The next morning I awoke quite early due to the many sounds I could hear outside. I rolled over to look out the window, only to discover that we were already in Port Everglades, Ft. Lauderdale! After 2,150 nautical miles or almost 4,000 km, our Caribbean Cruise was over... We got up and started getting ready for breakfast and gathered up our last remaining articles into our carry-on bags. We had our last breakfast in the Lido Restaurant and all the while they were announcing instructions and calling names etc over the loud speakers... Breakfast was excellent as usual and we were told that they would begin disembarking passengers at around 9:00 am due to the ship still had to be cleared by customs etc... no worries. We sat in the Lido Restaurant for a bit listening to the Jim Dandy/ Burt Reynolds show and enjoyed our last few cups of coffee. At about 8:30, I went down to deck 3 to investigate the disembarkation process, since our flight was at 10:18 am; we had virtually no room for error. I discovered that people were already waiting in the lounge to leave the ship. This, in spite of being told not to. Well, I figured if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, so we grabbed our carry-on bags and headed for the third floor of the Atrium Lounge, which was just this side of the main passenger gangway doors.

Sure enough and according to plan, we were some of the first people off the ship, not that we were anxious to leave mind you, but we didn't want to miss our flight. We still had to clear customs in the terminal, find our luggage, arrange for transportation to Hollywood International Airport, which was about a 10-minute drive away and still have time to check onto our flight. This was all accomplished with little consequence, and Bill our Airport service driver dropped us right off at the sky check luggage check-in, thereby eliminating the need to check in at the airline desk. We were issued our boarding passes right then and there, so off to the gate we went, with a short bypass through security. We arrived at the gate at about 9:45, in plenty of time I might add, only to find that the flight was delayed by about 30 minutes. Being a seasoned traveler, I knew this was no big deal, but I was a bit concerned about our connecting flight in Atlanta. Then I recalled a situation about 9 years ago, when I was almost stranded in Bologna, Italy... due to a clerical error they cancelled my seat, but still I managed to get all the way home with some fast talking, some very convincing negotiation and sheer will power, so I wasn't overly concerned.

We had about an hour stop over in Atlanta, which was OK, since we still had to get to an entirely different concourse. Again, not a problem, having been through the Atlanta airport a number of times in the past, I had no problem figuring this out... but it was a lot of walking for the kids and for Mom & Dad. Thankfully our luggage was checked all the way through to Buffalo, so we didn't have to lug that around with us as well. We discovered that this flight was also delayed, by about an hour this time... so we had time for a bite to eat before we headed to the gate. I guess there were some unsettling weather patterns across the eastern states that day so flight plans were really messed up. We were all pretty tired, and most of us slept on the plane... We finally arrived back at the Buffalo airport about 1 1/2 hours later than we were supposed to, but we later found out that we got lucky. Jim, Joe, Wendy and Rebecca had a much more eventful trip home and didn't get home until 4-5 hours later than they were supposed to.

Angie with 2 sleepy girls

Robbie was pretty tired too.

We gathered our luggage and called the shuttle service for a ride back to where the Odyssey was parked. Driving over the boarder was of little consequence and we finally rolled into the driveway at about 8:30 pm only to discover that our friends, who were looking after Max and the house for us, had decorated the house with "Welcome Home" banners etc. and with this, our adventure came to an end...

I highly recommend a cruise vacation to anyone who may, or may not be considering it. Yes, it was expensive, but you only live once and you can't take it with you. Many people have asked us, but what about the kids, was there enough to do for them? Well, I'm here to tell you that our kids had the times of their lives and are still talking about it 2 months later. They just started school again and are re-living the whole experience all over again, via the stories they are sharing of their adventures to their classmates. That is part of the reason why I have prepared these pages on my web site, now they can log-on at school and show their friends exactly what happened.

Thanks again to the whole crew of MS Zuiderdam and Holland America Lines and especially to Mom and Dad for coming up with such a great idea! We can hardly wait to do it again...