We drove down to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday afternoon and stayed out in Weston as we had previously, including another stop at J. Alexander's for Mr. Jack's Chicken Finger Platter and French Dip, and they once again had their calamari as a special appetizer. The next morning required a short detour to drop off Rebecca's birthday gift at the post office before we headed to the port. Luggage drop-off was quick and we waited for a little while outside before being let into the port. A surprising number of people were hand-carrying their luggage, which slowed down the security lines as they have to lift their bags through the scanners.

We did our usual routine of dropping off our backpack in the room and heading to Oceanview for lunch and a first drink before heading to our muster station. The martini bar was more crowded than usual when we arrived with the bar seats all full, so we found a table and had our first martinis. We went up to Craft Social after that for an Old Fashioned. This would be our favorite spot on this cruise as the bartenders, especially Anush and Leo, were very friendly and knowledgable. After going to our room and finding our luggage in the hallway, we unpacked and waited for sailaway. We stopped into World Class Bar before dinner and were happy to see they still had the original menu, but found out they would be swapping it for the inferior Xcel menu on the next cruise.

Dinner was in Cyprus where J. R. had the butter chicken special. We were very pleased with the specials on the Xcel and were happy to see them here although we quickly saw they were not actually chef's specials as they were the same each night as we had on Xcel. We skipped Troy Thirdgill's comedy show in favor of another trip to the bars before turning in for the night.