We’ve been at sea three days and have three more to go before reaching Port Everglades. Tropical storm Nicole is approaching eastern Florida and is expected to build into a category 1 or 2 hurricane by the time it reaches land.  Today during his noon talk, the captain said that he has slowed down a bit to stay behind the weather.  It is supposed to be at its worst in Florida on Wednesday and Thursday and okay by Saturday when we are scheduled to arrive. 

It’s been a relaxing time at sea.  Yesterday, our Internet access was weak and spotty, but it is back to normal middle-of-the-ocean strength today.  I tried working some online puzzles yesterday while the service was bad.  One of the puzzles is WorLdle which shows a silhouette of the shape of a country and one has to guess the name of that country.  I am able to get it right fairly often and use it as an educational experience on other days if I don't know the country.  Yesterday, the game loaded without the country shape showing.  I decided to guess anyway, and with the distance and direction hints, I was able to get it right on the fourth try.  That was fun!  Kinda like guessing the question on Final Jeopardy only knowing the category before the clue shows up.  

This afternoon, I was able to get access to SeatGeek to buy tickets to the Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks concert in Dallas in April.  The ticket sales were in the second of three presale windows, and I felt lucky to find the access code for the presale.   I haven’t figured out how to reserve parking for the concert, but hopefully, I can still get that once we are home.  

I got my hair cut this afternoon, too.  I don’t often use the salon on cruise ships, but we have lots of non-refundable onboard credit to use and not much we want to spend it on.  I had to laugh at the haircut.  It's not the worst one I have ever had, but it is close to it.  The stylist seemed to have no plan to trim anything evenly and did not check the length in front as stylists normally do.  The hair on my right side is about an inch and a half longer than on the left.  And the style is straight as a board.  I look like a refugee hippie from 1969.  I asked him to make my hair smooth, but he interpreted that as straight.  I'll do some trimming on it after my next shampoo.  

Over the last few days, we’ve played trivia some, gone to a few shows, and had good food in the different restaurants.  Princess has stopped having assigned mealtimes and uses their new “Dine My Way” service.  It’s okay either to make reservations on the app or simply show up and ask for a table at any of the three main restaurants.   Before the cruise began, I made reservations for us for each night’s dinner.  Since I didn’t know anything about any of the restaurants, I booked us in all of them for a few nights each.  Now that we’ve tried them, I like the Soleil dining room the best.  Ben and Ryan have been our favorite waiters.  Tomorrow and Friday, we have reservations at two of the specialty restaurants so we have just one more night in Soleil.  The Estrella dining room is the only one open for breakfast and lunch, and we have eaten breakfast there any days that we are up in time.  We have had lunch in Estrella on most days, too, except for a few times at Alfredo’s for pizza.  There are the usual other places to eat, too — hamburger, hot dog, and street taco stall; buffet with lots of choices; Swirls soft-serve ice cream; and the International Cafe which is open 24 hours.  

Room service is available 24/7 and easy to access and order either through the stateroom TV or through the Princess Medallion app.  Although I had read some bad and mediocre reviews of the Medallion app, it has worked okay for us.  One can order food and drinks through the app, and the waiter will use the locator in the personal wearable medallion to know where to deliver.  We have only ordered from our stateroom or from a bar table.  It is very convenient and easy to order online rather than calling and waiting on hold or waiting to see if the person taking the order got everything down correctly.  The last time we ordered and had to ask the delivery person to go back for salt and pepper, he brought them and said to keep them in our room rather than put them on the tray to be picked up.  The order form has condiments listed on it to order, but no salt and pepper are given as choices.  

Yesterday, Philip pulled the drapes back and looked out the balcony doors at just the right moment to see a beautiful rainbow.  It seemed almost close enough to touch.  A few minutes later it disappeared.  I have been able to spend at least a little time sitting on the balcony to read each day recently. Today, when I opened the balcony door, I felt a rush of warm, humid air come in.  This is the first time it’s been warm enough not to need a sweater outside.  

We received the initial questionnaire about our plans for disembarkation yesterday.  With the questionnaire, we received an application for a new service offered for flights from the Fort Lauderdale airport.  It is possible to put luggage out on the last night of the cruise, as usual, and have it taken care of all the way home.  We won’t see it again until we pick it up at baggage claim in Albuquerque.  That seems like a good thing to do, and the price seems fair at $25 per bag, so we filled out the paperwork.  There is a chance that the airline or customs could deny the application, but that feels unlikely.  We’ll get our boarding passes and luggage tags delivered to our stateroom on the last afternoon or evening of the cruise.