With almost 200 Norovirus cases on board last cruise (http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/cdc-investigates-outbreak-that-sickens-nearly-200-aboard-princess-cruises-emerald-princess-76583/), even though the number of cases was way down by the end of the cruise, turnaround day was almost bound to be discombobulated. We were told that in transit passengers (those staying on for another cruise) should meet in the Michelangelo Dining Room at 10:30am to go through Immigration (ICE). When we went there at that time, disembarkation was already a bit behind schedule, so we simply walked off the ship and went through ICE on our own. There was a line, but we were speeded up quite a bit as they put the in transit passengers with the non-US passengers and had more ICE agents processing our group.
We left the ship still uncertain of our plans for the day. We were told that, due to the extensive cleaning of the ship, we couldn't return to our cabins until 1:30pm. We were offered Club Fusion as a holding place, but that held little appeal. So we knew we'd have to go somewhere to pass the time. It seemed cool this morning, and it was, only in the low 70s ;-). We weren't certain we'd want to be on the water all day on a Fort Lauderdale water taxi.
We first walked up and over the 17th Street drawbridge and watched all the yacht traffic on the intercoastal waterway. It felt so comfortable standing in the sun that we re-thought our decision not to take the water taxi and decided to take it after all. But by the time we walked to a boarding point, under the bridge at the Hilton Marina, it was 11:30am and we knew we'd have to return to that point no later than 3:30pm to allow us to get to a store and back to the ship by the all on board time of 4:30pm. We once again decided to save the water taxi for another day.
We walked back to Walgreens to pick up the items on our shopping list, and then left when the prices were so outrageous and they didn't have the Wet Ones we needed. We walked a further 10 minutes down to Publix. They not only had everything we needed, we saved $12 over Walgreens prices. We stocked up on Wet Ones (TWO boxes) and hopefully have enough to see us through.
Aside from the officers, staff and especially the crew, there is no one on this ship more hopeful that this Norovirus thing is over. We said last year, when other ships were having issue after issue with it, that we'd return home rather than go through an entire winter of Noro.
Nip it, nip it, nip it!!
When we returned to the terminal about 2pm, the ship still wasn't clear to board. We waited until 2:30pm to board...but at least we were in the terminal and the in transits were the first to re-board. As we had walked back from shopping, I heard a noise I'd never before heard and couldn't figure out what it was. As we got to Terminal 2, it was obvious: the line of people 4 and 5 wide stretched the entire length of the outside of the terminal, and the noise was their voices echoing off the hard surfaces. At least we were able to bypass all of them, all the people held on the first floor of the terminal and those held on the second floor. It's unfortunate the cruise had to start in that manner, but, really, what choice was there?
All that was soon over, though, and the first thing we did was eat lunch in the buffet before the rest of the crowd hit. Another impact of Noro is that there are about half the choices of food in the buffet. Since waiters have to serve all the food, they've simply reduced the number of options available. That's just another reason we avoid the buffet whenever possible during a Noro outbreak. But today we had no choice; the dining room wasn't open for lunch.
We finally sailed just over two hours late, at 6pm. By then, we were already happily seated at "our" table in the dining room eating dinner served by Suttipong and Somphong. Regardless of what each day brings, that's one thing we can count on!
Photos 1 and 2: the west and east sides of the bridge to up
Photo 3: both sides lower again
Photos 4 and 5: as seen from under the bridge, the counterbalance drops as the bridge goes up
