Sunday (01/18): Princess Transfer and Heading Home

We are up early around 5am and getting ourselves ready for the trip home.  Our Yellow Cab is suppose to pick us up around 6am in the hotel lobby.  As we check out of the Embassy Suites, I receive a text message a cab will be arriving within 5 minutes.

I have to make a mental note for the next cruise.  Let the cab know how many pieces of luggage we have as in three large suitcases.  Two fit comfortably in the trunk, the smallest of the three have to ride in the front seat with the cab driver.  The same happened to us when we left home to get to the airport.  I'm so spoiled with Princess and their limos and buses and the extra room.

It's a quiet ride to the airport.  As we leave the Port Everglades area, I can  see two cruise ships in port.  Sigh!

We arrive at the Ft Lauderdale airport in no time.  I give the driver the transfer paper and a nice tip only to get a snarky remark "you should have told me you had a transfer".  I almost asked him if we still wanted his tip.  Really?  I did tell the cab's reservationist last night I had a transfer slip from Princess.  The cab driver gave me a log slip to sign.  No worries.  Lesson learned for next time.

We head over to the JetBlue counter to find a long line.  No worries as we arrive well before our 9am flight in anticipation of a crowd.  Within 10 minutes, we were at the counter.  My luggage was 46lbs and the rest were under 45lbs.  Whew!  Why is it my luggage is always the heaviest?  Maybe it's the shoes.  My toiletries.  Oh yeah, the extra clothes I mistakenly packed.  Another lesson learned.

We grab some hot breakfast at one of the restaurant counters near our gate.  It's still early and we manage to find a long table with outlets.  I immediately plug in my gadgets to get a quick recharge while we eat.

Our flight back home was on time and we land at the airport a bit before 12noon.  We did not have to wait too long for the shuttle to pick us up at the airport and we arrived home around 1pm.   Not too shabby.  

Once home, Hubby drops all the suitcases in the living room.  For the next few evenings, I will be busy with unpacking and sorting piles of clothes for the laundry.  Sigh!  Hmmmm...I wonder how long before PCD (post cruise depression) sets in....

Friday: I know I'm Tired....

This morning, I hear a knock at our door and didn't think of anything.  The I heard our door open and shut.  Strange!  I ran to the the front of our suite to peek out the window and saw a bellman.  I answered the door to find him collecting luggage.  I almost panicked...now, thinking that today we're suppose to be leaving for the ship.  He apologized and mentioned there was a mistake.  Still....

I pulled out our travel documents and gave them to hubby to verify/validate when we're suppose to be on the ship.  Saturday.  Whew!  Hmmmm...now I wonder if the front desk thinks we're suppose to be checking out today.  I better make a quick phone call.

I think we're still recuperating from the holidays, the frantic packing, and lack of sleep.  It's all good.

Please be patient with me as I continue to post and work out my blogging issues.

Second Day in Fort Lauderdale

After breakfast, we headed out and walked east along the 17^th Street Causeway.  We decided to head to the beach and check out the views.  It was pleasant sunny day with a slight breeze. Along the Causeway, we noticed that the palm trees were more lush than last year.  They were definitely greener and so brown.  

Palm trees lined up along the 17th Street Causeway

Can you see the coconuts?  These same palm trees were bare last year

Here's a different variety of palms

We walked for about 2-3 miles and ended up at the southern end of Ft Lauderdale beach.  It was quiet here.  There was hardly anyone on the beach.  It was a bright sunny morning with blue skies and puffy white clouds.  It was a perfect day for walking around and for people watching. 

Fort Lauderdale beach!

A colorful playground.  Where are the kids?

An empty basketball court right on the beach

We headed down to the main beach area around Olas Blvd.  This area was hopping.  We started to see more people hanging out on the beach.  We saw many diners sitting outside enjoying their late breakfast meals. 

Bubba Gump's restaurant

Beach Bunnies!

We did some window shopping along the main shopping area along the beach front. 

We stopped in this surf shop to find some sturdy flip-flops

Walking past Bubba Gump's

A few people enjoying the beach.  Notice how pale the life guard is?

After a few hours, our stomachs started to growl.  We were getting tired and walking back was not a good option for us.  We decided to catch the local trolley and head back to the 17^th Street Causeway. 

As we made our way along the Causeway we signaled the trolley driver to stop and we jumped off the trolley and headed over to the Bimini Boatyard restaurant for lunch.  Hubby had an Ahi Tuna salad and I had Swordfish. 

On the way back to the Embassy Suites, we stopped off at the Fort Lauderdale Dive shop to pick up a hat for Hubby.  Yes, we had slowly figured out a few things we forgot to pack for this trip.  While at the Dive shop, I tried on a few masks.  I immediately found one that fit on my face and stayed in place without the straps.  When I pulled the mask off, you could hear the suction of air being released.  Great fit!  I passed up on this purchase as it would have been a “want” purchase and not a “need” purchase. 

Fort Lauderdale Dive shop is my favorite Dive shop as they are well stocked and the staff is very friendly and they are a wealth of knowledge.  They offer dive certifications and mentioned that the next time we’re in Ft Lauderdale to come down a few days earlier and get certified.  Now that’s a great idea!

We headed back to our hotel to get some rest and I had to do some last minute repacking.  At that point, luggage weight doesn’t matter when you arrive at the cruise ship terminal.  I transferred all the heavy items from our backpacks (e.g. magazines, a book, rechargers and cables, etc) to our luggage. 

For this trip I had managed to get Hubby to purchase Kindle-versions of his books.  He used to carry a backpack full of books for the cruise and I noticed he would read only one or two of them during the whole trip.  Slowly, he has weaned himself from carrying the physical books.  I did throw one in his bag just in case it was too bright for him to read his iPad. 

Hubby had mentioned he wanted to get some nice polo shirts in case we went to one of the dining rooms on the ship.  I remembered there was a Ross Dress for Less across the street from our hotel.  After a quick trip to Ross with two nice polos purchased and bagged, we were ready for dinner. 

We found a lovely sushi place a block from our hotel.  The menu was extensive and there were many items I wasn’t familiar with.  I let Hubby order for us.  We had tuna sashimi and an order of vegetable fried rice.  I have to admit something funny here.  At this sushi restaurant, I learned how to use my chopsticks correctly.  

Fort Lauderdale...Here We Come!

We arrived into Fort Lauderdale Airport around 1pm.  We picked up our luggage and looked around for our Princess rep.  After waiting 10 minutes, one arrived and escorted us outside to a group waiting on the curb outside the airport.  Our transportation arrived and we were loaded onto a Cabana bus for a 15 minute trip to the hotel. 

Upon arrival at the Embassy Suites, we received our Princess letter with instructions for embarkation on Saturday.  We also received our tickets for free breakfast.  Our room was ready and we were too happy to drop off all our luggage and heavy backpacks.  We quickly changed into our cruise clothes (shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops). 

We took our normal walk behind the hotel to get to the shopping center.  Here we had access to a Publix grocery store, a Total Wine shop, several restaurants, and a natural health store.  We had lunch at Lauderdale Grill.  I had the Parmesan and almond crusted salmon and hubby had the grilled Ahi Tuna with a lemon grass sauce. 

After lunch we headed over to our favorite Publix store to pick up some toiletries we didn’t want to carry in our luggage (suntan lotion, contact lens solution, etc). Once we got our necessities, we wandered over to a really cool natural health store.  There we came across Olive Leaf.  The owner of the shop highly recommended this product to help get rid of our annoying coughs.  Hubby took a sample of the liquid form and told me to get pill form. 

I dropped Hubby off at the hotel so I could go and visit a favorite shop of mine…Essential Boutique in the shopping center next door.  They were having a sale on everything in their shop including some Brighton jewelry pieces.  A Brighton sale is unheard of!  I found a bracelet and necklace that went with the pieces I already had and I managed to get them for 50% off.  

As dinner time approached, hubby and I decided to have a light meal.  We headed over to the shopping center next to the Embassy Suites and went to Carlos and Pepes for chips and salsa.  Afterwards, we decided to hit the sack early as we were exhausted from all the traveling we did earlier in the day.  

Friday in Ft Lauderdale and a Scare!

I woke up early (2:30am) to find Hubby not feeling well.  I found him curled up on the couch.  I immediately went down to the front lobby looking for the manager.  Broward County Hospital was less than 10 minutes away.  She called a taxi while I went back to the room with a wheelchair.  Hubby let me know that he wasn't going to use the wheelchair and was able to make his way down to the lobby on his own.

We headed to the ER and waited.  After several tests and a CT, the doctor ruled out kidney stones and appendicitis.  He mentioned something about Flank Pain.  I asked the doctor if Hubby would be able to cruise and he basically gave the okay.

We left the hospital and arrived back at the ES around 6am.  Just in time for breakfast.  Hubby was feeling pretty good at this point, but I kept a careful eye on him.

I headed out to Publix to get some ibuprofen for Hubby.  I did a little window shopping along the way back to the ES.

We caught up with our sleep until the early afternoon.  We decided on lunch and slowly headed out to the Harbor Shops behind the ES.  We had a really nice lunch at Lauderdale's.  Hubby had the peppered tuna while I had the parmesan and almond crusted salmon.  Yummy!

We lounged around the ES pool area for the remainder of the afternoon.  It was a beautiful day and quite warm.

In the evening, we headed out to pick up a light dinner.

Thursday a Travel Day

We flew into Miami before 1pm.  We quickly retrieved our luggage and met our Princess rep.  We were the only ones heading to the Embassy Suites in Ft Lauderdale and we boarded a huge Cabana bus.  Forty minutes later, we arrived at the ES.  We were happy to hear that our room was available.  We went to our room and quickly dropped our luggage and bags off.

As a ritual, we headed over to the Bamini Boatyard restaurant for a late lunch, early dinner.

Hubby was looking really tired and I knew his back was bothering him.  Instead of walking around, we headed back to the ES to get some rest.

Later that evening we had a lite snack at Carlos and Pepes.  Then we headed over to Publix (behind the ES) for to get some suntan lotion, bottled water and a few necessities for our cruise.  We went next door to Total Wines to get two bottles of wine.

We were exhausted from traveling and turned in early.