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.
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