We started our little get a way on Friday January 6th with an early morning (6am) flight from Kansas City to Miami with a stop in Dallas on American Airlines. Both flights went perfectly as planned and we made it into Miami by 1:30pm. Getting a taxi at the airport on the other hand was a little more challenging though. It seemed that neither the taxi driver or the taxi post guy understood enough english for us to get a price from the airport to our hotel the Marriott at Biscayne Bay. They kept trying to send us to Biscayne Key?!?! After hassling for a few minutes I finally got my hotel confirmation paper work out and showed them where we wanted to go.

Made it to the hotel in good time though a little tired from the travel. The girl at the check in lobby just about irritated the heck out of us though. She saw us walk in and then proceeded to walk to the side office, stand out side the office door and talk to her friend for the next 5 minutes. It wasn't until my husband said something to the bell hop that we finally got waited on. They have just recently finished remodeling this hotel and I must say they've really done a good job with it. Every thing was very nice and new looking and seemed to flow well. The biggest complaint, as far as the hotel it's self, was that they seemed to forget to renovate the balconies. Our furniture was on the old and a bit rusted side and the balcony it's self was in major need of a good cleaning, stripping, and paint job. The hotel is also in a pretty good location especially if your leaving on a cruise. It's not too far from the port and is close to a lot of stuff in downtown. Also the free Miami Metromover station is just down the street so getting around is a breeze. After settling into the hotel room we went down stairs to the little shopping area between the Marriott and the Double Tree and found a bite for lunch and then did some walking around their bay area. Later, after a much needed nap, we took the Metromover down to the Bayside Marketplace and ate at Bubba Gumps. Finally, it was back to our hotel room to get a good night's sleep.

Cruse Day 1: We got up around 10:30am got ready and left for the port. Getting a taxi this time was easy and we made it to the port by 11:30. Embarkation was the quickest I've ever seen it and we were on the ship eating in the Windjammer by 11:45! They had all the usual fare like honey stung chicken and hot fresh cut roast beef (Yum!) After filling our bellies we headed out to the pool bar area and had our first drink of the cruise. The bartenders were great but the drinks were a bit on the strong side. (I had to ask for more sour mix for my margarita) After finishing our drinks and wandering around the ship a bit it was finally 1pm and we could go check out our stateroom. Read more