New Years – 2019 Days 1 – 4

We were supposed to be in Miami on Thursday evening at about 11pm.  Because of the weather, we arrived after midnight.  Then we found out that Ed's suitcase didn’t make it.  They traced it to the terminal and the baggage area but it wasn’t there.  The airport staff said it happens a lot and they were sure it would be there by Friday. 

So, we picked up our rental car and drove to the hotel which was only a short distance away and finally went to bed at about 3:30am.

Then next morning, Deltas web site said that they had found the luggage.  We called and they said it would be delivered to the hotel within 6 hours and at 3pm, it was.

After getting up, we went to our favorite beach down here, Haulover Beach and stayed in the sun for a few hours before heading to a restaurant close to the hotel.

Then we went to downtown Ft. Lauderdale and took a sightseeing boat trip along the canels to see some of the huge mansions that are there - these are the truly rich people!!

After eating, we drove to Sawgrass Mills, a huge discount mall about 20 minutes away as Ed needed to buy a garment bag with wheels.  We found one and asked the store clerk, who was from Columbia where a good local Columbian restaurant was.  He directed us to one close and we had a good meal there, eating some new foods.

Then we came back to the hotel and crashed!!  It had been a long 24 hours.

On Friday Morning, we went to the beach in the morning and then went to a deli that we had seen on our last trip for lunch.

It was then back to the hotel to clean up and we drove down to the University of Miami to see a basketball game between Miami and Campbell University.  Miami won and it was fun being back on campus after all these years.

We ate at a local Cuban restaurant on the way back to the hotel before going to sleep.

We were up and out of the hotel by 8:30am on Sunday to take the car back and go to the ship.  Ft Lauderdale was expecting to disembark 28,000 people and board another 28,000 so we wanted to get there early to avoid the rush.  We got there very quickly and then actually had to wait for them to open up the ship.

After putting our bags in our room, we walked around looking at this amazing new ship, the Celebrity Edge.  It is amazing and very hard to explain.  The rooms, including the bathroom are bigger and the balcony is very unique.  Instead of doors leading to the balcony, the balcony is part of the room and has a big window overlooking the water.  You push a button and the window comes down ½ ways and that is your balcony.  Very unique and we really like it.

For more about this ship, Google “Celebrity Edge” and see it – a totally new design concept that we really like.

On this trip, we are meeting Jeff and Vera Wurst from New York and Tim and Barb Freeman from Virginia.  We met Jeff and Vera on the back of the ship for lunch at 12:30; however, Time and Barb were stuck in traffic and they didn’t get to the ship until after 1:30pm.  So we all had lunch and sat around and talked about the last year as we hadn’t seen Jeff and Vera since last New Years and Barb and Tim since our October cruise together. 

The comedian for entertainment was not very good.  As Jeff said, the first rule of a comedian is to be funny and he was not!! 

Dinner was ok and then we went to the Casino.  We know Manager, the Host, the Assistant Manager and a number of dealers, so it was great fun saying hi.

We played for a while and both lost just a little.

That’s the basics for our arrival and first day at sea.

Night from the Atlantic – heading south to San Juan

At the U

Barb's favorite Miami player - 5'7" and fantastic!!

Leaving for ths ship

Getting ready for a New Years party

Another mansion

At the Columbian restaurant - sausage, port belly, fried plantains and other fun food for dinner!

The six of us - from the left, Barb, Ed, Vera, Jeff, Tim and Barb

On the balcony ready for the first night on the ship