Dorothy Piotrowski’s blog

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again … I hate the last day of vacations.  Once we got everything packed up, we spent a bit of time just hanging out and taking a few last photos of the Valhalla Point Resort before heading to the Miami International Airport.

Check in and security was again pretty painless and we had about one and a half hours before our flight.  I spent the entire flight watching “Holmes Inspection” which made the flight seem really quick.

We got our bags and headed outside to wait for our shuttle bus from the Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton Toronto Airport.  Once they finally got there, it was a very quick ride home.

During the various trips we’ve made to the Florida Keys, we’ve always driven by the Dolphin Research Center but never stopped.  We decided that we wanted to check this out.  As the name suggests, it’s a place that researches dolphins.  There are also a dolphin rescue centre.  It is divided up into a bunch of different lagoons where all of the dolphins live.  There were educational/demonstration sessions about every hour.  What basically happens is that the trainers give a talk on a subject (for example how dolphins play) and have the dolphins demonstrate.

The center is a not-for-profit organization so every dollar that you spend there is put right back into the center.  There are many activities that you can do.  You can meet the dolphins, swim with the dolphins, be a trainer for a day and the one that Karen did, paint with a dolphin.  They give you a t-shirt clipped to a piece of carboard and you get to pick two paint colors.  You then hold the t-shirt out over the water and the dolphin with the paint brush in it’s mouth, begins to paint your t-shirt.  The two dolphins that painted Karen’s shirt were Calusa and Santini.  Calusa even got paint on the shirt that Karen was wearing.

After spending the morning there, we picked up a late lunch from The Island Fish Co. and enjoyed it back at the motel.  We wanted to hit a beach and our neighbors recommended that we go to Bahia Honda State Park.  We got there and found a spot on the Gulf side since the ocean side had too much seawood.  We jumped right into the water and were very surprised as to how warm it was.  I mean it really was bathtub water.  The park has camping right on the beach so went went over to the campground to check out the sites.  Many of the sites were shaded and were ocean front.  Maybe next time we’ll camp.

We went back to the motel to relax and enjoy our final sunset in Florida.  We had dinner at The Castaway where we enjoyed something called HoneyBuns.  They are basically deep fried dough that you then pour honey over.  There were very yummy.  Since we don’t have internet at the hotel, we stopped off at the parking lot of the public library where I posted Friday’s blog.

We had to leave the ship today and boy were we sad.  The ship had already docked in Miami, before we woke up.  But we did get to see the sun rise over the Miami harbour.  We took our time somewhat getting up and moving because we decided to do self disembarkation.  What that means is that you can just walk off the ship anytime between 7:30am and 9:00am taking your luggage.  Most cruise ships take your bags from you the night before and then you have to pick them up from baggage claim.  Doing the self disembarkation, allowed us to have one last leisurely breakfast outside on Deck 11, before leaving.  I can honestly say that from the time that we left the room which was around 8:45am to the time that we were driving away in our rental car from Hertz ($119.47 USD) in downtown Miami, took in total approximately one hour.  We were going to do our own Art Deco tour of Miami but we decided to just get the heck out of town.

To sum up the cruising portion of our trip, here are our top 10 observations/tips:

10.  Do research on what is offered at each port.  Don’t feel that you have to book the excursions with the cruise line.  There are lots of other ways to get around.
9.  Service is excellent.  Our cabinet steward spoke to us by name every day.  The hospitality through-out the ship was outstanding.
8.  Don’t expect the room to be huge, but it will be efficient.
7.  Your cell phone won’t work.  Which is actually a good thing, since there are no people walking around yelling into phones, or texting people non-stop.
6.  Plan to spend some days after the cruise still on vacation.  It would have been VERY depressing to leave the ship and get directly on an airplane.
5.  Get on board early on day 1, so that you can have lunch, and explore the ship before leaving port.  Put whatever you need in a knap sack, and send the rest as checked baggage (maximum 2 bags).
4.  Do self disembarkation so that you have all your luggage with you until you’re ready to leave.
3.  Book early so that you get a choice of rooms, and maybe save some money.  (Our cruise went UP in price after we booked).
2.  Cruise on NCL (Norwegian Cruise Line).  Their freestyle cruising is great, if you want to do whatever you want,  whenever you want.
1.  Get a balcony.  It is worth every cent.

Now onto the next part of our vacation … We stopped in Homestead and did some shopping at the Prime Outlets Florida City mall.  We were able to find lots of great deals.  We had a quick bite to eat at Sonny’s BBQ before heading down to the keys.

Our last two days of this vacation are being spent in Marathon at the Valhalla Point Resort, which is about half way down the Florida Keys.  This place is the exact opposite of what we just experienced on the cruise ship.  The first thing is that when we drove in, we couldn’t find the office to check in.  Luckily for us, David and Jim, regulars here, told us to just go into our room and that Steve or Nancy would come and find us some time.  In a short time, Steve appeared and just explained everything to us.  This is a self help motel, so you just help yourself to whatever you want to do.  In total there are six guests at this hotel, including us. 

The grounds here are so lovely.  There are hammocks and loungers and all of these neat little places that you can go and just relax.  There are even kayaks and canoes that you can take out.  Once we got settled, we each found a little place where we grabbed our books and just relaxed.  Some of us more than others.

We wanted to go swimming (since the temperature is in the 90s) and so we took the kayak and headed over to Curry Hammock State Park.  Once we got there, we noticed that there is no real swimming beach so we headed back.  By now it was time for dinner so we drove to Marathon and had dinner by the water at Key Fisheries Market & Marina.  This was much different from what we were used to for the past four days.  But the food was delicious, and the scenery was beautiful.

It didn’t look like there was going to be a sunset so we decided to head to the grocery store to get some supplies.  When we came out, the sky was all of the beautiful colors.  We started driving very quickly to see if we could find a spot to pull over and catch the last of the sunset.  We were lucky and found a spot and enjoyed the sunset.

We got back to the resort and had a very quiet relaxing evening.  Had a chat with the neigbours around the campfire, and turned in for the night.

It’s my birthday today.  We got up again at 5:45am to catch the sunrise.  There were a few new sea turtle nests.  We went back upstairs to have a nap.  Once we got moving, we had breakfast and then begin the task of packing up.  A big thank you to Stan Piekarek for letting us use his beautiful condo.

We left West Palm Beach around 11:00am and headed for downtown Miami.  The first thing I noticed about Miami is how busy the city is.  I’m not sure if I ever have to really visit again.  We dropped the car off at Hertz and were very quickly shuttled to the Port of Miami and our ship the Norwegian Sky.

The one thing that everyone told us is to get ready to wait in lines.  I was very surprised as to how quickly Norwegian moved people along.  I would say in total it was about one hour from the time we were dropped off at the dock to us having lunch at the Garden Cafe buffet.

Around 2pm, they announced that our staterooms were ready. We made our way to the 9th floor also known as the Fjord deck to our room 9040.  I walked in and was greeted with a birthday surprise.  There were decorations and a birthday cake compliments of Karen.

The first thing we noticed is how small and efficient our room is.  We splurged and got a balcony stateroom and that was the best money we ever spent.  The room is very small, but the balcony is quite large.  It didn’t take long for our luggage to arrive and we quickly unpacked. 

We spent quite a bit of time exploring the ship before we had to attend our boat drill.  The drill is mandatory and it actually didn’t take too long.  The ship is so quiet that we didn’t even notice when the boat was moving, and that we had pulled away from the dock.  From our balcony We saw the exquisite houses of Millionaire’s Row, as we sailed out of Miami and past South Beach.  After leaving Miami, we went to the pool.  There are two pools with four hot tubs on deck 11, and a kiddie pool plus hot tub on deck 12.  It was a bit crowded but what surprised me is there are many little areas where one can get anyway from the crowds.  And lots of lounge chairs that aren’t crowded together.

Since it’s my birthday we decided to splurge and have dinner at Cagney’s Steakhouse.  They give you a menu and you just basically pick whatever you want.  Karen had the crab cakes, lobster bisque, 5 oz filet mignon with garlic mashed potatoes.  I had the ceasar salad, 10oz New York striploin with garlic mashed potatoes.  Then the dessert menu came out and Karen had the warm expresso brownie with ice cream.  This was probably one of the best dinners I’ve ever had.

After dinner, we took the laptop and got ourselves hooked up to the internet.  Who would of thought that you can be in the middle of the ocean and still stay connected.

We saw that there was a show advertised in the Stardust Theatre called “Soul Rockin’ Nights” so we thought we should check it out.  It was a high energy show that combined country, southern rock, folk and soul.

After the show, we went back to the room so that I could get the blog ready to post.

The night ended with us enjoying a piece of birthday cake.

Thanks Karen for a great birthday.  Tomorrow we’ll wake up and be in the Bahamas.

We decided to get up early and by early I mean 5:45am and head down to the beach to catch the sunrise.  (It’s amazing how I have no trouble getting up early on a vacation day.)  The sky was all these really cool pink and orange colours.  The trick to getting good sunrise photos is to actually starting taking photos before the sunrise. 

There were sea turtle nests marked off with yellow tape on the beach.  And we could see the flipper marks, where they had come out of the water and onto the sand during the night.  We went back upstairs and had a nap.  Later on I headed over to the Denny’s to pick up breakfast.  It’s the only Denny’s I know of that you can drive your boat right up to the restaurant.

We were originally going to take a sightseeing cruise in Miami but we decided that instead we would spend the day here in West Palm Beach, since it is soooo beautiful at the condo.  After breakfast, we headed over to Publix to pick up groceries, Marshalls to see if I could find another bathing suit and over to Bath & Body Works at The Gardens Mall.  Bath & Body Works always has their semi-annual sale at this time of the year.  It’s not how much you spend but how much you save.  (Note to Teresa … we spent $38 but we saved over $100!)

We got back to the condo and enjoyed our leftovers from The Cheesecake Factory, before going down to the beach.  The sand was so hot that it felt like we were walking on hot coals.  And the water, it was as warm as a bath, and crystal clear blue.  We spent the afternoon just relaxing, swimming and boogie boarding.  We also decided to take a dip in the condo pool and it was warm as well.

Karen did her research and found that there is a Maggiano’s in Boca Raton which is about half an hour away.  Since we didn’t have four people to do the family style dining, we each ordered an entree.  I had the spaghetti with meat sauce and Karen had the Chicken Francese.  We rolled out of there totally stuffed.

We got back to the condo and enjoyed a relaxing evening in front of the tv.  Tomorrow is the big day!