Saturday – 14 December 2013 – Boulder, Colorado, USA
We were obliged to disembark Silver Spirit at precisely 9:45am on Friday as the US Authorities reminded the ship's officers that all passengers must be off the ship by 10:00am so that Customs could do a thorough inspection. Customs never forgives or forgets. As we walked down the gangway we noticed that the ever attentive ship's personnel had shaken the Etch-A-Sketch holding our personal data and now were addressing us as "Sir" or "Madame" having already forgotten our names, well most of the crew anyway. Thus is the life of the luxury cruise passenger. But we were not offended. After almost 800 days on cruise ships, I gotten used to the peculiarities. Earlier in the cruise we noticed that the passenger information channel on TV seemed to be indicating a barometric pressure consistent with being in the center of a tornado or perhaps 15,000 feet above sea level.
Upon leaving the ship and being thoroughly interviewed by the US Authorities, we were met at the exit of the Port Everglades Cruise Terminal at Pier 21 by Mike and Kathy Borenstein who had driven from Colorado to nearby Hollywood, Florida to see his mom and family and to ask us how their house in Cozumel was. It was great seeing them even though it would have been neat had they been in Mexico when we were. The four of us took a long walk along the beautiful Ft. Lauderdale Beach, now during our third visit to that town in three weeks. We had a nice lunch at an upscale beach restaurant. We said goodbye to them at FLL Airport, saying that we'd look forward to seeing them in Colorado, a place that we don't seem to be often.
The cruise greatly exceeded our already very high expectations. We enjoyed the surprise upgrade to the three room suite with its capacious balcony and its proximity to the very cozy Observation Bar. But most of all we were delighted to see Heinz and Ellen Biesdorf again, the primary reason for booking this trip. Our flight home went reasonable well, arriving in time to partially unpack and have a light dinner. The next morning we looked out to a beautiful Boulder scene that reminded me why it's worth going to the Caribbean in November and December.
A special treat was a surprise visit by Jim Bisciglia, my friend and cruise travel agent who joined the Silver Spirit for the 2nd segment after hearing how wonderful a time we were having. Jim and I spent our after dinner hours in the Obs. Bar in great conversation, and Jim joined us on our Cozumel and Belize adventures. Great seeing him and looking forward to spending time with him as well as the Biesdorf's whenever possible in the future.
We are now planning for our next big boat ride this Spring, a return to Silver Spirit, but alas not the Silver Suite, for the 16 day crossing from Fort Lauderdale (!) to Barcelona, a two day stay in Lisbon, and then a nine day cruise on the wonderful 380 passenger Silver Whisper from Lisbon to Southampton. I'll be posting a graphic of the route in the coming weeks.
MB, Boulder Colorado
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