Christmas Magic: Debarkation
It’s debarkation morning. I usually try to work my schedule where I don’t have to rush off of the ship. I booked a late flight so I can have a relaxing morning.
Carnival requests that you be out of the room by 8:30 so that’s what I try to do.
I woke up at 7:15 with them calling decks 2, 11, & 12 self assist. That is people on those decks who are carrying off all of their luggage.
On my recent cruises on ships with the auto light shutoff in the rooms, they’ve had a white card in the slot already to keep the lights on. That wasn’t the case on this ship, so I’d like to thank DJ Que for keeping the lights on all week.
For comedy I thought Jaylyn Bishop and Azeem were both good. I’ll say Azeem is a bit graphic and will use audience members that are close to the stage so if you’re easily offended I wouldn’t go. If you don’t want the comedian talking to you, don’t sit up front.
I have done five day cruises and seven day cruises but this was my first six day cruise. On five day cruises you have only two comedians where on seven day cruises you have four.
I will say this seemed more like a longer five day cruise than it did a shorter seven day cruise. We only had two comedians and only got to see three of the four production shows they have on this ship.
On five and seven day cruises you would typically have just one night without comedy. In this case we had two nights without comedy. In general I would say six days is always better than five, but I think you get a better entertainment value out of that seventh day if you can get it.
At 7:40 Simon, our Cruise Director, announces the port is very busy and they won’t be letting anyone else off the ship at this time.
At 8:00 Simon asks, in a nice way, for people to stop coming down to the gangway.
At 8:15 Simon calls decks 1 and 10 self assist.
I should mention that Fred, my cold sore, is dead. I give abreva my full endorsement for quickly taking care of that issue.
I really didn’t have a problem with it starting on embarkation day but in Grand Turk it started to bleed a little after I got out of the water. That was my only issue the entire week.
8:30 I’m checking out of the room. They called deck 9 self assist as I was heading out.
At 8:45 Simon says they’re backed up again. They won’t be calling anymore decks for now.
I moved out to the Lido deck buffet with my traditional debarkation day breakfast. I remembered ketchup this time.
9:00 Simon says don’t come down. They will be reopening the lines in five minutes but the atrium is very crowded and they want to clear it before anyone else comes down.
I finished breakfast and moved outside with a cup of coffee.
I have to wonder if AT&T is just bad here or if everything is bad here. Normally I would be using my AT&T unlimited data for as long as I could in New Orleans and Galveston.
I noticed on embarkation day I had to switch to the Magic WiFi immediately. Again today I tried to switch to my AT&T but the Magic WiFi is faster.
In New Orleans I’m on my AT&T until around 11pm the first night then I’m back on it around that time the last night and it’s a lot better than the ship WiFi.
Sky Princess
I forgot to pack a pair of jeans of jeans last night. They were on the little stool under the desk with two Carnival towels stacked on them. They won’t fit in my carry on so I’m just carrying them around here. I’m going to have to cramorjam them into my suitcase before I go to the airport.
Downtown Fort Lauderdale.
At 9:25 they call deck 8 self assist and luggage tags 1-10. I have luggage tag 8 so technically I can get off the ship now. I’m going to hold off since I have the later flight and no plans. I’m not in a hurry to add a suitcase to what I’m already carrying and just stand in line.
Let’s change up the view a little.
9:48 Simon says they’ve been told to stop the line again. He encourages people to put their long debarkation wait on their surveys.
Party in the city where the heat is on
All night, on the beach till the break of dawn?
For anyone that didn’t get that it was my code speculating that picture is of Miami–In Will Smith lyrics.
I’m heading back inside for a third cup or coffee. I think I should start checking Uber/Lyft prices. This is the worst planned day you’ll ever see from me.
The people who took higher luggage tag numbers thinking “we don’t need to be off until 9:30” learned a valuable lesson today as we are after 10am and they haven’t called any tags over 10 or self assist for decks 6-7. I think I missed when they called decks 3-5 for self assist but they did call them.
10:25 Simon calls all decks for self assist and luggage tags 11-15.
At 10:33 They call luggage tags 16-20. At 10:45 they call all tags.
Now this is a Mongolian Wok I can eat at. Everything is fresh, covered, untainted. You just need to be first on the ship to get to it.
Speaking of tainted. I just came from the bathroom which is grand central station and everyone has bags. Out of about 10 people I was the only one to wash my hands. The guy who came out of the stall did sprinkle a little water and shake it off.
I don’t care if you don’t pee on your hands. If you touch anything in your pants you should wash your hands before you touch anything I’m going to touch.
10:57 I’m heading down from Lido deck.
It looks like I’ve got AT&T now that I’m off the ship. It’s almost like they’re blocking it on board.
When I got off of the ramp and into the building I lost AT&T again. Then I remembered this building has free WiFi.
At 11:30 I had my suitcase. The port WiFi became as useless as AT&T.
I’m going to estimate there are 1,000 people in line in front of me. Perhaps I should’ve stayed on the ship a touch longer.
I don’t know if this is the norm around here but it is one of my worst debarkations.
We are going back to the Freedom-Belize debacle of 2017 in Galveston. I know that doesn’t sound like long ago but I have had six cruises between that one and this one. I think I got off the ship at 11 that day. I was told the delay was due to luggage checks on ships that visit Belize but I did not have such a delay on my Dream and Breeze cruises that went to Belize.
I can’t get any kind of internet to load a page so I can’t even look at an Uber/Lyft situation right now.
I made it to customs at 11:48 and was through right at noon. I’m at the point in the garage where the embarkers and debarkers cross each other.
Here’s the line of shuttles.
Walk down to the end of that and you can see the entrance.
AT&T works great in the garage.
It looks like prices have gone down.
The Uber pickup area is on the opposite side from where the shuttle drop off is so coming out of the building it’s straight ahead instead of left (like I went).
It’s a 20 minute wait for an Uber. I paid $9.09.
The Uber driver calls and asks how to get to me. Heck If I know. Once he’s in this garage I can tell him.
He went from 7 minutes away to 25 minutes away.
It looks like my Uber is entering the garage at 12:45.
I’m glad I used the bathroom before I got off of the ship.
We made it to the airport.
This I don’t understand. Is it because it took so long? I can’t even go in and add a tip for the driver. It’s like the ride never happened. Two days later they charged my card $2 over the price I originally paid.
Lines, lines, more lines.
I’m checked in and going through security. The line isn’t bad.
I just had my first body scan. I hope it was good for them. If TSA wants to grab an eyeful I say enjoy the show.
Not my plane but probably something like it.
I decided to eat Steak ‘n Shake and then find a bar.
The prices aren’t too bad for an airport. A can of beer would’ve been 8.50 though.
That soda is about the best deal you’re going to find in an airport. 32 oz souvenir cup and a soda fountain where you can refill it. Not bad if you’re going to be in the terminal for awhile. It would’ve made a wise investment for Tom Hanks.
The flight was interesting. Last time I got a little nervous taking off and talking to the people next to me helped. In this case I go to sit down and the girl next to me is on the phone speaking Spanish all the way up until we have to turn everything off. Great. I was afraid to ask if she spoke English or not. I don’t want to offend anyone. Then about 3/4 through the flight she had to go to the bathroom and I found out she does speak English.
Then there was this guy got up and started doing calisthenics in the middle of the plane. He moves back to the row that is bigger because of exit rows and just starts stretching his legs and jogging in place. Finally I realize he’s waiting for someone to come out of the bathroom. But then on the way back he stops there again and puts his hands on his hips and starts moving his waist side to side. Then he stretches the legs more. He even started jogging in place a little. It was a good 10 minutes before he sat down.
Then there was the rule breaker in the seat with extra leg room. Thinks he owns the plane. Got his shoes off. With his nasty feet out. He got seatbelt unbuckled. Ignores the flight attendant orders to buckle. looks like he’s wearing a shirt to go deer hunting when we land. Turns out it’s to ride a bicycle because when he pulled his huge backpack out of the overhead compartment it had a bicycle helmet attached to it that nearly hit me in the head. You probably think I make this stuff up.
I wasn’t prepared for it to be 49 degrees when I got back. It was 75 when I left Dallas.
That about covers debarkation and the trip back. Next I’m going to do a full review of the hotel in Fort Lauderdale. Then we’re off to Los Angeles for the Carnival Panorama!
