A Caribbean Carissmas 1: Cast Off - Fort Lauderdale
Friday, December 20 - Fort Lauderdale
It's the holiday season, time for cheer and family gatherings! This year,
I had an early rise this morning to catch the Uber to the airport. Someone had made the very reasonable observation yesterday about how I don't need to park my car at work anymore: without a 2nd vehicle to juggle with the driveway, I can now simply book an Uber from Jersey City to EWR rather than drive myself for 20 minutes and then take a 10 minute ride. So with my stuff packed, I rose groggily but on time to don my travel gear (featuring layers to deal with NJ cold and FL warmth) and made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare.
At Terminal A, the security line was long but moved efficiently. I think I spent maybe 30 minutes in security, which is pretty good in the grand scheme of things; I could have been maybe 5 minutes faster if I'd kept my mouth shut and said simply "yes, that's my bag" instead of "yes, that's my bag but I've no idea whose shoe ended up in the bin too..." I'd prudently arrived 2 hours before my schedule departure so I was in no rush to make it to the gate. I didn't manage to snag many zzz's aboard the plane, I napped a bit during takeoff but then fell into a weird funk of being tired but woozy for most of the rest of the flight. A seltzer during the beverage service seemed to straighten me out but also spelled the end for my napping cause I never got comfortable enough again to get some shut-eye. I'd landed in an aisle seat and was thankful the middle-seat person missed their flight so that I could put my bag there and use what little foot room is left for aisle seats thse days.
In Fort Lauderdale, I quickly doffed the warm layers to stash into my carryon and awaited my parents and brother at baggage claim. They took a red eye from Seattle with a connection in Atlanta and ended up in a different terminal, my brother eventually came to fetch me but it was clear that while I may have been groggy on 4 hours of sleep, they were exhausted on 0 hours. Fortunately, boarding the cruise ship went seamlessly. I chuckle a bit, my mother misheard one of the luggage carriers as we descended the bus: instead of "we can take your bags; any help is appreciated" she interpreted it as "please take your bags to help us" rather than a request for a tip / pourboire. My bag was deemed 'large enough' to end up in a bin for transfer to the stewards so I didn't have the option of rolling my case to the room, good thing I kept my passport and cruise ship medallion in my backpack.
On board, we dropped our bags in the not-quite-finished rooms and headed up to the buffet for lunch. Plenty of good options to be had at the lunch buffet but I'm glad that we were able to collectively demonstrate some control and not need to loosen belts only an hour into this adventure 😂 Turns out one can watch the safety demonstration on their phone via the cruise line's app, so that was a good way to multitask as we finished up dessert and then visit our muster station.
While the rest of my party settled in for much needed naps, I took a stroll about the ship and enjoyed an aperol spritz. The port at Fort Lauderdale was quite lovely: smog or humidity smothered the inland horizon but tempered the sun's rays such that the light, cool breeze made the outdoors very pleasant. I'm fortunate to have had the privilege and luxury to travel a lot and cruise a fair amount (I suppose by the standard measure, I've cruised a lot too), so it was interesting to people watch on embarkation day: travelers are settling in in a moment of transition between the stress of travel and the promise of sun-shiney decadence. So many different walks of and stages in life converge for a cruise like this (at least on the passenger side of things), thousands of mouths blabbing and consuming (and I'm one of them😜) and each spending the moments before cast-off in their own way. Some people were already sunning and splashing in the pool, others were 3 drinks in at the bar, and I imagine a number of folks were napping from early morning flights. It's not for me to judge how people choose to spend their vacation or the attire they wish to spend it in but it was touching to see couples and families enjoying in their own ways.
Comments
Post a Comment