Cruise - USA, Fort Lauderdale

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21^stDec



Fort Lauderdale – and the end of our cruise.



After a day at sea yesterday, we arrived at Fort Lauderdale at 0400. You feel the motion of the stern thrusters as the ship is docking and that kind of gives it away. So I got up to watch for a while. Then it was all go. Breakfast at 0630 and down to the departure lounge at 0700. We’d packed our bags the day before and left them out for collection last night. And, I left my costa card (id card) in my jeans pocket and packed in my bag that was now off the ship. Turns out, no probs, just went down to customer services and they quickly printed me off another one. Then the mayhem started.



Firstly, we weren’t’ waiting in the correct area (although that’s where we were told to go last night), secondly, we were waiting an extra hour before being let off the ship….then we were 2hrs in the queue for immigration. What a palava!! It’s the first time Costa has used this port and I think they may have to sort out some of the disembarkation procedures for next time. Finally we got our bags and headed to our bus to join the Everglades tour.



Really enjoyed this. Had a ride on an ‘air boat’ across the everglades (like a swamp/marsh area). It was just beautiful and we enjoyed spotting ‘gators’ and birds. Would’ve been happy for a longer boat ride, but the whole tour was already late due to disembarkation and some people had to get back to the airports to catch flights. J&J were with us and came back to our hotel with us as they weren’t flying out till 2300. We checked into our stunning hotel, had a short stroll around the shops nearby (I was trying to get a sim, but was unsuccessful) then went back to our hotel and had drinks and pizza delivered for dinner sitting round the pool. J&J got the shuttle bus to the airport just before 2000 and then our cruise was most certainly over!! A great time, a great way to travel, calm seas the whole time (except the last day it was quite rough and the outside decks were all closed off) and made some great friends.

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