It’s been an eventful day and it seems we can’t catch much of a break.
The day started early as we were told to be prepared to go off the ship around 7am to go through immigration so we were up at 6:15 for breakfast and collected our ticket for immigration just after 7am. Eventually, at 10:30, we finally got called and went thru immigration and there were an awful lot of unhappy passengers and we know many that have or will be putting in formal letters of complaint. It is the lack of information, or information that is incorrect or gets contradicted, that is causing the most annoyance.
We had a tour booked at 1pm so it really only allowed us time for the 20 min walk to local shops for drink, food and a look around (we were not allowed the take any food or drink ashore). We did manage to pick up some water and a bagel as well as our first real sight of Fort Lauderdale.
We got back to the ship area at 12:30 and there were long queues for the shuttle bus into town. Some had been waiting well over an hour, in sunny 25c heat, and unfortunately we saw one person had collapsed and medics had to be called. Later on we were told by others he suffered from heatstroke. It was hard as no-one was allowed back on the ship for 6hrs (whilst it was deep cleaned) and there was next to nothing locally, or in the terminal, so for many it was the shuttle, grab a taxi or sit around for hours.
We left the shuttle queue in the distance as we departed for our ship tour “The Everglades Adventure” at 1pm. We had a 30min coach ride to port Everglades holiday park to be greeted by these….
When we arrived we had an airboat tour but as we were queuing to board, the heavens opened up and we were all soaked in the falling rain that decided to descend at the worst time. Our airboat had a covered roof which protected us but gave us limited visibility especially as we had middle seats. Mark basically saw vultures, other birds, many plants and an Iguana. In addition, Pam said she did spot an alligator- it was small though. It was a nice experience but people really wanted to see alligators and most didn’t - them are the breaks! Didn't manage to get any decent pics unfortunately.
We then saw a very enjoyable and entertaining alligator show. The presenter was funny and very informative and we saw lots of very tame alligators up close (well behind glass but you get the picture and if you don’t here they are)!
Afterwards was the absolute highlight for Pamela. She got to hold a baby alligator. Mark declined saying he would wait for the furry wildlife later in the trip. Apparently, according to Pam, baby alligators are very soft and very easy to hold but don’t hold it too tight as they can poo on you, but she loved it. She also got a nice free souvenir picture.
Before we left, we saw more wildlife - no idea what they are though. Then it was back to the ship. Arriving back at 4pm we know we had to do something as boarding would not start for at least an hour and we had until 8:30pm to be back onboard. We grabbed a taxi and found the main beach boulevard (las olas) and Mark at least managed to dip a toe in the Atlantic Ocean.
Getting back onboard was continued confusion and misinformation but at least it took only about an hour. We finished the day with some food and an early night. No shows or entertainment for us tonight though the Captain did broadcast a message in which he tried to explain why things went wrong again today but we thought it was a case of trying to deflect blame and whilst some reasons were understandable others, such as the long queues for shuttles in the sun with no shelter, organisation or water, cannot be dismissed with the response of we asked for more buses but the company had a driver shortage.
コメント