At sea, off the southeast coast of Florida

Travel Blog   December 22-23 2013

At sea, off the southeast coast of Florida

We awoke Sunday morning to a beautiful Palm Springs area day.  This Sunday was the first full day of winter, but you would never know it, as the sun was shining bright with a temperature of nearly 70* F and there was no wind.  The mountains sparkled as Gary, our house-sitter, drove us from our winter home in Desert Hot Springs to Palm Springs Airport. 

Since it was the peak of the holiday travel rush, with reports of horrible weather all over the center of the US, we were quite apprehensive about our travel plans.  We would be partially right about this.  We checked in at the Delta counter with our two large bags.  We thought they might be overweight, but they didn’t even bother to weigh them with the rush.

Our plane was right on time for its 12:15 departure and we were soon flying over the glistening, snow-capped peaks of southwest Colorado. As Delta does not fly directly from Palm Springs to Fort Lauderdale, we were forced to change planes in Minneapolis, a city known for its winters. 

We were not surprised to land after dark in the middle of some snow flurries.  Ascending the jet way into the terminal, the sharp cold air made us very much aware of the difference between the California desert and Minnesota winters.  We had packed no winter clothes for this trip. 

Since we had just over an hour before boarding our flight to Florida, we rushed to our departure gate, located at the other end of the airport, grabbing a sandwich at Subway while on our way.  We seated ourselves comfortably in the departure lounge and waited for the boarding call for flight 1688. 

Just as the Law of Gravity keeps us from floating off into space, another law often prevails, Murphy’s  We had both been concerned that bad weather might delay our departure, but we hadn’t considered that a series of human and mechanical errors would make the trip more challenging.   Immediately before our scheduled 6:45 loading time, an announcement was made that the airliner, a venerable MD90, was having some computer problems, which would need to be repaired and the computer reset before takeoff.  After a few more announcements were made, finally telling the passengers that a new plane would arrive from Seattle at 8:30 and, after it was unloaded and serviced; it would take us on our way. 

We were eventually loaded on the new plane, carry-ons stowed and seatbelts adjusted when the captain made a new announcement on the intercom.  Water and drinks had not yet been loaded and there with be a further delay.  A short time later, another announcement came from the cockpit.  Because of the delay, the maximum 16 hour work day for the cabin stewards would be exceeded and we were directed to leave the plane, carrying all of our things until a cabin crew could be found.  It turned out they were on a Minneapolis bound flight, but would board as soon as they arrived from Atlanta.

The mood of the passengers turned from impatient to downright surly as we off-loaded our gear and headed back to the terminal.  John decided that DELTA must stand for “Doesn’t Even Leave The Airport.”  We knew if the flight was cancelled that we would miss our cruise. A series of phone calls and texts to our travel-agent daughter, Kari, kept us informed of what we could expect.

Finally we re-boarded the plane and taxied a short distance to have the plane de-iced.  We finally headed to the runway at 12:30 am, five hours and ten minutes after our scheduled departure time.  Although everyone aboard was dog-tired, we found it nearly impossible to get any serious sleep in the rigid and cramped seating on the jet.  We arrived to a nearly empty Ft. Lauderdale Airport shortly after 5:00 am, grabbed our luggage from the carousel and took a taxi to our hotel, where we checked in 6:00, Monday morning!

We awoke about 9:30, grabbed breakfast, showered, packed and headed to the nearby Port Everglades Cruise Terminal, where, after a bit of a wait, we got onboard the beautiful Pacific Princess.  This is one of the smaller cruise ships in the fleet, with a passenger capacity of only about 600. 

Our stateroom on deck 3

We were very pleased with our spacious outside cabin and the classic beauty of the ship, but we were tired and hungry.  We obtained our lecturing schedule and met our tablemates for our late-seating dinner.  The food was excellent, as was the service.

We are scheduled to deliver our first program at 9:45 am in the Cabaret Lounge.  Nearly exhausted, we remembered to turn our clocks ahead before retiring at midnight.