Turnaround Day in Ft Lauderdale

 

I woke up early to see that we had arrived back in port.  I grabbed my camera and headed out to our balcony to take some pictures of the ships that were docked before us. We headed into the port area and backed into berth #2.

Hubby and I decided to have an early breakfast before other fellow cruisers woke up for their disembarkation. Our meal was light: a cup of oatmeal, one egg over easy, a starch, and pineapple. Hubby decided to start taking his pain medication, but only once a day. 

We hung out in our cabin until about 10am. I could hear the bustling going on around our cabin as others have left the ship for the final time and the room stewards were frantically cleaning the cabins for the next cruisers. As we left our cabin, I saw Henry and chatted with him to let him know we were doing our “turnaround” and we’d be back in a few hours.

We headed on down to the Michelangelo dining room (deck 5) and met others who were doing the “turnaround” on this ship. I spoke to a crew member and he told me 300 folks were doing the turnaround with us. That’s less than 10% of the passengers on the ship.  That was a lot of folks. 

We waited until the last passengers disembarked the ship. The crew member I spoke to earlier, went to each table and told us it was time to leave the ship. Security scanned our new ship cards and we departed the ship. Once we were in the terminal, we were led to the customs area. We flashed our passports and then literally did a turnaround and headed back. We took a seat in the terminal as we waited for the last turnaround folks to go through customs. Once customs was completed and the ship was cleared, we were allowed back onboard. This whole process took us about 40 minutes…from the time we left our cabin until got back onboard the ship. Not bad at all.

We headed over to the International Café to enjoy some hot chocolate. We decided to go ahead and have lunch there as well. We wanted to give Henry, our room steward, plenty of time to get our cabin cleaned. Our lunch consisted of tuna sandwich for Hubby and I had the chicken salad with cashews, apples, celery and mayo. It was delicious. We managed to stay away from the desserts this time. 

 

 

I dropped Hubby off at our cabin and I decided to visit some of the venues on the ship. I pretended that I had just got on the ship and wandered around like the new cruisers and started taking lots of pictures. Last week when we boarded, I was so tired and I wasn’t in the mood to take pictures. That was not like me.

I started on the Lido deck (15) and headed towards the back of the ship. I climbed several steps to get all the way to the top. 

 

Afterwards, I proceeded towards the front of the ship. I got a chance to go into the Sanctuary and wander around. Several cruises before, they would have had this place locked. It was nice to roam around and see what this quiet and serene area felt like. I took a trip through the spa area, avoiding the sales pitch they tried to throw at me. I ducked into the gym and snapped a few shots where I could. 

 

 

I grabbed a lounge chair outside of the sanctuary area and took a quick nap in the sun. It was a beautiful day in Ft Lauderdale. 

 

I headed over to the Horizon buffet area to pick up some fruits: oranges and bananas for our afternoon snacks. This was a must needed change from eating all those freshly baked cookies last week.

I was back in the room before the announcement for the muster drill. Hubby and I are not required to attend since we did ours last week. I updated my Internet account and added an additional 250 minutes (free) for the upcoming cruise week.  I camped out in our balcony and took many more pictures. The port was busy with weekend sailors and boaters. The sheriff boat was busy broadcasting warnings to those who came too close to the cruise ships.

We heard the muster drill finishing up and I knew we would be on way shortly. We watched the Grand Princess sail off first. We were next in queue.  I captured some incredible shots as we sailed out. It was a clear day in Ft Lauderdale. 

 

We decided to have an early dinner and get back into a routine. We also ate a light meal. I think we’ve reached that threshold of overeating and indulging in lots of sweets. The novelty wore out. The second part of this cruise should be better for us as we should show more control and restraint.

We caught a 7pm movie in the Explorer’s Lounge on deck 7. The featured movie was called “Dolphin Tale” with Morgan Freeman and Harry Connick Jr. We thoroughly enjoyed this movie. As a nightly ritual, we headed over to the pizza and ice cream area on the Lido deck (15) and picked up some popcorn. We headed back to room to see if there was a movie playing. At some point we were in a snacking mood and decided to make a quick run through the Horizon buffet area. We managed to snag some cheese and crackers and more fruit. By this time, it was past 9pm and I managed to ignore the chocolate desserts that were yelling my name. I think I built up my stamina.

I had a milestone on this trip which happened during our sail-a-way. I turned over my camera. I kept snapping away…9998, 9999, and then back to 0001, and 0002, etc. Here’s the shot that went over: