We were up ridiculously early, in part because we moved our clocks back an hour last night, but it really didn't make any difference. There's just no sleeping in on turnaround day (Johnathon was rattling his cart at 5:00am). We went to breakfast in the Botticelli Dining Room, which is the one dining room we usually never eat in, as it's for traditional 6:00pm and 8:15pm dining. We've only been in Botticelli once before, in all our Princess cruises, but it made sense for breakfast to be served there today, as it freed up the Michelangelo and DaVinci Dining Rooms for disembarkation groups.
We walked off the ship about 9:30am, and, as is always the case when we have time to spare and never the case when we don't, we literally walked right through immigration, never slowing for a second. There were only four ships in Port Everglades today, which certainly helped move things along. We walked under the 17th Street drawbridge to the Hilton Marina water taxi stop, where we spent some time using our iPhones and making phone calls while we waited for the 11:11am water taxi that used to called the Cruisers Express. It's the one that is two levels high and offers a 2.5 hour narrated tour of the intercoastal waterway, the New River and all the mansions along the way. We had done this tour last winter too, and really enjoyed it, and so were anxious to do it again this year.
The day was hot, sunny and muggier than we've seen in Fort Lauderdale all winter, so it was a perfect day to sit in the sun and watch the scenery go by. We should have swung into Walgreens on the way to the water taxi; G had the munchies and all they had on the water taxi were single serve bags of Doritos for $1.50 each. Still, he scarfed them down, one after another, like he was starving.
Is it possible he misses junk food just a little? Chips are the one thing we don't get much of on the ship.
The excess that we see on this tour is just mind-numbing. Every mansion has a story...the man who invented a part used in GM car air conditioners, the Walgreens family, the Staples family, the Wendy's family. But the largest complex is owned by the guy who started Waste Management, then Auto Nation, then Blockbuster video which he sold before Netflix launched for $ billions. He owns an entire complex, with various family members living in mansions around him. And if their houses are impressive, their yachts are even more so.
$50 million mansions and $75 million yachts, one after another. I guess these folks don't stay in inside cabins when they cruise on Princess. ;-)
We arrived back on the ship just minutes before the on board time of 3:30pm. Hot, sweaty and a bit sunburned, I headed right up to the cabin; G stopped to chat to someone. As I started walking down our starboard-side corridor, I saw...Cristian, our cabin steward from last year!!! Calm as ever, he said, "Well hello Mrs. X. I've been watching for you all day". And then he told me that he had gotten off the Emerald Princess the day we arrived, on November 7, to go home to Romania, and he had seen us walking into the terminal as he boarded his bus for the airport. And then, when he boarded the ship this morning, he saw us walking off. No, he's not our cabin steward (we'll be with the Steward Nazi this. entire. winter., may God have mercy on us), but he is the steward in the next section of cabins, and we'll pass him at least five times a day. And just that simple thought makes me very happy, like we've come full circle this winter and will leave, as we did last winter, having benefited so much by seeing Sutti's and now Cristian's smiling faces each day.
When I got to the cabin, there was already a note from cruise friends Jenny and Bill, whom we've cruised with twice in the past. That they were taking this cruise certainly influenced our decision to stay on for 120 days. We haven't yet connected, but I'm sure we will tomorrow.
We went to dinner early, at 5:30pm (we were starving, having had no lunch), and were shocked when headwaiter Mirko Savioli made a special trip from the DaVinci Dining Room where he was working one deck up down to the Michelangelo Dining Room just to say hi. Mirko had been our headwaiter for our first 30 days on the Emerald Princess this winter, going home when the ship went into dry dock on December 7. He just rejoined the ship today, and wanted to say hi and ask how we've enjoyed our winter.
Again, full circle. It just feels wonderful.
Our table mates at the next table, Steve and Kathy, had not been to dinner since Grenada last cruise, but they're staying in a suite, and we had assumed they were having their meals in their room. We knew they were staying on for this cruise too. Well, when they showed up for dinner tonight, they had such a story to tell. They said I could give you the highlights, just to show how well Princess and their travel insurance, Travel Guard, handled what could have been a very bad situation in the best way possible. Steve woke up in the middle of the night before Bonaire and fainted in the bathroom (suite bathrooms are large enough to faint in...we could only kind of crumble in a heap on the floor in ours). Kathy phoned 911, and, long story short, Steve was taken off the ship in Bonaire, and, along with Kathy, airlifted by private medical Lear jet equipped with a doctor and a nurse from Bonaire back to Fort Lauderdale, then spent two nights in a hospital in Fort Lauderdale where extensive tests were done and he was pronounced healthy and ok to travel. Travel Guard insurance then put them in a suite in a Marriott on the beach for $1000 a night, because it was the only hotel with availability Saturday and Sunday nights. They checked out this morning, and reboarded the ship for the second half of their back to back cruises.
Whew!
They kept emphasizing how well Princess and Travel Guard insurance treated them. The only thing they had to pay out of pocket was $138 cash for the ambulance from the ship to the jet in Bonaire. A private medically equipped flying three hours from Fort Lauderdale to Bonaire and back can't be cheap (we're all guessing $50,000), and Steve won't have to pay a penny of it.
Which leads me to today's Public Service Announcement: even if you think you don't need travel insurance, even if you want to self-insure in the event things like bronchitis or a tooth abscess occur, DON'T!! You might be a healthy 35-year old, but one emergency medical evacuation could wipe out your savings. It's just not worth it.
And, finally, we returned to our cabin tonight to be greeted by the most thoughtful gift imaginable from Graham, with whom G had hiked to the southern tip of Eleuthera two cruises ago...tuxedo decorated chocolate covered strawberries. Gorgeous AND delicious, and how clever to have ordered them for us without knowing our booking number! That must have been a trick. Thank you, Graham! G enjoyed that hike every bit as much as you did, and we'll both enjoy the strawberries.
It was a full day, and we move our clocks ahead an hour tonight (we never actually changed our watches/clock last night). We're in bed early, resting up for our final exciting cruise of the winter.
Photo 1: water taxi stop #5, under the 17th Street drawbridge at the Hilton Marina
Photo 2: you can see how close it is to the Hilton Marina
Photo 3: the two-deck water taxi
Photo 4: 130 foot yacht Pegasus- a smaller boat fits into its back, and it has an entertainment platform that lowers. Cost to dock every night: $930, and that doesn't include the water and electricity!
Photo. 5: 30,000 square foot mansion, home to two people