Spring 2013 – Day 4

Well we woke up to cloudy skies and they stayed cloudy all day. This is the first cruise that we have ever taken where the first two days were cloudy and not sun. Coupled with the two days in Miami also being cloudy, our tans are no where to be seen!

Ed was up on the deck early and spent most of the morning reading and just relaxing while Barb stayed in bed fighting off something.

At Noon we ate and then went to the slot tournament where out of about 30 players neither of us qualified for the finals – but it is always fun.

They we watched the quartet perform and this one might be the best vocal group we have every heard on a Celebrity ship.

Ed then played some blackjack with Jeff and Vera and came out ahead so it was a good afternoon.

After a nap (nap’s are good!) we dressed for formal night and went people watching and of course had our picture taken.

Dinner was excellent and then we went to the show, the first large production show of the trip and as far as we were concerned, it was just ok.

Then it was on to the casino where Ed lost what he had won in the afternoon and Barb didn’t do well at slots.

Finally it was time to go to bed and we turn the clocks forward tonight. At least we don’t have to get up early in the morning as it is already 1:30 am, now 2:30am.

Tomorrow we have another day at sea until we arrive at San Juan at about 3:00 pm.

That’s it for tonight – oh bye the way – Barb is feeling better.

Barb's Flowers

Great Quartet

First Formal Night

A Rose, Rose Petals and two Swans when we arrived back at our cabin!!



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!

Spring 2013 – Day 2

Well day 2 started out a lot better than day 1.  We finally left the room at 11:00am as we didn’t need to hurry as the sun was not out.   But, we are lucky that we are not arriving tomorrow as as the weather man just said that the coldest days of the year are coming next week for Miami. 

First we drove over to the beach in the hopes that it might clear up, but it didn’t so we continued down the beach taking side streets to some of the exclusive islands to look at the expensive houses.  The rich truly live different!!

Then we drove to the Fontainebleau Hotel – one of the greatest hotels on the beach and a classic Miami Beach hotel.  It was built in 1954 and was the luxurious hotel on Miami Beach.  When we walked through the hotel, you cold tell that it is still the home of the “pretty people”.  It was supposedly built with Mafia and Teamster money and when Ed was in school here, it was the home of many Teamster meetings and conventions.

After walking around the hotel, we went to one of the top delis on the beach and had lunch. 

Then it was a drive over to Sawgrass Mills, one of the largest malls in the country.  We walked around the mall until late afternoon and then headed out to eat again.

On our way to the restaurant that we were heading to, we ran into a parking lot on food trucks.  It is a practice in the Miami area to have a group of about 10 food trucks, like we had with Festival Foods, park for one night only and sell their food.  So, we stopped and had dinner and even talked with one of the owners about our shared memories of the business – that was fun.

Barb had a Boston Lobster Roll and Ed had pizza. 

Then we headed back to the hotel and are crashing for the evening.

So today was sightseeing and eating – isn’t life grand!!

We didn’t get to spend a lot of time in the sun this trip but we relaxed and enjoyed the Florida life.

Tomorrow the ship – we are ready.

Ready to go our in the morning

Ed with the "Big Boat"

The Fountainbleau - just one of the pool areas

Lunch

Dinner at the Lobster stand

Spring 2013 – Day 1

Our trip was supposed to begin on Wednesday, February 27 at 6:00 am; however, for the first time that we could every remember, our plane leaving Bloomington via Delta was cancelled.  The good news is that we were re-booked for that evening leaving at 5:00 pm. 

We left Bloomington on time and after stopping in Atlanta, GA, we arrived in Miami at 11:30 am.  We were really lucky in that they gave us a choice of cars, a new Ford Focus or a 2011 Ford Crown Victoria.  Needless to say with all of our luggage, we choose the big boat, the Crown Victoria.

Getting to the hotel was a snap with the GPS and we arrived a little past 1:00 am but then the nightmare began.

We had booked the rental car and hotel together using Orbitz.  I am sure there are many good things that Orbitz does and has done for people, but we will never do it again.

The hotel had no elevator so we had to lug everything up the stairs, but that was the best part!  The hotel must have been 60 years old or older and was in really bad shape.  Barb didn’t even want to take her shoes off.  We don't even want to list all of things that were bad about this place.  At least we didn't see any bugs, but we are sure that they were there.  We couldn't even lock the door with any kind of secure lock.  We went to sleep and were awakened at 7:00 am by the sound of building right next door, about 20 feet away.

After Ed’s “free” breakfast of toast and juice, he immediately went online to find us somewhere else to stay.

We left without telling them and checked into a Courtyard by Marriott about 15 minutes from the beach.  Then we called Orbitz and they did refund two of our night, so at least that helped.  It was too bad because the location, right on the beach was wonderful, but there was no way we could stay there. 

We called Orbitz and they did call the hotel to tell them we had left and we were able to get our money back for the two nights were not gong to stay there - so at least a little good happened with Orbitz.

We left the Marriott after checking into a wonderful King room and at about 11am and went to a neat little deli and split a sandwich.  Then it was off to our favorite beach, Haulover Beach.  We stayed there for a couple of hours in partly cloudy conditions, but it was very relaxing.

Then we went to the Opla Locka Flea Market one of the largest in the State of Florida.  Surprise, Barb found a really neat pair of Crocks!

We ate dinner at a Deli on Miami Beach and got back to the Marriott at about 9:00am and really crashed.

I am writing this at 9:30am on Friday, our last full day in Miami before we board the ship tomorrow.

We are off to somewhere – watch for our next blog.

Leaving Home

The crane drilling in the morning

A real Deli for lunch

The flea market

Barb's new Crocks

A snack at the flea market

Spring 2013

We leave Bloomington IL on a 6:00 am Delta flight.  We should be to our hotel and on the beach by 1:00 pm!

Our cruise will take us from Miami to San Juan, Saint Martins and Saint Kits.

Click on the following link to take a tour of this beautiful new Celebrity ship.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/cruiselog/2012/12/05/celebrity-reflection-photos/1748099/

Join us as we make the trip.

Barb & Ed

Celebrity Reflection

 

 

 

Christmas - 2012 - A Family Celebration

 

This is my family . . . and I am soo proud of them!!

 

 

Arriving at the Celebrity Constellation





Barb & Ed



2000 - Carnival Paradise




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Just relaxing





Arriving at Grand Cayman

2012 Celebrity Constellation




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All of us on Formal Night






 



Arriving in Jamacia

 

 




Day 7, Saturday, December 29, 2012

This day came much too early and we were out of our cabin by 8:30 am and we waited in the Elite Lounge with other members.  When they released us at 9:00, we walked right off the ship, found our luggage and then had to wait in line for about ½ hour to get through customs. 

We took the Celebrity shuttle to the airport and checked in for our flight.

Then we went to a secured baggage place where we left our carry-ons for the rest of the day as our flight did not leave until 7:00 pm.

We bought Miami transportation day passes for everyone and headed via a people mover to the transportation center.  From there Jeff’s family took the train to the Art Museum and the rest of us headed to the beach.

The express bus to the beach took us about ½ hour and we made our first stop the El San Juan hotel where we had stayed in 2000.  When Ed booked the hotel in 2000, the internet was just in its infancy so the only pictures that we had to go on were of the outside.  There was also no TripAdvisior and while the location was perfect, the hotel was not.  But we made the best of it then as it was only one night and then went on a wonderful cruise as a much smaller family.

 We walked down to the ocean and Alex and Barb went into the water.  Alex to swim and Barb to just wade until a big wave hit her and she was soaked.  Cooper gave Barb his shirt to wear and fortunately, her blouse dried fairly quickly in the hot Miami sun.

We took another bus to the Bayside Market in Miami with is a huge shopping and entertainment area, bight on the bay.

 By 4:00 pm, we met everyone at the Market and took the overhead people mover to the train station, took the train to the airport, retrieved our stored bags and were boarding the plane at 7:30 pm as the plane was late getting in.

The pilot made up the time and we transferred at Charlotte to Chicago and arrived in Chicago to a cold shock at 11:30 am.  The Marriott O’Hare van picked us up and took us to the hotel where our cars were parked.  We were on the road quickly and made it to Bloomington by 2:30 am.

 What a fun day and what a wonderful Christmas we all experienced.  We are truly blessed as a family to be able to have this time together on this cruise.

This is my family . . .  and I am soo proud of them!!!

 

Arriving in Miami



The El San Juan



On the beach


Please see the next blog for our family pictures