Port Everglades
The coach was greeted by armed Broward County Sheriffs who were unsuccessfully trying to organise parking. Cars and taxius appeared to be immune to their directions which then held up the coaches from parking.
The suitcases from our coach were dumped both on the road and on the pavement and were simply mixed up with the hundreds of cases already there. We had a standard lecture from the driver about how he had loaded and then unloaded all the suitcases and had done all the driving. We had to identify out suitcases before going into the terminal. Downside was that we were not told who we had to identify them too or who to speak to if we couldn’t find them.
Our suitcases were not on the road or kerbside so we joined the 20 plus other passengers concerned about where their cases were. As more cars, taxis, shuttles and coaches arrived the kerb and road were full of dumped cases. Our cases finally arrived a good 15 minutes later and once we identified them we left them along with all the other abandoned cases. The porters made no effort to take away the suitcases already dumped at the side.
We then started the long walk to the terminal building. After presenting our e-tickets we were directed to a queue to be processed. Thankfully this was very quick and easy and we were directed to immediately board the ship. Once up the escalator we joined another queue. This lead us to where two teams of photographers were doing their best to get passengers to ‘smile for the camera’. At the end of another long corridor we finally joined the queue for the jet-way to get finally on-board.
Coral Princess
Our cruise cards were scanned and the crew member took a photo for security onboard. Arriving so late meant the ship was now very busy so we headed straight to our cabin. With one case unpacked , we went up to the buffet restaurant for a late lunch. This restaurant was very busy. I chose the vegetable curry and some breaded shrimps – both were excellent.
My cruise card was not working when we came back to the cabin. The card stopped working despite my iPhone being on aeroplane mode as its cover had such strong magnets that the card was wiped.
After we had unpacked the second suitcase it was time for the safety drill at 3.15 pm. For this we sat in Sabattini’s restaurant. Once back in our cabin we went back watching the quayside until the last suitcase arrived at about 4 pm.
Leaving Fort Lauderdale
The ship slowly left the pier at 5.30 pm. We’d been watching the ship’s supplies loaded, some of these looked more like items from a hardware warehouse, for example pallets of wood flooring.
Looking back to SE 17th Street a US Coastguard boat with a manned machine gun circled keeping watch. Once the ship had spun in the basin, we noticed a Broward County Sheriff’s boat take position and track us out into the channel.
The ship slowly left through the channel and we had views of the docks away down the coast with a very threatening sky.
First evening on board
This was a good time for some shopping to take advantage of the 10% extra off that was only offerred on the first days of the cruise.
For this cruise we had selected any-time dining rather than our usual 8.30 pm second sitting. When we arrived at the Bordeaux restaurant all the 2 seat tables were occupied, so we sat on a table for 6. A good choice as we had a lively conversation with our fellow passengers. Two of the ladies on the table were first time cruisers from Belgium. Their holiday in Cuba had been cancelled because of Hurricane Irma.
My starter was a plate of shrimps with a tasty dip followed by ribeye steak and then New York cheesecake. The main course was only cleared 20 minutes after we had finished. Unusually our servers left us alone for quite a time as they were busy on other tables.
Back in our cabin settled down for our first night at sea. Coral Princess had quite a bit of movement not this was too uncomfortable. The movement was enough to definitely indicate that we were at sea and moving quickly. The ship was generating a lot of black smoke against the night sky.
