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.

Norwegian Cruise Lines has their own private island in the Bahamas and it’s called Great Stirrup Cay.  Each of their cruises to the Bahamas spends one day here and today was our day.  We took our time heading down to breakfast because we thought there would be a wait before we could get to the island.  The cruise ship can’t directly sail to the island so what happens is that tender boats take the guests from the ship.  These boats can hold up to 450 passengers.  I was expecting some type of rubber dingy where only 10 people would fit in.  Today was the first day that we experienced a line.  It took us approximately ten minutes to get onto the tender boats.  I was expecting a much longer wait.  The ride to the island only took 5 minutes.

With a possibility of 2000 people being on the island, you need to get there early in the day to get the prime spots.  There are many loungers and beach chairs that were on a first come, first serve basis.  There were even rarer hammocks that were quickly taken up.  But Karen and I didn’t care.  We realized that we would not survive the entire day in the hot baking sun.  Therefore we made an executive decision and rented their two loungers with cabana.  That was the best $30 we’ve ever spent. 

We quickly headed into the turquoise water and it was a perfect temperature, and perfectly clear.  The beach was pretty busy.  I would guess that probably half of the ship was there.  Most people tended to stay close to the shore.  But if you swam past them, it was great.  We saw lots of fishes out there and we didn’t even have snorkel gear.  The water was so clear that you could see right through to the ocean floor.

We went back to our cabana and then decided that we should go and have some lunch.  Norwegian provides a BBQ lunch where they had hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, various cold salads and lots of fresh fruit.  It was yummy.  There are plenty of activities on the island, including beach volleyball, parasailing, kayaking, snorkelling, blow up water slide, and even shopping in a small straw market.

When we got onto the island, we saw a hut that was offering beach massages and I decided to spend some of my birthday money (thanks Darren and Allison) and have a neck, shoulder and back massage.  Boy did I ever enjoy that.  The only way to have a massage is with the sun, sand, a gentle breeze and Caribbean music.

I stumbled my way back to the cabana and we headed back into the water.  In the distance, there was this very large dark cloud and every so often we would see lightning.  At one point, there was this one big crack of thunder and everyone was ordered out of the water.  You should have seen how fast people decided to leave the island.  About a half hour later, the lifeguards said we could go back in.  Now we practically had the water to ourselves.

We left the island around 4pm and headed back for a refreshing shower and a late afternoon lay down.

We had our last dinner on the cruise tonight and it was a good one.  We ate at Crossings restaurant, and had a window table, with a direct view of the waves behind the boat, as we left the Bahamas, and cruised towards Miami.  Karen and I each had the scallops for an appetizer.  I went with the roast turkey and Karen went with the flounder.  After dinne, we went outside to catch the sunset.

Before we went to the show in the Stardust Theatre, we hit the casino where Karen turned $1 into $32.10.  We came back to the room to discover a towel gorilla.

Today was the first day during our vacation that we actually slept in.  Although we did see the sunrise, right from our balcony.  Around 8:30am there was a knock on our stateroom door and there was breakfast which we had ordered the night before.  Gotta love breakfast in bed.

After enjoying our breakfast with “Magnum PI” and “Little House on the Prairie”, we made our way down the gangway and into Nassau, New Providence Island.  There were four other huge cruise ships in port today.  But surprisingly nothing was ever crowded, and there was never any waiting in lines.  Nassau has the most beautiful turquoise water.  Just stunning.     

Before you can actually enter the city, you pass through the cruise terminal.  It was filled with many people trying to sell you either some kind of knickknack or tour.  Once we got through it, we grabbed a map and started shopping.  You can not believe how many jewellery stores there are.  We went into quite a few of them and I’ve never seen that many shiny things in my life.  Whenever you ask the price of an item, they would give you the original price but because you are special, the calculator would come out and most of the time the item would be discounted by 50%.   We spent about four hours walking around Nassau checking out all of the shops.  We managed to get a few things and then decided to head back to the ship.

We had a late lunch at the back of the boat, overlooking the Nassau harbour, and then decided to relax by the pool.  I’ve realized that I can get used to cruising, especially with Norwegian.  I really like not having a set schedule to do things.
 
Tonight We had dinner in the Palace dining room.  Another fabulous meal, and even better dessert.  After dinner, we headed to the Stardust Theatre where we enjoyed “On Broadway” before heading back to our room to finally discover our first towel animal.