With the exception of a few trips to see family, I have had to suspend my vagabond life of world travels during Covid. The first official adventure is a south eastern Caribbean cruise departing from Fort Lauderdale. I will be cruising as usual with my travel buddies Rick and Joe.
Step one in the adventure is getting to Fr Lauderdale. I always fly United with few exceptions so I was shocked when I discovered that I was booked on a direct flight from Charleston to Fort Lauderdale on Silver Airways. It sounded like an airline run by retirees. Like a club from Del Webb. I had never heard of them. first impressions are telling. It was a plane with propellers, you could not load from the gangway but only from the tarmac. Up the slim staircase in the rear of the plane dragging my rolling bag I thought I had gone back in time to the 70s. The flight was delayed and then took 2 1/2 hours to get to FLL. I arrived T the hotel cranky and hangry until Rick and Joe showed up at my room with drinks and a chicken dinner. All was forgiven.
Day 1: I was excited to see the Edge. The first of Celebrity’s modern fleet. They introduced it just before the Covid freeze and have since launched two more ships of this class. Everything is upgraded from the check in process through dinner and activity reservations. Much if your check in process happens on line on their app before you show up. As long as you are armed with your passport, shot record for Covid you breeze right through and go straight to your stateroom. Your key ( and sea pass) is in an envelope at your door waiting for you. For the first time this cruise, I decided on an inside cabin. The Edge does have a few single rooms but they were sold out. The inside staterooms are lovely and certainly all I need. We opted for a discounted specialty meal in a garden restaurant. It was fancy to a fault. From the decorations to the service it was like dining in a Saturday Night Live skit that makes fun of fancy restaurants. Portions were tiny and over decorated but delicious. We did upgrade our wines and that made all the difference.
caminopapi 