I did go out on to the pier again and had to walk back to the ship and then back down the pier again. I lost my munzee map once outside the wi-fi field of the ship as I accidentally changed screens. The SIM card I bought for the islands doesn’t work, and the online help person didn’t help either. Anyway, got the few munzees that were on the pier and let a couple behind as well, LOL.

The ship set off again just before 4.30 and we left The Bahamas behind us. It was formal night for dinner, so ‘dressed up’ and met Sondra and Cynthia, sisters from Florida. Chatted about family, pets, work and munzee, LOL. Mum, I had duck and red cabbage for dinner, very nice!

Today I woke up feeling not too good. Getting wet yesterday must have set this cough off again, as I coughed half the night. I did think it had gone…..but it was obviously lurking still. So woke with a headache and not much of a voice. Anyway, headed up to Deck 15 and watched the sun come up, not very spectacular at all and then in to breakfast. Found a quiet spot out near the swimming pools where they have tables and chairs rather than lounging deck chair thingies and fiddled on the laptop for a while. It started getting a bit warm as it’s sort of enclosed at the sides and no breeze coming though the windows, obviously the wrong angle. So headed down stairs looking for a cool, quiet spot.  Wandered through a couple of floors and ended up on Deck 5 which has the walking/jogging track around it. Went up towards the back of the ship and found some chairs that were next to the railing almost over the very back. It was a little noisy with the engines and the ship’s wake, but it was lovely and breezy, so sat and watched the water and the sea and read for a while. Did see the coastline of Cuba way off in the distance!

Still feeling headachy though thought a nap might help, but my room was being ‘made up’ so wandered around a bit more. Didn’t really sleep, just rested and read. It’s been a long time since I’ve managed to read a book in day, LOL.

Picked up a sheet of ‘fun facts’ about the ship, so a couple for now.
There are 2.5 acres (1 hectare) of kitchens and 20 chefs, 222 cooks, 102 sanitation & culinary cleaning crew.

 Location SunriseImpressive wake

Yesterday’s mandatory evacuation drill was interesting, and different from the others I have done. First off, we actually assembled inside the ship, in the Comedy Lounge, on seats! None of this standing out on the deck for ages. We all had to have our card scanned so they could make sure that everyone attended. A lady next to me has been on the ship since August and has had to sit through it every Sunday afternoon! The video presentation was also very different, actually making a story out of what to do and what not to do.

I had left the nice spot I had on deck as the very loud music had started up, so checked the stateroom, no suitcase yet and then sat and read for a bit in the Comedy Lounge waiting for the drill!

We were supposed to depart at 4.30, it was changed to 5.30 but we didn’t leave until 6.30. Dinner was at 5.30, very nice and back at my room by 7.30 were my suitcase was waiting to be unpacked!!

Woke early and went up on deck where we had docked in Nassau, The Bahamas. Still quite dark so lots of lights everywhere. Talked to a guy at the rails who said that if he wasn’t on vacation he would be driving over that bridge to go to work right at that time, LOL. He and the family had flown to Florida to catch the ship and first stop was home, how funny. Had the early breakfast as had to meet on the pier at 8 for my Seaworld Adventure tour. Gangway was open at 7.20 so went out for a wander and a look and a photo or two. Lots of people down on the pier when the clouds opened and the rain bucketed down. I had a rain poncho in my bag, but no good putting it on, I was already soaked LOL. Good thing though it was all warm and then a breeze started up, so that by the time I got back to the ship I was almost dry!

Walked down the pier and back and down again and our small tour group of 8 were put onto a small boat heading out to our ‘submarine adventure’. LOL, climbing down into the bowels, it was one of those boats with lots of windows in the sides. It was great not having it full as you could look out both sides easily. Lots of young tuna, yellow-tails and sergeant majors. Also, tiny little jelly fish and huge snapper. They get fed bread which attracts shoals of fish, so lots to see. Amazing how many animals like bread (including people) and it’s not really good for any of us, lol.

Back at the ship to change shoes, as the sneakers were still rather wet, I was going for another walk down the pier but it started bucketing again, which lasted much longer than this morning. As it looks ok now, might brave it again, LOL.

Location is everything!!Room with a viewNassau sunriseNassau  After the rain…. Young tuna leading the way Allure is on the right!

Well, I’m on the ship, and it is ENORMOUS!!!!!

Popped down just after 7 to get my car receipt, and it had already been cleaned and gone out again!! Sat around my room for a little while, updated some software on the laptop and then caught the shuttle at 10. Very organised at the pier, well I suppose with 6000+ passengers they need to be. After check in and the photo ID, we were allocated to rows of seats in specific sections, and then let onto the ship, with the diamond travellers etc going on first. Very orderly. The staterooms aren’t ready until 1, so it was then a case of finding the Windjammer, which is the buffet eating restaurant, which is also enormous, lol. Finding a table was fun, but did so eventually and then had an early lunch. Wandered around a bit after that. Visited the deck with all the live trees and garden beds, they might play bird calls, but I did see a swallow and a sparrow flying around, presumably also sight seeing from the dock, LOL.

Am currently sitting on the pool deck (15) at a nice table next to the window looking out to the wide, not quite blue, yonder. It will be good to get the hand luggage down to the room soon, as well as hopefully finding the suitcase there eventually, so I can unpack for the next 2 weeks!

I don’t understand these computers!!! Since I left home I have been doing the photos a specific way so they are reduced to a size easy to upload to here. Now its not working!!!!! Another Windows update that has stuffed up something, lol.

Once again had a great breakfast and then headed out to a car park with prize wheel munzees. As these are all physicals, I walked around, after parking on the wrong side. Not that that really mattered, I just walked across the grass, lol. From there I went back to Lettuce Lake Park and the munzee event Marie, Tim, Carol and Dave had organised. It was an early Halloween event, so lots of scary doughnuts with teeth and eyes, a long, thin cinnamon something with red icing looking like intestines, spiders scattered around the place, a big pumpkin on the table, all good fun. The event munzees were spiders so had a trail of 50 of them through the park. Such a lovely park, even if very, very sticky as there had been more rain overnight. So capped a lot, talked a lot and had fun!

Then a 426 km drive south to Fort Lauderdale. Quite a few changes of vegetation and quite a few vultures. Some sitting in trees and some obviously scavenging something on the roadside.

Had 2 really heavy rain showers to drive through, so heavy it was difficult to see the road let alone the car in front, yet there were still those who zoomed past in the outside lane!

The GPS decided to sulk, she didn’t want to talk to me at all today, maybe because I told her off last night for not working, LOL. Anyway the map itself worked, but she got me to do a u turn to get to the hotel and nothing was there, just the local cemetery. I used my phone GPS to get here, and was told by the parking man that it happens to everyone, the GPS always goes there! Don’t know why the phone one worked better! Anyway, had a lucky discovery, there is a Hertz return site right here in the same building, so decided I may as well drop off the car now as they have a complimentary shuttle to the cruise port. What unexpected good planning, LOL.

Lettuce Lake ParkSome great lichen  A xeric oak communityScary doughnuts, lol

Oh dear, well if yesterday was stickier than the day before, this afternoon was worse, as it rained lol. Walking out of an air conditioned place and it just hits you like a wet blanket.

Anyway, didn’t do much today except drive around car parks again. Had breakfast about 6.10, no waffle this time, but fruit salad & yoghurt, eggs & sausage. Headed down to Brandon for the very large collection of flat munzees there. It was still a bit dark, but peak-hour traffic gave me plenty to follow, lol. When I was last in Florida, I cleaned out the Brandon Mall of munzees, but in two years there were lots more, so repeated the exercise.

Back to the hotel about 3.30, and then headed across the road to the hairy-legged spider munzee garden. Finished that and then drove a fair way to have dinner at Shells seafood restaurant that the lass at the front desk had recommended. It was nice, much better than the cheese and biscuits I have here, lol. They might be tomorrow night’s dinner down in Fort Lauderdale.

Dawn with a bit of mist, no idea how that comes about in this warmth!

I just love all this hanging Tillandsia. It’s probably regarded as a weed as it hangs off everything.

Did I say it was sticky yesterday, well even stickier today, LOL.

Had a lovely breakfast, a waffle with fruit salad, which included blueberries, blackberries and raspberries! Cheesy scrambled eggs as well.  I walked out the front door with the intention of just doing 20-30 minutes of munzeeing, well 3+ hours later I walked back through the front door, hot, sticky and thirsty, as I’d left my bottle of water behind. The hotel is part of a business park complex, so no shops as such except a few along the main road. It wasn’t really a long way, but as I had to stop every 30-50 paces to grab the virtual munzees it took a long time, LOL.

Had a cool down, a rest and a snack lunch and then headed out in the car to tackle the munzees in car parks on either side of where I had walked. I was sitting in a car park when the car decided to tell me it only had 41 miles worth of fuel, so I found someone and asked about a ‘gas station’. Of course, I managed to get lost, but it was worth it, as I watched a pair of sand hill cranes walk sedately across the road, in front of the vehicle waiting for them on the other side of the road from me. Managed a photo, below. Found someone else to tell me how to find the gas station, which turned out to be 2 streets down from my hotel!

Decided I had had enough of car parks, so headed to Lettuce Lake Park which is where we are having the event on Saturday. Another really lovely park, very very quiet though. The ranger said the water levels were too high for the usual water fowl they get and it was still a bit early in the day for the smaller birds and the cicadas to start their noises, so it was almost eerily quiet.

I really need another week here to clean up all the munzee gardens, there are so many of them. Oh well, another visit maybe, LOL.

Sunrise There they go…Trees are full of Tillandsia
Not seen one yet!No idea what this is!
Sunset in Lettuce Lake Park

Forgot to say that I had grits for breakfast yesterday. A southern US dish of ground corn that basically looks like porridge. The lass serving recommended eating it with butter and salt, much better after that as basically no flavour to it, LOL. This morning I had biscuits and gravy. Biscuits are like scones and the gravy, well that is white with something in it. Googled it and it’s usually bits of sausage.

Headed out to a couple more local munzee gardens in Orlando before heading down to Disney Springs (it used to be called Downtown Disney) Managed to find my way into the Lime Garage (rather than the Orange Garage) and after having a snack in the car for lunch, headed down the escalators to the ground level. Wandered around for a bit, but it was quite hot and humid, and there seemed to be music coming from every open shop and in between, so it was quite noisy, not a huge crowd of people, but then it is mid-week.

Then carried on down the road a little way to Celebration (a Disney built suburb) where more munzees awaited me, LOL. From there I drove the 50+ miles to the hotel near Tampa.

My hotels have improved as I’ve gone along, lol, This one is so close to the munzee gardens at Lettuce Lake that I’ve been capping them from my room, lol. Very nicely, there was a complimentary dinner, so once I had hauled all my stuff up to the room, I went and had chicken & salad, cheese & biscuits and water! Then finished unpacking, showered, blog writing and now bed. Oh I managed to jam my thumb in the car door before I checked out this morning, it’s starting to get dark, sigh, and it’s sore!!!

I did get the check-in guy here laughing. He needed my postcode so I gave it to him and also said that I couldn’t use the pre-pay on the petrol bowsers as they didn’t like my postcode. He had never heard of petrol bowsers, they are gas stations here, so he said he thought I was talking gibberish, and I could come back after dinner and entertain them with my accent, LOL.

Muscovy ducks are native to Florida, but this brood of ducklings won’t last long standing in the middle of the road. Mum was sitting there watching them, and finally moved them off the road.

Oh I so wish I knew someone who can build this sort of thing out of Lego, LOL

This one isn’t Lego
A restaurant at Disney Springs

Didn’t get to sleep before midnight, so going to have a relatively early night tonight!

Had a great day today. Did some car munzeeing around the streets of Orlando for a while, then headed over to Lake Eola for the munzee pokemon ball garden positioned in the middle of it. A lovely park with lots of birds, I chatted with the birds, squirrels and turtles as I walked around the lake, about 2 kms. I did tell the white swans they were the wrong colour, until I turned a corner and there were the proper black ones, sitting preening, LOL. In one of the car parks earlier had been a smallish brown, non-descript bird that just kept up an amazing repertoire of sound. I sat and listened to it for ages.

From there I headed north to one of the giant shopping malls that had been munzeefied back in 2015. Drove around that a few times, then headed inside for the rest. Thought I might see if I could find someone selling FitBit One’s but not to be. I had a great, very late lunch, of bangers and mash from the Sausage Shack, served in a tub of all things. On my way around had seen that there was a Publix (grocery shop) across the road, so headed to that once finished and got some supplies for dinner and lunch tomorrow. Noticed a small area of munzees, so got them. It was quite obviously an area hit by the hurricane as there were tree branches still stacked on the sides of the roads. Then came back for this early night. Have showered, written blog, will have my cranberry & ham salad for dinner, then bed and hopefully some sleep.

 Hmm, he can’t read, lol  Duck & turtles
Apparently these turtles, which are enormous, are soft shelled, so they are quite nasty, hence called snapping turtles.
 An interesting art workWanted some of my nut bar!

My new cruise itinerary.

Nothing really much to say about today, except that sitting around waiting is tiring, LOL.

Up, packed and checked out just after 7.30. Headed for Erwin Park yet again, basically just for another drive around as I really did like the place. Then down to another park that I had visited once but not since the special flat munzees cane out. There were a few there, lol 800+. I then headed out to JR’s ranch where I think Dallas was filmed, but not really sure as I never watched it. Anyway, a new munzee emerald garden has been started there, and as I probably won’t be back this way for a little while, figured I may as well get what was there.

Hit the motorway and headed off to return the rental car, caught the bus into Dallas Fort Worth airport and then checked in 5 hours early. Sat for a bit and then caught the skylink monorail that runs around the terminals. It takes about 20 minutes for a full circuit so did that twice one way round and then changed sides and went round once the other way!

The flight was on time, but very full and I had to stow my hand luggage nearly at the back of the plane, so basically I was last off as I had wait to collect it. The Captain and crew enjoyed looking through my BOAC Junior Jet Club log book and commented as such as I left the plane.

My suitcase was out very early so then on down to the Hertz car rental. This was funny as I could take any car I liked from zone 3! I just grabbed the first one, a Nissan with Texas plates and not much of a nose on it! Found the motel eventually, and dinner comprised of cheese, biscuits, an apple and some fruit & nut mix. However, very exciting, breakfast is included, so somewhere between 7 & 10 that’s where I’ll be, LOL.

Now that I am in Florida, the time difference is exactly 12 hours, so it’s 11.15 pm Monday night and 11.15 am Tuesday morning at home! Definitely bed time!!!!

Sorry, it’s not a good picture, sun in the wrong spot, but it is JR’s Ranch.

We had our final munzee event this morning, a 3 km walk around Towne Lake Park. I went with Marie, Tim and Carol and with only a slight detour or two on the way got to the venue. Bagels, in lots of different flavours were on the menu for breakfast. After getting a ‘race number’ most people then had a leisurely walk around the lake, capping the odd munzee on the way, and participating in another Eventzee photo hunt as well.

Back at the start, Marie organised several photos of the Sunshine State clan members, and then I said goodbyes to old friends and new ones. Louise and I wondering what continent we’ll meet up again on! We left the park and commenced to drive around and around in circles, LOL. We kept finding ourselves somewhere we had already been, either today or yesterday, but the munzees just keep appearing. Had lunch at Whataburger which was nice and then drove around a few more circles, until we met up with friends at the Hutchins BBQ place, for dinner, which had divine ribs!!!!!!

Got back to the hotel with only one small detour, lol, and now to finish this and pack the suitcase ready for departure tomorrow.

Not due to land in Florida until 20.30, so the blog will be very late, in fact it may not be written until the morning, as by the time I find my hotel in Orlando it will be very late.

Finally a squirrel who posed!

Towne Lake Park
 2 turtles A college Library