Sunday Jan 4, 2015
On Sunday Jan 4th, I left Wichita for a flight to Ft. Lauderdale. I got up at 4 AM and my friend Jim Howard arrived at my place at 4:30 to take me to the airport. It had rained, sleeted, and snowed overnight. Parts of the road was slick and we got to the airport at 5 AM for a flight at 6:22 AM. I checked in went thru security and found out that we didn't have a airplane. United first said that we would at 7 AM. I don't know where they got a airplane but we did get onboard at 10 AM. Snow and Ice was on the airplane and it took until 11 AM before we left for Houston. We got to Houston about 12:30 PM and I had missed my flight that was to leave at 10:26 AM and also the next flight to Ft. Lauderdale. The next flight scheduled to leave at 3:50 PM was full but I did get on standby. I did get a seat on the 3:50 flight and we left for Ft. Lauderdale at 4:08 PM and arrived in Ft. Lauderdale at 7:20 PM. I found my checked baggage and was transferred to the Renaissance Plantation Hotel. I arrived at the hotel about 8:30 but I missed the Cruise Specialist cocktails and dinner that had started at 6:15 PM. Tom Mullen, one of the hosts from Cruise Specialists told me to go and eat dinner at the hotel and give the receipt to him after we get on the ship.
This was the forth time that United did not get me in time to catch the next flight from Wichita. I could have gone on Southwest or American but they could not get me to Ft. Lauderdale in order to catch the Cruise Specialists dinner.
Monday Jan 5, 2015
I got up and eat breakfast at the hotel. They picked up two of my bags at 8:30 AM and I did not see them until I got on the ship. At 11:30 AM we left for the cruise terminal and when thru security and I got on the ship at about 12:30 PM. I ate some lunch and walked around the ship. I met many people that I had known from other cruises. I went back to my room and rested and it was late afternoon before my first bags arrived. I had shipped 2 bags prior to the cruise and I did not get one of my bags until about 6:30 PM. At 8 PM I went to the dinning room for a meal. There was a sail away party at 9 PM and I got to the party at 9:45 PM. The ship left the port at 10 PM. We have 3 days at sea before the ship arrives at Santa Marta, Columbia.
Tuesday Jan 6, 2015
This is a normal day at sea. The ship had a Shore Excursions Presentation and two talks. The first talk was by Captain Paul Eschenfelder on "The late 19th century America slid, kicking and screaming, into becoming a world power - a role it stills fills today and Teddy Roosevelt led the way". The second talk was by tom Goltz on "Liberator of South America, Simon Bolivar freed Gran Columbia from 300 years of Spanish rule. He was supported by revolutionary Manuela Saenz of Ecuador who saved his life and became his lover".
I spent the afternoon working on this e-mail with the hope of sending it. I could not get it to work but I could receive e-mail.
Later on, I ate dinner and went to the show put on by Bobby Brooks Wilson on a "Tribute to the Motown years". His father was a motown singer and he sang songs from the 50's to the 80's. He was very good.
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