After a restless night, I was up around 5:30 am.
Last Hours on Nieuw Statendam
While waiting for coffee, I enjoyed the calm and beauty of a new morning.
About 25 minutes later we got a call from room service. I thought my coffee order for the morning specified 6-6:30 am window but I forgot to check any box.
Steve told them 6 am and they were there in five minutes. We enjoyed it (along with my pastry) before getting ready for the day and heading to breakfast after the dining room opened at 6:30.
I had a ham and cheese omelette with extra ham.
I couldn’t eat much as it was just too early!
We went back to the cabin to brush our teeth and close up the carryons before heading to the the BB King Blues club to wait for disembarkation.
Disembarkation
We had yellow 3 color which was for the land and sea excursion with transfer to FLL airport afterwards. There were seven ships ( Carnival Conquest, Regal Princess, Harmony of the Seas, Adventure of the Seas, Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam and Celebrity Edge) in port today and the disembarkation started a bit later than the tentative schedule and stayed that way while we were there.
We were called off about 8:30 am and it was a pretty easy process. Only about 10-12 bags were in the yellow 3 area when we got there which made it easy to find our two!
There wasn’t a line for global entry (but you do need your cards out) and we sailed right through there.
Land and Sea Excursion
We walked over to the bus, told the driver which airline we were flying (they organize the luggage by terminal) before boarding and giving our tickets to the tour guide.
We didn’t wait too long for the rest of the people to get on board and take off. The first stop was the river walk area with a park where a jazz brunch was being set up.
Looked like a nice way to spend a Sunday. We learned about the history of the area while viewing historic buildings.
Everyone loaded back on the bus for a drive to the sea part of the tour. We boarded a paddleboat and took off on the intracoastal highway.
I really enjoyed the drawbridges. I don’t know if these are in the right order but you can see the variety.
The next one opens from an end instead of the middle.
I believe this was the oldest and was made of iron (you can also see it in the background in the photo above).
Last bridge was on a wider stretch of water and appeared to be the newest.
It was interesting to see how the 1% live on the beautiful estates right on the highway of the rich and sometimes famous.
Since our youngest is a firefighter, I snapped this photo and send it to him to see how the Florida firefighters roll.
It was a 90 minute boat ride and we enjoyed it immensely. They do sell sandwiches, snacks and beverages on board but we waited until the airport for food.
When it was over we boarded the bus and headed to the airport.
Traveling Home
Once at our terminal, it was an easy process to get our bags checked and get through TSA precheck.
We found a sit down restaurant (the only one in the F gates area) and ordered sandwiches. I had a Cuban sandwich and Steve had the club sandwich.
Both were quite filling and tasty.
We then had to wait until boarding at 5 pm. We had upgraded to “more space” seats so we could get them together and did enjoy the room in our exit row. Our seat mate on the aisle was very nice as were the flight attendants.
I did buy a ham/cheese croissant for dinner on-board and it fit the bill. We landed about 20 minutes early and got our bags in about 30 minutes from landing. We ubered home and found everything in good shape and Annabelle, our kitty, was very happy to see us!
Don’t miss my previous posts for this trip:
Next Vacation: Nieuw Statendam
Pre-Cruise Travel
Embarkation Day
Sea Day 1
Grand Turk
San Juan
St. Thomas
Sea Day 2
Half Moon Cay
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