THANKSGIVING EVE AND DAY AT SEA AND DISEMBARKATION—Wednesday-Friday, November 27-29, 2013

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THANKSGIVING EVE AND DAY AT SEA AND DISEMBARKATION—Wednesday-Friday, November 27-29, 2013



The first two days were days were at sea as we headed back to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.



The first sea day, all four of us relaxed around the ship. Read, swam, worked on finishing blog narrative, went to the movies, had tea in the dining room at 3:00, attended some classes, etc.



Valerie and I woke up on Thanksgiving morning with the waves really rocking and rolling the ship caused by the wind blowing at 55 mph. We both went up on the 9^th deck and had breakfast and then we separated. Valerie was going to read on the 10^th floor observation deck so that she could finish and return the book she was reading. I headed to our cabin as I wanted to finish this.



I had just started on the computer when she came in saying that the movement was just too much up that high and that they had closed off the outside deck for safety reasons. At lunch time Valerie went up and brought us some sandwiches down to eat as again the higher up, the more you feel the ship toss and turn. At times we were registering almost gale-force winds. I am not sure Christina has left her cabin today and it is questionable that we will eat Turkey dinner together this Thanksgiving.



The further north we went, the better the wind and weather got. We decided to go to the dining room for Thanksgiving dinner together a little later hoping that it would be calmer, and it was. Valerie and I, ad maybe Christina, had the traditional meal of turkey and the trimmings while Paul had a steak dinner. The staff had put together a really nice display of bread art and we had our picture taken in front of it.







After dinner we went back to our cabins to pack as our suitcases had to be outside our door by late that evening.



Back to Fort Lauderdale, Florida--Friday, November 29, 3013



We woke up at 5:30 just before we pulled into port. Valerie and I went up to have a quick breakfast and Paul and Christina had room service. The procedure for this cruise line was for everyone to wait in their rooms until their disembarkation number was called which for us was scheduled at 9:15. However, the computers were down for immigration and this caused a huge delay. An announcement was made asking everyone to leave their rooms as a new load of passengers were coming on that afternoon, and the cabins had to be cleaned.



Before the announcement, we watched as the attendants remade our room and noted that only the sheets on the bed were changed; not the blankets, pillows, mattress pads, etc. Valerie had used an extra blanket on the top of her bed and it was just folded and put away in a drawer under the bed.



I should note now that the day went downhill from here on out. When our number was called, the 4 of us went down to collect our luggage. I found that my old reliable, Samsonite, push and not pull, travel around the world with me, suitcase had had one side of the metal telescoping handle broken off. I filed a report and then we all waited in a long, long line and finally cleared everything close to noon. We found the shuttle and arrived at the parking lot where Rosie was. The place was a zoo and she was pinned in by other cars. Valerie went over to get her out and we waited in a nearby Motel parking lot where the shuttle had dropped us off as it was too congested for the shuttle bus to enter the lot.



We finally got everything loaded in Rosie and went looking for a place to eat before we took Paul and Christina to the airport for their flight home and for us to drive to Miami to catch our flight. We pulled into a strip mall that had several fast food restaurants and got out to go into a Subway, only to find that the electricity was out in the whole area and nothing was being made up. We got back in Rosie and headed for the airport as we felt we were running late and there didn’t seem to be any other place to eat around where we were. Said our kissy-kissy, bye-bye to Paul and Christina at the departures curb near Southwest Airlines.



Valerie and I headed down route 1-A along the coast route and found a restaurant in Dania Beach called Grampa’s Bakery and Diner. It had apparently been reviewed by a TV show on diners, dives, and drive-ins in the USA. We then spent time in a parking lot repacking all our suitcases to leave my broken one in Rosie; quite a chore. Found the post office in town and mailed all our Christmas cards and gifts and then headed down I-95 to Miami.

We had booked a motel room for the night we returned from Santiago and they would allow you to park there for a reasonable fee while you cruised. We exited on the road the map gave as the motel address and drove through a really rough, seedy looking area. The address number system all of a sudden changed to 3 digits before we got to the 4 digit motel address. The street we were on then dead-ended at a the racetrack and huge casino so we were really unsure where to go and where the motel was. We decided to head for the airport and see what we could find there. We then just pulled into airport parking and left her there as felt she would be protected there as we were not at all comfortable with the area surrounding the airport.





Valerie had noted when we were repacking her suitcase that one spot on the zipper was weak and thought it would be prudent to either wrap it in plastic or get a strap for it. It was $30 to wrap the suitcase which we though exorbitant for plastic wrap so found a shop that sold straps and put one longwise around her suitcase. We also now had at least one more bag than we originally intended as it took 2 smaller ones to accommodate the clothes from my much larger, broken one.

We had no idea where the departure area was in relation to where we parked, so we just headed out toward the building that looked like it was the terminal. It was, but we were as far as you could be in the airport from our airline check-in desk. Walked until we found a guy driving a cart and I asked if this was for handicapped/elderly to ride on and he said yes. I got on with great relief as I had almost had it with walking so far pulling our bags. Off we went and I assure you it was quite a distance. Once we checked in we could get a wheelchair for me and again it was a long way to the gate.

Caught our flight on LAN airlines and had a rough bumpy flight all the way to Santiago. The seats were way too tight for my knees so was also uncomfortable in that regard. I did sleep more than I usually do on flights. When we landed and got our suitcases, we found that Valerie’s suitcase zipper was completely undone and without the strap holding the top to the bottom, our underwear would have been strewn all over the baggage belt. Don’t think we lost anything out of it, however, because of that one strap. Guess new suitcases are in our future!!

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