The last day...the cruise is over. Jon and Michelle were driving back to Georgia and wanted to get on the road as quick as possible. Our flight wasn't leaving until 3:30 pm so we had requested the latest possible time to disembark. Sleeping late would have been nice, but we also wanted to have one last breakfast with J & M so had set an alarm.
But...no alarm was needed. The strong vibration of the ship as it docked at Port Everglades was more than enough to jostle me awake. I dressed in the dark and slipped out onto the promenade deck in the predawn light. I was anxious to get checked in for our flight since I wasn't able to before we left Half Moon Cay the previous afternoon.
As I was concentrating on the Delta app on my phone, Michelle snuck up behind me and scared me to death!! She had come out on deck to see the sunrise, something she had wanted to do all during the cruise and had never managed to do.
By the time I checked in for our flight, the only seats remaining were middle seats in the back of the plane...no where near each other. That is the price you pay for booking basic economy tickets.
The morning was cool (in the upper 50's) and I was barefoot, but stayed out with Michelle looking at all of the cruise ships in port. Six I believe. A Royal Caribbean ship came sailing into the channel just as the sun began to rise.
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| Caribbean Princess |
The four of us met for breakfast at the buffet. I finally got around to trying a crepe and was sorry I had waited until the last day. Yum. When the cruise director announced that the ship had been cleared around 7:30, we said our goodbyes and J & M began their journey home.
Bob and I packed the last few things in our carry-on bags and then walked around the outside deck watching all of the activity around the port. Our color group was called about 8:45, earlier than what had been estimated.
Once in the terminal, our luggage was easy to find. I was happy to see that my damaged bag was still intact. When we got outside, we called a Lyft and our driver arrived in about 5 minutes. She had a smaller car and the trunk was full of her "stuff" that had to all be moved and rearranged in order to fit our luggage. (Wouldn't you think an Uber or Lyft driver picking up passengers at the port would anticipate the need to have room for luggage?)
The driver dropped us off at the Delta gates at FLL and when we entered, the queues were full and the line extended through much of the terminal. It was too early for us to check our bags so we found a place to sit and wait. A Canadian couple who had just gotten off the Caribbean Princess was sitting next to us and we had a nice chat. Bob read his book and I caught up on emails and Facebook. (Yay for fast and strong cell service!)
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| The lines to check in were L-O-N-G!!! |
When we were finally able to check our bags at 11:30, the lines were totally gone and we walked directly up to the desk. My bag was a pound over the limit and we were ready to shuffle things around, but the agent said it was fine. There was no charge for our checked bags since we have a Delta Skymiles credit card.
When we got to our gate, the place was packed. This part of the airport was undergoing renovations and there was barely anyplace to sit and very few places to get something to eat. It is always such a rude awakening to leave the multitude of free food options on the ship and then have to pay for overpriced, mediocre food at the airport. We opted for personal-sized pizzas for about $10 each. They weren't too bad, but smaller than the ones we could order for free on the ship.
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| So hard to eat airport food right after a cruise! |
I checked with the gate agent on the outside chance they might need volunteers to be bumped, but was informed that our flight was not quite full. I mentioned that I was very concerned about missing the next leg of our flight since we had such a short layover at JFK in New York. (Not the most direct route from Florida to Minnesota, but again...it is what you get with the cheap seats.)
A direct flight to Minneapolis was actually boarding at the next gate and she said she would have moved us to that flight but it was overbooked already. Instead she offered to change our seats and moved us to the front row of the economy section so we could get off the plane quicker. And the seats were even together!! Thank you, Delta!
The plane took off a few minutes early. By the time I watched the movie "Holiday in the Wild" that I had downloaded onto my iPad from Netflix, the flight was over.
We arrived at Terminal 1 at JFK and our next flight was leaving from Terminal 4. We hit the ground running. We climbed on a Delta shuttle just as it was getting ready to leave and were driven to Terminal 4. But...we were dropped off a long way from our gate. We had the option to wait another 8 minutes for the next shuttle to take us closer to our gate or walk for 10 minutes. We walked...and fast. Boarding was just beginning which gave us time to quickly use the rest room, but nothing else.
I had checked the Delta app off and on while we had waited in Ft. Lauderdale and managed to finally get two seats together for this flight to Minneapolis. I watched another cute movie..."Where'd You Go, Bernadette?" and before I knew it, we were landing at MSP at 9:40 pm...a few minutes ahead of schedule.
The shuttle to the Doubletree Hotel (where our car was parked) leaves the airport at the top of each hour. I figured it was hopeless to try and get on the 10 pm shuttle, but with luck, we got our luggage (and mine was still intact!) and RAN to the ground transportation area. We walked out the door just as the shuttle driver was starting to pull away. We got his attention and he pulled back in and loaded up our luggage.
It had been a long and somewhat stressful travel day, but in the end everything went smoothly and so much better than I had anticipated. The shuttle driver dropped us off right at our car and we drove to our son's house to spend the night...about 45 minutes from the airport. After a quick visit with the grandkids the next morning, we were on the road and home by noon.
Looking back...
This cruise was booked as a cheap replacement for the 28-day South Pacific cruise in February 2020 that we cancelled. My only goal was to have a warm get away before the long, cold winter arrived in Minnesota. In retrospect, I got what I wanted, but so much more. Having our friends, Jon & Michelle join us, turned the two weeks into such a fun time. And just like the name of this blog...the souvenirs we returned with are the best possible kind...souvenir memories!
