Panama Canal Cruise - Days 14-15 and Disembarkation - At Sea - February 25-27, 2022

We finished the cruise with two sea days as we made our way back to Ft. Lauderdale.  The seas were still pretty rough Friday morning and so we spent a lot of time hanging out in Crooner's Bar (which is lower and mid-ship so less motion).  After lunch, I met my parents at Good Spirits at Sea Bar for a few drinks.  Friday night was our last formal night and a chance to order lobster.

Friday night's show was Rock Opera which was very well done.

Our last sea day was our last chance to do those things we never got to do and things we wanted to do one last time.  We enjoyed sitting in Skywalker's Lounge (one of the top decks in the aft) in the morning watching the sea go by.  

We had one more lunch in the Da Vinci Dining room with Dante as our server, one we didn't even have to request anymore because staff knew we preferred him.  The turkey fajitas we had were absolutely amazing.

Then I spent a couple hours by the pool.  This was my first chance of the cruise to enjoy all the action of the main pool with the DJ playing.  Earlier in the cruise, I sought out the pools when they were quieter.

Mango Frozen Margarita

Hurricane

Then I stopped down to see my favorite server, Susan, in my favorite bar, Good Spirits at Sea and ordered one more Cartagena Cool which I took up the room to "help me pack."  However, the balcony distracted me and I found myself just watching the water go by.  (I did eventually get packed.)

My husband and his Mom went to afternoon tea and then got sucked into the casino after taking a wrong turn back to the cabin.  Earlier in the day, they attended an enrichment presentation about the Bermuda Triangle.

Then it was time for dinner one last time in the Boticelli Dining Room at table 83 with Ram and Julius as our servers.  After dinner, we had to get our suitcases out so the staff could organize them for getting off the ship the next morning.  After that task was done, we spent one last time chatting with my parents in their suite.  We would each all go our ways the next morning so this was our chance to say our goodbyes before retiring for the night.

Disembarkation day came early.  I woke with a change in movement of the ship as it entered the harbor shortly after 5 a.m.  We were the third ship to arrive.  The Caribbean Princess and Holland's Eurodam were both already docked.  Right behind us was Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas followed by Holland's Rotterdam.  Last but not least, just as the sun started illuminating the clouds, Celebrity's Edge made its appearance.  

Celebrity Edge

Caribbean Princess - this is our ride for my family's cruise in June

Painting the Bridge of the Caribbean Princess

After breakfast in the Boticelli Dining Room, we reported to our assigned lounge.  There was some confusion as my mother in law had different tags (and a different lounge) as we did since she used EZ Check and even though we were all getting on the same shuttle, they didn't really have a way to handle it.  Then there were delays as lines at customs were long.  The ship was late getting into port so I think we had a late start disembarking passengers.  

Sometime after 10:00 a.m., our number was finally called so we proceeded to the warehouse to find luggage.  The tag hd fallen off one of ours but fortunately it was the giant lime green suitcase and so wasn't too hard to find.  

They packed the shuttles to the airport completely full and dropped us off near terminal 2 right in front of a shuttle stop to the rental car garage so I waited with our luggage while my husband took his Mom into the terminal to point her in the right direction so she could get to her gate for her flight. 

A short shuttle ride took us right to the entrance of the car rental building which is quite the complex at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport.  Upon finding the Budget rental counter, this is what we discovered.

We waited in the line for a little while until Paul noticed a Fastbreak number in his profile in the Budget app.  We didn't have a clear recollection of signing up for it but with this long of a line that wasn't moving, we figured it was worth a try.  So I stayed in the long line and he headed over to the short Fastbreak line.   When he got up to the ticket counter, they confirmed that he indeed was in the right place so he waved me over and we were handed instructions of where to find our car.  At about 12:20 p.m., we were in a 2021 Kia Sportage LX pulling out of the parking garage with a 12+ hour drive home ahead of us, although with an hour time change in our favor.  

The drive home wasn't too bad, the first couple of hours was very light traffic, the next couple very heavy (around Orlando) then it was moderate or moderate to light the rest of the way.  We stopped at a Taco Bell in Gainesville for lunch and a Subway in Tallahassee for supper.  For being an inexpensive car, it was surprisingly quiet and the seats were pretty comfy (we have yet to experience uncomfortable seats in a Kia/Hyundai product).  Being already familiar with Kias and it having Apple CarPlay, we left right away without any learning curve.  Below are the trip stats:

742.6 miles (probably about 750 total, we filled up a few miles outside of home)

27.36 gallons of gas, average price/gallon $3.39, total cost $93.

10:59 total drive time (plus about 10 minutes to get home), left FLL about 12:15 pm and arrived at home about midnight

29.0 MPG computer read out

27.1 MPG calculated