My 3 biggest concerns about this trip were coming to a head at this port.
1. Getting my group of 13 through American Immigration
2. Pinnacle our chosen tour operator
3. Will there be enough time for shopping..... eek!!
With all the terrible stories we had heard about trying to get through immigration quickly had me really worried about what time we could get off the ship. We combined our group of 13 along with Brian’s group of 8 and another 4 who were hiring a car...... Strength in numbers with this sort of thing works well...
With the help of my favourite Purser Ryan, I managed to secure an early sneak off before the majority were going to be called... All 25 of us gathered at Magnums and on mass invaded the gangway.... with a smile and wave goodbye from Head Purser Angus we were off... First hurdle cleared...
The face to face immigration checks were being carried out in the terminal. Even if you had no plans in Ft Lauderdale every passenger had to disembark off the ship..... No one was allowed back on until everyone dinged off and security had a passenger count of 0 left on the ship.
Being first off we had a clear run straight through... I think we were imagining these stern no nonsense staffers looking for any Australian looking terrorist. It was nothing like that.... although it seemed like after every 10 steps there was someone to greet you with a lovely smile and a “welcome, this way please” Even the officer who kept flicking through my passport several times was telling us how he went to college with Australian’s and how they turned him into an Alcoholic ..... with that he smiled and let us through....... how great was that, we were all ready to rock and roll by 7.30 am..... all we need is a Tour Guide!! Hurdle number two cleared and picking up speed.....
BANG!!!! Who put that brick wall there.... We have had a lot of trouble with Pinnacle right from the beginning.... they were notorious for not answering emails ( not just us but for Brian too ) Well I should clarify that they were very good until they got our money... When they asked for a deposit I was a little apprehensive but decided this is an American company and if you can’t trust them who can you trust... So as discussed on the phone they debited us with 50% deposit.... that was ok until a month later we were deposited with another 50%. After several unsuccessful emails and a phone call we were told that the merchants had made a mistake and they would reverse the second charge... weeks passed and again emails sent to no avail.......... to cut a long story short we were still trying to come to some resolution with them a few days before we left Sydney... but we did get an email saying we had paid in full.
The arrangements were that we would ring them once off the ship and it would only be a six minute wait until they would be there to pick us up. So I rang the office.... just an engaged signal..... tried again and again unsuccessfully..... With a laugh we decided to ring the owner Richard’s mobile...( never answered it before), but hey he answered it..... Informed him that both myself and Brian’s group were ready and waiting......... pregnant pause then “ they will be there shortly “ waiting waiting ...... I must of been looking really stressed as Ros kept coming up and giving me a hug and a pat on the back.... Have I mentioned how much I love Ros!!........ 20 minutes later my phone rings...... this is the driver “I will be there in 20 minutes ......” Ok deep breath, it will be ok...... another 30 minutes pass and finally a driver turns up... He doesn’t work for Pinnacle but is here on their behalf..... Also instead of having a bus each Brian and my tour will be combined. Fell over hurdle 3 but still moving forward.
After a bit of discussion it was decided that he would take us all to the Everglades for the airboat ride first... then take my group to saw grass mills for shopping and the others onto the Flamingo Park.... Then pick them up , pick us up, then back to the ship all before 4pm...
At the Everglades Miguel the driver tell us how much per person we owe and how much Brian’s group owe....... Bang! Wall no number 2..... No Miguel I have paid in full.... see my documentation ... he makes a couple more phone calls... that is ok..... Then they realise what we have paid is not enough.... poor Miguel as he was the only the man in the middle.... over he comes.... cost is really this much and you have only paid this much..... Sorry Miguel, I have an email from Richard saying paid in full.... off he goes again and back on his phone....
He gets our tickets and we all enjoy the airboat ride on the everglades with Captain Bob.... They gave us earplugs and off we went .... Captain Bob told us about the wildlife and the everglade system itself .... we managed to spotto one alligator but we were assured that there were lots of them in there....
Back on shore we walked around their mini zoo where they had a few in captivity and we also had a cuddle of little baby alligator. Arnold and Garry had a moment with a Indian Statue though we had to lend the Indian a pair of sunnies just so he would match the other 2..... Much to our relief our driver Miguel turned up to pick us up..... Tripped over hurdle 4 but we are still on track...
He dropped my group off at Sawgrass Mills and took others to the Flamingo Park..... we all synced our watches, took photo’s of the meeting point and the race was on... who could spend the most in the next 3 hours.....
Oh before I forget... on our way to Sawgrass, Miguel still fielding phone calls about our tour, hands the phone to me and says it is Richard.... I promptly pass it to Garry...... Richard would now like a photo copy of our credit card for his records....... yeah and pigs might fly was basically Garry’s answer... They have had our payment since March with no photocopy required.... even Miguel agreed not to give it to them.... he then informed us that Pinnacle had gone out of business...surprise surprise.... Garry and I decided to cancel our credit card as soon as we were off the bus.... lucky we have back ups...
Now Sawgrass Mills is huge... for those in Sydney, think of Parramatta Westfield , lay each floor next to each other on the same level. Now imagine that you are at the very edge on level 1 and the shop Garry wants is at the every other edge of level No 4........ Benefits is that you get to visit the shops in-between.... considering what was available we didn’t buy a lot as we were so overwhelmed by the variety and also hard knowing which shops would suit our taste.... as I walked in awe all I could think was... the girls would love this..... but we are now more educated for LA and Hawaii.... clipped hurdle no 5 but we can see the finish line....
Lucky for us Miguel still picked us up from the Mall and took us back to the ship.... I have to congratulate poor Miguel as he had a more stressful day than I had had...... and I want to congratulate his company KSG for looking after us..... Even though we swore we would not tip Pinnacle anything We probably tipped Miguel more than anyone on this trip..... I hope he bought himself a stiff drink.... he deserved it.
Up on deck again for our sail away party..... By this time the clouds were looking ominous and no sooner the lines were dropped the captain was full steam ahead to get us out of there.... Garry got some great footage of the lightening storm over Ft Lauderdale as we left them in our wake....
This is where the captain also gave us the news that if we were to proceed to Cartagena we would be on a collision course with Hurricane Emily..... So guess what.... we have an itinerary change..... we don’t even blink an eye lid when we hear this now...... we will change our path and head to Colon , Panama... we will arrive there on Friday at 2pm and stay overnight .... We will set sail early morning on Saturday to make our timeslot for the Panama Canal.....
So those of you that are keen you need to stay up on Saturday night (aussie time) and go to www.pancanal.com . click on live webcams , the first lock we will go through are the Gatun Locks.... click on that tab ( choose the hi res for best results ). We will be passing approx 7 am panama time which could be around 9 - 10 pm your time...... later the next morning we will be passing the Miraflores locks where we are actually closer but you will need to be up really early
Garry’s Princess Bread Roll Count - 180
Joanne’s Lobster count – 15
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