Florida + West Caribbean Cruise 2016

Day 9 – 02/04/2016 – Roadtripping!

We had set our alarm at 5.30am. Way to early on a vacation, but we had to debark before 7am. We had chosen to carry our bags from the ship ourselves. Jetair advised us to do so. This way we were certain we could debark early.

Once back on shore we had to go through a security check since we were entering the USA again. We went to the place where we could take the Alamo shuttle to the car rental center at the airport. We waited and waited and waited. Still no shuttle. Jelle asked a security agent on the parking lot if she knew if there was a schedule for the shuttles. She told us there was no schedule and the shuttle could arrive within minutes or within tens of minutes… We decided not to wait and took a cab to the car rental center.

We had booked a small car in the “Compact” category for this trip. There were only a few cars in the lot, and just 2 with a large enought trunk to hold our luggage. We chose a grey Hyundai Accent. You can compare this with a Toyota Corolla in Belgium.

We started our trip to Orlando. First stop was Sawgrass Recreation Park. We booked a ticket for an airboat tour through the Everglades to see the alligators. But the weather wasn’t good to see alligators. It was cloudy and windy, so the alligators didn’t come to the surface. But we did see one alligator when the sun came through the clouds for a minute.

After the airboat tour we could also visit the tiny zoo. Hmmm.. The animals were in very small cages compared to the zoo’s in Belgium.

From Sawgrass Recreation Park we drove to Sawgrass Mills Mall. This is one of the largest shopping malls in Florida. We had to watch the time, because we stil had to drive to Orlando today. We did some shopping and had a late lunch before returning to the car for the trip to Orlando.

Once arrived in Orlando we checked in at the Hilton Grand Vacations At SeaWorld. The hotel is huge and consists of 11 buildings. We were in the “Hamilton” building, next to the main building and the pool.

It had been a long day, so we went to bed early. But we couldn’t immediately sleep due to the neighbours.. We could here everything they said and what was on the tv..