Spain To Miami Transatlantic Cruise – 2009

Another sunny morning greeted us when we awoke. The sun had not yet risen, so off it was off to the stern of the ship for sunrise pictures, the first of the crossing.

Sunrise – Transatlantic Day 6

After getting some coffee and hot chocolate to have in the room, we got ready to go to breakfast.

The plan for today was just like the last few, relax out by the pool for most of the day. We are both a little under the weather, although our colds are not too bad. As an update to last night’s plan to go and watch the meteor shower, we went up to one of the upper decks, trying to get away from the ever present background lights on the ship’s decks. It was a bit cool, mainly due to the winds. We laid on deck chairs for about 20 minutes, but we did not see anything. Then, some clouds appeared, so we just called it a night, thinking it was not a good idea for us to be out in the cool night air with our slight colds.

After breakfast in the buffet, we headed back to the room for sunscreen, and then headed to the pool deck. Initially, it was quite hot; the wind was directly from the stern, but blowing less than the speed of the ship, so there was only a slight relative wind from the bow. Around noon, a few showers popped up, and we went through one that was fairly heavy rain. It was interesting to be able to see the showers forming, and then approaching as we headed in their direction. They were not large, but you could clearly see them approaching from out on the horizon.

We had to wait to go to lunch because as soon as the heavier rain shower started, everyone seemed to head in for lunch at the same time to avoid getting wet. We did not want to get involved with that crowd, so we went later at about 1:00 pm. After lunch, it was back out to the sunny pool deck.

Later in the afternoon, we headed down to the pool bar for a couple of beers, and to get out of the hot sun for a little while. As the sun started to get lower, and a few more clouds formed, it was cool enough to have our daily hot tub session. One of the issues we have been dealing with is all of the European parents who don’t seem to be able to read the signs, or care about letting their young children into the hot tubs. There is one group of German’s that uses one of the larger hot tubs as a heated pool for their very young children. There are signs clearly posted about not letting children into the tubs with swim diapers, or, children too small to be totally potty trained. It is clearly a health issue, but this same group does it every day. It is hard for us to understand how they do not realize it is unsanitary, regardless of any signage. I guess they do not come from areas where hot tubs or pools are prevalent, maybe they just don’t think about it. I am disappointed that the cruise line does not say something to them. It is one thing to break rules that do not impact others, or others’ health. It is different when health concerns are at risk, not to mention that the hot tubs can be pretty hot, and that is probably not good for the young kids anyway.

We went back to the room and had a drink and played cards on the balcony until it was time to go and see the sunset. We went to the bow of the ship, but by the time we got there, the sun was already behind some of the clouds. It was not a very good sunset for pictures, so it was back to the room to get ready for dinner. Once again, there was nothing on the dining room menu that perked our interest enough to go through the effort of going to the dining room, so once again, we went to the buffet.

We had decided to spend some time tonight packing so we do not have to do it tomorrow night, which will be our last night on the ship. Plus, we were still feeling a little bit under the weather, and today Stephanie seems a little worse than me. I think she is about one day behind me, I felt better today than yesterday. When we got back to the room, our cabin steward, Anna, had made us a towel monkey, and it was hanging in the room.

Towel Monkey Made By Room Steward

Tomorrow, we will be arriving in Nassau at about 9:00 am. We are going into town to visit a couple of sights that are within walking distance of the pier. We are planning to go to The Queen’s Staircase, Fort Fincastle, and the Water Tower, all of which are close to each other, and just a few blocks from the pier.

Well, we are back in the USA this morning, good to be here, but it also signals the end of the cruise.

The ship was scheduled to dock at 4:30 am this morning, apparently due to the fact that all of the crew members need to go through immigration prior to the passengers being allowed to depart.  At least, this was the explanation given to us by the Captain when we left Nassau yesterday evening.   It was another sunny morning, and we had the alarm set for a 5:45 am  in order to finish packing and get some breakfast before we were scheduled to get off the ship with the “Express Departure”, where you take all of your luggage off the ship yourself, and are supposed to be off the quickest. We had car rental reservations at the Downtown Miami Hertz office, and there was a free Hertz shuttle between the port and that office.

Early Morning Skyline – Miami

The express departure instructions told us to be in the “Studio B “area, which is the ice skating show rink on Deck 3, between 6:30 and 6:45 am.  We had a little difficulty getting an elevator to go from our deck (8) to deck 3, there were many other passengers going to the express departure, and you can’t get many folks and their luggage on an elevator at the same time.  We finally made it there, and then the fun really began.

There was nothing “express” about getting off of the ship, although to be fair, I believe it was due more to the U.S. Customs set-up at the Port of Miami, than the cruise line.  There were apparently some significant delays in the whole process, we did not get off of the ship until about 8:30 am, only to then stand in another line outsider of the ship, waiting to go through Customs.

What made the whole process worse was that the groups scheduled to be in the same waiting areas as we used for our Early Departure group started showing up at their designated time, but due to the delays, we were still there.  I believe there ended up being at least 2-3 additional groups in our waiting area before we actually were called to get off the ship.  The biggest problem was that we needed to be on Deck 4 to get off of the ship, but they queued us on Deck 3, meaning we either had to carry all of our luggage  up a flight of stairs, or take an elevator.  There were probably 300 people trying to get out with the express departure, all with at least one large suitcase apiece.  Of course, by this time, most people were a little impatient, some trying to make flights at the Miami Airport, others like us trying to get to the rental car agencies.  Once we got to Deck 4, we again waited another 10-15 minutes only to  go wait in another line to go through Customs.  It appeared that there were only 3 or 4 custom’s agents working and the lines were long.  There were no separate lines for USA versus Foreign travelers, everyone went through the same Custom’s processing.  At least they did the immigration and customs at the same time.  Finally, we were off of the ship and through Customs at about 8:55 am, after having been in the waiting area since 6:40 am.  That was the longest it has ever taken for us to get off of a ship.  By the time our “express” group got off of the ship, there were regular scheduled groups also disembarking.   We really got no advantage using the express departure, it only meant we had to tote our luggage around for 2 hours instead it it being already off the ship for us to claim.  It almost seemed like the system was set up to discourage this process, more than to encourage it.  What was most disappointing was that there were non-express regular departure groups waiting in the dining room on Deck 4, and they only had small carry-on luggage, their larger luggage was taken off by the staff.  We had been told to wait in our area on Deck 3, with all of our luggage, and then having to go up to Deck 4 with the luggage to disembark the ship.  We were not sure why the cruise line would not put the express departure folks on Deck 4 to avoid them having to go up a deck on the ship to get to the gangway, with all of the luggage in tow.

Once out of customs and immigration, we asked one of the attendants outside about the Hertz Shuttle, and he told us where to wait, and that it ran every 15 minutes.  He also was going to call and make sure it was on the way.  Five minutes later, the shuttle was here, and we were aboard heading to the Downtown local Hertz Office about a mile away.  Unfortunately, there is no rental car service at the port itself.

We had no issue renting the car, that process went very smoothly.  We were planning on driving by the house I grew up in, located in the Perrine/Kendall area of Miami.  We took the scenic route through Coconut Grove, and down Old Cutler.  It all seemed a little familiar, but not enough to do without some guidance from our Google Map.  Once we were close to the old neighborhood, it was more familiar to me, but when we actually got to my street, all of the houses looked different, they all seemed smaller, and of course, older.  It looked nothing like I remembered, either from growing up, or from being there about 10 years ago.  We took pictures of the neighborhood, and of the old house.   Of course, no one I knew while I was growing up there still lives in the neighborhood, but I wanted Stephanie to see it.  After the experience, I doubt I will ever go back, it was just too different, and nothing really looked familiar, more like the opposite, very unfamiliar.

After that, we drove out of the area and headed for Interstate 95 for the long drive home.  It was nice to get back home, sleep in a larger, more comfortable bed, and have a nice large bathroom.  We unpacked, and just took it easy, other than starting some laundry.

At least we have Sunday to rest up before going back to work on Monday.

Again, we will be making some updates to the posts, probably adding a little more detail, certainly more pictures, and then adding a photo gallery. It will probably take a few weeks to get this all done.

Hope everyone enjoyed following the trip along with us as we traveled.

Chuck & Stephanie