Spring 2013 – Day 3

We left the hotel at 9:30 in the morning and headed to the rental car return at the Miami Airport.  We figured that would be a good time to leave and we should be in the ship by Noon.

Well everything went right.  We checked in the rental car, went up to the shuttle area and the shuttle was right there to take us to the ship.  As we were really early, we breezed through and were all checked in by 11:00; however, they weren’t ready for us to board until 11:15.  At that time, we were probably in the first 50 to board.

We went to the Aqua Spa lunch area and ate lunch while waiting for our friends Vera and Jeff from New York City.  When they didn’t show up right away we walked around the ship to see what was different from our past cruises on this class of ship. 

The Celebrity Reflection is virtually brand new having entered service late last fall.  It is a beautiful ship and the 5^th in a series of 5 that Celebrity has built.

Around 1pm, Jeff called us and we met them in the Aqua Spa for their lunch and we also snacked – why not, there was food there!

We sat with Jeff and Vera catching up on each others lives until it was time for the lifeboat orientation at 4.  Then we left them and went to the cabin to unpack, eat a slice of pizza and take a little nap before changing for the evening.

After we changed we first went down to the casino and met the Manager, Darren and our Host Nickola.  As we walked in, we recognized immediately the two ladies in the casino cage from previous ships.  Then we met our host, who we had never met and the Manager who we had sailed with a couple of years ago.  It should be a good casino as we recognized a number of staff who we new on a previous ship.

We met Jeff and Vera at 8 and went to a cocktail party in one of the lounges that they had been invited to as this will be their third cruise on this ship in the last three months.

Then it was off to dinner and as usual, we have a lovely dinner.

The show tonight was a short one introducing all of the acts that we would see the rest of the week and we did not go to it as our dinner ran into the show time.

So we went straight to the Casino where Barb played a little slots and lost and Ed played almost 2 hours at blackjack; however he lost also as did Jeff and Vera.  So gambling didn’t start out very well, but it was a nice day and a nice start to our cruise.

Tomorrow a day at sea and a rest day.

Night to everyone.

Our Room

Arriving

Leaving the dock

Miami Beach is 7 miles long!