We are in Miami and at the end of our Panama Canal cruise. After breakfast we disembarked from the Norwegian Joy to take our last excursion to the Florida Everglades. We booked this one for two reasons; 1) we needed to get to our hotel in Fort Lauderdale and this particular excursion ends at the Airport, 2) we had time to kill before we would be able to check in.
The Everglades
If you’re a true lover of wildlife I would not recommend a trip on an Airboat but if noisy, fast, extreme rides are your thing then go for it. I’m sure there must be ways of gliding silently through the Everglades to marvel at this unique ecosystem but we didn’t find one on this brief visit. However, we did eventually see alligators, albeit in a sanctuary (circus!) kind of environment. It was entertaining but I’m not sure about its animal welfare credentials though we were assured that all the alligators were rescues (apparently from residents back yards and pools) which otherwise might have been dispatched on the spot!
Miami to Fort Lauderdale
So why not stay in Miami? We had done extensive research trying to find a hotel on the beach front there but that didn’t go well. Reading the hotel reviews it seemed all had some guest horror stories that made you think ‘is it worth the risk?’. All seemed to be noisy party places but that’s probably what you get with a beach hotel. In the end it was settled by some friends who were on a Caribbean Cruise that returned to Fort Lauderdale the same day we got into Miami so we planned a poolside meet up at their hotel to stay for a couple of days of quality time catching up.
Hollywood (Beach Florida)
Just so we didn’t completely miss out on the Florida experience we took a stroll along the sea front and had lunch at Ocean Alley on the broadwalk. The sun shone (as apparently it always does in Florida).
Delray Beach
Another cruising coincidence – my Canadian cousin was also on a Caribbean cruise that returned to Fort Lauderdale at the same time. They have use of a holiday condominium at Delray Beach just another 49 mins up the Florida coast. So on the day our friends left for the airport to fly home, my cousin came to pick us up so we could spend a few days with them at their condo. More catching up on family gossip but, as wildlife lovers, we had a treat in store. Instead of a day on the beach we went to Wacodahatchee Wetlands and saw real alligators in the wild amongst many other creatures!
Finally our tour of the Americas came to an end. We took the Tri-Rail (an efficient railway that services the 3 airports of Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami) back down to Miami airport to board our overnight Virgin Atlantic flight back to London Heathrow.
Leaving the Islands 