Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport
We were nearly the last people off the starboard side as we had to wait to retrieve the carry-on at the back of the plane. It was a long walk to the hall full of Immigration machines and our first queue in the US. We watched as fellow passengers struggled with the machines until it was our turn. These asked the same questions as the US Customs form then we had to scan our passports, have our pictures taken and have our fingerprints scanned. Receipts with this information was printed and we joined yet another queue to meet Immigration officers.
I had to have both my hands finger printed before I could be immigrated as the earlier machine’s scans had failed. The PC and associated scanners of the officer were very temperamental and had to be re-booted several times before a successful scan was made..
After more walking then queuing we handed forms to more officers and then we entered the baggage hall. Overall the experience was much easier than expected. All the delays meant that our cases were on an almost empty carousel and once out of the hall we met the Princess Cruises representative. She was getting anxious as the majority of the passengers off the plane were already through and gone.
Outside we had another walk past the taxi stands and the pickup places to wait for our pickup.
We were surprised when a large coach came to pick up just the two of us.
Embassy Suites
The hotel was a 10 minute ride away and after checking in we were soon in our spacious room and emptying suitcases. The room lived up to its name as a suite with a sitting/dining room area, a kitchen, bathroom, a balcony as well as the bedroom.
We then set off walking up SE17 Street towards the ocean. On both sides of the road were shopping areas and after crossing we walked back towards the hotel looking for the supermarket and the wine shop.
At the supermarket we picked up the items too heavy to pack and then went next to check on the shelves of the wine shop for wine to take on the ship.
The Embassy Suites runs a complimentary bar with snacks every evening starting at 5.30 pm. We sat and enjoyed glasses of wine with snacks until it was time to go out again for dinner.
We walked back up SE17 Street to Giorgios and had two small (10″) pizzas. The slices left over we took back to the hotel for later.
By now all the travelling and loss of sleep had caught up with us and we turned in for the night.