Crewser Cruises

Disembarkation, Saturday, January 13, 2024, Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale, Florida Photo above: killing time, cruising very slowly into Port Everglades. We don't want to be early to the party! And right on time. I don't sleep well when I have an alarm set. I wake up every hour or so, checking to see if I slept through the alarm. I finally gave in and turned on my reading lamp to write some more. At 5:45, I got into the shower and dressed, then went to the Lido Market for breakfast at 6:00. Back to the room at 6:30, finishing last minute things and finding hidey holes in our carryons to tuck in PJs and my toothbrush. At 7:45, as expected, our number was announced on the television and we shouldered our carry-on bags and headed out. Photo: Goodbye, Eurodam and wonderful crew. We'll see you again on June 6, 2025. 🚢 Holland America (and maybe other cruise lines) has a program called "Luggage Direct." For $25 per person (and any applicable airline baggage ch...

Day 10, Friday, January 12, 2024, Bimini, Bahamas, and Heading Back to Port Everglades Here's the story of me and Bimini. It explains why I'm happy to visit Bimini today. You probably know I'm a musician. My primary instrument is piano. As a child and young person, growing up in Orlando, I also learned to play organ, clarinet, oboe, guitar, a tiny bit of banjo, and—wait for it—accordion. I was asked several times, probably 1964, 1965, and 1966, to travel to foreign countries for Seventh-day Adventist youth conferences to play my accordion, accompanying worship services. First to Guatemala. I thought it was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. I was 14. The next year, over Christmas break, the conference was on a little island off the coast of Miami—Bimini. The next year I made my first trip to Europe and I was bitten by the travel bug. I've jumped at every opportunity to travel ever since those trips with my accordion. I don't remember much about that trip t...

Day 9, Thursday, January 11, 2024, At sea, somewhere between Cozumel and Bimini Today is our final sea day and tonight is the second and final Gala dinner. Jas and I had reservations for dining in the Canaletto (Italian) restaurant on Friday night, but I cancelled those in favor of one extra night with Hendra, A.A. and Dwinda. This morning we went to the MDR for breakfast again, and were seated in A.A.'s section again. I had a wonderful bowl of steel cut Irish oatmeal with bananas, raisins, brown sugar, toasted almonds, and walnuts. Yum! Jas had buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup and a bowl of berries. We hurried back to the room afterwards to grab our masks and get to the World Stage to see the a multimedia presentation detailing what it takes to run a cruise ship. "A City on the Sea" presented videos and live interviews with various crew members of the m.s. Rotterdam, as a representation of the entire fleet. It showed how each division functions. The engine room,...

Day 8, Wednesday, January 10, 2024, the Island of Cozumel, off the coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico It was a busy day in the port of Cozumel. On our port was Carnival Valor, carrying 2000 passengers. Then Eurodam, carrying 1850 passengers. (These numbers are as listed on the daily schedule on cruisetimetables .com.) On our port was Celebrity Apex, with 2910 passenters, Celebrity Ascent - 3260, TUI Cruises Mein Schiff 6 - 2790, Norwegian Cruise Lines Prima - 3099. If you pull out your calculator, that's the possibility of 16,000 tourists in and around Cozumel on this day. Jas and I didn't go ashore, and we saw lots of people on board with us. But the number is kind of mind-boggling, don't you think? So what did we do? A wonderful breakfast in the MDR, with A.A. coincidentally being our server and Dwinda assisting in another section. I was happy to start my day seeing both of them. Then we walked several of the decks, exploring the artwork. HAL is known for the extensive art...

Day 7, Tuesday, January 9, 2024, Belize City, Belize, Central America When passengers got back to their cabins after dinner last night, they learned that the schedule for Tuesday had changed. There would be four ships in port on Tuesday. The sea off of Belize is very shallow for a mile or more from shore. Ships cannot get any closer than a certain depth for risk of damaging equipment and machinery under the ship. All the passengers who were going ashore had to board tenders (smaller boats that will take them from the large cruise ships to the pier) to get to their excursions. The tenders can carry a hundred or more passengers, and it takes time to load the passengers into those boats when the boats are bobbing on the waves and the gangway is moving up and down while the passengers are trying to step onto the gangway and into the boat without falling. It's a very time-intensive task. Photos: I was in the Lido Market at 6:15 for cereal and fruit and a great view of the action bel...