Day 11, Last Sea Day

I don't think one could ask for better weather for a transatlantic crossing. Once we left the Med the weather just got better and better. Today as we approach the east coast of Florida the seas have dropped even more, with barely a white cap, and the air and water temperatures are in the low 80's. Very definitely tropical weather.

I'm getting the upper hand on my cold and will go to Chops Grille with some friends tonight. The reality being if dinner wasn't already paid and planned for over a week, the smarter thing to do would be to skip it, but I can only be practical so much of the time.

We learn more about the process in Port Canaveral on Thursday. First all crew members must disembark the ship to be processed by CPB. This will be followed by all passengers disembarking. Once the ship reaches a "0" passenger count, a coast guard inspection will take place including launching life boats. Once the coast guard is satisfied, passengers will be allowed to reboard. I expect about 12:00 or 12:30.

The biggest issue with this process is that they expect it to take over 3 hours for passengers to disembark, and several hours for the inspection.  The terminal in Canaveral is no where near large enough to hold over 5000 waiting passengers. There are a few shore excursions offered, but few passengers care.  At the last minute Royal is offering a shuttle bus to a local mall, and to Disney Springs. Hopefully that will reduce the congestion some.

Hopefully it works better than expected. If this were our final destination there would only be a handful of passengers needing to wait to get back on the ship, not 5000+.

Chops was OK, nothing to rave about. The  juggling show afterwards not any better, there was nothing interesting, unusual or different. I leave a few minutes before the end of the show to retire for the evening.  

I haven't seen my children in two days even though their cabins are right down the hall. The Grill restaurant is only a few hundred yards from the ship terminal. A note on my door indicates they plan to spend the required waiting time there. It is still unclear whether Eliza will come.We are amongst the first passengers scheduled to disembark in the morning.