Miami port sunrise

Day 273 – November 30th, 2014.

Cruising towards Miami on the Carnival Splendor just like we did a week ago doing back to back cruises in the Caribbean. It was still dark as we eased our way up the channel to the cruise terminal. Miami was sparkling like a Christmas tree with the city lights illuminating the skyline.

Arriving in the dark to the port of Miami

“The Port of Miami”

We passed the place where we will eventually dock and turned around at the end of the channel before slowly coming alongside at our alloted dock.

Miami port

Two other Carnival ships passed us and turned before making the same approach to come alongside in Miami, it is a very busy port and with the sun just peeping through the low clouds another 10,000 passengers will swap their land legs for the sea legs, and all within less than 12 hours.

That is incredible really, disembarking all these ships including thousands of bags, tons of rubbish/waste. At the same time begins the refueling and replenishment of stock, before the next group of passengers embark and these mighty ships sail away again… fascinating.

Ships turning in Miami docks

All guests must vacate their cabins by 8.30am and wait in the areas according to disembarkation time slot. We were waiting poolside on deck 10, but not for long as our call was early and so we disembarked very easily.

Waiting around the pool area to disembark

“One rule for you and one rule for us”

Our bags are in a huge area just like at an airport with four carousels each one for a different bag number corresponding with your bag tags. We waited with hundreds of others that collected bags for sometime until the crowd had reduced, only then was I able to see a small pile of bags that had been grouped together in the middle of the floor.

Not sure why they don’t leave them to go around the carousel because we would have collected them by now.

There are no trolleys here, only porters that were quite busy all the time helping people with their luggage. We made our way to the passport control.

Here we were both asked to remove our sunglasses from on top of our head (note we were not wearing them) for the obligatory photo. However, on the other passport line had three ladies and one man who had their heads wrapped in cloth.

Here is the hammer…

They didn’t have to or were not asked to remove their head coverings… not a pair of sunglasses, but a total covering of the head, the face was showing like mine. Talk about being inconsistent and then we worry why there are so many problems in the world.