We are up before 6am to find the Caribbean Princess sailing along the Florida coast. We take some time to straighten our cabin and then head up to Lido deck 15 to have our last breakfast. As we are are walking from forward to aft of the ship I glance out the windows to see that we are passing by the tall condos that sit along the side of the Port Everglades channel.
After a quick breakfast, we are back in our cabin before 7am. We still have another hour before we need to vacate our cabin for the last time. We lounge around the best we can, but the anticipation of leaving the ship and ending our cruise is just a bit overwhelming. We’ve had such a great time on this ship, we did not want to leave. I have Hubby check all the storage areas around our cabin to make sure I did not leave anything behind. I also have him check our safe. It’s always best to have the person who did not do the packing to double-check and look around.
We leave our cabin promptly at 8am (with feet dragging) and look for Hector. We give him his gift and thank him for taking care of us and our needs.
We are suppose to meet our disembarkation group at 8:55 in the Coral Dining Room. Instead we find a quiet place in Vines and camp out until our disembarkation time. I pull out my laptop and show Hubby the GoPro videos he made from our snorkeling adventure. There are quite a few and some are lengthy. I am glad I purchased the latest version with the two hour battery life. Now, Hubby is not shy about video taping at great lengths.
We mosey on over to the Coral Dining Room to find our group had already been called. Looks like another early disembarkation process. We have our cruise card “dinged” for the last time as we exit the ship. So sad….
Down in the cruise terminal (#2) we locate our colored tags. It takes awhile as others are hoarding and hovering over lots of suitcases. I wish folks who are not looking for their luggage would just stand a few steps back and away and allow others to get their bags. After a few minutes of elbowing folks out of the way, we find two of our three suitcases. Mine is missing! Great! I narrow my eyes and focus on the folks standing close to me. One old chap has my bag next to his. What?! I take no time and confiscate my bag. Yes, I clearly “mark” my bags (as well as the other two) with bright colored luggage tags and bright color shoe strings. Oh yeah, I wrap the bright color shoe strings around the luggage handle and tie a nice knot.
Off we go to Immigration to show our passports and hand in our Immigration form. The Immigration lady waves us on and we quickly leave the terminal to find a taxi. In less than 5 minutes we are at the Hilton. Much to our surprise a room was available for us to check in immediately. Yeah team! It is now 9:30am. What a fast disembarkation time for us!
We are on the 11th floor with a balcony view of Port Everglades:
I’m taking pictures and enjoying the view when Hubby says “let’s go” and see the beach!
We drop our bags in the room. Thank goodness! I wasn’t too sure how on earth I was going to carry my 14lb backpack and my heavy shoulder bag all over Ft Lauderdale.
We had plans to take the water taxi to Hollywood Beach (south of Ft Lauderdale). It was chilly this morning in FLL and a water taxi ride did not appeal to us. Think 50s or there about. Also, we would have to wait for the service to start at 10am.
Instead we hopped on the Sun Trolley and paid $3pp to ride all day. We are given a bright color bracelet to wear. Easy for the Trolley drivers to recognize us as we hop off and hop on all day. The Sun Trolley is easy to to use. Just look for a “bus stop” sign or even better, just wave when you see a Trolley approaching. You can’t miss the Trolleys as they are bright yellow. They will stop and allow you to get on. For those “app nerds” like me, there’s a Sun Trolley app you can download to your iPhone. It has maps of the different Trolley routes and shows where the Trolley locations are on the map. How cool is that?!
For those of you staying in and around the 17th Street Causeway (T and V), you can pick up the Sun Trolley where it begins it’s FLL Beach route in front of the Publix grocery store in the Harbor Shops shopping center.
Before I forget, remember I mentioned the FLL Water Taxis? Well they have an app for iOS as well. It’s called the “Water Taxi” by TSO Mobile. It also shows a map and you can track the different water taxi routes. You can also see the route numbers and the name of the stop/place. So, the Hilton hotel we are staying at is considered stop is #6 and called Hilton Marina. For those of you staying in and around 17th Street Causeway (T and V), this is the stop you want to pick up the water taxi. Just head to the Hilton property and look under the bridge for a white concrete gazebo and you’ll see a small dock with a fence/gate. There is typically someone there after 10am to help get where you need to go. When you get on the Ft Lauderdale water taxi and go north along the Stranahan River the stop number increases. There are two main routes: Fort Lauderdale and vicinity and Hollywood Beach (to the south).
Okay, back to our Sun Trolley adventure.
Traveling on the Sun Trolley this early in the morning is a breeze. There’s hardly any traffic to compete with and we were wondering where everyone was. Hubby kept thinking it was Sunday and that got me all turned around. That’s what happens when you cruise as long as we have. You stop keeping track of time. No schedules. No rushing around. Just plain fun and relaxation. Now that we are off the ship, we have to keep track of time. Eventually, we figure out it’s Saturday. Still, it’s really quiet here on the beach:
After walking for several blocks along the beach, we head back and decide to have “second breakfast”. We end up at Cafe Del Mar on the main drag of Ft Lauderdale Beach Blvd:
We order some coffee and we were in for a nice surprise:
We are people watching from our outdoor table:
Yes! This is my second breakfast, because I need all the protein I can get for the rest of the day. I know I just go off the ship, but this was sooooo delicious! Three-egg veggie omelet:
Feeling very energized and awake, Hubby and I decide to take the Las Olas Trolley. From Cafe Del Mar we head towards Las Olas Blvd and walk one block west towards Seabreeze Blvd. We find a “bus stop” sign on Las Olas Blvd and wait. Fifteen minutes later the Las Olas Trolley turns the corner and picks us up.
We are not sure where we want to stop and decide to just sit and ride and see what looks appealing to us. In Las Olas, there are plenty of shops and restaurants here and old cars:
Lots of outdoor dining venues:
Lunch anyone?
Along the way, Hubby and I see some signs about an art show. We ride by and make a mental note to stop here when the Trolley turns around:
We hop off and immediately walk around the art show tents. The first one displayed beautiful underwater photography shots of sea turtle (Tortuga!), fish, coral, etc. We continue walking and end up at another tent where Samuel was painting beautiful koi. I enjoy watching him paint and notice he was painting his subjects all the way out to the matted area of paper. He made it look effortlessly. Hubby is looking through Samuel’s portfolio and then he stumbles across a turtle painting/print of Tortuga! Yes, I love little Tortugas! I hug that print while Hubby continues to look. I grab a palm tree painting/print and by now we are looking for a third painting to complement what we have. We keep looking and decide on a simple koi painting with similar colors to the other two I’m holding close to me.
Samuel is enjoying our company so much he stops painting and starts chatting with us. We make our purchase and thank him for his time with us. As we leave, I’m still thinking of another painting/print he has. It was the first koi painting/print I saw when I stepped into Samuel’s tent. It took my breath away. It’s a much smaller print and did not go with the three we already purchased. We continue to roam around the tents.
We end up in Samuel’s tent again. I have the “take my breath away” koi print and getting ready to pay for it when Samuel asks if I would be interested in a recent painting he completed this weekend…a signed original. I said Yes! He came out with two originals and I immediately picked one that had three koi’s (because odd numbers are better in photography). Hubby did not wait and purchased the painting. What a special find! We also have a new friend we’ll keep in touch with.
From the art show, we walk back into the Las Olas area. We find a “bus stop” sign and I check my iOS Trolley app to see where the next Trolley is and when it will arrive. Got to love technology!
Once we are back on the Trolley and heading out of Las Olas, we see lots of yachts along the waterways:
We also see a water taxi approaching a bridge:
We are back on the beach and enjoying the weather. It’s still a bit cooler than the last two weekends and not many people are out today:
Watching people dine at Bubba Gump’s:
More people watching:
I check my Sun Trolley app and see a Trolley is heading our way. We flag her down and by this time it’s getting closer to 3pm. I’m hoping to be back at the Hilton in time to see the cruise ships leave port. Traffic is bad and lots of people are using the Trolley today. We make it back to our room in time.
Here’s the water taxi coming into stop #6-Hilton Marina:
Lots of boats today: 
Can see the water taxi under the bridge (lower right):
A beautiful megayacht owned by a famous film director. Can you guess?
Watching the 17th Street Causeway bridge open up:
There goes a Sun Trolley as the Caribbean Princess prepares to move away from the port:
Too bad Hubby and I are not sailing with her back to the ABC islands:
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