Day in Fort Lauderdale

We sleep like a rock with intermittent waking up wondering where the heck am I.  

This hotel is sort of in the middle of nowhere.  Normally we rent a car and drive around but again car rentals were crazy here.  After checking google maps we see a Starbucks is within walking distance so we head there and all is good in the world when I get my coffee.

Now trying to find someplace to get breakfast. Not as easy as you would think, there are a lot of strip malls in the area but nothing that has a place for breakfast. After walking around for a half hour we give up and head back to the hotel. We later realize we would of been better turning right instead of left on leaving the hotel for many food options.

We request an Uber ride to Sawgrass Mills Mall and first stop is someplace for lunch – we are starving!

PJ Changs – our first visit to this restaurant but Bernie’s sister loves it.  The food is very good, the service, not so good. But it is really only our waiter who seems to be distracted by her phone and someone she knows dining in her section.  She spends more time sitting at their table than getting us food.

Me sitting outside Tommy Bahama Store waiting for Bernie

We wander around the mall shopping – Bernie found some new items from Tommy Bahama store and we were able to get his Bose earphone’s updated with new ear padding.  His had worn down from his beard rubbing it for so many years.

After a few hours we are tired and really getting cranky. That first day after a FULL day of travel and a three hour time change has caught up to us.  We get back to the hotel and crawl into bed and we both fall asleep very fast.  

We sleep for two hours and wake feeling refreshed.
Dinner is at Carrabbas Italian restaurant – certainly not authentic Italian like we are use to in Italy but it is very good and the service fabulous.  

We are back at the hotel 10 pm and excited about tomorrow and boarding the Royal Princess.

Flying to Fort Lauderdale

view from our room

After a wonderful night at the beautiful Fairmont Vancouver Airport we were up very early for our 645 am flight.

We are flying Westjet to Fort Lauderdale via Toronto.  This is not our ideal routing but we were limited due to booking so last minute and costs. 

I sat next to a lovely couple from Maple Ridge who is on our cruise.  There were in fact a lot of cruisers all around us. 

Many who were going to board the Holland American Eurodam on Saturday for a Panama Canal Cruise that ends in Vancouver April 28.

The first flight is just over four hours was quite nice and comfortable.  

We arrived in Toronto and had to go thru US Customs and it was very smooth thanks to Nexus/Global Entry.  In fact the 
Customs agent just took our form and said thank you have a good day.

We had just under three hours between flight and wanted to grab a nice meal but the terminal is under renovation so people are squished into smaller areas and the food options are limited.  We finally got a seat and order via those ipads and they deliver the food.

Now I had not realized this was going to be one of only two options to sit and eat here and we were hungry but normally I hate this type of service. And today’s meal only reinforced that. Prices were crazy high, service was just delivery and hard to get a hold of someone when we needed something – like a napkin or the fries that we ordered and did not get. 

Plus the tablet defaults to 18% gratuity automatically which is sad since there really is no service. Food is, well how do I say airport made.  In the end it hit the spot but it was not good, and each meal was around $20!

After boarding our next flight we had a bit of delay as we waited for bags to arrive at our plane.

The second flight is only three hours but it felt like forever! Seemed like everyone was having a rough day as so  many were moving around and chatting over us and bumping into us and others.  Didn’t help we were tired and that meal was not sitting well with us.  But overall the flight went by and we arrived only around 45 minutes late.

After collecting our bags we called for a Uber and for $25 we were delivered to our hotel – Sawgrass Grand Hotel near Sawgrass Mills Mall.  

The hotel is just north of Sunrise off University Drive.  Looks more like an office building and it was built in the 80s it looks like.  

Daniel at the front desk was very helpful and assigned us to a room on the fifth floor and after going there and seeing that there is an adjoining door (we hate adjoining doors due to the noise that transfers).  So even though it was an upgraded large room we did not want it – plus we smelled smoke (tobacco and other types of smoke). So back to the front desk and a new room – this time on the first floor but it is quiet and will meet our needs for the two nights.

If you go back and read about our hotel booking a few posts ago you will see we were limited with hotel options.  You see there is a huge music festival happening – Tortuga Music 

Festival where they anticipate 90,000 people!  Not to mention all the cruise ships that are in port too.  So prices were crazy high and selection was limited.  We got this hotel for just over $100 a night.

We crawled into bed and even with the three hour time change we both were asleep rather quickly.