Our Eastern Caribbean cruise starts today. We took a red-eye flight and landed in Ft. Lauderdale around 8am. Since we had a few hours to spare before boarding cut-off time of 2:30pm, I decided to rent a car and visit a few sites that I missed last time I was in Ft. Lauderdale.
I originally booked a car at Budget. But the line was super long and slow moving. Since we had very limited time, I decided to cancel the reservation after a few minutes in line and booked one with Hertz instead. This was my first time renting from Hertz as a President’s Circle status member and I got to pick any car in the lot which was a lot nicer than renting from Budget.
First stop: Society Las Olas to check out a big 26-feet sculpture titled “Thrive” by artist and sculptor Daniel Popper.
Second stop: Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. It’s a guitar shaped hotel building.
Third stop: Gorrilas in the Mist.
There’s also a nice delivery boy sculpture.
Fourth stop: Hollywood Beach Broadwalk.
Parking was always confusing at the beaches. I was looking for free street parking but accidentally turned into the paid parking structure. At the ticket machine I tried to press the Help button to see if I could exit the garage right away without paying but nobody answered and I had to cancel the call. But the barrier opened without issuing me a ticket.
I wasn’t sure what to do. So I left the car in the garage and went to the nearby hotel to ask for help.
There’s a cute sculpture near the front desk.
After checking with the front desk, I was told I could press the help button at the exit to get help (Duh). Since we were out of time, I decided to just park there and pay whatever I had to pay upon exist and check out the beach quickly.
The beach was nice but very crowded.
It was getting late. So we decided to head back. At the parking exit, I pressed the help button to ask how we could pay for parking without a ticket. Then the barrier was raised and we got out. They didn’t even bother talking to me and ask what type of help I needed!
After returning the car, I called for an Uber to take us to the cruise port. But I didn’t realize there was a designated uber pickup/drop-off location and we waited at the wrong place forever! By the time I figured that out, it was already too late to walk over. So I had to cancel Uber and call for a taxi instead.
After all the delays (parking issues, uber, traffic, etc), we barely made it to the cruise port. Fortunately there was still a lot of people checking in. Everything went pretty smoothly after that.
Nice sunset. No?
