Sunday, April 12, 2026

Day 1: Flight to Fort Lauderdale

Our usual pre-cruise “crisis du jour” at home turned into a “crisis de semaine” that kept us on edge all last week but was happily fully resolved just in time to leave (but, boy oh boy we were about 25% confident at one point that we’d be able to cruise as planned).  It’s always something!  But today was as relaxing a travel day as we could hope for… until we ran into trouble getting a hotel shuttle at the Fort Lauderdale airport. I read that there were 16000 cruise ship passengers disembarking and the same number embarking tomorrow, and it definitely showed at the airport tonight. 

Due to our earlier Uber pick up, we spent a couple of hours at the USO where G was able to love on a black lab therapy dog named Jed (while I stayed a few feet away). I picked up a Qdoba on the way to the gate to eat on the plane and our direct flight was without incident. Luggage was claimed and we made our way out to the hotel shuttle area. 

I lost count of how many times I phoned the La Quinta in the more than an hour we waited for our free shuttle, but, in the end, we got an Uber and were reimbursed at the hotel. And no one was hurt in negotiating that deal ‘Nuff said. 😉

It was 11pm when we checked into our hotel room. We stayed at this hotel many times 15 to 25 years ago, and it’s definitely starting to show its age. However, for a few hour stay, it works. 

We are here. We’ve cruised enough to know that tomorrow’s embarkation day will be a long one. But after that, it’s all good.