February 4, 2014

February 4
 

We got up about 6:30 a.m. got dressed to go for breakfast in the dining room, since there is no rush since we only need to check-out of the stateroom at 8 a.m.  Our group of forty is instructed to meet in Rendez-vous Square on Deck 6 at 9 a.m. to wait for disembarkation together then take our chartered bus to Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood airport. Before going to the dining room, we went out on deck 6 to guess the temperature, about 23 C and we were about 15 minutes from docking at Port Everglades. We were seated with a couple from Cincinnati, Ohio. While eating breakfast the ship docked. After breakfast we went to decks 11 and 12 to take pictures of the Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, Florida surroundings.  We could see planes taking off not far away, perhaps as close as we were to the San Diego airport from our downtown San Diego hotel.  We returned to the stateroom to gather our carry-on luggage and went to Rendez-vous Square by 8 a.m., where half of the group was already seated.  We sat and chatted with our group members. An announcement was broadcast that there was a delay in processing people through U.S. Customs.  Our host made a head count at 9 and checked that we all had completed our green U.S. Homeland Security form.  Our disembarkation number was called at 9:35 with instructions to go to the deck 6 gangway and joined a line that took 20 minutes to get down the gangway to the terminal.  As we entered the terminal, Canadians were told to destroy the green form and given white U.S. Homeland Security forms, then diverted to chairs to complete the form before we could continue to collect their luggage and proceed to lines for U.S. Customs interviews.  It took about an hour, since none of this pier’s four U.S. Customs booths were computerized.  About 300 people per hour were interviewed. There were 1850 passengers as well as some crew members at the end of their contracts also leaving. While in the zig-zag line one of the other passengers passing us looked at us and commented that there just needed to be some music and you two could dance for us.  She said that she looked forward to watching us dance during the cruise. The warehouse was warm and the occasional breeze from the open doors was welcome. Finally we passed through U.S. Customs and were outside into 26 C sunny weather with a gentle breeze and our air-conditioned bus was waiting, the driver was a bit exasperated from his 90 minute wait.  It was good to sit down, then we discovered that the bus also had Wi-Fi and sent a quick email home to say we would be home in about ten hours. All 40 of the group were seated and the bus was on its way to Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood airport which was just ten minutes away from the port. We arrived at 11:40 a.m. for our 1:35 p.m. flight with 12:50 p.m. boarding time. We lined up again to go to three Air Canada kiosks to electronically get our boarding passes and get our luggage checked in and then go through airport security. Fortunately, there were Air Canada agents to assist people at the kiosk as well as one of our hosts, Brendene, but the process still took almost an hour.  Our group all boarded and the plane took off early at 1:32 for the three hour flight to Toronto.  A Canadian Customs form was given to passengers to complete during the flight, our purchases combined totaled less than $600. The Duty Free limit per person is $800.  The temperature was -8 when we landed in Toronto.  It took about an hour to deplane, stand in line for Canadian Customs, claim our luggage, clear Canadian Customs, then find the connecting flights passageway, line up again for airport security and finally arrive at the departure lounge and look for a restaurant for a snack.  We elected to have a sandwich and coffee at Tim Hortons, which we were eating by 5:30 then returned to the departure lounge for the 6:30 boarding call. While waiting Larry connected to the airport Wi-Fi and was able to upload the last 14 days entries for the blog as well as send a quick email home with our arrival time. The flight was about two hours and the temperature was around - 20 C in Winnipeg when landed.  It was a terrific cruise and we enjoyed the warm places that we visited, but it was great to be home. We are looking forward to our winter activities, skating on the rivers, snowshoeing and curling.