Desperately Seeking Sunshine # 1: A New Departure

I can't think when I've last endured a winter with so much cloudy, wet, drizzly, snowy, icky weather!

 

It started with four days of rain during my long-awaited Christmas vacation in Key West, and Ontario just carried right on from where Florida left off after I got home. That is, it carried on like that until the final week of January when rain changed to snow, and that kept coming in frequent bursts with occasional short breaks of semi-sunlight and bitter cold for variety. As Snoopy used to say in Peanuts: BLEAH!

 

Since December 23, I have seen many more hours of rain (mostly) or snow (some) than of sunshine. I'm a patient man, as all my former students know (haha), but even I have my limits. A few weeks back, I finally cracked -- and this trip is the result. It's called "retail therapy." For many people, it takes the form of online clothes shopping. For me, it's online travel booking.

 

If you're a regular reader of my blog and this view looks somewhat familiar, that's not surprising.

 

 

I'm back in my favourite hotel in Fort Lauderdale, but this time I didn't get my favourite room (you saw that view on my last trip). When I was arriving at about 3:30 yesterday afternoon, many of the rooms were still awaiting cleanup by housekeeping after late check-outs. This, in fact, was the only tower room available at that point in the day for an upgrade. I was desperate to crash, so I took it rather than wait for something better.

Not that it's a bad view, by any means. Looking southwest, you can see at mid-left a Princess Cruises ship, one of the Grand Class, sitting at the Princess terminal, ready to sail this afternoon.

So with all the sunshine a body could want, a temperature of 82F, and a whole day to kill, it was a perfect time to just relax in my happy place.

 

The pool here at Bahia Mar was a lot busier than the last time I came. Amazing what a difference ten degrees Fahrenheit in the air temperature can make!

The point and purpose of this trip is a cruise, but a cruise like no other I've ever taken. That sounds pretty dramatic, but in practice I don't expect wildly dramatic differences. 

 

But still, this is going to be a cruise full of firsts:

 

First # 1:  Once again, I've managed to find a cruise routing that takes in three countries, and four ports, all of which are first-time visits for me. The countries are the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. 

 

First # 2:  The ports are Nassau, Amber Cove, Grand Turk Island, and Half Moon Cay. 

 

Base Map attribution:  https://freevectormaps.com/cuba/CU-EPS-02-0001?ref=atr

First # 3:  I'm sailing for the first time with a different company, the Holland America cruise line. Here's the ship, which I'll be boarding tomorrow: the MS Nieuw Statendam.

 

By kees torn - NIEUW STATENDAM, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90349248

 

This ship is one of three in the Pinnacle Class, the current largest vessels in Holland America's fleet. "But I thought you didn't like big ships." True -- I don't. One of the attractive features of this company is that their fleet definitely tends to the mid-sized range. These, their largest vessels, still hold about 500 passengers less than the Grand Class over at Princess, close to 1,000 less than the Royal Class, and around 1,400 less than the new and even bigger ship coming soon from Princess, to be named Sun Princess. And it would take two and a half of the Pinnacle Class ships to make up the capacity of one of Royal Caribbean's monster super ships. 

 

Before I even get to the cruise, though, I've already learned a couple of sharp lessons about travel costs -- and I've decided to try something I've never done before.

First # 4:  For the first time ever, and to see if I can stand it, I'm taking an inside cabin. No window. No balcony. It's much cheaper, of course, than a balcony (or "verandah" as Holland America calls it), and that's why I'm giving it a test run -- to see if it will work for me, because I'd like to be able to keep travelling as long as possible before the money starts to run low. Here's a picture from Nieuw Statendam's sister ship, Koningsdam, to give an idea of what I can expect: ultimate coziness.

Holland America Line photo.

The lesson? This inside cabin for a week is costing me about the same amount as a deluxe balcony cabin for a week in the Caribbean cost me in January four years ago. Cruise prices (like travel costs everywhere) are climbing substantially, mostly (I would guess) due to the soaring costs of fuel and food, two things which cruise ships burn through in impressive quantities. It's certainly true as well, though, that cruise lines are trying to make up for lost ground during the pandemic shutdowns with higher rates, just as airlines and hotels are doing.

 

Of course, I had to book and pay for the entire cruise in one go since I was reserving it long after the final payment deadline. A week after booking, I got an email from Holland America offering upgrades to window or balcony cabins, for a fee. Plainly, the ship wasn't fully booked. The fees looked attractive, until I doubled them -- which I have to do because, travelling alone, I pay a full double fare. At that point, I decided to stick to my Plan A.

 

It's a good example for the distance cruise lines are prepared to go to fill every available cabin. 

 

By two weeks before sailing date, the ship was fully booked, a surprising turn of events which I attributed to the fact that this cruise includes a certain date of great emotional significance to many people in our society (to wit, February 14). Personally, I've never cared much one way or the other about Valentine's Day, but it certainly explains why I couldn't get a reservation for any of the premium surcharge restaurants on board for that particular night!

 

The second lesson came from my flight down. Friday and Saturday are, without question, the most expensive days to fly to Fort Lauderdale during the Caribbean cruise season. Ships sail out of Port Everglades every day of the week, but the weekend usually sees every berth in the harbour occupied on both Saturday and Sunday, and often by the largest ships in each company's fleet. 

So here's what happened: I got a $270 discount on my fare by flying south on Thursday instead of Friday, for a cruise sailing on Saturday. As it happened, that $270 fare difference represented about 75% of the cost of an additional night at my fave hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Bahia Mar. To me, this qualifies as a "no brainer." Similar discount on the return flight fare came from taking the 8:00 am flight out of Fort Lauderdale back to Toronto on a Sunday morning ("Bleah" again).

Mind you, to get that good southbound fare, I had to take an odd routing -- leave Toronto at 8:00 am to Montreal, arrive at 9:20, then clear through U.S. customs and depart Montreal for Fort Lauderdale at 11:10 am, after a 1 hour 50 minute stopover. 

 

What made it a pleasant trip for me was the fact that both flights were on the 137-seat Airbus A-220, the newest and most fuel-efficient aircraft in Air Canada's fleet -- very comfortable seats and only five across, not six, so only one seat in each row is a middle seat. Both flights were filled to the last seat, but I was less conscious of crowding than on many other aircraft. And unlike many smaller jets, the A-220's overhead bins are big enough to handle any standard-sized carry-on bag.

 

 

Air Canada photos

I also enjoy flying in these new jets because they are actually the Canadian designed and built Canadair C Series, an airliner which struggled to get enough sales until Canadair sold the programme to Airbus. Now, Airbus can barely produce them fast enough to keep up with the demand. Yay, Canada!

So, welcome to the latest trip. New ports to visit, a new cruise line to get to know, and finally (and for the duration, I hope), SUNSHINE!!!!