We are into our second day ashore in Florida, staying in Fort Lauderdale for 4 nights. Disembarkation on Tuesday was an easy matter – thank heavens – nothing like the embarkation. We booked a UBER from the terminal to take us to Hertz just a few miles away and that all went smoothly, it was only a couple of miles.
At Hertz we struck a problem. We booked our hire car just over a year ago when we started to make our holiday bookings. We booked with Rentalcars/booking.com and got a really great deal with Hertz on our car from February 4th to March 14th. We had to pay in advance but the deal included the entire car rental, insurances, zero excess -everything. And it was a really good deal in comparison to anything else.
Well…. Bob went in to do the paperwork and when he came out, he asked me to look at it because he didn’t think it was right. It indeed was very far from right because it said that at the end of the rental we would have on estimate about another $650 to pay. We went back inside and showed the counter guy the paperwork again which clearly showed NIL to pay on pickup unless we added something like a child seat or gps, none of which we’d done. He argued the toss a bit and then called a supervisor over who looked at both sets of paperwork and then escalated it to some unknown higher source in a back office. He came back after a few minutes and said “ah yes, you are correct, it’s a mistake because the rates have changed since then….” Well, yes, I guess they might have , but it was a relief. Then they printed out their paperwork again and on the bottom, the 650 had disappeared but now there was $140 estimated charge. “What’s that” we asked “reminding you we have nothing to pay”. He said it was local taxes and we would indeed have to pay it. We have now escalated through Rentalcars/booking.com and they are on it. I guess it’s not the end of the world but if something says NIL to pay then that’s what it should mean. We are chasing it now to avoid another argument at the end. Apart from that, it’s a nice white car. All the luggage fitted in, plus ourselves.
Our hotel is a nice little place one block back from the beach. Hotel Tropi-Rock https://tropirockfortlauderdale.com/ . I was a bit nervous when I booked it because some of the reviews have been a bit less than enthusiastic but it has been recently taken over and the hotel has formed a “village” with other hotels around it to form a really nice community of hotels, restaurants and even a food truck. We have a deluxe king size studio that comes with full kitchen and the price of $550 for 4 nights in this location at high season is really good. Our studio is really large, spotless, comfortable and quiet. Just what we need. There is a little pool, nice tropical gardens, a free laundry, parking, excellent wifi. We are self catering.
We normally food shop at Walmart or sometimes Publix when we are in Florida, but we noticed that ALDI are now a significant presence here so we decided to give them a go. It was a pretty grotty ALDI compared to the ones in the UK and Europe to be honest. Hardly a middle aisle at all and everything a bit haphazard. Not sure we will shop there again. Prices were pretty good though and we got everything we needed except potatoes. They only had really expensive small ones in small bags or cheaper ones in a huge sack, and I mean, HUGE. Odd. Will probably go back to Walmart next time.
Yesterday we decided to have a beach day and relax. We walked down to the beach which is lovely and stretches for miles in each direction. It wasn’t very busy and most people were sitting on the sand or on their own beach chairs/loungers. There was a rental lounge area but no one around and no one sitting on any of them. We weren’t hopeful but gingerly sat down and waited till someone turned up to take money. After about 10 minutes a young chap came along and told us 2 loungers and an umbrella would be $70 for the day. We declined that opportunity and joined the towel sitters further along. Had a lovely day anyway, sunning and enjoying the sea. It’s about 25-27C here so a lot cooler than the Caribbean and there’s a nice breeze on the beach. Very pleasant conditions. The sea was a lot warmer than I expected, not that different from the Caribbean at all, and very clear. I had several good wallows. Eventually we came back and sat around the pool for a while, had a swim there and read our books some more.
Today we went off to buy a couple of beach chairs and also have a look at Sawgrass Mills, the truly enormous outlet mall that is nearby. After our towel day yesterday, I researched where we could get chairs cheaply and so we tried Walmart, Big Lots, and TK Maxx today. We’d been looking in the UK for a couple of loungers to use in Folkestone so we know the prices there. It looked to be a bit cheaper here so we will bring them back with us when we return to Kent. Another benefit of cruising home with no baggage restrictions.
It was about 16 miles to Sawgrass Mills and took about 40 minutes – lots of traffic lights. It’s an absolutely ginormous place. So many shops: department stores, the designer shops, shoe shops, TJ Maxx, Victoria Secret – all of them outlets. It’s a pleasant experience shopping there as long as your legs and feet hold up!!! https://www.simon.com/mall/sawgrass-mills We were looking for a few things for Bob really, as well as the beach loungers. We’d parked outside the entrance to TJ Maxx (not TK like the UK but the same store). It was absolutely massive. They didn’t have any loungers but they had loads of other stuff. Bob got 2 pairs of nice swim shorts (15$ each) there and a lovely summer shirt ($14) – dark blue, a sort of cotton seersucker. All massively reduced.
We wandered on and eventually went into Skechers. Bob wants a new pair of walker trainers but the sort you step into, not have to lace up. Yes…. it’s come to this. Anyway, we found a pair in his size and they were a total bargain at £30. That was 70% off the normal price.
We also went into J Crew and he got another shirt also 70% off, about $14. I went into Victoria’s Secret and got some early Xmas presents for the girls. Shall say no more.
We were pretty tired by now so we sat in the food court and had a hot dog snack and some cold drinks. Left Sawgrass about 230 and headed off to Big Lots, a discounter store, to look for beach chairs. We struck really lucky here. They appear to be closing down a lot of stores – or maybe all of them – and the store we went to was clearly in a Everything Must Go situation. Right inside the door was a big array of beach chairs and portable loungers. We had various probably hilarious attempts at opening/setting up said chairs and loungers so we could test them. They were all quite low to the ground and I struggled to get up off them in a dignified manner!!!!!! Actually it involved kind of crawling off and then having to struggle up from the floor. I was heartened by the fact Bob also struggled and managed to collapse his lounger and then became very irritable trying to work out how to properly lock the legs in place!!!!! Anyway, we figured it out in the end and bought 2 for $15 each. We also bought a small soft Cooler bag for drinks and sandwiches. I forgot to pack our trusty one from previous road trips. That was $6 and two ice packs were $1.75 I’m sorry Big Lots are clearly in difficulties, but it worked out well for us!!!!
Our final call was at a Publix supermarket to pick up a Sunpass Mini transponder to put on the windscreen for all the tolls. Hertz wanted to charge us $13 per day for all days whether we used their’s or not so we opted to buy one. It was only a few dollars and you charge it up with money and it gives you discounted toll fares. We don’t need it around here but when we leave for Fort Myers on Saturday, we will.
We came back to Tropi Rock by about 4pm with all our goodies. We have cooked in every night here – quite nice to be eating more simply after the lux meals on the ship.
A most enjoyable day of shop fuddling. Back to the beach tomorrow armed with our new beach loungers and Cooler bag!! Tune in to find out how we got on with the setting up…..