Home! – A Wild Ride

Pat and I made it safely home yesterday, 1/24, after a very long day the day before. It was an adventure that we would rather not repeat. Although, I love the travelling and you have to take it that occasionally things do not go as planned. Thank goodness with time, we tend to remember the better parts. Here is a quick summary of the disembarkation from Crystal’s Symphony in Bimini and travel home.

Recap

Just in case you have not seen my last few posts, here is a quick recap. Our 21 day cruise for our 50th anniversary was absolutely fantastic for the first two weeks. About the end of the second week, we were notified that Crystal Cruises were ceasing operations due to a lack of cash and that our ship would dock at Miami. For us, it would be seven days early. For some people booked for the 120 days cruise, it was just the beginning.

Then came the announcement that our final destination would be Bimini in the Bahamas due to a “non-technical operational issue.” That turned out to be an arrest warrant for the ship granted by a court in Miami. In actuality, the court order was a seizure of the vessel to secure the assets over a few million in unpaid fuel bills.

The fact that 300 passengers were onboard during this rerouting made national news on about every network and newspaper. The pirate ship and kidnapping in luxury were the themes. If you have not seen the news, just Google: Crystal Symphony arrest warrant.

Disembarkation and Ferry

While hovering off the coast of Bimini on Saturday afternoon, Capt Kris announced that we would take the ship’s lifeboats and be tendered into Bimini on Sunday morning while waiting for the ocean ferry to Ft Lauderdale. He could not dock the ship as the channel is very small and the seas were rough.

In fact he was able to dock the ship later that day. He announced that it was the first ever docking of the Symphony at Bimini. The plan was still to walk ashore Sunday morning for the ocean shuttle at 11am.

The shuttle to Ft Lauderdale was one of the mammoth catamarans that can hold up to 600 passengers. It looked like a space vehicle.

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Well, due to rough seas and an injury, the shuttle did not arrived until about 11 and they had to load the luggage first. Once underway, I realized that Dramamine would have been useful. Pat took hers earlier in the day, but I just took one 20 minutes into the ride from hell. The two hour trip across the open ocean was rough. Very rough.

From KWQC news article quote: “It was really rough seas. Pretty much everybody was clutching a wastebasket before we were gone very long. All wastebaskets and bathroom stalls were occupied. I went outside because it was horrible inside. The seas were so rough that you couldn’t walk. I fell against this and fell against that just going outside,” Wardrop said. LINK

I also tried to walk outside to get fresh air. The swells were maybe 8-10feet up and down which meant a weightless teeter totter affect. It was the heavy side to side rocking that got to me. I found a 50 degree air conditioner and sat underneath and stared straight ahead for two hours.

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We finally arrived and had to wait another hour for all luggage to be offloaded for the customs arrival process. Pick up bags from a mass of similar looking ones and get in one of the two lines for processing.

Bus Ride Back to Miami

What could go wrong now as we are back on dry land. Our bus left the terminal at about 4:30pm and had to go by the airport first to drop off those waiting on flights. Our drop off was at the Miami Port Terminal parking garage.

The Miami traffic is always horrendous, but on this particular night, the tunnel to the port was closed for some reason and the only other way in was a bridge. To get to the bridge meant going by the Miami Heat stadium. Yep, a game was on tonight and traffic was at a standstill.

Three hours later our very nice bus driver dropped us off at the port. So, here it was 7:30pm. From there we drove to Naples, at 10pm spent the night, then finally home on Monday.

Wrap Up

The bottom line is that we had the best cruise ever for two weeks. Crystal is billed as a 6-star resort and I would agree. An all-inclusive cruise with the best of everything. The destinations were good. We got to experience the Crystal Symphony at its best, if not the last two weeks of the company. The ending will probably fade from our memories.

I feel bad for all the Crystal employees and entertainers of not knowing if and when they will be paid. They were all top notch.

It is great to be back at our winter home in the RV park. I’ve already checked and made a list of all the upcoming activities. Now, if that waiter would just come by for my meal order…

Take care and thanks for following along. God Bless.