Anxiety Producing Day

Tough day today.  The Caribbean Princess was scheduled to leave the Port of Houston yesterday at 4 PM and head southeast to pick the rest of us up in Ft. Lauderdale on Wednesday.  Well...I'm sure many of you saw the news today and how horrible the weather was in the Houston area yesterday and today.  They received 16 inches of rain in 12 hours and the winds were blowing intensely.

When we went to bed last night, the ship was scheduled to leave at midnight.  I awoke at 2 AM and checked the port webcam and the ship was still there. And at 8:30 this morning when I got up, it hadn't moved!  Still at the pier, surrounded by fog and torrential rains and winds at 45 knots.  The Houston port had closed the channel.  In fact, all morning we sat and wondered what effect this was going to have on our boarding the ship in Ft. Lauderdale.  And our stay at the Hampton Inn in Ft. Lauderdale the night before.  Would the ship be able to leave Houston at all today?  Should we book another night at the hotel?  And what to do about the car we were renting to get us to Ft. Lauderdale...book another day too?  

Around noon we got an email from Princess informing us that due to bad weather, the ship was stuck in Houston and our embarkation in Ft. Lauderdale would be delayed.  No, they couldn't tell us how delayed.  Thanks :(    We still didn't know what to do about our plans.  Keep them, change them.... AGGGGHHHHHH!!!

Finally, around 3 PM we got word from the fellow passengers on board that we were following on Cruise Critic that the weather had cleared and the Captain was "Going to make a run for it!"  That followed with an announcement that the ship would leave momentarily and would be docking in Ft. Lauderdale at approximately 2 PM on Wednesday.  Now at least we had something to work with.  

I've now made arrangements with the Hampton Inn in Ft. Lauderdale to get a late checkout of 2 PM on Wednesday and have added additional time to our car rental.  And we just heard from Princess that embarkation will begin at 4 PM, so that works out great for us!    We'll check out of the hotel, drop off the rental car and then catch their shuttle to the pier.  That should put us at the pier around 3-3:30. Yes!!

Now...what's that old axiom about "best laid plans"??!!