mahdnc

Apr 18th occurred twice for your sailing, correct?

The night time view from our room. Cruise port is on the top left. No ships now, but they'll be there when we wake up! Good night.

After dinner, we walked around South Beach.

We had dinner at Osteria Positano. It was pretty good. Marcia had the mushroom risotto. I ordered the cacio e pepe which was prepared table side.

Meanwhile, the Marriott hotel room we received was nice. We reserved a King Bed, Bay View, Guest Room for $321 + tax which used a AAA discount. We chose this hotel because we wanted a nice view of the cruise ships at the Port of Miami. And instead of hoping for a free upgrade, we simply paid for a room with the view we wanted. We were assigned a room on the 28th floor. The highest floors with rooms is 31. The bellhop told my wife that this room had one of the best views but I missed the actual language used because I was busy driving laps around the wrong JW Marriott at that time. By the time I got to room, it was just in time to watch some of cruise ships leave port.

Yes, now that I went through my Cruise Critic therapy, I am laughing!

We made it to the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay. After we dropped off our bags, Marcia checked in while I drove the car to the JW Marriott to return it to Enterprise Car Rental. The return of the car is an embarrassing comedy of navigational errors on my part. I am only disclosing this to you as a form of self healing. It all occurred during the peak of Friday afternoon rush hour traffic in downtown Miami full of one way city streets where there is a large time penalty for each driving error. First attempt: I overshot and missed my turn because I wasn’t familiar the scale of the navigation map in the minivan screen. I had to go back around the block in gridlocked traffic (counterclockwise). Second attempt: Determined not to miss my turn the second time around, I made my left turn, but one traffic light too early. So back around the gridlocked block I went to set up attempt number three. Third attempt: the gridlock was aggravated this time by a bridge opening to let some expensive boat pass through. So going around the block took a real long time. You get to do a lot of pedestrian people watching. This time I made the correct turn (yay), but I missed the entrance to the hotel…. Fourth attempt: now that I had practice in making every error possible, I nailed the landing and proudly drove up to the JW Marriott Marquis entrance. I told the valet who approached me that I was just returning the car. He told me that I was at the wrong JW Marriott! I was supposed to go to the “other” JW Marriott only a mile away. I wanted to cry and beg the valet to take the car over there himself! Instead I asked him for the basic directions there. He told me that I had to drive 3/4 around the block and then continue on for a mile or so—during rush hour traffic…. This is why I cruise and don’t do any sailing on my own. I’d be “that guy” that ends up sailing to North Korea by accident. There. Therapy session over. Send me the bill.

and, they say that half the fun is getting there. I’d say that was especially true for you guys.

the ferry is a lot longer, too

Yes, we’ve visited this remote national park that can only be visited by boat or seaplane. We took the ferry option. We did snorkeling, not diving.

The drive between Miami and Key Largo isn’t as awesome as it is when you go further west onto the Overseas Highway.

Our car rental. No, it’s the white minivan in the back.

We will likely be on the road during the two most exciting minutes in sports.

Today’s trip plan. Finish diving and check out of the Courtyard hotel. Drive back to Miami. Pick up a few things at the grocery store along the way and refuel the car rental. Check in at the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay. Then drive over to the nearby JW Marriott Marquis to drop off the car by 4pm to keep the car rental charge to one day (Enterprise). Dinner at Osteria Positano (Miami Beach) at 6:30PM.

We just filled out the health questionnaire. Remember when this was not so straight forward 2-3 years ago?