Ft, Lauderdale – March 27 – disembarkation

Ft, Lauderdale – March 27 – disembarkation

The final leg of our voyage was from Cape Town to Fort Lauderdale and we sailed 7,203 Nautical Miles.

The disembarkation wasn’t the smoothest one ever, but all in all not too bad. We ended up at a different slot than we were supposed to be in. The “reason” was that the nice close one didn’t have WIFI. So, we were at the farthest berth away. For some reason all disembarkations would start 1 hour later than scheduled. I think that all passport control had to be done manually and that was taking a long time. So, not to have us all crammed in down there, they had us wait on the ship. I’m sure that was the civilized thing to do.

We got all the last-minute stuff packed and then went upstairs for our last breakfast. We were delighted that Tom & Cathy joined us for one last breakfast. We waited in the Elite lounge and said goodbye again to our tablemates and several other people. We all agreed that this was not goodbye, and we will see each other again.

Finally, our color was called, and we got off to find our bags and find a porter. Ran into Bob & Phyllis and they were the only ones we hadn’t said goodbye to yet, so that was nice. We found a porter and went through immigration. The only question he asked was “what did you bring back that you didn’t bring with you?”

We almost made it out of the terminal when a guy came out and called us aside into a little room and I thought they were going to open our boxes. The guy started firing questions like “do you have any live animals in there?” What is in the boxes? Clothes, shoes, a fan…… What’s the fan made out of?” I guess we passed his “sweat test” as he said “OK, you can go.” Then one last question. “what’s in the case? Do you have weapons in there?” Uh, NO…… He didn’t look and just took our word for it. Sheesh!

Greg left me with the luggage and went to get the rental car. An hour and 45 minutes later, he comes back. He said the place was a zoo. It’s now almost noon. Normally, we would have been home about then, not just leaving the port. Since we were so late, we stopped at the Cheesecake Factory for their Mexican Taco Salad on their “lite” menu. Normally, we pass by there way too early on our way to Port Saint Lucie. So, running late worked in our favor. YUM!

We were home by 2:30 and we got checked into a corner room, but on the 2^nd floor instead of the top floor. The hotel is really packed. The first thing you notice is barking dogs and kids screaming in the pool. After 4 months at sea with neither, it really hits you that the cruise is over. We’ll get laundry done over the next few days. Photos will be done as soon as I can and I’ll add the links as I get them up.