We were a bit rested and then gathered up again… headed in to the “free breakfast” … well normal ‘free” is not much… normal type stuff, some fruit, cereal, juice, waffles, pastries and this one did have some eggs… not tried. We had a little and then checked out and grabbed bags to get back to the airport so we could catch yet another bus that would take us to the cruise piers… one does not do the other… the hotel bus was out so we had to wait some time… most of us out front clogging the front door so they had to get us out of the way… sometimes it works that way…
The problem that occurred to me quickly was the number of riders and the seating in the bus was not going to work in one trip… so I figured that we should just ‘first come first serve” get on that bus and go… don’t stand around and try to figure out if we could all get in… not going to happen…
Part of the group and , yes, they had all ordered special t-shirts to be recognized as a group… yep I wore one too…
We got to the airport and found the cruise desk and got signed in… a good thing as it was a pre-check of documents and stuff so when we hit the cruise pier we were a bit more fast tracked through the lines… nice.
I am one that can’t just set and wait so I made several journeys up and down the “baggage” area getting in some steps. but while I was looking out the window toward the “passenger pickup” area I spotted this cab… they all advertise something but ?
It is Miami so why not advertise something that might gather a few more passengers?
the bus ride to the pier took us through Miami (downtown) and by the baseball stadium but the windows on the bus were not washed so the pictures were all “unclear” . We arrived at the pier and just pretty much walked right on through, a few checks and stops for pictures… yes they still push the pictures and drinks… that is how they make their money… it isn’t the price of the cruise it is the extras they can coerce you into… We gathered up for a group picture at the first stop and later in the day we viewed that picture and …. short of any other words… it was bad for 70% of us… if you bought that one you would have to cover over the yawns, closed eyes, weird looks and various other things… oh well… we knew from previous experience there would be more…
It was a pretty long walk up the ramps, and back and forth and then onboard… grab an elevator and up a few levels and then down a very long hall to our room near the back of the ship??? I need to go off on a tangent here a bit… if you take a cruise… try to get near the middle of the ship for room assignment… it will reduce all the up and down and side to side if you happen to be in a bit rougher seas… Now on this trip we did hit some white caps out of Miami but didn’t bother me… and we were not in the middle we were near the back, but was good if you wanted to get up to Deck 9 for food, deck 5 for the evening dining… etc.… we were close to the rear elevators and easy getting to much of the stuff we wanted … other than the main stage which of course is in the very front so it was a long walk (900+ feet) to that end to get to the stage… now one issues with the rear is also you are closer to the “all night music” in the smaller clubs… and on this ship the “boom boom” of the base reverbed in our cabin… now for me… just take out the hearing aids and poof no problem… no so for Sherrie… anyway… pick cabins near the middle no matter what deck you choose inside or outside… it is the pivot point of the waves if you are heading into them… or away…
We headed out of Miami pretty much on time… and we had a balcony room so I spent some time out watching as we left.
It would seem that the pirates are still in abundance in Miami? or was that a tour?
our pier was near the coast guard station and the smaller boats were making multiple runs up and down the channel… and waving to the cruise boats…
Since we had signed up for group dining in the early dining area we all would meet up every night… so that we did…
I know it is the first night out as we are all still in the single vision t-shirts…
different faces, different angles…
That pretty much id’s the group… not a rowdy bunch although we learned later that some were in the younger days… ?
AS I was leaving the lower area of that dining I caught this picture… yes like walmart you can see anything on a cruise as well. sometimes you see too much and just can’t “un-see” it… these two, almost dressed were there waiting to be seated or ? not sure
After dinner we returned to our room and the daily animal on the bed…
? elephant or ?
After a brief rest we all went to the evening show in the main theater…still wearing our “group” shirts…but after several attempts at pictures I got involved with a bigger camera and got a few … not pro type pictures but it is a group shot. or two or ?
Now I post several because it is very hard to get 14 people to smile,, look at the camera, stand still not be blocked, etc.…
And we got someone else to push the button and made me stand in.. luckily I didn’t cause any damage to my new camera…
With that we ended the first night out… tomorrow was a “at sea” day… Nice to rest up after rushing in and out of airports and other things to get into this.
WD0AJG