European Summer

Another early morning as we needed to disembark the M.S. Rotterdam at 8am. We met with D at the Dutch cafe, followed by a trip up to deck 9 for breakfast at the buffet. M&T joined us for a last quick visit as we waited to disembark. There seemed to be some regulation mis-coordination, and we weren’t able to leave the ship on time. We eventually found our luggage and the bus terminal for our local day excursion, followed by an airport drop off.

We headed west of Ft Lauderdale to the Everglades Holiday Park for an air boat ride, and to see a crocodile show. Our hostess was a bit too engaging on the bus, and was excited to educate us with facts on Florida, mostly reading a Wikipedia page with intermittent microphone issues 🙄. I wasn’t sure what to expect upon our arrival, but wasn’t surprised at the reality. I guess I figured we’d be in a more natural setting, something similar to what you see in the movies with mossy trees and narrow waterways. The reality was drudged canals with lock systems through open grasslands. The boat engines were also ridiculously loud when the operator opened up the throttle on wide stretches of water. We did see a plethora of birds, inclusive of turkey vultures, and fauna that had grown since the days of the Army Engineers attempts to drain the region. Alas, their attempts to drain the swamps failed as it is actually a very slow moving river 🙃 We also saw a couple of large wild crocodiles. We were informed there is a State Law forbidding the feeding of the crocodiles, but the reptiles were pretty quick to head to the boats 🤔

Once back at the dock we were whisked over to the Crocodile show. Unfortunately the facility wasn’t paying much attention to the number of seats available in the stands, so many had to stand or didn't stay. The show was educational, but the host definitely had limited material and used his Beyoncé "put a ring in it" punch line too much. We were then usher through the zoo area with various animals displayed, then into the gift shop. All in all, a unique experience, but disappointing too.

As our hostess is a grade school teacher, we got to enjoy a pop quiz on the previous bus ride trivial facts, followed by endless jokes 😫 We were happy to get to the airport, only to have to wait 4 hours till we could drop off our luggage and have our passports verified for the flight to Victoria, BC.Read more