Day 1- enroute to Volendam

an interesting 2 days of driving south to Ft Lauderdale-Port Everglades for our latest cruise.. Florida is an abomination with traffic on I-95 south of Jacksonville.. stayed overnite in our usual hotel Holiday Inn Exp in Ft Pierce.. in the morning it was on to the Turnpike for the about 2 hour drive to the Port.. 

our Day 1 begins onboard-- I dropped Pat off at the cruise terminal along with the  luggage-- most of which was hers 😁 --..as I made my way a short distance to Ft Laud airport to drop off our rental mini van .. greeted at the terminal by cruise staff we were Priority 1 boarding by 1115am as Pat was the very first passenger to board followed by moi after the Volendam returned this morning from 2 weeks in drydock in the Bahamas

we settled in.. met up with some of our friends in the Lido for lunch.. unpacked.. went to dinner with Mel and Nancy at our regular table as the ship departed on to 7+ days at sea toward our first port Horta,   Azores, Portugal a busy couple of days.. our cruise goes roundtrip out of Ft Lauderdale to the Med and back.. 42 days

the Volendam's elevator tells the story