Ft Lauderdale Again

Bridge on the Carnival Freedom

Port Everglades, Ft Lauderdale, Florida

Watching the Carnival Freedom Leave

Each Lifeboat Holds About 120 People - The Carnival Freedom has About 30 of Them 

North Ft Lauderdale Beach as the Silver Spirit Passed through the Breakwater

Silver Spirit returned to Ft Lauderdale Thursday, December 5.  This was a turnaround day. That means most of the ship's passengers departed and a new group arrived to begin a new segment of the cruise.

Michael and I decided to treat this as a "sea day", that is, stay on the ship and amuse ourselves as if this were a day at sea. U.S. Customs DID require us to leave the ship, enter the terminal and wait in a holding area with sixteen other passengers continuing on, until the ship was cleared before we were all allowed back on board.  I guess U.S. Customs agents were worried that we were trying to smuggle drugs into the country or engage in some other criminal activity.

Not all Silver Spirit passengers were as cooperative with authorities.  Some consider themselves above such things or too important to be bothered with petty details so it took a while for the ship's staff to round up everyone and convince them that United States Customs agents are not to be messed with.  Eventually everyone was accounted for and we were all allowed back on the ship.

The real highlight of the day was the arrival of our cruise travel agent, Jim, who had decided at the last minute to join Silver Spirit for the next cruise segment.  He heard how much fun we were having and decided to come along for the second half of our cruise.

Late in the afternoon, we and the crew were "entertained", more likely annoyed, by loud announcements and 70's disco music blaring from the nearby Carnival Freedom, a small mass market cruise ship holding 2500 passengers, only four times the number of passengers as Silver Spirit, that was about to depart on a four day "fun" cruise to Nassau and Freeport, Bahamas. 

Many of the Carnival's passengers were already drunk at least an hour before their 5:00 pm departure, at least judging by the pitch of the ship's DJ's hollering.  Michael looked up the cruise and found that inside cabins for the entire 4 days on board started at $159 per person.  Everything except perhaps the bed linen and bathroom towels was an extra charge.

We really enjoyed watching them leave as we sat on our 120 square foot veranda. So did our ship's officers on the bridge.