DAY ONE - THE JOURNEY BEGINS

As was the case last year, our journey began somewhat differently than in the past.  Rather than being picked up in the very early hours of the morning, and having to take a connecting flight, we were picked up from our home mid-morning.  This transfer along with all of our other transfers is provided by Crystal Cruises and was arranged by Gerri our Senior Travel Specialist and her assistant Ashley.  They submitted all of the necessary paperwork for us a few months ago, and they followed up and carefully reviewed all of the details on our behalf.

As mentioned in an earlier post, we shipped the majority of our luggage with a company specializing in luggage delivery service.  We did take with us two large, one medium, and two carry on pieces of luggage, along with Anne Marie's purse and Keith's camera bag.  On a voyage of 12 to 18 days this would be more than enough luggage but we are talking about a very long journey.

One of the large bags contains mainly cosmetics, and toiletry items and some selected items which are not possible to ship via luggage services. 

We were driven from our home in a Sports Utility Vehicle to an airport hotel which is located on the property of one of the hub airports that our preferred airline uses. Ironically, the driver was the same driver that we had last year.  Yes, it's a small world.    He remembered that last year he was a couple of hours late arriving to our home due to a major traffic backup when he made his way from our area.  This time he was 15 minutes early which is the norm for a private service.  

We had the same type of vehicle we used last year and it was a perfect size to accommodate the two of us, plus our luggage.  In prior years when we took all of our luggage we had a variety of vehicles such as a town car and another vehicle that followed us with our luggage and other years we had one of those super large vehicles that could accommodate not only all of our luggage but 12 or so people.  

This one was a good fit for us. 

The drive time seemed to go by relatively fast between conversing amongst ourselves and with the driver, and doing some reading.  The driver was very friendly.  As was the case last year for the first portion of the drive we spoke about various sports teams on the professional and college level and then turned our discussion to other items.  

We are staying overnight at a very nice airport hotel that is connected to one of the airport terminals.  We stayed at this hotel last year and we have stayed there a couple of other times in the past.  The staff is very service oriented, efficient and friendly.  

After getting settled we enjoyed lunch at one of the Hotel restaurants.  We were the only ones in the restaurant.

In keeping with our typical lunch when we travel, we each had a Salad Entree.  This one was Chicken Caesar Salad, with dressing on the side.

Afterwards we walked around for awhile in the non-secure portion of the terminal.  We picked up a couple of magazines for tomorrow.  We observed that the airport was not very busy and that is likely due to the time of year when many people have recently traveled for Thanksgiving and when more will travel as we get closer to Christmas and even New Years.

We then got settled in our room and organized for tomorrow morning.

Our son Eric called to check in on us and he and Kara were driving to visit our daughter and son in law, Jennifer and Gui, their nephew and our grandson Andre, and to see their nice and our granddaughter, baby Violet for the very first time since she was born the day before Thanksgiving.  Kara is also expecting their first baby and our third grandchild.

Later in the evening, we enjoyed dinner at the Hotel Restaurant.

We had a typical Keith & Anne Marie dinner but without the fish.  Instead we had organic chicken.  We now there will be a good deal of seafood to come in Florida and on the Crystal Serenity

When we returned to the room we did reading and writing and caught up with the news of the day.

Tomorrow we will fly to Miami.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY....................

"We look forward to the start of an incredible journey."

Keith & Anne Marie