A harbour tour and the biggest Cruise ship in the world.

After an early’ish breakfast of bagels and strawberry jam we departed the Hotel to travel the 17 miles to where we pick up the harbour tour on a ship with a paddle wheel which actually does  not drive the ship but makes it look different. We arrived on time and found a car park right next door to the boat reception and was able to get onboard immediately and thus get good seats.

We left at around 11.00 and the top deck of the boat was quite full and also a lot of Celebrity Cruise ship guests on a brief tour of Fort Lauderdale. The trip last about 90 minutes and takes  a few waterways where there are some really expensive houses in the 25-40 USD million range and also private boats from a small two seater up to a 300 foot monster costing 30-50 million. One was available for rent at the cost of £ 350 K per week plus fuel, Ummm not cheap.

There were some really nice houses although of course you are overlooked by everybody that passes by and with a multitude of tourist boats with the commentary point out that his house was owned by Tarzan, and this one owned by this rich guy and this one given as wedding present we would hate to live there with these boats and passenger ogling you all the time. Great if you like this type of thing and like to show off.

We passed en-route the brand new  Royal Caribbean Ship the ‘Wonder of the Seas’ which had just arrived from the fitting out yard in Europe and was waiting to get ready for its first trip, This boat is bloody massive and can take nearly 7000 guests with a crew of 2300. So nearly 9500 people on this ship, lets hpe they dont give it to an Italian Captain who likes rocky islands

After leaving the boat, we headed round the corner to the Los Olas Boulevard which is the road for expensive designer ware and restaurant and bars. Wed thought it might be to expensive to stop eat here but we found an Italian restaurant with food suitable for Noel and had a really good meal and not to expensive to USA standards. Noel had the grilles salmon, mash potatoes and a large bowl of freshly cooked broccoli whilst Jennifer had a very large bowl of Fettuccini A la Carbonara which she said was really great. We then talked about where to go next but it was about 2.30 ish and we were about an hour away from the Hotel and what with mums collecting kids we thought and actually confirmed it took us over an hour to get back and to have gone anywhere else would have been a waste of time.

We also passed both going and coming the amazing Hard Rock Café Hotel and Resort with the main Hotel in the shape of a Guitar (see photos) and we believe it is owned by the Seminole Indian tribe, the Casino that is… but an amazing building all the same. On returning back t the Hotel and looking at more info I discovered there are actually three hotels on site with nearly 1000 rooms.

We returned to the Hotel late afternoon and started preparing ourselves for our departure tomorrow for the West Coast of Florida. it will be approx 3.5 to 4 hours dependant on traffic and final route chosen.