Emerald Princess Cruise, December 2010, Day 10

Disembarkation

We arrived at Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades just before dawn and it was cold. In the low 50s, possibly high 40s. We had an early breakfast in the Da Vinci dining room and went to Club Fusion to wait for our disembarkation group to be called. Our luggage tag color was Brown 3 and we were told we'd be off the ship by 8:30. The first two groups were called on time then nothing -- for more than 30 minutes.

We were finally called almost 40 minutes late. From then on there were no problems. We found our bags and a porter. He got us past customs fast. He simply cut into the head of the line of people waiting at passport control. He saved us at least ten or fifteen minutes and I tipped him well. When we got to the sidewalk the van to the parking lot was waiting and we were in our car ten minutes later.

We headed north up Florida's Turnpike until we joined I-75. As soon as we got to Ocala we went cross country and avoided the worst parts of I-75 and I-10. We drove nearly 400 miles to Perry and the Holiday Inn Express there. Wow, it was cold in Perry. The smoke alarm at the hotel kept going off (very loud) and we were unhappy. Lucky for us, and for them, the final false alarm was at 9:30 P.M. and not again after. So we slept well.