Tuesday December 7, 2010
Another early chilly morning in Florida. With temperatures hovering around 40 F, we were up and to the Port Everglades by 6 AM to board our ship to the Bahamas. As with so much of this vacation, we got there to discover that neither of the companies that had been involved with us had bothered to book the cruise, so we did that – in order to get to our booked accommodation in Freeport.
Because of the cold weather, the 5 hour trip over was very very rocky, so neither Barbara or Harry had a very good journey. There were a number of activities on the ship, but due to the rockiness – we think only the Casino was at all busy. There was a bingo game with all of 2 participants.
We landed in Freeport around 1:30 and caught a shuttle to our hotel – the Island Palm Resort. It is at best a 2 ½ star hotel with a restaurant and bar, and an outdoor swimming pool (unheated), but very friendly staff. We do however get the opportunity to use the facilities of the Island Sea Resort which is a very upscale resort located on the ocean. We will likely head over there tomorrow.
The rest of today was spent going for a walk around ‘Downtown Freeport’ – where our hotel is located. Lots of empty stores, but most interesting is an RBC – yes Royal Bank of Canada just across the street. This evening will be a quiet time of recovery.
There is lots to do here – from scuba diving to swimming with the dolphins to partying on the beach. We will see what we can do given the temperature. Not sure if swimming with the dolphins is too appealing at 50 F.