San Luis Obispo to Fort Lauderdale
Saturday, October 8, 2022
Hooray, we have passed our Covid tests and are good to go, the Grand Africa Cruise is really happening, finally!!!
Our day started too early for us, as our flight From San Luis Obispo to Dallas where we would connect with a flight to Fort Lauderdale left at 6:00 AM. Val’s friend Marsha was picking us up at 4:00 AM to take us to the airport so we were up at 3:00, which we thought would give us plenty of time to get everything together. It turns out it was a good thing we allowed an hour to get ready as we (mostly me) thought of a lot of last-minute things to do so I ended up rushing around to be done by 4:00.
Marsha was right on time and cheerful as usual despite the early hour. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, got checked in and through security and were soon being called for our flight. We made it right up to the door of the plane and then everyone was sent back to the terminal as there was a maintenance issue. This was a bit of déjà vu for us as the last time we flew out of San Luis Obispo we were delayed over an hour for a maintenance issue and almost missed our connecting flight in San Francisco to Hawaii.
Luckily this time this time the delay was only fifteen minutes and we were soon on our way. We had a little concern as we only had an hour in Dallas to get to our connecting flight and it in was another terminal. We were assured by people familiar with the Dallas airport that we would have plenty of time so we hoped they were right.
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| It was an early start and we watched the sunrise as we flew east. |
As we neared Dallas, the flight attendant came by to give us the boarding gate for our connecting flight and she told us the gate had been changed to the same terminal as we were arriving at so no problem. After landing we did have a long walk as our arrival gate was 17 and the departure gate was 35, but we made it with time to spare and were soon on our way to Fort Lauderdale.
We landed on time at around 4:30 PM ET in Fort Lauderdale and quickly picked up our luggage, found a cab and made our way to the Embassy Suites 17th Street. We have stayed there before for cruises out of Fort Lauderdale so we are familiar with it, but it seemed a bit worn this time and the rooms looked like they needed a refresh.
After checking in and getting to our room, we were beginning to feel the effects of our early morning wakeup call and spent the rest of the evening resting.
All in all, our travel day went well and except for having to get up so early, everything went without any problems. We had opted to splurge on first class seats on this trip and it was well worth it. Our flights were on smaller planes so the first class wasn’t very fancy, but the seats were wide and comfortable and there was plenty of leg room, we got meals that were certainly not gourmet, but were just fine, and we got to be the first ones on and first ones off the plane. The best of all today was that Val, who is a very nervous flyer, felt very little anxiety and didn’t even worry like she usually does, so it was a good travel day. Tomorrow (Sunday) we have a free day in Fort Lauderdale where we can relax and get ready for the start of our cruise on Monday.
Fort Lauderdale
Sunday, October 9, 2022
Last night was a bit of rough night for me as far as sleep goes. I was so tired I went to sleep around 9:30 (6:30) in California. Unfortunately, I woke up around 2:00 AM and felt very awake. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I ended up listening to music and podcasts on my Ipod until about 5:00 AM when I finally fell back to sleep. When I woke again it was around 8:00 and I was still tired and just wanted to go on sleeping (5:00 AM California time), but I wanted to try and get on a normal sleep schedule so I got up and Val soon followed. She had slept pretty well, but still felt tired when she got up.
The Embassy Suites has a very good morning buffet with a big selection of made to order items including any kind of eggs you want. Unfortunately, when we looked at the line for the made to order food, it was extremely long stretching out the door around a corner and down a hallway. We decided that was not for us and ended up getting items that you didn’t have to wait in line for. It was OK, but I had wanted to get an omelet, but it was not worth the wait.
Our plan for the rest of the morning was to walk to a nearby shopping center and check out restaurant options for lunch and dinner. Unfortunately, it was raining and was forecast to continue for the rest of the day so we gave up on that and spent the rest of the day in the hotel.
Since we had the time, I spent the morning catching up on my e-mail and writing my first blog entry of the trip. Val caught up on her e-mail and had a bit of updating to do on the spreadsheet she keeps of our activities planned for the cruise ahead.
We relaxed a bit and by mid-afternoon we were getting hungry so we went to the restaurant in the hotel and had a late lunch / early dinner. The restaurant has a limited menu and it’s pretty much bar food, but it was good enough and we got our fill. The rest of the afternoon was spent getting our stuff organized for the embarkation process tomorrow and relaxing.
The rain continued into the
evening so except for walking outside once just to see how hard it was raining,
we spent the whole day in the hotel. It
wasn’t really a problem; even though it was kind of a boring day, our thoughts
were all about our cruise starting tomorrow.
We called it an early night so we could catch up on our sleep and were
anxious have tomorrow come so we could get our journey underway.
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