GregD

I apologize for the lack of updates, it’s been a busy cruise and my computer is acting up. I will try to catch up this evening 

WE ARE ON THE SHIP!!

Today went so smooth, after we left the waterless hotel! We piled the kids in the car with the iPads and off we went to the port. Lydia asked as we drove past on the causeway, are we going on a cruise?????? Nah kid, we are not.

She bought that answer and went back to the iPad.

I then had my parenting fail of the day. I reach behind me to tap Johnny’s leg, which of course makes him cry, so the surprise!! We are going on a cruise fell flat
 

It took a few takes to get a good video to send to family.

once at the port everything went according to plan. We pulled up, dropped the bags with the porter, drove the 6 minutes to return the car.

we called our Uber which was there in 30 seconds and back to the port we went.

Here is the obligatory propeller shot

took this elevator 

Got our muster station bands

The Royal Promenade 

windjammer for lunch!!

from drop-off to on the ship was 5 minutes!!

phone is in airplane mode, connected to Voom, LETS DO THIS!!!

Annnnnnnnnnd the comedy of errors that is this hotel continues...... we now have no water.......

It’s cruise day!!!

Zero days till we go on a cruise!

zero days till we go!

The sun has come up, let’s head to the port, zero days till we go on a cruise!!!

(thanks @JLMoran)

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I love, love, love this picture !  It brings back SO many <not so> wonderful memories of the delightful female teenage years. I feel so sorry for you, knowing what’s coming !  

Only teasing.  If you all manage to live through it, teenager-ness is wonderful . That which doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger, right ?

Thank you! We always joke that she is 9 going on 19. She is our little drama princess. Some of the tears were because she was watching the news that morning and discovered what rip currents were. She was convinced that we were all doomed just stepping into the waves and she “just wanted to be able to swim.”

Here is some info on the swim with wonder. The program itself is 1hr.

https://www.atlantisbahamas.com/thingstodo/dolphincay/deepwaterswim

i have done a dolphin encounter at Atlantis. They seem to be stricter there with what you can do with them. I don’t believe they do dorsal fin tows there. 
 

I will be Atlantis on Tuesday. We supposedly have a 5 hour pass (in Nassau until 9pm) I can report back on what time we are to return.

I do think that the time duration in the cruise planner is if you want transportation provided by RC. If you stay longer then you may be on your own to get back to the ship.

5 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Odyssey pre-cruise dinner...my vote is obviously for La Bamba on that one!! I will see you all there. 

As for Tequiztlan, I think that would make a great pre-cruise meet up for Allure 03/14/21. @emsff02 you need to YOLO and book that one!

I forgot Odyssey was out of everglades, that makes more sense.

As much as I would LOVE to do that, we are on Oasis in Star class 3 weeks prior!! There is no way I could swing that, but a weekend in Miami....hmmmmmm

We are all tucked in for the night. TOMORROW IS CRUISE DAY!!!!! As expected, our royal up bid was not accepted. Regardless we are so excited. We cant wait for the look on the kids faces when we get to the port. We have told them that we have a LOOOONG drive tomorrow and plan on giving them the ipads immediately upon entering the car so they will be distracted and not pay attention to the GPS. (they like to look at the miles/minutes remaining) Our plan is to get to the port around 10:15 and drop the bags with the porters. Return the rental car (10 minutes away) Uber back and be one of the first people on the ship. 

See everyone tomorrow!

Dinner tonight was great. If you are a reader of blogs by @Lovetocruise2002, you will recognize this menu and know where we went. (Full disclosure, we went here because of that blog post)

The food was amazing. We forgot to get pictures of the food. But looking back at the blog post previously mentioned, we actually managed to eat and drink almost all of the same things, so you can see them there. 
 

@CGTLH I also could not research the Azul Ultra, but......
 

I did research the Azul Anejo and I can report back that it’s absolutely amazing!! If the Anejo was this good, I can only imagine the Ultra. I am picturing an Odyssey pre cruise group dinner/research opportunity

Today we took a trip out to the Everglades for an airboat ride to see some alligators. We had a great time. The boat tour was over an hour long on an airboat. If you have not been on one of these, they are loud, and hearing protection should be considered.

Johnny decided to ham it up a bit

For those who aren't aware, the Army corps of engineers did attempt to drain the Everglades by digging a series of canals with the hope of reclaiming the land. They.Did.Not.

Here is one of those canals

We had a visit by some birds.

Finally!! we saw an alligator!! 

Following the bout tour. There was a brief show with one of the guys on Gator Boys on Animal Planet.

I'm just gonna carry this guy out he says, 

Then this craziness. 

This guy wasn't impressed, he was kinda sleepy

Later that evening, we ate dinner at one of my favorite places. It’s called The Boiling Crab. They are mostly in California, which is where Heather discovered the place when out there for work. She took me to one in Las Vegas when we were there and I was hooked. It’s a Louisiana crab boil type place. Very tasty and very messy. It’s awesome.

Bibs are absolutely required.

First up were Oysters

Well, what’s left.....

Time for the main event snow crab, 

Followed by shrimp, with corn on the cob and red potatoes.

the aftermath.......

Time to get caught up here. Following our Target run, we headed back to the beach. As New Yorkers, we are used to crummy weather, so we weren’t going to let that ruin our beach day. There weren’t too many people out. Johnny and I had fun playing with the waves. He had a blast getting hit by them with me.

Lydia on the other hand was terrified of the waves and had the worst day ever

We went back to the hotel pool and all was right in her world.

I’m in Miami right now for our Navigator cruise. The weather report this AM showed some real nasty thunderstorms just south of the island. I wonder if the approach is too dangerous?

You know you are in south beach when people do their Target runs in their Ferrari 488

Following breakfast we cheked out the beach briefly. It is very windy today, and the surf is moving.

Lydia was not happy with me here......I thought it was funny.

Debacle in Miami

So laaaaaaate last night we made it to Miami. On a suggestion from @MotleyCruiser we picked up our rental car from Sixt. Quite and easy process. They didn't have the vehicle class we originally booked to Upgrade!! The salesman said I had a choice between a Chevy Tahoe, or a GMC Yukon, I told him it didn't matter to me. "I'll give you the Yukon, its a more reliable vehicle" he says. I didn't have the heart to tell him, you know, they are the exact same car, just a different badge on the front.....EIther way it is a nice car. Unfortunately this is where the good times end.

So this is where it pays to research, research, research. Heather, through work uses Hilton based hotels for points etc. So we picked The Gates Hotel South Beach, which is a Double Tree. Normally we have good results with these hotels. We knew that we would pay more because its right off the beach so we were okay with that. Heather got her online check in notification which allows her to pick her room. We pick on on the eigth floor which overlooks the pool area etc. Perfect, off we go to the airport.

We pull into the hotel and surprise, there is no onsite parking. You have the privilege of valet parking for $42 a day.....ugh.....its South Beach....fine.......

We go up to the desk....Oh the room you requested is not available.....You can have this one, it still overlooks the pool area towards the beach....Okay fine that works.....We head up to the room to this.... 

What in the actual...........

So back down to the desk we go. New room, which thankfully was clean. The hotel did make good. They removed the nightly "resort fee" and gave us 50% off our first night stay. Feeling a little better now.

The beds were actually comfortable.

Breakfast.......$25 dollars for a continental breakfast buffet per person, oh if you want hot things like eggs? Thats another $6.

No thanks...Went to Denny's

Current mood after last night/this morning’s hotel debacle........

On the plane, off to FLL

Not sure why these are rotated

Our first cruise was on Enchantment back in 2014. While there were many great memories made on that cruise, I think my favorite memory was having drinks with my buddy in the schooner bar, which on that ship, has a great view of the sea. We just sat there drinking scotch, and as firefighters do, discussing how we were going to solve all of the world’s problems while watching the sea go by. 
 

What also sits in my memory is that this was before dinner. After eating dinner, my buddy and I went back to the schooner bar. The same bar tender was there. She saw us walk in and immediately poured what we were drinking.

it was a great day.

Have a great cruise! That stateroom looks like a lot of fun!

Current situation. Standing at a desk at Baltimore Airport charging the phone and caffeinating while waiting for our next flight to FLL. The surprise went well. We picked the kids up from school and headed to the airport. Thankfully they didn’t notice the luggage in the back of the car. We live close to the airport so a statement of we have to run to a store in Albany and that kept them from asking what was going on. 

Once we pulled into the airport, they started asking “why are we here?” To which we replied WE ARE GOING TO FLORIDA!!!!! This was met with cheers of excitement and are we going to Disney, Seaworld etc. so of course we told them no. We are going to Miami to check out the beach and stuff. 
 

I’ll attempt to get a screenshot of the video we took of the kids excited faces to post later.

We arrive at FLL at 11:30pm so the next update will be sometime tomorrow.

This does seem silly. Another RC IT goof maybe? I would call them and see what is going on.

Following! 

47 minutes ago, MotleyCruiser said:

I'm sure they have a shuttle.  We took a cab to the nearest location to avoid the long ride and craziness of MIA.  Also no Airport fee if you rent off site (away from airport)

Address: 705 5th St, Miami Beach, FL 33139

Phone: (305) 808-3878

Thanks again for the info! I actually canceled my rentals with Enterprise and reserved cars with them. It was half the cost. New plan will be pick first car up at FLL and return to their 5th location embarkation day. I’ll take an Uber back to the port after dropping the wife/kids/luggage off early. After the cruise I will pick up rental #2 at 5th st and head to Orlando and return at MCO. There were no “one way rental” fees for either of them.