Thanksgiving on Escape

[WhenIsOurNextCruise]

This is day zero because it doesn't count toward any of the days of our 7 day cruise! Up very early to get through Houston traffic to the Airport for our 7:15 flight to Miami. My husband, sister, son, daughter-in-law and precious cargo, my 8 year old grandson, Connor. Connor was going to miss what he thought was the most important day thus far in his young life, the Saturday morning super bowl game for his flag football team, which he had quarterbacked though 300+ points in an undefeated season. We were doing a rain dance, hoping for a delay until after Thanksgiving.

 

Traffic was easy but the airport was crowded. Lots of people leaving for the week of Thanksgiving. Stepped up security made the lines longer than usual at 5:45 in the morning. Fortunately we were TSA pre-check, which sped things up. We have arrived at a time in our lives when we have decided life is short so you might as well go first class! This is our big family vacation for the year so we all flew first class and it was wonderful except breakfast. Choice was oatmeal or scrambled eggs. When we fly coach I always imagine some magnificent spread going on up in first class, but that's a big NO! Uneventful flight, arrived on time, grabbed our 10 bags plus carry-ons (we always overpack) and climbed into two taxis for the trip downtown to the Mandarin Oriental on Brickell Island. Rooms weren't ready, so we bell checked all the bags except the one with meds, money and jewelry and rolled it down to the beach for lunch. Started with chips and guacamole and salsa and then had some great sandwiches. A $75 lunch in Texas was $210 in Miami but the view was amazing, service was great and the real estate was expensive!

 

Got into our rooms which were okay, not really too special except for the view. Dinner later at Burgers and Brew was outstanding! Next morning it was breakfast at the hotel where they graciously agreed to make BLT's, not on the menu, for a couple of us. Again we were outside on the Bay and it was worth every dollar. One issue with the Mandarin is that every taxi ride involves crossing one or two draw bridges, which can take a lot of time and tick, tick, ticks on the taxi meter.

 

Day 1

Off we go Saturday morning to Terminal B for checkin, while receiving text updates on the big playoff game in progress. We booked through Casinos at Sea back in February where my husband and I were offered a complementary balcony mini suite. We asked them to upgrade that to a Haven Suite and we paid the difference. The kids (actually they are adults) two bedroom suite has been offered at a discount in the past, but not this time. It was full price. My sister is a CAS player too and we came up with a rather unique idea. CAS allowed her to book a mini suite on 15 at a substantial discount plus they allowed us to book her into our Haven Suite as the third guest in the suite. That would allow her to sleep in her own cabin but enjoy all the amenities of the Haven with us. We all squeezed through the mad rush at Terminal B and through security and made a bee-line for the Haven Check in TINY room. Said TINY room was jam packed with many people including many large family groups traveling for the holiday. Only two ladies working the checkin desk. We were in line but the large groups were taking a long time. And, unfortunately, once we got to the front, our unique reservation with my sister in two rooms was a kink no one knew how to deal with. We finally got them to check her into her mini suite, and we worked out the Haven checkin with the Concierge later in the day. But checkin was an hour in a TINY room with two very patient reservation specialists and constant text updates regarding the ongoing football game back in Houston...without Connor! It was back and forth scoring and I am happy to say we won about the exact same time we were escorted up to The Haven!

 

More later.......