What can I say about doing a turnaround in Fort Lauderdale when there are 8 cruise ships in port, and it's the weekend before a major holiday, resulting in packed stores and heightened security around Port Everglades? I could say
AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!
AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!
but that's a little overdramatic. But I can say, with all sincerity that it's been crazy.
We found ourselves at Pier 21 today, on the south end of Port Everglades. With cruise ships packed in here as tightly as sardines, I guess we're lucky we had a berth at all. And if we don't like being at Pier 21, you can imagine how the crew feels about it. With less money and no time, it pretty much precludes most of them from even getting to a store. As it was, G talked me out of walking up to the stores on 17th Street (make a note of THAT!). And he was right (though I hate it when that happens). Traffic was gridlocked, taxis were truly racing down 35 mph roads trying to increase their fare opportunities, and security at the port was so tight (or, more accurately stated, the pretense of security at the port was so tight) that traffic coming into the port from the north, on Eisenhower, was backed up on 17th Street past Federal Highway.
It was not a good day to be walking without sidewalks through Port Everglades.
After breakfast I tried one last time to use the wifi we had left over from the last cruise, but it was discontinued by 9am (I'm making a note of that for next cruise). But neither could we sign up yet for wifi for this cruise. So, my laptop was not connectable to the Internet (and I had wanted to load those videos I posted to YouTube this morning as soon as I had a 3G signal...maybe later tonight).
The in transit passengers (those staying on for another cruise) were supposed to meet in the Michelangelo dining room at 10:15am to go through immigration, but when we got there, the dining room was packed with people who still hadn't disembarked. With 8 ships in port, things were getting seriously backed up. We were told it might be 11:15am or later, so we decided then to simply walk off and do our shopping. It still took us at least 30 minutes to get through immigration. We exited the terminal into a cloud of diesel exhaust as buses and shuttles, as well as taxis, were in all kinds of disorder on the road. There were two other ships besides ours close together and sharing the same access road. Chaos! G spotted a crew member walking back into the terminal with a shopping bag and asked him where the crew shuttle was, and that's how we came to find ourselves on the $2 per person crew shuttle going to the Ross Dress for Less store on 17th Street, right across from the Publix store and not too far from CVS Pharmacy. It was a great deal.
We explored the Embassy Suites hotel across the street a bit first, because we have friends staying there in February, and it was as chaotic in there as it was on 17th Street. I guess there's no way around it when there are eight ships in port.
We then walked down to CVS and spent $85 buying things we didn't bring from home, mostly vitamins and mouthwash and more sunscreen but also $24 for six razor blades- ggrrrrrrr. I loaded them all into my backpack and we schlepped back to Publix, where we bought a box of merlot and carried it in a Princess tote bag. G ran into Total Wines looking for a specific something, but didn't find it, so we set out to walk back up to 17th Street and cross back over to Ross to pick up a return shuttle. This was not an exercise for the faint hearted, as even crossing a street became a near death experience.
Think spending the winter on a cruise ship is like living a dream? Well, of course, most of it is, but parts of it are a bit like living like a bag lady. I would never be walking down a street at home carrying razors, band aids, fingernail polish remover and mouthwash in a backpack and wine in tote bag, waiting for a shuttle van, but here, near Port Everglades, it's a perfectly normal thing to be doing.
Finally, time was running out and G was sensing that our delay in returning to the ship meant he might just miss his favorite beef of the cruise, served for lunch in the dining room on embarkation day. He sprung into crisis mode, asking several crew members also waiting for the shuttle if any were going back to one of the three ships clustered together near Pier 21. As it turns out, a couple were, so we all crowded into a nearby taxi and...well, we didn't race exactly, but more like sat in traffic while our cab driver cursed at other drivers in some North African dialect, until finally he made an abrupt right turn into a parking garage, dodged some speed bumps, shot out from the other side as if from a cannon, and then pushed his way into the line of traffic waiting to get through security at Port Everglades. Once we were through that process, flashing our passports through a tinted window for half a second before being motioned on, we really did make tracks. In a 35mph zone, there was one of those electronic signs saying, "Your speed is...", and I'm not entirely certain, as my optic nerve was compressed by my eyeballs flattened at the back of my skull, but I think we were going 68mph...or 86. Either way it was FAST, and I was thinking, "All this for beef?" When we got to the terminal area, still in a diesel cloud, we jumped a concrete barrier (well, jumped is a bit optimistic. G might have had a spring in his step but, weighted down by two large bottles of mouthwash, I did more of a heaving thing) and raced into the terminal, flashing those magic "In Transit" cards that let us bypass almost all the lines. Except the security screening line. There, it was each man for himself, and G left me in a cloud of dust as he saw an opening and went for it. And once through security I was stymied...I'm not familiar with Pier 21, it had been recently renovated (still had that new cruise ship terminal smell!) and it was packed with people and surrounded on three sides by white cruise ships. I wasn't even sure which one was ours and how to get to it. Luckily, my confusion was noticed and I was soon sent on my way, followed by the glares of those boarding passengers still standing in line.
As I was getting my new security photo taken, G phoned me. He was in the dining room and had ordered for me. We each ate just an entree and then he had a soufflé (but he skipped an appetizer- do you see how he suffered?) and we were out of there, leaving some passengers still dining, so I didn't feel too guilty about holding up our waiter.
Whew! G asked if I wanted to go back off the ship again before we sailed, and nothing, NOTHING is going to get me back in the "real world". Life in the safe cocoon of the Emerald Princess is much, much nicer. And safer.