It’s amazing that we do not hear any of the Bridge/Causeway evening into early morning traffic in our room. I’m in a deep sleep when Hubby pokes me a few times and tells me it’s 5:30 and we need to get up. I look over at the hotel room digital clock and it’s wrong. I tap my dependable iPhone and it says 4:30am. I flip my wrist and my FitBit says 4:30 as well. Hubby apologizes for waking me up. Apparently our room has thin walls as Hubby was listening to all the hallway foot traffic and conversations. Folks must have been out late partying on a Saturday night into early Sunday morning. Poor Hubby.
Getting up an hour earlier worked out for me as I still needed to do some final packing and weigh our luggage. Yes, I found a neat portable luggage scale on Amazon. I throw it in my suitcase when I travel. No guessing and no stressing at the airline counter. The three pieces of luggage: 44, 43, and 41 pounds.
Hubby and I are out on our balcony in time to see the Royal Princess come into Port Everglades:
Take note of the Princess sea witch logo on the front hull of the ship. The Caribbean Princess will get one as well when it goes into dry dock next month. Sweet!
We leave our room around 6am and head downstairs to check out. We are stopped in our tracks as there is a line and one person handling check-ins and check-outs. I am the fourth person in line and let’s just say it was slooooow moving. I am getting anxious and did not plan on standing in line at 6am. My mind is going a mile a minute and then I remember that Hilton has express checkout. I grab a Hilton Marina Activities flyer off the counter and start scanning the paper. I quickly text the hotel and within a minute I’m checked out and have a receipt on my iPhone. Sweet!
As we head out of the hotel, there’s another line. Really? I see a lone cab sitting near the entrance to the hotel and I wave to him. I start chatting with the folks in front of me to see if they are waiting for a cab. They are not and I’m thinking they are waiting for their Uber/Lyft rides. We load our luggage into the taxi and off we go to the airport.
Hubby and I have travelled in and out of FLL airport many times. We prefer to take the first plane out before the throngs of cruisers disembark their ships (remember the picture above) and head to the airport to catch their flights. For some reason, the airport is extremely busy for 6:15am. Even more so inside Terminal #3. There’s a long line for something and I immediately make note it’s not for our airline. I tell Hubby to look for an open kiosk and he finds one after a few minutes. Honestly, I know 6am is early for most folks, but i have no patience for folks hovering/congregating around kiosks they are not even using. I bulk up my shoulders (thanks to my local gym) and make my way through.
I’m pressing the screen at our kiosk and I check the boxes for boarding passes and luggage tags. Out spits our three long luggage tags and boarding passes. I forget that in FLL and with our airline that we have to put the tags on ourselves. I carefully read the instructions on the back of the tags (only 3 steps) and slip the tag through the top handle, peel off part of the backing (keep this as our receipt with baggage claim number), and match the ends and press, Well, the first one came out wonky, but good enough to stay on the bag. I got better by the third tag. Go me!
After going through security, we head over to The Food Network restaurant to get some breakfast: bagel and smoked salmon for Hubby and an egg and cheese croissant for me. This will definitely tie us over until we get home.
We arrive at our destination with clear weather, but cold and no snow.
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