obviously they decided that they'd have to scan it again, but then this caused some sort of a staffing drama that ended up with a supervisor throwing a tantrum about who should do it.  I just cringed and grovelled apologies, and they let me go once they finally rescanned the bag.  But, in my attempts to get away from there as quickly as I could, I slammed my crutches right into my sore ankle, so it's hurting again.
However, on the bright side, apart from a change of gates, we were not affected by the current industrial problems that are hitting American Airlines.  There were definitely problems with other flights though - we had to move from Gate 28 because the flight that was due to leave an hour or so before us was delayed.  And, when they moved us to Gate 30, we got to hear the grovelling apologies of the staff on Gate 32 - apparently that flight had already been delayed for a long time, and still had no estimated departure time.
It took a fair while to get the plane loaded because of all the carry-on luggage.  Everyone carries the maximum size carry-on bag which always causes problems for people who board late, so when the automatic check-in machine offered to move us into the first boarding group for $9 each, I jumped at the chance as I didn't really want to fly for that far with our bags stuck under the seat in front - and it worked, we got overhead locked space for both of them.
It also took a long time to get off the plane - again because of the time it takes everyone to get their carry-on off the plane. However, we were only about 15 minutes late arriving at Miami. Our gate was about a mile walk through the airport from the Baggage Claim area.  However, when we got there, our limousine driver was waiting as expected.  He took our bags off the carousel and drove us to our hotel in a comfy, air-conditioned limo.  Nice.  Cost us $100, but since a taxi would cost at least $70 (maybe more with the roadworks) I reckon it was money well spent.  We actually had to drive past Fort Lauderdale airport to get here - we flew into Miami because there weren't any direct flights from Washington to Fort Lauderdale at any sensible times.
We've organised the shuttle ride to the cruise port tomorrow and have done a load of washing, so we're all ready to go!

Thursday 4 October - day 44 - back to Washington

We started the day with the usual "bags out at 7am, get onto the coach by 8am" start and then we drove back to Washington with quick stops for morning tea and lunch.
Another tour guide then joined us and took us around Washington.  Of course, in a few hours we only saw a tiny glimpse of the place - enough to convince me that I want to come back and spend a week here.  At least.  Just a few of the Smithsonian Museums could keep me going for that long, let alone all the other museums and displays.
First stop was at the National Cemetery at Arlington.  The tour guide showed us the graves of the Kennedy brothers and also gave us a lot of interesting information about how you get to be eligible to be buried at Arlington (or one of the other 100-odd National Cemeteries).   He said that because of the age of WW2 and other veterans, they have upwards of 20 funerals there every day.  We saw a lot of men in uniform - on closer glance an honour guard from fire service at Washington airport and also a number of other emergency services agencies, so we presume it was a funeral for someone senior in that area.
This was a very moving place, but not a place I want to come to again.
Next stop was to see the Korean War, Vietnam War, and Lincoln memorials.
The Korea memorial consists of a field with 19 statues (that they say are made of stainless steel) representing all the major arms of the services that were involved.  There's also a long wall with etchings of more of the people involved, and another low wall showing the names of all the countries involved in the action in Korea.

I don't really know what to say about this one - it's very nicely done, but to me it felt a little like they had tried so hard to be fair and inclusive that they hadn't really gotten the point across.  Maybe I'm being unfair but I just couldn't see it.
The Vietnam Memorial was originally a long wall showing - in chronological order - the names of every US serviceman killed in Vietnam.  Since then, they have added two further sets of statues - three men to represent the services involved, and then later they added a montage commemorating the involvement of women in the war.  I'll be very happy to see the day when women are treated fairly enough in everyday life, everywhere, that no-one feels it necessary to do "special" memorials to the involvement of women.  Anyway, that's off my chest, but I'm about to be non-PC again about the memorial itself - I'm sure it's meaningful to the people involved - which I guess is all that matters - but to me it was just a list of names that didn't really manage to make the point it was trying to make.
It's possible that I wasn't really in the mood for seeing memorials.
Next stop of course was the Lincoln Memorial.   I understand now just how significant Lincoln is to Americans - far more than I thought or understood before this tour started.  And, they explained all the symbolism to us - eg, one column for each state in the Union at the end of the Civil War.  However, like much else about the USA, I found it to be huge and overdone - to me, the same thing but 10% of the size would have been just as impressive and meaningful, and nowhere near as grandiose.
The next thing I'm going to mention is the Washington Monument - of course we saw it many times during the day as it's so huge, but this is a view from near the Lincoln Memorial.  What you can see just in the foreground is meant to be a renovated Reflecting Pool, but soon after they re-filled it, it got an algae problem, so they're currently cleaning it out.

We couldn't actually go into the Monument - no-one can.  It was damaged in an earthquake last year and further damaged by a hurricane at much the same time and it will be at least 2 years before it can be fixed.  In the meantime no-one is allowed in there.
Just a little side point here - although the tour guide didn't mention it, this memorial statue has a (tenuous) link to Australia.  It's the memorial to Tadeusz Kosciuszko - a hero of the US because of his involvement in the War of Independence and he is the Kosciuszko that Australia's highest mountain is named after.

Next stop was to have a look at this pretty little vegetable patch:

in the yard of this house:

Final stop for the afternoon was a photo op at the Capitol - this nice shot that Paul took showing most of the Ulysses S Grant memorial.

After this, we went back to the hotel in Alexandria - the same one where we started the tour - and had a quick shower to get ready for the evening's entertainment.  First stop was pre-organised dinner which I have to say I was less than impressed with.  The food was fine - excellent in fact (except for the dessert - Key Lime Pie which to me tasted like a second rate cheesecake).  The organisation was not so good, starting with an inappropriate table setup that left one couple on their own at what was supposed to be a farewell dinner for the group.  We sorted that out by getting the restaurant to reorganise the tables, but the dinner also ended with a rush - people were still eating dessert and drinking their coffee and all of a sudden we were being rushed out the door.
The night finished with an "Illuminations" tour - a nighttime tour of some more memorials.  All the events / people being commemorated have every right to be commemorated, so let's just leave it at this:
Iwo Jima and Kennedy Memorials - nicely done
Thomas Jefferson - makes the Lincoln Memorial look understated
We finally went home after this - it was probably the longest day on the tour.

Wednesday 3 October - day 43 - Colonial Williamsburg

Today we stayed in Williamsburg and the big trip of the day is down the road to "Colonial Williamsburg".
This is a part of town where a lot of historic buildings have either been restored or replicated.
Of course they concentrate on the Revolution, so of course there are cannons:

On some of the buildings you just get a sign explaining the significance, eg like this one:

but others are fully operating shops or work areas.  Many of them are doing work as they would have back in the late 1700's - for example, there's a working forge (we saw them making nails that are then used in the maintenance and restoration of buildings on site) and a working gunsmith.
The gunsmith will make a replica Long Rifle for you for about $US20,000 - apparently because the technology is pre 1898 it's regarded as a curio and not a weapon in the USA, but I don't think that would wash in Australia if we tried to import one :-)
The workers will also talk and answer questions about their task - for example, Paul had a long talk with the gunsmith.
We saw the Governor's Palace - somehow Australian Governors never got to have Palaces???

This sign that we saw at the palace:

 (I'm sure I took a photo of the actual landau, but it vanished somehow) reminded me of something the tour director said earlier.  Apparently when the Queen came here, she stayed at one of the hotels in Colonial Williamsburg, and they had to paint her bedroom blue for her.  I had no idea she was so precious!
Anyway, back to today.  We also had short tours of some of the buildings - for example the Public Jail.
Overall, it was quite an interesting place but quite large (so a lot of walking) and really hot - over 80 degrees Fahrenheit and over 80% humidity as well.  We had a choice of being picked up and brought back to the hotel at either 2:30pm or 5:30 pm, and we were happy to come back at 2:30.  I noticed all the Aussies on the tour did the same - and really, since this is all about the Revolutionary War period, you can see why the Americans and Poms would be interested, but it's not deeply significant to an Aussie.
The afternoon was quiet - we used the opportunity to get some washing done so with any luck we might be able to avoid paying too much for laundry on the Oasis of the Seas.
As a side issue here, I think we undertipped the waitress at the Cracker Barrel restaurant tonight - not a lot, just a few cents, but it leads me to the whole point of tipping.  I understand the whole 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do' thing.  And, I know Aussies (among others) have a reputation for not tipping.  I'm sure it's true that some Aussies don't tip even though they know it's expected.  I'm equally sure that others don't tip - or don't get it right - simply because it's so damned complicated and inconsistent.  You don't tip anyone at McDonalds.  Sometimes you tip the server, other times you add it to the credit card receipt - it just goes on and on. It's such an astoundingly inefficient way of spreading the wealth, hidden under the pretence that you're tipping for good service when in fact it's about as 'optional' as paying the State taxes that they add to the bill here.  I will be SO glad to get home - I'm going to go to the supermarket and do a stack of shopping just so that I can see that I pay EXACTLY what's displayed on the shelf, because that just never happens here. Then I'm going to go to a restaurant for dinner and pay them exactly what the bill says!
Anyway, whinging over - I'm about to watch the first episode of the new season of Supernatural, then off to bed before a big day of travel and sightseeing tomorrow.

Tuesday 2 October - day 42 - to Williamsburg

First stop was at the Stonewall Jackson Cemetery in Lexington.  Of course, he was a famous Confederate general, and it's commonly agreed that the results of the battle at Gettysburg - and maybe the whole Civil War - might have been different had he not died a couple of months before the battle as a result of friendly fire.
He was also apparently known for eating citrus fruit - he believed it to be good for his health - and even now when people come to his grave they often leave citrus fruit and not flowers. There were a number of lemons there when we visited.

Next stop was Thomas Jefferson's home and estate Monticello.  He was an absolute genius and among many achievements, he designed and built this house himself - it took him 40 years as he kept pulling parts of it down and rebuilding it.  He spent quite a bit of time in both France and England, and brought back many ideas and concepts that he built into the house.
Unfortunately it was not a good day for viewing the estate - this is the sort of fog that was around

and that was before the teeming rain started.
We were also a bit rushed - as we have found is typical with a lot of these places, you get a guided tour around the house, but self guided through the gardens and outer buildings.  Our Tour Director rushed us through a look at the outside of the house before we did the guided tour.  We really didn't have enough time to look at the outside things properly, and there was no time to look again afterwards.  That was a bit disappointing, however the house itself was quite interesting.
The rest of the day-time travel was fairly uninspiring - a stop at a cafe at Charlottesville for lunch and then a quick photo op at the Capitol building in Richmond before making our way to our hotel.
This is the Capitol building - one of the few State Capitol buildings without a dome:

 This is the old city hall - a beautiful building

 And a memorial near the Capitol - as is so often the case, a quick photo op just leaves you keen to come back and see a place properly!

Dinner tonight was at an old tavern in the historical area of Williamsburg.  Basically it was a set meal with some entertainment from that era - quickly adjusted when they realised that most of the people in our group are English and therefore the enemy at the time we're talking about!! Really lovely meal and quite an enjoyable night.
And even better, we're staying here two nights, so we don't have to rush to have our bags out in the morning, which is always good.

Monday 1 October - day 41 - to Natural Bridge

Today could be summarised with one word - rain!
First stop for the day was yet another Walmart - at lunchtime our plan was to be on the Blueridge Parkway, and there's nowhere suitable to stop for lunch.  So, the idea was to buy food at Walmart and have a picnic lunch.
Of course, it was obvious by the time we left Asheville that we weren't going to have a picnic - it rained and rained and rained some more.
However, we stopped at a spot where the bus could park and where there were 'restrooms' and we ate our lunch on the bus.  Then we went for a short walk to take pictures of yet another grist mill in the rain  :-)

We then continued along the Blueridge Parkway, which was not at all a comforting drive.  Paul and I had the "front of bus" seat today but for much of this part of the drive, the visibility was down to metres because of the fog and rain.  In the end, I went to sleep - I didn't sleep well last night and there was nothing to see out of the bus window!
By the time we got to Natural Bridge, it had finally stopped raining - mostly.  We walked down to see the Natural Bridge and it is a seriously impressive sight.

We also had a look at some of the other sights in the same area - most interesting was an archaeological dig and reconstruction of a native american site.
Tonight we're staying at the hotel at Natural Bridge.  Because it's in a national park, there aren't any shops in the area, so we had to either eat at the hotel or prepurchase stuff from Walmart.  We went for the hotel dinner - although breakfast tomorrow is some bagels from Walmart!).  Dinner was quite nice - Paul had a New York Strip Steak and I had a Chicken Hot Pot.  I also had a cocktail - can't remember what it was called but it was basically scotch and apple cider.  Very nice - and I got two for the price of one, so I've got a nice buzz going now   :-)

Sunday 30 September - day 40 - to Asheville

We've left Tennessee now - back into North Carolina.
Today's first stop was a visit to the Biltmore Estate.  It's an outrageously huge building and estate in North Carolina.  It's the most visited private building in the USA - to give you an idea, number 2 is Graceland.
Publicly, I did the expected 'yes it was lovely' thing afterwards.
Privately I thought it was a beautiful fake.  If I want to see a 16th century French chateau, I'll go to France.  If you want to see pictures, follow the link above - I'm not wasting bandwidth on them.

Next stop was Chimney Rock.  You can drive to an area at the bottom of the rock, and then there are two ways up.  One way is to walk up 400-odd steps.  The other is to walk through a tunnel and then catch a lift - both cut through the rock.
We stupidly walked - it was good exercise but my ankle still doesn't want me to do stuff like that - it doesn't hurt at the time but instead swells up badly afterwards.  Anyway, it was well worth the walk.

First though - this is part of a mural in the ladies toilet - this is in one of the cubicles but the whole place is painted up in this style - it's just lovely:

We walked up lots of steps.....

 Lots and lots of steps!

 It was a bit of a struggle.....

 But we made it to the top!

 We walked up from this car park!

 And it was completely worth it - this is just an example of the view!