January 11 – Fort Lauderdale

thud!

Weather – 27º, sunny

Steps – 10,211

Humidity – 70%

Today was disembarkation from Princess. All in all it was a great experience. exxtreemly different from Regent, but nonetheless...good.

We had to be out of our rooms by 8 and off the ship by 910. This is pretty standard in our experience. We have no where to be until tomorrow, so we head to the Sanctuary lounge for a small breakfast.

For the first time, we have decided to ‘self-disembark’. Typically, you chose a time you want to disembark a few days before the end of the cruise based on your plans for the disembarkation day. Most people are heading to the airport, some to a hotel, some live near and are driving home (although I don’t want to live in Florida, I’m jealous of that!) and a few are ‘in transit’ – staying on for the next cruise. Of the 4,360 people on this ship, 200 are staying on. Your disembarkation plans can have the ship take your large luggage off of

waddling away

the ship where it will wait for you in the terminal before passport control, but good if you don’t want to schlep large cases through the ship.

Having the ship take care of your luggage is a bit more of a production and you are sort of subject to when you selected to leave. If you self-disembark, as long as you are OK handling your own luggage and need no wheel-chair help, you can leave anytime you want from the time the ship is cleared (good if you have an early flight) until the last possible moment you can stay. Although we have large luggage, we are fine taking it off by ourselves. Regent doesn’t really encourage this…not sure why. It is very convenient. Had we been given this option on

sightseeing boat

Regent, we wouldn’t have been as late as we were to meet our ride because we would have just gotten off when ever. Really, we could have just left…no one is going to tell you to STAY whey then really want you off. Next time (although I plan to only have carryon) we will make this an option.

BTW…because we were so late getting off of Regent in Miami and were late meeting our ride, the ride company charged us a waiting fee. Regent ended up giving us future credit to compensate for this. They should have just paid the fee, but we will definitely be on Regent again, so the credit is fine.

Passport control was slick facial recognition. Infinitely simpler and faster than Miami. Sheesh…that Miami situation is nuts, especially when Fort Lauderdale is

Hat Trick...too big to get a good shot of

so slick. Maybe other terminals in Miami are better, but the 2 we’ve been through are brutal. I’d avoid Miami and go through Fort Lauderdale if that was an option. It isn’t really…some cruise companies use Miami, some use Fort Lauderdale.

We got in a very small Uber…one big case and one small had to sit in the front seat, blocking the driver’s view of the side mirror…seems like he doesn’t even need this mirror…we made it.

We were at the Riverside hotel on Las Olas blvd before 10. We were able to check in early for $50…fine…so much simpler than checking our bags etc…We arrived at this same hotel last year around the same time and checked in early without a fee…oh well.

on the grounds of the hotel

We headed to the pool to relax and watch iguanas fall from the trees. I thought iguanas in Florida only fell from trees in cold weather…today is lovely and warm – to us that is…maybe it’s still too cold for reptiles. A couple of times we heard rustling in the trees behind us before hearing a thud and watching a large iguana waddle away.

Around noon we thought we’d get lunch at the hotel restaurant on the canal but it was busy…we decided to get on the wait list and check out the action on Las Olas. Being a Sunday, there were lot of other people out. Last time we were here we arrived on a Tuesday which wasn’t nearly as busy.

We finally got a dockside table – right at the edge of the water for a front row seat for watch boats go up and down. These boats range from kayaks to 2 seaters, to sightseeing hop-on-hop-off, to mega yachts. Could have sat here all day.

The biggest boy we saw was called Hat Trick. We had to do some googling. All the interwebs can tell us is that it is owned by someone connected to the hockey world…duh!

After lunch we went back to the room to relax.

In the evening, we wandered up and down Las Olas again, stopping at Vino Wine Bar. They had Sunday night specials and a guitar/singer playing. We sat outside, for a spritz and a small pizza. The temp by now was about 24…it was lovely.

On the way back we found ourselves at Earls…yes Earls. Although we can still afford to miss a meal, that small pizza wasn’t quite enough, so we thought we’d check out how different Earls here is…it is EXACTLY the same.

And that…was that.