- 2018 World Cruise Entertainers
- Day 114 – Fort Lauderdale
- Day 113 – At Sea
- Day 112 – At Sea
- Day 111 – San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Day 110 – At Sea
- Day 109 – At Sea – April 23, 2018
- Day 108 – At Sea
- Day 107 – At Sea
- Day 106 – At Sea
- Day 105, Praia – Cape Verde
- Day 104 – At Sea
- Day 103 – Dakar, Senegal
- Day 102 – Banjul, Gambia
- Day 101 – At Sea
- Day 100 – At Sea
- Day 99 – Crossing the Equator
- Day 98 – At Sea
- Day 97 – At Sea
- Day 96 -Luanda, Angola
- Day 95 – At Sea
- Day 94 – At Sea
- Day 93, Walvis Bay, Namibia
- Day 92 – At Sea
- Day 91, Cape Town, South Africa
- Day 90 – Cape Town, South Africa
- Day 89 – Kambaku River Sands – Safari Day 4
- Day 88 – Kambaku River Sands – Safari Day 3
- Day 87 – Kambaku River Sands – Safari Day 2
- Day 86 – Maputo – Safari Day 1
- Day 85 – At Sea
- Day 84 – At Sea
- Day 83 – At Sea
- Day 82 – St Denis – Reunion Island
- Day 81 – At Sea
- Day 80 – At Sea
- Day 79 – Victoria, Seychelles
- Day 78 – At Sea
- Day 77 – At Sea
- Day 76 – At Sea – Enroute to the Seychelles
- Day 75 – Columbo, Sri Lanka
- Day 74 – At Sea – Enroute to Sri Lanka
- Day 73 – At Sea
- Day 72 – Phuket
- Day 71 – At Sea
- Day 70 – Singapore
- 2020 World Cruise – w/detailed dates
- Day 69 – Siem Reap
- Day 68 – Siem Reap (ms Amsterdam at Sea)
- Day 67 – Phu My, Vietnam
- Day 66 – At Sea
- Day 65 – At Sea
- Day 64, Hong Kong
- Day 63 – Hong Kong
- Day 62 – At Sea
- Day 61, Manila, Philippines
- Day 60, Manila, Philippines
- Day 59, – At Sea
- Day 58, Puerto Princesa
- Day 57 – At Sea
- Day 56 – At Sea
- Day 55 – At Sea
- Day 54 – Benoa – Bali
- Day 53 – Benoa, Bali
- Day 52 – At Sea
- Day 51 – At Sea
- Day 50 – At Sea
- Day 49 – Perth Yarn Crawl
- Day 48 – 21 Feb Perth
- Day 47 – Albany, Western Australia
- Day 46 – At Sea
- Day 45 – At Sea
- Day 44 – Adelaide, South Australia
- Day 43 – Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
- Day 42, At Sea
- Day 41, At Sea
- Day 40, Hobart, Tasmania
- 2020 World Cruise Possibilities
- Day 39 – At Sea
- Day 38 – Sydney, Australia
- Day 37 – Sydney, Australia
- Day 36 – At Sea
- Day 35 – At Sea – Enroute Sydney
- Day 34, Fjordlands National Park – Milford Sound
- Day 33, Port Chalmers, Dunedin
- Day 32, At Sea – Super Bowl Monday
- Day 31 – Napier
- Day 30 – Tauranga – 3 Feb 2018
- Day 29 – Auckland, NZ
- Day 28 – At Sea
- Day 27 – At Sea
- Day 26 – At Sea – Crossed Dateline – Jan 29th GONE!
- Day 25 – Alofi, Niue
- Day 24, At Sea
- Day 23, Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
- Day 22 – At Sea
- Day 21, Bora Bora, French Polynesia
- Day 20, Mooera, French Polynesia
- Day 19, Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia
- Day 18, Avatoru, Rangiroa, French Polynesia
- Day 17, At Sea
- Day 16, Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia
- Day 15, At Sea – Enroute to Nuku Hiva
- Day 14, At Sea, Enroute to Nuku Hiva
- Day 13, At Sea – Enroute to Nuku Hiva
- Day 12, At Sea
- Day 11, At Sea
- Day 10, At Sea
- Day 9, At Sea
- Day 8, At Sea
- Day 7, Fuerte Amador, Panama
- Day 6, Transit the Panama Canal
- Day 5, Puerto Limon, Costa Rica
- Day 4, At Sea En Route Puerto Limon (San Jose), Costa Rica
- Day 3, Georgetown, Grand Cayman
- Day 2 – Our First Sea Day – Abba Fabulous!
- Day 1 – The Adventure Begins
- Fort Lauderdale – Day 2
- Arriving in Fort Lauderdale and our first day
- Leaving San Diego for Fort Lauderdale
- The Journey Begins – The 2018 Grand World Voyage
Arriving Fort Lauderdale
Low clouds, poor visibility and sitting on the left side of the airplane, made it impossible to see any of the cruise ships that were in Port Everglades as we were landing on our Delta flight around 8:30 am this morning.
The view from our plane while landing: poor visibility and low clouds over Port Everglades
Our connection in Atlanta was flawless – but we shuddered thinking about the unfortunate people who suffered thru that power outage a few weeks back. Can you imagine heading to a cruise only to be caught up in that mess? Horrors!
I did discover on this flight that my Windows 10 laptop could be used to create a mobile hotspot that allowed me to share my GoGo inflight WiFi connection with Judy without a second logon required. Nice, and it seemed to make a better connection than the HooToo I normally used for this purpose. You will find more information on my blog under World Cruise Reference – Cruising Tips and Tricks
I have started a new page on the blog to collect all my information about various ports along with links to other sites with useful information. Information on Port Everglades can be found HERE
Traveling Light? Not today!
Once off the plane we headed down to baggage claim to collect our 5 checked bags. At the bottom of the escalator that takes you into the baggage claim area, we spotted some empty kioks for Carnival Cruise and for Celebrity. No one was hanging around for Holland America passengers so I assumed that the people who bought HAL transfers were on other flights.
On the way to our specific baggage claim area we noticed that baggage carts were available for rent and we were ready to get a couple when I spotted a porter with a very large luggage cart. Hiring the porter would be so much easier than dealing with our bags ourselves so we arranged for him to follow us to our specific baggage claim and help us with our bags.
It was nice to have some help with our bags
All of our bags arrived in the first wave of bags and in a few minutes, we were outside the terminal – still under cover – by the taxi line. There wasn’t any line and the dispatcher summoned a van that would be able to hold all of our luggage. The taxi used a meter and took credit cards. We arrived at the Embassy Suites on 17th Avenue in about 20 minutes with a fare of $15.60 on the meter.
Check in time wasn’t normally until 4PM and since it was only a little after 9 AM we were prepared for a wait. However, a few days ago, Hilton offered us an early check-in option for $25 which I gladly accepted and because of that we were able to check in immediately and were in our room by 9:30 AM.
To recap: Our plane landed at 8:43 and we were in our room in less than 1 hour – that included all the walking, waiting and everything – pretty good day – everything running very smoothly.
The hotel seems to cater to cruise passengers as there was a desk in the lobby selling $9 shuttle trips to the cruise terminals. This is a good price for a single, but if you have 2 or more people, a taxi would probably be less expensive.
After our long night on airplanes and airports, we decided to take a nap and then order in some Italian food from a nearby restaurant called Sarpino’s. The food arrived in less than 1 hour and was very good.
We will relax for the rest of the evening in our room and spend tomorrow checking on everything we packed and probably stop by a few local stores.