Sitting under a palm tree a cigar and Mai Tai in hand soaking up the tropical sun…now THAT’S what retirement looks like!
That was the scene on the last day of our recent cruise in the Western Caribbean. What originally started as an Eastern Caribbean cruise moved West due to this past year’s hurricanes that slammed the islands we’d originally planned to visit.
We left the Destin/Ft Walton Beach airport…no wait, that didn’t happen. What really happened was on the way to the airport we were notified the flight had been canceled due to weather and we’d been rescheduled for a 4:00 PM flight through Charlotte, NC to Miami.
Keith checked the weather forecast in Charlotte and decided that wasn’t going to happen so he called American Airlines. The very nice people were able to reroute us from Pensacola airport (only about an hour’s drive away) directly to Miami arriving about the same time we’d originally planned.
We arrived in Miami and decided to try Lyft from the airport. We’ve used Uber and have liked it but Lyft was offering $5 off each trip. The pickup was a bit of an affair since Lyft and Uber can only pickup and drop off passengers at the Departure terminal area. Once we found out we were on the wrong floor we were able to hook up with our driver and get a nice ride into downtown Miami.
Overnight accommodations were courtesy of Hilton Honor miles at the Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton Miami Brickell Downtown. Located in the middle of the current financial district of Miami we enjoyed a couple of free drinks and a nice quiet evening preparing for the cruise.
Breakfast was on the Hampton Inn & Suites and we muscled our way into the dining room and found a place to sit before departing for the port. The dining room was packed and by the number of bags and tags most everyone this morning was heading to the docks for cruises as well.
Rain greeted us at the terminal but we quickly dropped off the bags and made it inside without getting too wet. The check-in process was quick and efficient but since they don’t board the ship until after 12 noon, we had to wait about an hour before boarding.
Boarding time arrived but since we couldn’t go to our cabins until 4 PM we took the time to wander the decks and get to know the ship before departure. After a thorough reconnaissance of the Norwegian Escape Ilene and I stopped at the bar and ordered the “drink of the day”. Having the “DOD” is a family tradition on cruises so needless to say we couldn’t break tradition on our first day.
We managed to make it out on deck for the planned departure and waved farewell to Miami for the beginning of our Western Caribbean cruise.
Once at the room we had a chance to go over the day’s schedule and decided on dining at the same bar we’d enjoyed our DODs since they were serving prime rib. After dinner our plans were to attend the opening show at the dinner theater.
The prime rib was cold as was the baked potato that evening. Fortunately the evening entertainment was fun and after a few more drinks we retired to the cabin for a gentle rocking and rolling and a good night’s sleep.
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