New Years 2020, Days 1 – 5

Day one of our trip started with a 5pm flight from Bloomington to Atlanta and then another flight to Ft. Lauderdale getting us into the airport at 11:30am.   We were able to get our rental car very quickly, an SUV, and made it to the hotel at about 1:00am. 

The hotel was in Aventura, which is between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, and it was a new AC Marriott.  This is a new brand by Marriott that is patterned after some of the European hotels.  It was very nice and clean and functional, but wasn’t to our liking, except it was $100 a night cheaper that the Marriott we usually stay at, so it was just fine.

The next morning, Barb was still not feeling well so we arranged an OSF Doctor on Call and basically used a type of Face time with a very nice Doctor you happened to be in Wisconsin.  She prescribed the medicine that Barb needed and Ed went to Walgreen and picked it up.  Barb stayed in bed the rest of the day until it was time for dinner.

Dinner was on Miami Beach at Gloria Estefan’s Restaurant.  We had eaten there a couple of years ago on a Miami Beach food tour so we thought it would be fun to go there on New Year’s eve.  The food was very good and after dinner we walked back to the car and went back to our hotel as Barb’s energy level was very low.

Day 3, New Years Day was a nice day and we went to our favorite beach, Haulover Beach in North Miami and stayed on the beach until about 3pm.  Then we drove south to Key Largo and had dinner at a local sea food restaurant before coming back to the hotel at about 11pm.

Day 4, Jan 2 was again a nice day and we also went to the beach.  When we got back to the hotel, Barb was not feeling very good and didn’t want to go out, so Ed went to a restaurant close by and brought back Lasagna, which we both enjoyed.

Day 5 – Jan 3 - Time to board the ship.  We left the hotel at about 10:30am and returned the car, took their shuttle to the ship and were eating in the restaurant by Noon.  We then sat in the sun until 2:30pm and then went to the life boat drill.  After that our luggage had arrived so we unpacked and then went to see the first show of the trip. 

The act was a quartet singing Jersey Boys hits and other songs of that time and they were very, very good.

Dinner was in the restaurant called Blu which is only available for people in the Aqua-Spa class, which we are.  It is more upscale than the main dining room and we had excellent meal and met some nice people at the table next to us.

Then of course we went to the Casino and it was amazing how many of the staff we knew, from the Manager on down so it was fun saying hi to everyone and talking about past ships.

At the end of the night, Barb was down just a little and Ed was up nicely.

Tomorrow is our first sea day so it will be very relaxing.

The pictures are rnot in the correct order, but thought you would like to see them

First night of the cruise

New Years Eve menu

Tuna in Key Largo

Key Largo Dinner - 3 kinds of fish