Florida With Covid Precautions - Not - And Our Pre Cruise Hotel

Now I want to start by saying this is my view only on what we have experienced since arriving.

The airport in Fort Lauderdale says masks are recommended and most were wearing them especially workers there.

We picked up our bags and requested an uber ($12 to 17th street hotels).  Driver was masked and car was very clean. 

Hotel is the Holiday Inn Express Cruise Port on 17th Street.  It is only 1:40 so room isn't ready, so they said to come back in one hour.  They stored our bags and off we went.  We wandered!  Which when you are tired and cranky isn't always a good thing.  

But to be in the warmth of the beautiful Florida sun makes us a bit better.

One thing we notice right away is the restaurants, stores, hotel, and other regular businesses have signs on front door saying masks are recommended,  Wow!  For us, at home in Nova Scotia, masks are mandatory and you must be vaccinated to dine, go to bar, gym, movies etc.  

Not many bottles of sanitizer around.  No real social distancing signs or markers.  Now this is a state that was hit really really bad with Covid.  I am saddened.

We did go to the Dollar Store and bought a Halloween decoration for our door.  But many shoppers were not wearing masks and we could not find sanitizer at entrance or cash to sanitize our hands (thankfully we had some on us).  We paid and left.

So neither Bernie and I really wanted to enter too many stores.  So after an hour we returned to the hotel where our room was ready.

We have a lovely room on the 5th floor.  It is a good size.  It is probably a 3 star.  Certainly works for the one night. The price was right.  They offer a free shuttle to the airport, but not the pier as of right now.  They use to have a shuttle to the pier for a price and they hope to have it back up and running soon,  but we would rather take an Uber anyways.  

First thing we did was wipe down all the surfaces with Chlorex wipes just to be safe.  

Bernie is napping next to me.  I am tired too but I am afraid if I nap I won't sleep tonight.  So I am blogging.

So do I feel safe here, well sort of.  You got to remember we are coming from some very strict Covid rules.  But they worked, low case numbers, low deaths (under a 100), and still social distancing and mask mandate. 

To arrive here where it is like nothing has changed feels weird to us.  But it is just we haven't lived like this since March of 2020.

So we will lay low, get some supper and enjoy a quiet evening.  Our boarding time is 2;30 tomorrow.