A Little Water Taxi Talk

I enjoy the Water Taxi when I am in Ft. Lauderdale.  Maybe it's because I just like being on any kind of boat.  But I find it to be kind of fun.  On Sunday following my Royal Princess ship inspection I had time on my hands and knew that I didn't want to spend the entire day at my hotel.  As much as I enjoyed the location of the hotel and my balcony, I was growing tired of it after nearly a week.  So, during the week when I attended a Hello Sunny seminar a few ladies from the Water Taxi office also were there and they gave me a pass to spend a day on the Water Taxi.  So, I decided to take advantage of it.  By the way, in case you were wondering Hello Sunny is the Ft. Lauderdale tourism website and has a wealth of information if you are planning to visit the area.

One of the really nice things about the Ft. Lauderdale Hilton Marina is it's location.  It is within walking distance to the Broward County Convention Center where Cruise3Sixty took place.  You can stand in the parking lot and see which ships are in port and just steps from the parking lot is Stop 5 for the Water Taxi service.  Stop 5 also happens to be the place where you go if you are interested in taking the Water Taxi to Hollywood.  It's a handy stop to be near.  It turned out that I could leave my room and walk down the sidewalk along the water and not even have to go through the lobby or walk across the parking lot to get to the Water Taxi stop.  This is a pretty handy thing.

There was a charter for Cruise3Sixty participants.  But I didn't get signed up for it since I initially had a conflict on my schedule.  I was really kind of glad about that since after a week, I was getting kind of tired of having all of my time so structured.  In the last couple of years, I have become accustomed to working according to my own schedule and being on someone elses schedule for a week was starting to get to me. So, as I arrived at Stop 5 to get on the Water Taxi, all the Cruise3Sixty people were also arriving for their charter.  They were given beer and wine along with Hello Sunny beach bags as they boarded.  I don't know where they were taken but I know that they were gone for about 3 hours since I saw them later that day as they returned to Stop 5.  At the time, I was just enjoying my ride watching all the other passengers, listening to the commentary and enjoying the sun and the breeze.  I think I made the entire circuit 3 times.  I didn't go to Hollywood since again, you have to change boats to do that and it's about two and a half hours round trip.  I just stayed in Ft. Lauderdale.

Either it is acceptable to carry beer with you and drink on the Water Taxi or there were some very bold passengers on my boat.  Because several of them drank the whole time they were on board.  One lady was actually carrying a cooler and when she finished a beer, she opened the cooler, got another one out and started drinking it.  It certainly seems to be acceptable for the other boaters to drink and drive their boats since boats were pulling out in front of our Water Taxi constantly.  The driver of our boat was sort of like I am when people pull out in front of me in Dallas traffic. He would throw both of his hands up in the air and say something like "Why don't ya enjoy another beer, buddy!"

I had been on the Water Taxi once before, but it wasn't a warm and sunny day.  It was a little overcast and cool and I think it might have been a Friday.  But let me tell you that you see some interesting things on an 85 degree sunny Sunday afternoon.  First of all, the most fascinating thing I saw was the "Redneck Riviera" that our tour guide pointed out each time we went by.  This is an area in the river where there is a sandbar so the water is very shallow.  On pretty weekends, lots of local people with boats go to this spot and anchor and spend the day partying.

Redneck Riviera

So, it looked a little something like that on Sunday afternoon.  I think that was where a lot of the boaters who were indulging were either headed to or coming from.  Shortly after I got on the Water Taxi, both my camera battery and my cell phone battery died.  So, I have very few pictures to show you of my day spent on this most relaxing mode of transportation.  But this is what I got.  As you ride around on the Water Taxi, your tour guide tells you what various properties are worth, what properties recently sold for and who owns what.  He does the same with the yachts that you pass.  So, by the end of your journey, you are either impressed or disgusted with the excess of money being thrown away in Ft. Lauderdale.  Usually, if you ask who owns a specific yacht he can tell you.

However, the blue one pictured below, The Mytique, was a mystery to him.  It had just sailed in that morning and he had no idea who it belonged to.  As you can see in the photo the uniformed crew were just getting her settled into port when I took the picture.  She was docked at my hotel.  So I decided to see if I could dig up any information on the old tub.  Here's what I found out.  She is a charter, so you're in luck.  You can charter this little beauty for the week.  She runs out of the The Bahamas and for a mere $125,000 a week, you can spend your vacation yachting like the rich and the famous.

The Mystique

She was built in 1988 and refit in 2013 and the inside is just as beautiful as the outside according to the photos on the website.  She cruises at 22 knots and has 5 cabins sleeping 10 individuals.  So, maybe you and 9 of your closest friends can chip in together and pay $12,500 each to charter her for the week. Of course, it is customary to tip your crew when your week is over..... and 20% of $125,000 is going to come to $25,000, so then your portion of the tip will come to about $2,500.  So for a measly $15,000 you could spend a week on this beauty experiencing all that she has to offer.  I think, I'll just stick with the Water Taxi, but thanks.

The ships above are some of the cruise ships that were in port last Sunday as I was boarding the Water Taxi.  They cram a lot of ships into port here on just about any given day.  You can spend a week on one of those ships considerably cheaper than on The Mystique or on Pegasus V whose name is pictured below the photo of the Water Taxi below.  Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the entire Pegasus V but this was just about the time that both my camera battery and my cell phone battery died simultaneously.  I can tell you that Pegasus V is owned by a construction guy.  I'm thinking that he probably builds something slightly pricier than a 3bdrm/2bth/wbfp in the suburbs.

The yacht cost $200,000,000.  No that's not a typo there really are 8 zeros in that price.  He charters her for a little extra money on the side.  So, for a mere $600,000 a week you and 11 of your closest friends could charter this little beauty in the winter in the Caribbean.  But if you want to charter her in the Mediterranean in the summer, you're looking at a $1,250,000 price tag for the week.  She carries a crew of 26.  That's almost 2.2 crew members per passenger.  Talk about having your every need met....

It just makes me wonder who has a million dollars to charter a boat for a week and why aren't they my friend?  And if you have a million dollars to spend on something like this for a single week, do you think to yourself, Wow, that's kinda steep! or are you just like, Eh, what else am I going to do with that money?
Because I could think of a LOT better ways to spend a million bucks!

Sorry, I kind of got off track.  Probably if you are reading my blog about the Water Taxi, you aren't really in the market for chartering a yacht in the Mediterranean this summer anyway.  I hope you have had a productive week.  Have a terrific weekend and think of me as I finish up my taxes. Ugh!