Veendam cruise 4-21-17 15 nights FLL – Montreal. Long and detailed. Skip to the conclusion if you only want the summary.
Getting to Florida to day before the cruise proved to be full of adventure. Our Southwest flight left the gate early, only to turn around on the taxiway due to an ill passenger. They ended up being removed from the plane by paramedics. By that time, the runways were backed up and we were #10 for departure. We ended up arriving in FLL an hour behind schedule.
Good friends from a previous cruise picked us up at the airport and we enjoyed a wonderful German dinner at the Old Heidelberg Restaurant. After a great dinner they dropped us at our hotel, the Hampton Inn Fort Lauderdale cruise port north. The hotel is right next to a shopping area so if we find we need anything in the morning it is convenient. When checking in they offered us a transfer to the cruise port for $6/pp. Even Uber would be more than that so we signed up for the 10:30 departure.