The trip, from the top. We were in Ft. Lauderdale a day early having driven over from our home in Okeechobee, FL. When we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, it was past noon, so we went over to the shopping center off 17th and had lunch at Duffy's Sports Grill. A nice place to visit, as we don't have one in Okeechobee. For the night, we stayed at a little place in Ft. Lauderdale Beach called the Harbor Beach Inn, across from the beach. After we checked in to this really pretty little boutique hotel (that was spotlessly clean, freshly painted, and the room was really a suite with a little kitchen space) we walked down the street a ways to the beach access and walked to the breakwater where the ship channel hits the beach. We sat there on the rocks in the failing light and watched the Saturday departures, including Oasis just before it got dark. Then we walked in the sand, all the way back to the hotel. A nice evening.

Sunday we went over to Lesters Diner, on 84 for breakfast (a favorite place for me) and then drove around a bit. We hit the Park and Go at the cruise port at 9:45 and took the shuttle to the dock. Park and Go is generally about half the cost of parking at the pier, and the guys there load and unload the bags for you, and took just two couples in their little bus, up to the door of the departure gate.

The wait to get in was very short. We generally walked straight to the counter, after the short security check, where they never bothered to check the bottle of wine I had in my backpack. We got our Sea Passes, and filled out the paperwork, and then we sent upstairs to the waiting area. As we are Gold level members, we had to wait a little while to get on-board, but maybe only 30 minutes or so, but we did get on well before the first time cruisers, and because we had arrived early, we were about the 5th couple in line when the 'golds' got on-board. Read more