Caribbean Cruise Diary (7)

Date: 2018-05-16

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Final Day: Fort Lauderdale & Home

March 17. Fort Lauderdale arrival 7am. London flight 6:10pm.

Alarm at 5:30am, up around 6. Still dark outside, the ship gliding along quietly, Miami's skyline drawing closer. The night before, I hadn't felt any rocking at all — it barely felt like the ship was moving. It really does make a difference, being in open ocean versus these more sheltered waters near land. A voyage certificate had been delivered to our cabin: our full itinerary, total nautical miles covered, 1,188,774 gallons of water used over the trip, 28,979 eggs served! — all sorts of statistics, signed by the captain and cruise director. Disembarkation would start at 8am, so breakfast opened early, from 6:30. We headed to the Main Dining Room as usual — Greek yoghurt and prunes, plus the Japanese breakfast set.

People Who Stay Aboard Instead of Disembarking

A couple from Florida joined our table, and we chatted about our families and about cruising in general. According to them, a handful of passengers on this ship never actually get off — Holland America Line sails slightly different routes each time and heads off to new far-flung destinations, so apparently you never get bored even staying aboard indefinitely. I remembered a BBC programme once about a wealthy elderly widow who simply lived on a cruise ship full-time, and realised there really are people who do exactly that. No worries about food or housing, kind crew looking after you, new people to meet on every sailing — maybe it wouldn't feel lonely at all.

Living on a cruise ship. What a life to envy. Americans are so friendly and love to talk — we'd struck up conversations with several couples over meals, and by the end we were exchanging greetings whenever we crossed paths on board. Saying goodbye at the end of such a good time always feels a little sad. But, we told each other, maybe we'll run into one another again on some ship, somewhere in the world.

Disembarking Passengers, Boarding Passengers — A Microcosm of Life

At 7:30 we went back to the cabin for our bags and headed down. The instruction was to stay wherever we liked until our number was called over the tannoy, then make our way off. We were in the earliest group, disembarking at 8am. More than 2,000 passengers disembarked that morning, with around 6,000 pieces of luggage unloaded! By around 9am every passenger was off, and less than three hours later, before noon, a whole new wave of passengers — excited for their own upcoming voyage — was already boarding. Cleaning the ship, preparing meals, running the shows, casino and spa: every department's crew works around the clock to keep the whole operation running smoothly for guests. Electricians, plumbers, engineers, interior specialists, painters — practically every trade you can think of is represented on board, so whatever comes up, there's a specialist ready to fix it. A cruise ship really is a small city unto itself.

Our flight to London wasn't until just after 6pm, and we still had our heavy luggage to deal with in the meantime, so on about the second day of the cruise we'd booked a tour that included a transfer all the way to the airport on disembarkation day. Our tour took us on a bus around the city of Fort Lauderdale — the "Venice of America" — followed by a canal cruise on a sightseeing boat, before dropping us at the airport. Our heavy suitcases stayed safely stowed on the bus throughout — a wonderfully convenient arrangement.

I'd originally hoped to see something of Fort Lauderdale during our pre-cruise hotel stay, but the flight over had left us so chilled that we ended up resting at the hotel instead and never made it into the city — so this tour turned out to be a real blessing. It cost $60 per person. Arranging things independently would have meant roughly $40 for a taxi to the airport, plus $40–50 per person for a day pass on the water-taxi canal tour — so this tour, with everything handled for us, was genuinely good value.

We tapped our cruise cards on the way out, and crew in uniforms from every department lined the exit corridor to see us off — "Bye now! Come back soon! Safe travels!" Just inside the terminal, a large hall was lined with rows of suitcases. We found ours under the red sign, collected them, and were directed outside and told to head right for the tour buses.

Our guide and driver were waiting by the bus. They loaded our heavy luggage into the hold beneath, and we told them our airport and flight number for the day. They seemed surprised that British Airways flew out of Fort Lauderdale to London at all — when we checked, it turned out to be a seasonal service, just one round trip a day, running only during high season between London Gatwick and Fort Lauderdale. Even the flight number, BA2168, had four digits rather than the usual three — I hadn't realised that, alongside codeshare flights, seasonal routes also tend to get four-digit numbers. Flights to London normally go through the nearby Miami International Airport, so even our well-travelled driver was surprised to learn such a route existed.

Touring the City of Fort Lauderdale

The bus first drove us through the city itself. Fort Lauderdale is where mainland Americans come for a warm-weather getaway, and almost everyone walking around was American. It's also famous as a place where CEOs of major companies and celebrities keep second homes. Along the seafront, nearly every big hotel brand lines up one after another — Hilton, Westin, Marriott, Sheraton, Crowne Plaza, Ritz-Carlton, Conrad. Between them: restaurants, bars, shopping centres, all giving the place the lively feel of a proper resort town.

Just inland from the coast, a whole network of canals threads through the city like a spider's web, each one connecting out to the sea. Along the canals in the old town centre, a pocket of Fort Lauderdale's original architecture still survives, and we all got off the bus there for a guided walk-through. Early American-style houses and buildings lined the streets. The building in the photo below was the first concrete-block structure built in this area — originally a hotel, now used as a museum.

Waterfront Mansions and Rows of Multi-Million-Dollar Yachts

After our walk through old Fort Lauderdale, we got back on the bus, crossed the city, and arrived at the boat dock. Today's sightseeing boat was called the Jungle Queen — shaped almost exactly like the Mark Twain steamboat at Disneyland, though it isn't actually a steamboat, just an ordinary motor-powered vessel with a paddle wheel fixed at the back. Passengers from three whole tour buses climbed aboard, and we set off on a short 90-minute canal tour.

Along the canal, one grand private estate after another lined the banks, some standalone mansions, others more like private apartment complexes. Every property fronted directly onto the canal, with its own mooring for a yacht or boat out front. The sight of yacht after yacht, each easily worth tens of millions of dollars, was overwhelming — like walking through an exhibition hall. This really is the country where the world's wealthiest choose to live; even the scale of the holiday homes is on another level. We eventually left the private estates behind and passed out through three separate drawbridges to the open water beyond.

Port Everglades — Home to the World's Largest Cruise Ships

Once we cleared the canal, we entered Port Everglades, the cruise port itself. There was the Nieuw Amsterdam, the ship we'd just left! Beside her, Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas, carrying 3,600 passengers, and one of the largest cruise ships in the world, Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas — a staggering 5,500 passengers and 2,200 crew. A ship that can carry nearly 8,000 people is almost unbelievably huge. An absolute monster.

That day, seven cruise ships were docked at Fort Lauderdale alone. Given that even more sail out of nearby Miami, this region must be one of the busiest cruise ports anywhere in the world. After our leisurely canal cruise, we got back on the bus and headed straight for Fort Lauderdale Airport — Terminal 4 for us. We arrived just after 2pm; with our flight not until after 6pm, it was too early to check our bags, so we had lunch at a café in the terminal instead: the classic American clubhouse sandwich, turkey ham, regular ham, tomato and lettuce — so much ham! — served with fries or crisps. We managed to finish it, thoroughly stuffed. Everything really is bigger in America.

By the time we'd finished eating, the BA counter had opened, so we checked our bags and went through security. We had coffee at a café inside, caught up on emails since we'd had no internet access for the whole time aboard the ship, and boarding began at 5:30. We took off from a bright, warm 25°C Miami. The flight attendant mentioned Gatwick was under snow — "Snow?!" — we couldn't quite believe it.

The in-flight meal was chicken curry, followed by a cream-cheese roll and an oat biscuit before landing. And sure enough — snow, real snow, waiting for us. Everyone shivered, "It's freezing!" We landed at London Gatwick just after 6am, cleared UK immigration, collected our bags, and headed to the hotel where we'd left the car. Waiting at the hotel shuttle stop was bitterly cold — 2 to 3°C — and we scrambled to dig our down jackets out of our luggage. Back in the car safely, we drove home to north London, a temperature swing of over 20°C and a grey, overcast sky waiting for us. Once home, jet lag hit hard and the sleepiness set in. Ah — that Caribbean sky and sea really were beautiful.

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