Sunday Morning, 14 May 2023

On Board ms Zuiderdam

The Zuiderdam continues eastward under pleasant skies, low winds, and calm seas--as seen from my veranda, below. Daytime temperature is in the mid-70's.

Yesterday and today are busy sea days, with meals, receptions, lectures, gatherings, and more meals. But I will get to all that later. Instead I go back to Ft Lauderdale:

Thursday, 11 May 2023

Ft Lauderdale

Today is a relatively quiet day, very welcome after all of yesterday's travels.

After a late sleep-in, it's a short walk to a local breakfast and lunch spot, Maya's Harborside, for a fortifying and very hot breakfast. On the way back to the Hilton I stop at a Walgreen's to stock up on toiletries and supplies that might have weighed heavily in my luggage or been confiscated for breaking carry-on rules (as my Biotene toothpaste was on my way to LA this past November).

In the afternoon I drive the short distance to the center of historic Ft Lauderdale, Las Olas Boulevard, a mile-long, pedestrian-friendly stretch of bars, restaurants, shops, galleries, and boutiques. Great for window-shopping

I'll be going to bed at a reasonable hour tonight, since I have an early and busy morning tomorrow--returning my rental car to the airport, coming back to the Hilton to gather my luggage and check out, and then a short taxi ride to Port Everglades for my 11:20am priority embarkation on ms Zuiderdam. Luckily  I have no idea of the horrors that await me tomorrow as I lay down my head. But read on for more detail.

Friday Morning, 12 May 2023

Ft Lauderdale: Embarkation Day

It's an early day, and as I get ready to return my rental car at the airport, I can see from my hotel balcony that ms Zuiderdam has docked at Port Everglades. In fact, it is the only cruise ship in port this morning.

Abducted and Abandoned by LYFT Driver--

Rescued by Dania City Police

I leave the Hilton at 7am for the 15-minute trip to the airport, where the car return is quick and easy. Yesterday, I booked two LYFT rides: the first to pick me up at 8am from car rental return at the airport and take me back to the Hilton; the second at 10:45am from the Hilton to the Port Everglades Cruiseport. 

Precisely at 8am, my LYFT driver Joshua arrives at FLL to pick me up. Before getting in his Nissan Rogue, I confirm with him my name and my destination (Hilton Hotel). At first he seems amiable, assisting me with securing my seat belt in the back passenger seat.

Although he takes a different route than I normally use (Route 1 north to SE 17th Street, on which the Hilton is located), I assume he knows a better way. But after we are traveling more than 20 minutes and still far from the hotel, I ask him why we are taking such a long route. He answers (and repeats this answer over and over every time I question him):  he is going to the address on his GPS map. I consult the map on my iPhone and see that he is indeed heading north and west—completely the opposite direction of the very well-known Hilton. I ask him several times to pull over and contact LYFT (LYFT does not have any email or phone contacts available to riders to question the direction taken), but he continually refuses and completely ignores everything I politely say. 

Finally, I find a LYFT emergency contact on my phone, which I use. But I do not receive an email response (which asks for more information) until well after the situation is resolved—in. other words, a totally useless contact.

I get more and more distressed and angry as he continues to ignore my requests to pull over and contact LYFT, and continues to drive in the wrong direction--I begin to feel I am in serious danger of harm.

He finally drives into a suburban sub-division in the city of Dania—a significant distance from Ft Lauderdale—and tells me this is my destination and that I should get out of the car. Fearing that I might be robbed or assaulted, or at least abandoned in a strange location far from where he was supposed to take me, I refuse to get out of the car. He then calls the police to complain about me. But, in fact, that was the only thing he did that turned out to be helpful.

The Dania City Police arrive very quickly and are very helpful in putting me at ease. Officer Hackett, along with a fellow officer who arrives a few minutes later, tell me there is nothing they can do about the driver since he is an independent contractor with LYFT. At the time, I accepted this point; however, in retrospect, I realize she never asked me if I wished to charge the driver (which, indeed, I would have). As a result, the LYFT driver simply drove away—without a comment or apology to me for clearly taking me to the wrong location. I checked the location on several LYFT messages I received prior to the pickup and they all stated clearly, “Hilton Ft Lauderdale Marina Hotel.”

Officer Hackett arranges for another LYFT driver to pick me up for the 40-minute drive back to the Hilton (remember, at the airpot I was only 15 minutes away from the hotel). I request a taxi rather than LYFT (I do not wish to put myself under more stress), but Office Hackett advises that a taxi would take much longer to arrive, and I was under time pressure as well as all of the stress. This new LYFT driver, Fantasia, arrives almost immediately and she delivers me back to the Hilton without incident. 

However, I was still in great distress, because I needed to be at the hotel to finish packing, check out, and get to Port Everglades by 11:20am (it was already 10am at this point), my designated time to board the Zuiderdam for the transatlantic cruise. If I missed embarkation, I would not be able to board the ship until seven days later at the first port after Ft Lauderdale, in Portugal’s Azores Islands.

I cancelled the second LYFT reservation and used the hotel shuttle to the port. I did arrive on time and I am obviously out in the Atlantic Ocean. So--end of story; although I still get the frights whenever I think about the possibilities of what might have happened, and even as I write this benign summary.

I promise to describe happier events in the next publication, which will take me aboard the Zuiderdam and out to sea.