Sea Day & Home

Saturday March 24 

There were 2 sessions of Bingo today since the final prize has to go. No one won it this morning in the allotted numbers, so this afternoon the big prize will go no matter how many numbers it takes. It wasn’t us or anyone else that played regularly.

Our final entertainment for this voyage was Derek Floyd doing a tribute to Lionel Richie. Would have loved to stayed to watch the International Crew Show (they are always so fun), but being sick had me headed back to bed for the night.

We were all packed up and our luggage put out in the hall.

Our total distance traveled from San Antonio, Chile to Ft. Lauderdale was 5,274 Nautical Miles.

Sunday March 25    Ft. Lauderdale

It was a horrific disembarkation. Some people didn't get off the ship until after noon. We found out that an elevator used for luggage was flooded and it really slowed down the process. Porters were still getting luggage off the ship instead of assisting any of us that eventually got to where the luggage was at to be picked up. On a short cruise we just carry out our own luggage, but for long cruises we definitely needed a porter. Once we gathered our luggage Greg waited in line over an hour for a porter. People were not happy. Lots of people yelling. Immigration went fairly quickly once we got a porter.

I stay with the luggage while Greg gets the rental car, which we hoped hadn't been given away since we were so late picking it up. After another eternity, Greg comes back with an upgraded SUV so we had plenty of room for our luggage. He said there were 3 families at the counter when he got there (speaking only Chinese, except for one family member that translated). The confusion was they thought they reserved 3 vehicles. They only reserved 1. They no more cars to give them, but have a large van that can take all 3 families together. They felt they should get the van for the same price as the 1 car they reserved. (not for the 3 they thought they reserved) So, they hemmed and hawed and finally the rental agent asked them to step aside to think about it since the line was now out the door. Greg was taken care of and the guy behind him was at the next agent being helped, when the lady comes up and says we are going to take the large van and expected the guy being helped to leave so she could get her car. The agent told her that he needed to finish with the rental he was in the middle of. YIKES. Welcome back to real life!

It's 1:00 or later and we were more than ready for lunch. Grabbed some fast food and continued the drive to Okeechobee. We were pleased that both our car and the coach started right up. We got the slides out and started unpacking. 

We both had doctors appointments the next day and Tuesday was devoted to laundry. Since we were headed to Iowa, it was most important to get all of our cold weather gear washed and packed. With so much laundry we used the laundry room here at the park and the one here in the coach. 

This is now almost the end of April and I will continue in my next blog post. Needless to say, photos and adding them to the blog are on the back burner.