The Regal Princess was gliding along into Port of Everglades. I knew without having to get up and open the curtains. No more rocking and rolling. Awe shucks...I'm going to miss that!
We arrived into the dining room at 6:30am and seated immediately at a two-top table. Yes...we already have our coffee. Yes...I wouldn't mind some cranberry juice.
My last Princess skinny double mocha madness:
Do you want to know how cold it is in Ft Lauderdale? I had ran into Mr "T" who is one of the ship's photographers and sold us our portraits. He said he got blasted with the cold weather as he walked by the open doors where the crew was unloading all the luggage. He told me he would miss our photo conversations. I wished him well. Sigh!
So here we are in our sweats and jackets in the dining room:
Hubby ordered poached eggs:
I had the special scrambled eggs with asparagus:
We took our time at breakfast. We did not want to leave the ship. Shiv had mentioned to us that the ship's next sailing was not full. Hmmmmm...we could get a really good last minute deal.
We went back to our stateroom to freshen up and to charge our tablets and phones. Shiv said we could stay a bit later in our stateroom and relax. We did not want to impose and throw his schedule off and thanked him for the suggestion. I don't think Shiv wanted us to leave. We enjoyed our hallway conversations with him and I'm sure the feeling was mutual.
We left our stateroom promptly at 8am and looked for Shiv to give him a gift. He stepped out of one of the smaller staterooms and greeted us. We gave him an envelope and he handed it back to us saying what we gave him last week was enough. I put the envelope back in his hands and told him please use it for your daughter's future. He graciously accepted and we could see tears welling up in his eyes. This is when you know you're part of a cruising family. We say our goodbyes and Shiv mentions again that the next sailing is not full. We all laugh. Shiv...you have one big heart!
Hubby and I head down to deck 7 and make our way to the Vista (Elite) lounge at the back of the ship. Along the way, I see Heather (FCC) in her office. I say a quick goodbye to her and then I remember that the next sailing is not full. Oh well. It was a nice thought.
We wait until our second to last group is called. At 10am, all remaining groups are called to disembark the ship. This is probably the hardest thing we've done on a ship...leaving. As we leave the gangway we can feel the 40 degrees Ft Lauderdale has to offer. Crew members were wearing heavy jackets.
Once in the terminal, we quickly found our three pieces of luggage. We waited in a long line to go through Immigration. We were directed to an empty counter and struck up a conversation with the Immigration person. He was really nice and personable. We chatted for a few minutes and as you can imagine holding up the long line behind us. This seems to happen to us frequently.
We left the terminal with luggage in tow to find a Princess rep. Yes, we need to go to the Embassy Suites. Way cool! You have a bus ready for us? Awesome! We are the first of four stops:
We arrived at the Embassy Suites around 10:45am. Wow! That was the fastest disembarkation we've had. No rooms available? I thought so. Yes...please call my cell phone when you're ready. We try to find a warm place to sit and camp out. The whole lobby area was just chilly. Doors opening and closing. Our feet are getting cold. Okay, so it did not help that we were wearing flip-flops. At least we had our sweat jackets and pants on. I opened up our luggage to pull out warm socks and sneakers. While I was putting mine on, my cell rang. Cool! Our room is ready.
We dump our luggage in the room and by this time (like clock work)...it's lunchtime. Hubby mentioned that Shiv recommended an Asian restaurant near the Ross (dress for less) store. We walked out into the cold but sunny day. We walked and walked and could not find the restaurant. So I looked on Yelp to find a Thai restaurant nearby. Except we could not find that one. So I called the Thai restaurant and found out we were on the wrong side of 17th street.
We found this wonderful restaurant. They served wonderful chicken broth soup and this beautiful Pad Thai:
After lunch, we took a quick walk back to the hotel to get warm and get comfy. No need for anyone of us to get sick at the end of our wonderful vacation!
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