Once fellow passengers find out we’ve been on the ship for more than one cruise, we are often asked:
“Do you have to get off?” Yes and no.
“Pack your stuff?” No.
“Change cabins?” No. (Careful planning on my part.)
On turnaround days (as they’re called by the crew), ships must disembark all guests and have a zero passenger count before letting on the next round of passengers. We do have to get off the ship to present ourselves to Customs and Border Protection, but then we can right back on.
It always amazed us that “all passengers should now proceed to the gangway” (which really means your vacation is over, get the heck off this ship and go home) would always be ignored by a handful of passengers.
While in going in and out of Miami we did not go into town, so presenting to Customs would take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes depending on how long it took for security to find those last passengers and escort them off.
In Ft. Lauderdale a few places are walking distance from the pier, so we hoof it over to the Publix for Marc’s Diet Coke and more sunscreen and then head to an internet café for some much-needed high speed internet.
Last turnaround day, we learned that our good friends Barb & Tony Shelton from Cruise One were going to be in Ft. Lauderdale for the inaugural of the new Celebrity Solstice.
They were nice enough to leave the parties & open bars aboard to meet us for lunch at a local restaurant. Although we’ve only been gone for two months, it sure was nice to visit with old friends. (It’s not hard to strike up a conversation with anyone here on the ship, but it just isn’t the same.) We really appreciate them making the effort to come and see us.
Barb & Tony are back at work now, so if our blog has inspired you to take a cruise yourself, please give them a call or visit their website.
Tell them we sent you!
{ 2 comments }
That was interesting.
Wish we could see you at a port. Looks like fun and we are all lerning a lot getting to cruise with you on the blog here.
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