Our pre-departure stay in Ft. Lauderdale, 28-29 Nov and disembarkation experience

[loriva]

In hopes that I can provide some information that others will find helpful (as so many did for us with their postings) here's a brief summary of our pre-departure stay in Ft. Lauderdale and disembarkation experience at Port Everglades. To make it easier to search, I'll post some separate threads with more in-depth notes on specific aspects.

 

We flew U.S. Airways from DCA to FLL. The outbound flight was a non-stop and we and our three checked bags arrived just fine. Unfortunately, U.S. Airways has changed its non-stop return flight to DCA from the 1100 departure we had booked originally to a 0700 (circa) departure, making it a non-viable option for cruisers unless they are planning a post-debarkation night in Ft. Lauderdale.

Then it was literally out the door of the airport and into a cab—very plentiful and easy. Fare to the Renaissance Hotel on SE 17th Street was $18 with one dollar for each bag and tip for driver. (See separate posting on hotel, if interested.)

After checking into the hotel, we took the Water Taxi ($11 per person, cash only, for all-day pass; www.watertaxi.com for more info and schedule) from stop seven under the bridge on the outbound route to stop one (Shooters), then had a leisurely lunch at Charlie’s Crab (lovely food and service, but not cheap) while waiting for the next taxi 90 minutes later. We then took it all the way out to its final stop (12, Riverfront). The narration by both drivers or their mates is completely scripted—we heard the same jokes about some stops three times during our time on the boat. But it’s still great seeing the scenery of the intercoastal waterway and the river along with all the houses and yachts we could never dream of owning. (One, the Kismet, in town for the boat show a few weeks earlier was on sale for a mere $135 million—yikes! It was gorgeous, of course.) As our ride took us into twilight, we were able to see some of the Christmas lights and displays on the mansions along the river—very nice! We also got some great shots of some huge iguanas lounging under a bridge near the Galleria stop (two).

Finally, we took the water taxi to stop five and the Marriott Harbor Beach, where we had made a reservation at 3030 Ocean (3030 Holiday Drive, 954-765-3030; www.3030ocean.com) per the recommendation of Bequia on the Florida departures board. (See separate review, if interested.)

 

Afterwards we took a taxi (about $10 with tip) to the Harborplace Shops, where we picked up an order we had made via the internet with Total Wines (another great CC.com member tip!) Fast and easy! Also stopped at Publix to pick up a 12-pack of diet Coke for the ship (not a fan of the fountain ones), some limes, and some other sundries. Caught the Sun Trolley back to hotel for $.50 each. It’s an easy walk, of course, but used the trolley since we had boxes and bags.

 

Embarkation day:

 

After a lovely night’s sleep in the Rennaissance’s very comfy bed, we drew back both sets of curtains and were greeted by the Coral Princess! We had a light in-room breakfast (from Publix) and packed up quickly as we had arranged to do an airboat tour of the Everglades. I had called the hotel and asked them who they used for tours and they had given me the number of Tri-Country Tours and Transport (954-214-9692; Joe). (I''ll post a separate review of this as well as it was a question that came up on the departures board.)

 

We arrived back at the hotel and decided to delay our boarding of Coral as we would have gotten there right at the height of the rush. Instead, taking rhe recommendation of Debbie, the wonderful front desk clerk at the Renaissance, we headed two blocks along 17th (back toward Total Wine and Publix) to the Portside shops, where we had a quick lunch at H&E’s Marina Deli (also a favorite of CCers—portions are huge; two people will get full on splitting a sandwich.) (We had stopped in Gregorio’s just before the Portside Shops, but walked out when the hostess stopped in the middle of seating us to give up the table to a group of four who arrived after us.)

 

Then it was finally time to board! We collected our baggage from the porter at the Renaissance and grabbed a taxi to the port. Fare was $5 to which we added $5 for the bags and tip. Tipped the porters at the port $2 per bag for our checked luggage, filled out all the requisite paperwork, stood for the requisite photos (although we didn’t find them on the boards at the photo shop the next day—not that we ever buy them), and onto the ship—all without lines or stopping. Total time from hotel to stateroom was 20 minutes--yippee!

 

 

Disembarkation:

 

The return to reality is always a shock and the mild chaos of disembarkation doesn't help! Port Everglades does it pretty well, but a few more staff (either Princess, port, or Customs and Border Protection) directing people along would be helpful. The immigration and customs inspection lines were running a little slowly, but we were still off the ship and off to the airport by 0900--about 30 minutes total process. After clearing customs it was a fairly short walk to the taxi wating area and there were lots waiting—no problem finding one at all. U.S. Airways had cancelled the midday non-stop back to DCA, but we were early enough to get a new connection that put us into Washington an hour earlier than our first rescheduling (still two hours later than the non-stop would have been). All-in-all, a cattle stampede kind of day, but as well as could be expected.