A Quick Caribbean Cruise? Count me in! PTR and Live TR all in one!! updated 12/12/2013 - Page 3 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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So glad you got out early. You probably would not have had trouble on the later flight either, but better safe than sorry. I'm sitting here now, bundled up, listening to the rain. The trees are icing but the roads aren't too bad yet (3 pm). I think we've dodged a lot of it, but the overnight major freeze will make the roads a mess in the morning. You are no doubt basking in the Miami warmth!
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Hey all! Greetings from Miami!! We landed at 3:33pm, but my luggage didn't come out at baggage claim until 4:03pm. I got to the hotel I think just after 4:30pm, and man was I so glad to see it! Toni, Matt and Warren were at the pool, so we went upstairs to our rooms, and we all showered and got ready for dinner. Then we headed off to pick up Toni's boss and his wife at their hotel, and we headed into South Beach for dinner. Our cab driver was crazy. Not a good driver at all. Lots of swerving, lots of slow odd driving. *sigh*
I'll post pictures at some point, but dinner was a lot of fun, and we sat for three hours and snacked and talked and drank and talked, and laughed our heads off. It was really fabulous. Then we walked along Ocean Drive for about an hour, sat at a Starbucks for another 45 minutes, and finally took two separate cabs to our hotels.
Now I'm about to crawl into bed. We don't have to be up until 10am (breakfast ends at 11am, and we need to leave by noon to go to the port)...
A few little changes of plans... but nothing too exciting. I'll update again tmw morning!!
Hoping you are still sound asleep!
Last night sounded fun, but not so much the cab!
Embarkation is now only hours away (while the rest of us are contendending with snow, ice, cold, or the looming threat of such)!
OMG I had an entire update with photos typed up and it disappeared when I hit post! *tear* Jeannie, you and I are cursed, lol!
I'll do it again, faster, but I'm pasting into word before I hit send... it's basically some photos from last night - but not all of them because I haven't offloaded all of them.
We had dinner on Ocean Drive last night at a place called Ocean 7 Cafe. It was very good and not too scarily priced (although some of it...).
Matt, Warren and Gregg (Toni's boss)
Lize (Gregg's wife), Toni and me
Toni and her huge margarita
Matt and his pina colada (which I drank half of)
We all got free shots of Sex on the Beach
Toni and me
Food pix!
Bread
Calamari
Hummus
Spinach dip
We sat at dinner for 3 hours, laughing and talking and being silly! Then we walked across the street to the beach and meandered down the boulevard just talking and people watching. We probably killed another hour doing that before we stopped at a Starbucks for another 45 minutes. Then we finally gave in and headed back to our hotels. Our cab driver must have also watched Fast & The Furious (I'm on a Paul Walker kick for a while - I really adored him and I'm sad he's gone, so I've got all of his movies on my laptop) because he was doing almost 90 to get us back to the hotel. It was kind of crazy and scary!
This morning I got to sleep until 9:30am which was lovely!!! We had a free breakfast in the hotel restaurant (the free buffet passes came with the rooms) and now we're vegging until noon when we have to go pick up Gregg and Lize and head to the port.
Speaking of which, I need to get outta here now!! I hope this darn thing posts! More photos from last night / this morning to follow later!
Hello from on board the MSC Divinia! We arrived at 12:45pm and checked in pretty quickly! There weren't any lines whatsoever, we just walked through security, checked in to get our key cards, and walked on board! I think from start to finish it was maybe 15 minutes? Maybe even less.
Atrium musicians
Pretty stairs
What a view!
Gelato!
Once on board, we met up with Lize and Gregg, and the six of us went up to the lunch buffet. I wasn't super hungry, having just had that big breakfast buffet 2 hours prior, but we browsed and I picked out a few snacks.
Again, my phone takes the WORST pictures, and so some of these are blurry. Sorry about that. The food options are amazing, and there are just SO many choices! Everything I had was absolutely delicious, but the pizza was positively spectacular. I actually went back for another slice! Yum!
Fruit
Soup and pasta stations
Bread
Daily specials (in this case, pizza, pastas, etc)
My lunch
Our rooms were ready at 2pm, so Toni and I headed off to go check out our room and get settled in.
I unpacked and then laid down for a little while to watch Fast Five (have I mentioned my deep affection and appreciation for Paul Walker?) and it was nice to just kick back for a while. Then after Toni was done unpacking, we headed up to the upper decks to do some exploring of decks 14-17 (18 is a private "members only" deck, and we weren't going to pay for the privilege). The ship is really beautiful, and I think we're going to have a nice time here.
We headed up to the spa to check out the options, knowing we wanted to book a treatment for ourselves. After much discussion, we settled on pedicures, booked for tomorrow evening at 6pm, together. Then Toni decided to add a facial to that, at 5pm. While browsing, I saw that highlights (for hair) were only $50! Back home they're more expensive than that, so I said what the heck! I decided to go ahead and book that for 4pm tomorrow! So we will spend much time getting pampered.
We had our muster drill at 5:05pm, and now we're back in the cabin, awaiting our 8:30pm dinner. We just ordered some room service appetizers, and now we're snacking on some mozzarella caprese and antipasto, and drinking coffee on the balcony! *ahhhhh*
Tomorrow we dock in Nassau, and we're going to sleep in a bit, veg out and then get off of the boat around 11am. Lize mentioned a water taxi that takes you across to a cute little area outside of Atlantis where you can shop and go to the beach... so we'll do that and then head back to the boat by 3:00pm so I can get to the salon by 3:50pm for my appointment.
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Definitely hope your next flight is much smoother! 
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Pixie Dust
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Melanie
PassPorter Guide Author
Have a wonderful cruise!
The food options are amazing, and there are just SO many choices! Everything I had was absolutely delicious, but the pizza was positively spectacular. I actually went back for another slice! Yum!
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