BeeeJay's 11/6/2010 NCL Epic Trip Report

[BeeeJay]

I was sad to wake up on my final morning, boo hoo. How quickly the time flew by. I chose the EZ walk-off so I had no real schedule except be out of the room by 9. Luckily for me the front desk staff was thankful enough to call at 7:30 (my wake up call was for 8) and let me know I had a $70 credit I could come pick up now as they had no line.

I told the lady I was in the middle of a shower but I would be right down, sans towel, to beat that line. I caught a bit of eastern european accent in her giggle. I also had an odd sixth sense that her boyfriend was going to take a, how do you say, "rough ride"? next time she sees him. ;)

Maintaining my purity, I showered and dressed and got all my stuff before heading down for my credit. I had done most of the packing last night so I was outta dodge by 8:30am. I arrived at a packed elevator bank on 12, the first elevator that opened was packed as well. I took my two 49.9 lb suitcases and 20 lb backpack down the stairs to 5. Pretty good workout.

Ha. Still no line at the desk. It was mostly guys, two girls, I could tell the blond was the one who called. Anyway I got my credit and headed for the escalator back up to 6 where the exit to terminal was located.

Customs was a piece of cake. The guy asked about my watch. Lol. I showed him a little wear on the bottom and he let me through. Great how new it looks after 5 years! Now if I could only get that Oil-Of-Olay that makes these 20-year old girls on South Beach think I'm that guy from their college Algebra class I'll be in bizzzz-neessssss!

Currently they think I'm the professor, at best. ;p

Nice coconut bikini Ginger.

Anyway I got the cab back to my hotel, Palmer house and got checked in. No room ready and it wasn't too sunny or warm so I head up to the pedestrian mall on Lincoln Road and find some random wifi.

Login.

Phone rings.

Porn website pops up, virus protection bells and whistles go off.

I closed down and headed to the hotel where i got my room (at about 9:30am) and started uploading the 3 Gigs of pics & vids from the trip. Called/texted family and various business associates to catch up for the week. Oh removed the virus first. Damn cigar shop virus wifi!!!

Ok so next move was lunch and planning the day. I've got the Miami Heat game at 7:30 so I'm gonna unpack, catch up on a few things and then hit the beach from 2-6 and then shower and cab over to the AA Arena around 7. Anyone know if you have to BYOB to AA? Seems like they might serve a lot of coffee and cigarettes.

I got all my stuff unpacked and headed over the Burger King "Whopper Bar" for some angry onions. I thought about going to see "W" on his book tour, but I settled on BK instead.

I could only finish about half of that beefy XL cause I need to head to the beach and not get harpooned. The Palmer house gives a nice free collapsible beach chair and towel so I took those and found a spot with a great view:

The beach was fantastic, the water a little cold. One particular rogue wave came way up the beach and washed out a nice young family and their child...awwww. They moved back up about 15 yards, as did I. lol.

The beach was relaxing and interesting as I saw two male weightlifters holding hands. I'm not sure if that is some new type of workout. I'll NOT be trying it. HaHa.

So after an nice time as the beach I headed back to shower up and get de-sanded. The streets were crowded and the club music wafted into my room. A fantastic environment. Kind of sucks to go to for a solo trip.

I caught a limo around 7pm for the Miami Heat game and had a sighting of '80's "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina" icon Ton Loc parking his Rolls Royce in front of some sort of club where a valet came out.

Hey cool the electricity just went out at Meadowlands Stadium where the Cowboys are actually winning a game, Tony Soprano musta bet on the G-Men, the game is played in Joisey. Fuuuuggggettaboutiiiiit. (I'm writing this on sunday evening BTW). Wow they are gonna play in the dark. Wow Felix Jones is FAST!!!

Ok so Frank the cabbie ran me over to American Airlines Arena where I got into the stadium just in time for the coolest part: the Miami Heat intro:

At tip off the arena was about 75% full at most. I grabbed a chicken basket which had 3 jumbo-ass pieces of chicken. It also contained a RIDIC amount of crispy battered french fries. I did what damage I could.

A person more seated to 2 seats then one came shortly after tipoff and I moved over a seat and was directly on the glass partition between two sections. It was a great spot because the other side was lower and I had a completely unobstructed view of the game. The kids behind me smacked me with their sign a few times but I'm assuming that was on my wife's orders.

The game was close as Miami basically is not realizing a synergy of their 3 expensive parts. LeBron did not earn my ticket price as he played matador defense and put up many half-hearted effort type shots. Luckily for Miami Dwayne Wade was insane, I don't know how he gets to the rim so often at his size. The game made me glad the Bulls didn't get LeBron. Bosh was impressive as well.

The NBA game was a good production, but Miami isn't much of a sports town. It was never very full and even in a close game the crowd was blah by Chicago or Husker standards. Then again maybe its a different story when they play the Celtics.

After the game I walked around for about 90 minutes looking for a taxi. Finally I popped in some hotel and had 2 Heinekeins and was able to get a cab pretty easily after that.

OH Tebo throws a TD pass. Lol. I saw a lady about twice Tebows weight stuffed into a shirt half his size at the Bball game. Anyway cab back to room, asleep by 1:30am set alarm for 10am so I could be out front as to not offend "Frank The Cabbie" at 11am for my ride to the Dolphins game.

[BeeeJay]

Why is the ship still moving? When I've been off it over a day?!??! I am up by 9:30 but even after a diet coke the room seems to be experiencing 15 foot waves. Jeez I only had a few Heini's last night! Must be vertigo.

Cabbie Frank from last night shows up this morning, drives, and drives, misses Dolphins Football stadium exit, by like 20 miles and runs up $150 fare, charged me the legit $60. Lol. It was $52 on the way back after the game.

What a beautiful day for a football game. The Dolphins, and the NFL in general, is a far better product than the NBA. There was more crowd comradarie. I decided to breakfast on a burger, fries, and a bud light. Damn I didn't see the beers are all $9. Well i think the imports are 12 oz. and the domestics are 16 oz. for that price so no worries.

I had a blast with the crazy fans and knowledgeable season ticket holders around me. The Fish fans were far more engaged than Heat. The stadium was still pretty empty. One thing I will say for those Fish is they have some DAMN hot cheerleaders. It was a great atmosphere as the Dolphins got their first home win, much needed, and did it in dramatic fashion with their top two quarterback injured.

I pounded a couple Heini's at the game and made sure to hit the exit the moment things were decided so I could easily catch a cab back. The system here was far better designed than at the heat game with an organized cab line. I got some great sun sitting on what I believe was the north side of the stadium. The Fish are smart they keep the home team in the shade and the visitors in that HOOOOT sun!!!

The football game also had all kinds of crazy dressed up fans and cool music. I'm glad I went and the seats on the 30 yd line about row 17 were fantastic. It was also an easy ride home in light Sunday traffic. Upon arrival back at the hotel I started packing things up. I grabbed a sandwich at a nearby shop so I wouldn't have to go out again.

I may as well tie this baby up and put a bow on it. The rest of the trip is gonna be me getting as much sleep as possible before my flight back out at 3:30pm Monday.

It was a really great adventure, but way tooo long. It seemed a lot longer than my 12-day trip to Vegas last December because there I spent time with 3-4 groups of friends who came and went. Well plus I was in Vegas at Encore, Palazzo, and Aria Sky Suites. I prefer a 2-3 day max for solo trips. I am glad I did it though because it was a great value for all the stuff I got to do, and a lot of that was actually based on picking up things at prices that were good based on being solo.

My last commentary will be the final cost total under Day Twelve. I don't think I need to comment on a taxi ride and flight except to say I WILL BE GLAD TO BE HOME!!!!!

[sdmike]

Welcome home, and thanks for sharing!

[BeeeJay]

thanks all for reading, if you prefer the pics mixed within the context of the trip report, I have this on my favorite vegas board as well where i can put in more pics per post. I think it is a better flow to the story:

 

The actual cruise starts with post #64 on page 7, linked here:

 

http://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59558&page=7

[BeeeJay]

Welcome home, and thanks for sharing!

 

thanks for you advice and insight before the trip, it helped me make the most of it!

[iceman2a]

I really enjoyed reading this BeeJay, Thanks!

[rockfsh]

BeeJay is well known for his epic, edgy trip reports on the poker website 2+2.

 

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/108/las-vegas-lifestyle/beeejays-off-beaten-track-gambling-report-912067/

 

Many of us there are BeeJay wannabees. :)

[BeeeJay]

If you prefer the quicker load text only, its here on CC in this thread, with links to pics.

 

The version with embedded pics is here, basically cruise starting on Post #64, Page 7:

 

http://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59558&page=7

[miniwheat]

Great review!!:D

[BeeeJay]

For those who prefer watching the movie to reading the book (like me):

 

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=ca24ae67544245552dab73&skin_id=1901&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

 

<div><embed src="http://www.onetruemedia.com/share_view_player?p=ca24ae67544245552dab73" quality="high" scale="noscale" width="408" height="382" wmode="transparent" name="FLVPlayer" salign="LT" flashvars="&p=ca24ae67544245552dab73&skin_id=1901&host=http://www.onetruemedia.com" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><div style="margin:0px;font:12px/13px verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;padding-bottom:15px;width:408px;text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.onetruemedia.com/landing?&utm_source=emplay&utm_medium=txt3" target="_blank" style="text-decoration:none;">Make video montages at <span style="text-decoration:underline;">www.OneTrueMedia.com</span></a></div></div>

[pcreek]

For those who prefer watching the movie to reading the book (like me):

 

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=ca24ae67544245552dab73&skin_id=1901&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

 

<div><embed src="http://www.onetruemedia.com/share_view_player?p=ca24ae67544245552dab73" quality="high" scale="noscale" width="408" height="382" wmode="transparent" name="FLVPlayer" salign="LT" flashvars="&p=ca24ae67544245552dab73&skin_id=1901&host=http://www.onetruemedia.com" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><div style="margin:0px;font:12px/13px verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;padding-bottom:15px;width:408px;text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.onetruemedia.com/landing?&utm_source=emplay&utm_medium=txt3" target="_blank" style="text-decoration:none;">Make video montages at <span style="text-decoration:underline;">www.OneTrueMedia.com</span></a></div></div>

 

I've really enjoyed reading your review and your photos. The links above did not work for me...said content deleted by author.

Thanks for taking the time to post and welcome to cruising! :)

[BeeeJay]

I've really enjoyed reading your review and your photos. The links above did not work for me...said content deleted by author.

Thanks for taking the time to post and welcome to cruising! :)

 

Yeah I was trying to edit that video and I screwed the whole thing up and erased it. :confused: booooo.

 

On the bright side I am getting ready for a new trip report, which will be a LIVE report from the grand opening of the new Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on Wednesday, December 15th. I am HOPING to have a good enough trip to immediately reserve my next cruise!

 

That report is located here:

 

http://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?p=456602#post456602