GregD

2 minutes ago, TheBoss518 said:

The best day ever!!! 

I thought the day you met me was the best day ever

Small lunch at Playmakers today. We have an early dinner at Izumi Hibachi tonight, so we are saving some room. Also voucher #2

Impatiently waiting for staterooms to open up so we can unpack a bit. We have a couples massage this afternoon as well.

We have seen quite a few little humans so far, including one on a leash. So far they seem to be well behaved. I’m sure once they are amped up on sugary drinks all bets are off.

I think I vaguely remember seeing a post somewhere about fish and ships and the fried lobster basket. The dining package DOES cover the charge.

1 minute ago, Ampurp85 said:

Those drinks look good, I keep saying I'm gonna try more cocktails and then I get onboard and stick to my daiquiris, Champs and the occasional beer.

This is the drink of the day, port side punch. Very fruity and goes down easy.

Just now, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Signs of a fantastic concierge! He is not the same Willy who was already a genie right is he? I remember when MJ was done genie training they sent him back as a Suite Concierge until a Genie position opened up. Is that the case with Willy or is this a different Willy than the one who people rave about already in that other group?

This I don’t know. I will have to ask. FYI, the intercontinental is wondering where you are?

First vouchers used.

Super Mario is on board. I was going to say hello, but he was with someone, and I didn’t want to be rude and interfere.

And we are on board!! Time to use some vouchers!

40 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Cause we are vintages! lo

Don’t remind me

We are here in the terminal. Security was a breeze. Willy is here in the suite lounge in the terminal greeting guests. We asked about leaving our carryon luggage in the suite lounge. (We are bringing some with etc with us) He said that as soon as boarding starts, he will actually escort us onto the ship and take us right to our suite to drop our bags! I think he is auditioning for a genie role. I’ll make sure to mention him in the survey. 
 

There is a small assortment of snacks here, sadly no ranger cookies…..that is absolutely going in the survey

Breakfast from Rosetta Bakery

 

We are organizing our things. I am going to return the rental car here shortly. There is a local drop off location a few blocks away, then Lyft will be here at 10 to bring us to the ship.

Random thought …..

who sits here doing their business and decides that now would be a great time to make or answer a phone call? I mean, it’s not happening now, but at the time…

I did wake up to these emails 

 

Oh well, we are happy with the room we are actually in, so it’s not a big deal.

1 minute ago, asquared17 said:

ITS CRUISE DAY!!!!!!!

It sure is!!! I’m up ready to go and starting to twitch. @TheBoss518, as everyone should expect by now……isn’t…

7 hours ago, asquared17 said:

appreciated the commentary about the food as well. once again, the content we needed.

Glad to be of service 

7 hours ago, asquared17 said:

also…. rip that humidity…. but it IS august…. in florida…..

Oh we are aware It just hits different when you live in a place where the air hurts your face.

2 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

If you see me at a late night promenade party it’s b/c I’m battling the crowds to get to Sorrento’s for my last snack of the night.

When my sister cruises with us, she and I are known for our “midnight pizza” runs. She is a night owl and my late night antics partner. @TheBoss518 would be in bed by 7 if it were up to her.

Dinner this evening was at Dolce Vita in the hotel. You do not need to be a guest at the hotel to eat here, and you should eat here. The food is very good, and has something everyone would like. I tried to take a picture of the menu, but the lighting wasn’t the best. You can find the menu here. The ambience where we were sat was classic and matched the rest of the hotel. If the humidity isn’t 9,000,000,000,000% they have outdoor seating as well which would be nice too.

Heather had the prosciutto e burrata to start. The prosciutto was the good stuff from Parma, and the burrata was so creamy.

 

I had grilled octopus for my starter, and it was probably the best I’ve ever had. Very tender, not chewy, and the sauce was delicious. 

Heather had their spaghetti with meatballs. Everything is made fresh in house, and was very good. The pasta had great bite and texture, and the meatballs were full of flavor. 
 

For my main, I had Veal Milanese. The meat was tender, the arugula salad was nice and peppery with a great dressing, what’s not to like.

By the time we finished, we were stuffed. We had grand plans to go up to the room, relax and digest, then go back down to the bar for a night cap and some tiramisu, but gravity took over, and we are now in bed and too tired. 
 

I know, total failures. How are we supposed to tear up this childless cruise if we are in bed so early? We will attempt to make improvements the rest of the week. 
 

 

After lunch we headed up to Bal Harbour Shops for some window shopping of fancy things. We did leave with one item for @TheBoss518

Lunch today, we walked over to another cafe, this one is call IT Italian Trattoria (very original name) We shared a caprese salad with prosciutto and a turkey panini. It was a nice lunch for this hot day.

Some of the other items they had made my mouth water.

After breakfast, we went walking again. Heather wanted to get her toes in the water. Here are our “pictures or it didn’t happen.”

We wandered back to the hotel, and now we are cooling off in the rooftop pool. I could get used to this.

 

 

I eventually dragged @TheBoss518 out of bed and we went in search of breakfast. We stopped at Rosetta Bakery, an Italian bakery just a couple of doors down from the hotel.
Everything there looks amazing. We may go back for lunch.

I had a croissant filled with pistachio cream, and Heather had ham and cheese. An espresso added to my large coffee intake this morning. I had two others in the room while she was getting ready.

Since you are almost off to Normandy, I will hijack for my funny/sweet story. 

My Aunt lives in Luxembourg, so I had the opportunity to spend an entire summer with them after my first year in high school. I got to tour all over France. Now I am aging myself here, but this was in 1994, and when we went to Le Mont Saint-Michel you could still park along the causeway and on the sand....we almost lost our car, but thankfully my cousin saved us and noticed the sign that said the tides come in at whatever time. We quickly returned to the car, and moved it. Others were not so lucky.....Now you see why they make you park on the mainland and take busses. 

The rest of the story happened at dinner. We got sat next to a large family that I am assuming from China, Japan, SE Asia based on the language. Their waiter was an Italian named Paco who had the hairiest arms I had ever seen. Any time that he was at their table, there was a young boy who was just enthralled by the amount of hair on his arms, and would stroke and pet his arm like it was a dog or cat. While it was funny to see, it was also sweet because Paco just took it in stride and smiled down at the boy and carried on as if nothing was happening. 

This restaurant also had the best mussels we had eaten, and we ate A LOT of mussels on that trip. Sadly I cant remember the name of the place. You should also try to get the famous omelette while there, they are very tasty, and the mussels, definitely the mussels.  

Hotel stay (This will be a long one, sorry)

Since @TheBoss518 does a lot of travel for work, and uses the Hilton brands, she accumulates a lot of points to use. When we booked this cruise, she mentioned that she always wanted to try their "Curio Collection" of hotels. Hilton describes these as "A global portfolio of remarkable hotels with one-of-a-kind stories to share." We like to stay in unique locations when we can, so this was perfect.

We chose The Gale South Beach Hotel. This is a classic '30's hotel on Collins Ave. It is now a combination of two classic hotels, The Gale and The Regent. These hotels were designed by Architect L. Murray Dixon, a pioneer of the city's art deco movement. They were among the first luxury hotels to crop up in the up-and-coming resort haven known as South Beach.

The hotel was revitalized in 2012 modernizing a lot of the features, but kept that classic style. We had enough points to book their top room, a king grand terrace. This room features a king bed, large bathroom, and its own private terrace with chairs and bed. It's perfect for a couple. I would not choose this room if you had kids. They do have other rooms with two queens etc if you need them.

Here are some lobby photos.

 

Roof top pool. During the day, there is food bar service up here

 

Room tour, notice the weighted blanket.....

 

Bathroom

Outdoor Terrace can be accessed from the bedroom and the bathroom

Other amenities and information. Since we booked entirely with points, the daily resort fee was covered. The only charge we will have is the valet parking, and any food/beverage charges to the room. 

 

Some exterior shots

We will be eating dinner tonight at their restaurant Dolce Italian. A coworker of Heathers had dinner here and said it was amazing. 

 

 

12 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I might have missed it earlier, but where are you staying? Beach hotel? 

Close, pictures etc coming

Well, the wake up and go for a hike husband is in full effect. I left @TheBoss518 in bed to go explore and find her some Starbucks. 
 

Made it to the beach

I also found her some coffee. It’s disgustingly humid out already, but it’s nice walking around here before the area truly “wakes up.”

We all know where we went to dinner. We were supposed to lad at 2pm. We were originally going to check out Sawgrass Mills, but since we were so late that didn’t happen, and we were quite Hangry when we landed. So after retrieving our luggage and rental car, we went right to dinner. 

Dinner absolutely lived up to the hype and wouldn’t hesitate to go back. 
 

It was happy hour, so drinks were 50% off. One Margarita and 3 mojitos later, we were quite happy. 
 

We ordered the cheese dip, La Bamba combo which is a chicken enchilada, chili relleno and a ground beef taco. This normally comes with rice and refried beans. @TheBoss518 doesn’t like beans so she didn’t get them, and refused to let me get them for obvious reasons. We also got the combo fajitas. 
 

 

 

Dessert was the friend ice cream to finish out the recommendations from @Lovetocruise2002

With very full and happy bellies, we headed off to the hotel.

Well, in typical fashion, I’m on vacation and up early. It didn’t help that we were up super early, then had a long travel day, so we were exhausted and unconscious by 10pm.

So, let’s get caught up here. We obviously made it after a bunch of delays. Looking at the monitor in FLL, we weren’t the only ones.

 

We have this lovely ride as our rental 

2 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

You and @TheBoss518 better have a margarita and fried ice cream and think of me

Half way there!