From 2 to 2002

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.