Jan
6
Port Everglades, Florida
Filed under Panama Canal 2009
11:46AM
Miami International Airport
I had breakfast up in the Horizon Court buffet at 7am this morning. We were already docked in Port Everglades. When I returned to the room to gather my things, I was met with a sad notice. Our door name tag had been removed and replaced with that of our room’s next occupants who will board the Coral Princess this afternoon. Our steward was already cleaning the cabins that had been vacated earlier this morning.
We sat around the Provence Dining Room for probably 40 minutes before we finally were notified that it was our turn to disembark. While waiting, we sat at a table with a couple and their two young daughters. Dad pointed out to me that the older, 5-year-old was the girl who had gone on stage during the comedy magician’s act and assisted him much to our humorous delight. I’d taken some good photos of her and told the mother who was so excited to hear this because that was the one evening she didn’t bring her camera along. I gave her my card so she could contact me for the images.
When we departed the ship in Vancouver on our last cruise, we didn’t meet our bags until reaching the airport. Here, we met them right off the ship because U.S. Customs was the first thing we encountered rather than at the airport. After breezing through security with our declarations, we boarded a coach bus for the 40-minute ride to MIA. Talk about a bad airport, despite it being nominated the best by the TSA in 2008. American Airlines was all over the place, and we had to keep going from one check-in area to another to find one servicing our flight through Chicago.
While we were sitting at our flight gate, waiting for our plane to arrive, I looked out the window across the aisle and asked myself, “Are we moving yet?” Quickly I realized that we are no longer on a ship waiting to leave port. I keep looking around for familiar faces from the past two weeks, but I don’t see any. It’s sad. Although I didn’t get to know too many people closely, it’s disappointing to leave my fellow passengers.
As we flew over Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, I looked down below and found the Coral Princess docked at pier two. I kept it in my vision for as long as I could, my final farewell. Back in Minneapolis, our van’s thermometer read 22°. I made a comment of being in the same temperature that morning, except it was in centigrade. *sigh*
8:32PM
Minneapolis
I told Dad that I’m glad we were on the same ship as from five months ago. The same surroundings and even some of the same crew have made the Coral Princess feel like home. I gave my business card out to a few of our fellow diners and some of the crew, so hopefully I will remain in contact with them for awhile to make the memories last a little longer.
So now it’s time once again to say thank you for reading! Please bookmark katsinger.com, my daily photoblog, as I’ll start posting photos from this trip. And if you haven’t checked Flickr recently, I’ve posted more photos in my Panama Canal Cruise set, specifically from Aruba.
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Am enjoying the travelogue and pictures very much. It has been pleasantly warm here, in the 50′s, but now is down to 21 and to be colder tonight. Lucky you. Keep having a good time. Alice Clapsaddle
Thanks for reading, Alice! My parents are back in KS and told me of the dipping weather there.