We had an early start to the day, waking up by 5am maybe earlier. Breakfast for us was an hour earlier at 6:30am. Only four of us showed up before the doors opened for our morning chat. Jacque, the sommelier always passes by here every morning, and today he stopped to say goodbye. We asked if he will be returning for the 2026 GWV on the Volendam, and he said no, he will not. So far as he knows, he will stay with the Zuiderdam. The same goes for Renee, the spa manager, who also said that she has not been given her assignment. Both Jacque and Rene have been on every grand voyage we have sailed on. It will not be the same without them. And with Henk retiring after the Voyage of the Vikings, the officer line-up may be altogether different. And we are not sure about Kimberly, our highly enthusiastic cruise director, as it has not any mention about her return for 2026. Perhaps we missed it?
Little by little, the Pinnacle filled up with the usual suspects and some newbies as well. Our favorite manager, Tina was going home as well. She looked so happy. Tina confided in us that she may be taking a year off of sailing to re-assess her direction in life. Or she may change her mind. In the old days, the Pinnacle Grill was the alternate steak or fish house. But these days, there are as many pop-up dinner events as there are every night fine dining evenings. It was a most challenging job for Tina, but all turned out successfully we heard.
While waiting in our room to leave the ship, we watched from our balcony the activity below on the dock. The Customs and Border Patrol officials were beginning the process of scanning the luggage that was tagged for shipping through Luggage Forward. With the use of two specially-outfitted vans, each piece of luggage or box was put through xray, then loaded into bins. These bins were then hauled to a waiting big rig and loaded for delivery. What we noticed was different today, was that every fourth or fifth bag was put aside, opened, and searched. Some were swabbed for residue, some were sniffed by dogs, and others were searched. It was breezy and some of the Luggage Forward papers blew away. Not all of them were replaced in the bags.
When we received our luggage tags, a letter said not to lock the bags. However, a second letter came with or re-done labels (we added a bag), and this letter said to lock them. After losing two pieces of luggage a year ago, we chose to lock the bags. After what we witnessed today on the pier, we are certain that the locks will be missing when it arrives to our home. And they should be delivered by May 15th through the 20th.
Our time to leave was 9:15am, however the final four groups were called off 15 minutes early. OK, time to say goodbye, we were greeted by the friendly security folks who wished us a safe journey. It was really touching that they remembered us from previous cruises….. always calling us by name. Captain Frank, Alexandra, Kimberly, Christel, and Henk wished us both goodluck with added hugs. Several more officers and staff members had stayed in this line until we were all called off. This late afternoon the Zuiderdam will sailed with a full guest load to Boston and part of Canada for 7 days.
With the simple scanning of our room key, we were done with any more checkpoints. No passports and no landing cards to be filled out. That's the beauty of doing the procedure while in San Juan, Puerto Rico as it is part of the USA and counts for clearing in Ft. Lauderdale.
Coming out the door of the terminal, we saw a nice lady holding a sign with our names. She led us to the area where she would pick us up. Instead of a small bus, we must have been the only ones that booked the post cruise package this this hotel. Fine with us, we had a nice roomy limo ride to the hotel. It took 20 minutes at the most to get there. Many people were waiting in the lobby for both the HAL ship and a Princess ship transfer. The HAL rep had a letter of instructions for us with tomorrow's schedule.
Even though it was around 10am, they did have a room ready for us. Once settled, we took a long walk along the canal to Chili's, one of our favorite spots at home. They have wonderful salads and bottomless Coke Zero. We sure needed the drinks because it was really warm and humid. It is no mystery why we see so few people walking these trails. We enjoyed the food and Cokes for over an hour before heading out into the heat on the way back. We did get some good shots of coots, lizards, Muscovy ducks, one egret, and a few iguanas. The only other birds we saw were doves and noisy crows. We kept our eyes peeled for the poisonous snakes and alligators on the trail, but thankfully, saw none.
Back at the hotel, we did some internet work, then went down to the pool to relax in the shade. With only two other people there, it was nice and quiet. The rest of the afternoon, we cooled off in the room watching news and other entertaining shows like HGTV. We figured it would be convenient to stay in the hotel and have a light dinner in the Bin 595. So that's what we did after 6pm.
We shared a Caesar salad and a crispy seasoned chicken sandwich with fries. Then we topped it off with a delightful slice of Key lime pie, probably our last dessert for a while. With a 4am wake-up call, it was time to hit the sack. Our flight from Ft. Lauderdale will be after 8am, so we need to be there ahead of time like always. The journey is almost done…..
Bill & Mary Ann
