January 27th the most exciting day of the year, travel day was finally upon us! I zipped up the last suitcase and headed out to the car to catch my 7:50 flight to Ft. Lauderdale International Airport! After rushing through security and of course grabbing my venti caramel macchiato from Starbucks then literally running to the gate, we were finally onboard and ready to take off!
30,000 ft in the air on my favorite airline, Southwest, I was busy with the thought of where this plane was taking me. Traveling at an ungodly speed to the world's largest and most innovative passenger ship afloat had my excitement at 10,000 miles per hour! After three hours and 50 minutes of one of the smoothest flight I have ever been on with the friendliest flight crew, we finally touched down in Sunny Ft. Lauderdale! With my excitement too extreme to handle I could not get out of the plane fast enough.
After getting through the baggage claim we searched for the complimentary shuttle to the hotel. We arrived at the Hilton Ft Lauderdale Airport/ Cruise Port hotel at around 12 p.m. had a swift check and quickly scurried up to our room to change into shorts (FINALLY) and then find a place for lunch. Once in our room, we quickly discovered that the double beds were simply not going to fit more than one person, seeing my sister, best friend and I simply do not want to be that close to each other. We approached the front desk to ask for a cot and was delighted to be upgraded, free of charge, to a suite!
After a smooth room transition, we quickly ordered an Uber to take us into downtown Ft. Lauderdale and ultimately ended up at Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort! We sat for lunch at the Landshark Bar and Grill we ordered fish sandwiches and frozen drinks, of course. After a fantastic quick lunch, we made our way to the Lone Palm Beach Bar about 50 feet from the beach and spent a few hours drinking delicious frozen drinks while being entertained by the best bartender and the extremely drunk, fellow pre-cruise, individuals at the bar!
Hours past, I watched the Coral Princess sail into the sunset and just like that it was time to meet the other part of our vacation clan for dinner. We arrived at the Hilton Ft Lauderdale Marina to meet my sister her family and friends for dinner while we waited for the rest of my family to arrive in Florida! After briefly exploring the very chic Hilton Marina I walked outside and to my delight, there was the Costa Deliziosa, the fist Costa ship I have ever seen in person! Once my brief 10-minute photo opts session was completed we headed to Bravo Ristorante. Now living in New England you get very spoiled with the incredibly delicious authentic Italian cuisine severed on almost ever street, Bravo was defiantly not authentic Italian cuisine or even fake Italian cuisine it was barely edible and the service left a lot to be desired, I urge everyone to please skip this restaurant and look for other local restaurants to enjoy!
Our day left us exhausted and ready for bed by 10 P.M. we jumped in our uber, got to our hotel, embraced the later arrivals of our travel clan and got to bed. Sweet dreams graced us all night with dreams of our next day when we would finally board the Harmony of the Seas!
Stay tuned for Day 2- Boarding Day!