Disembarkation - Ft. Lauderdale

I was awake early ... feeling a little concerned about how the disembarkation process would go from the dock given that we didn't have a Viking transfer. We wanted to order an Uber ... but sometimes the pick up and drop of spots can be tricky. My anxious mind was wondering how it would all fall into place. However, my worries were for naught. Everything moved as slick as a whistle! Viking does everything with style and grace. I can see why people enjoy this cruise line. They are so organized. I even had to take a picture of all the bags ... in color-coded sections in the terminal. It was really amazing to see how it was all managed.

We skipped all of that though ... because we didn't have any checked bags. So we were one of the first off the ship and escorted right to the pick up spot for Uber. Scott was there ... a very amiable and gregarious man who had moved to Ft. lauderdale from Boston. He works a couple days a week and then enjoys all that Ft. lauderdale has to offer.

We arrived at our hotel ... rated 9.2 on the Booking.com site. And, the office was not yet open. It looked a bit run down. I wondered if I had made an error in picking this place. But ... fortunately ... the wifi password was posted on the office door, so I took advantage and got all caught up with my Find Penguins postings. And, while were were doing that ... another guest informed us that they come back here year after year because the owner, Tony, does such a great job of meeting all the needs of his patrons.

We couldn't access our room so Tony armed us with a map and a few great suggestions. He indicated we could take the 'hop-on/hop -off' water taxi and sail through the canals to wherever we wanted to go. It was an excellent suggestion. For $30USD each we could ride all day and hit a few of the spots that he recommended. I had no idea that Ft.Lauderdale is deemed the "Venice of America" because it has roughly 200 miles of canals!!

And, most astoundingly, these canals are lined with multi-million dollar mansions. It was fun to listen to the entertaining narrative provided by the water taxi staff! Quite fascinating to learn the 'who's who' of this area. And, parked in front of each of the properties were incredible yachts! The capital invested into material possessions here is absolutely staggering to consider!

We enjoyed a great Mexican meal (along with a fantastic margarita) at El Camino. It was almost too hot to sit on the their patio but we figured we should enjoy every minute of the heat we can before we head home to snow and cold! Then, we hailed another yellow boat ... thinking it was our river taxi ... only to learn it was the FREE river trolley that is sponsored by the government to assist the locals and tourists to navigate all the waterways. It was enjoyable to see a bit more of the magnificent homes that the 'working millionaires' are living in.

We decided to get off at a stop by the 'Galleria Mall' ... thinking we could get a Christmas Ornament from here to complete our collection for this trip. But .... turned out all we found was a couple bottles of delicious white wine to take back to the room! We are hoping we can find a momento of Ft. Lauderdale at the airport. If not, we might just craft our water taxi tickets into ornaments we can add to the tree in the years to come.

We finished off the evening with a fabulous meal at Casablance! The line was so long that we were considering going elsewhere but the couple in front of us insisted it was worth the wait! And it was!! the old boy had the grouper and I had the sea bass. Oh my gosh ... one of the best meals we have had over this entire trip! With our bellies full ... we called it a great day ... and drifted off to sleep.Read more