12/12 Post Cruise Review - NCL Encore

[melodyesch]

I know there have been other threads on the Encore, but I thought I would give an after-the-fact review (from memory) on our experiences on the Encore the week of 12/12.  It was me (Melody) and my DH {an anonymous man).  We are in our early 50’s and this was our 8^th NCL cruise (first time as Platinum).  This cruise was 7 nights leaving from Miami and going to GSC, St. Thomas, Tortola and the Dominican Republic.  There will be no pictures since I don’t really take many and it won’t be a diary of the goings on all around the ship since we’re mostly boring people. But I did want to talk about some of the things we did and ate.  We really did have a very relaxing time and loved the cruise, the ship, the food, and the crew.

 

Just a fair warning that although we’re boring and don’t do much, I’m pretty wordy.  Feel free to skim.

 

Pre-Cruise Day:  December 11.

We arrived at the Miami airport from St. Louis at around noon on Saturday, December 11^th. We took a cab to the JW Marriott Marquis for Saturday night {using hotel points}. It took us a bit to get there since the draw bridges were up and allowing boat traffic to pass.  It seriously irritated our cab driver.  But when we finally did arrive around 1:00, we received an upgraded room right away.  It was a large, lovely room with a partial water view, a large desk area and two separate sitting room chairs with ottomans.  It had a large, separate tub, which I always enjoy and a TV that appeared in the bathroom mirror (which I thought was ridiculous).

 

I am the one who does our packing because we usually do carry-on and it’s a bit like Tetris to get everything that we want to take to fit.   Plus, I like to split clothes so that each case has clothes for both of us in case something happens to one of the bags, should we decide to check or give them up at the port.  So we have a pre-packing discussion about how many shirts, shorts, etc., we think we need for the week. DH gathers his things and then I make it all fit into the luggage.  I also make sure everything we need for the pre-cruise night and the next day is in one area of one case so that we don’t have to spread out everything in the room.

 

Anyway, after settling into our room, we took a taxi to Little Havana and walked around, as we’d never been there.  We had lunch in a very crowded restaurant with live music, where DH enjoyed an authentic (I guess) Cuban sandwich.  I had a pork and onion sandwich that was good, if a little in need of some sauce.  DH had a beer, and I had an excellent pina colada.  It was so loud in the small place with the band that we could not hear each other across the table.  But the music was good and so we just listened while we ate.

 

Little Havana was very crowded and very touristy, which we expected.  But we were very leery because we’ve been keeping to ourselves during covid, and it was a bit unnerving to be amongst the crowd.  We did our best to distance and wear our masks when we were around other people.

 

One thing that we discovered is that we had to come into this decade and get the Uber app.  One just can’t walk into the street and hail a cab any longer.  There are none to be found!  So we ordered an Uber and headed back for an early night.   There is a CVS and a Whole Foods right near the hotel and so DH picked up some toothpaste since we only had ½ of a travel tube and then a couple of snacky things for a lite dinner.  We had an early night in a comfortable bed.  Although I can’t for the life of me figure out why hotels supply pillows that are over a foot high when sitting on the bed but sink to .5 inches when you lay your head on them.   But that’s a topic for another day.

[melodyesch]

Day 1 – Boarding Day, December 12^th

 

We had answered our covid questions at 21 days out and were given the opportunity to choose our arrival time at the Pier in Miami.  We chose between 9:30 – 10:00, but when we received our confirmations for our covid tests, it had us at 12:30.  So I had asked on the forum and the consensus was to go ahead and get there early.  We arrived at 9:50 or so (after having ordered our Uber) for the 8-minute ride.  

 

It was a little confusing at first on where to go, but we found the line for the covid testing.  It was a line of about 25 or so people, but a man was walking the line asking if you had the confirmation number from the CVS clinic.  When you signed up for your covid test originally, they sent you a link to a confirmation number.  Most of the people in the line didn’t have that number, but we did so we were pulled out of the line and sent right into the testing facility.  Note that each person is separate so make sure that you each have your own confirmation number on you (as opposed to one person having all of the electronic bar codes). We waited probably all of two minutes before we were separately sent to a covid station for the very brief swab.  You do the swab yourself and it’s not up into your brain as I had heard they first were.

 

After the swab, we were sent to the waiting location to watch the board for our code.  The code is your initials followed by your 4 digit birth day/month.  I’m certain that a person is entering that information manually, as there were birthdays that came up that are not possible under the Gregorian calendar with which I am familiar.   And I think they had a typo on my DH’s initials.  His initials are GE and it came up GG with his birthdate.   He received a text and an email saying that his results were available, but his correct initials and birthdate never appeared on the screen that we saw.  But 15 minutes later we were getting ready to go to the terminal, after thankfully getting negative tests with a paper bracelet to prove it.

 

When we reached the top of the escalator in the terminal, the Haven people went left (not us) and the other unlucky souls went right.  But honestly, we never stopped walking.  We went right up through security and straight to the line to register.  I say “line”, but there wasn’t one.  We simply walked to the end of the ropes and walked straight to the person who checked us in.  It was the quickest registration we’ve ever done.

 

After, we went into the waiting area and were pointed to a section of chairs based on our boarding group.  We were given Group 5.  There was no other line that I could see for priority for Latitude status and it didn’t matter to us anyway so we sat in our section as assigned.  I want to say they started boarding about 11:15 or so?   But when they called Group 1, they also called Platinum status and since I am that, I asked a worker if we could board and she said yes.  So we thought we’d go ahead since we were going to have to find somewhere to sit with our 2 carry on sized roller bags.

 

Once on board, we headed directly to the muster station, where they simply asked us if we had watched the video (we had) and we were checked off and sent on our way.  I did ask which dining room was open for lunch and they said only the garden café was open.  But at 11:30 at this point, that probably was true.  As we were walking off, the guy said The Local was also open so that’s where we headed.

 

One thing about this cruise that was disappointing is that DH and I have been seriously cutting back on food portions and eating more healthy since July.  So on this cruise we simply could not eat the amount of food we had in the past.   I ordered BBQ wings, followed by fish and chips and by the time the wings were gone, I only picked at the main entrée and had regretted ordering it since I didn’t want to waste food.   But the food came quickly, was hot and everything tasted good.  DH got the pretzel bites followed by a bacon burger and he said both were really good, although we left most of the fries and one of my pieces of fish.  DH had a beer and I had the first mudslide of the cruise. They both arrived very quickly.

 

On the subject of alcohol, DH will have the occasional beer during the day, followed by a cocktail at dinner and then an after-dinner Scotch (or two or three).  At most, I will have 2 drinks per day, but it’s usually just one.   But we do go ahead and get the drink package since the gratuities are already paid for by the time we board so we don’t have to wonder about how much we’re spending.  

 

At 1:15, we went to see if our cabin was ready and it was.  We were in a standard balcony cabin 11776 on the starboard side.  This was the first time we’d had a cabin where the bed was nearer the balcony.  At first I swore I didn’t like it, but as the time wore on, I discovered that I actually preferred it since you enter the room and are immediately in the sitting area, as opposed to having to go around the bed.   And I could be imagining it, but it seemed like the balcony was a little bit bigger than we’ve seen on other cruises and the chairs a bit wider (but also I’m a bit narrower so it could be that).

 

After unpacking, we walked around the ship to get the lay of the land.  One thing of great interest is that near the elevator bank as we were waiting to go up, a security guard, a Miami police officer and what we thought was a boarder patrol person were waiting with a lady in a wheelchair to go down.  It looked like she was being arrested.  DH said she was handcuffed (even in the wheelchair).  Later that week, DH asked the security guy that we saw around the ship and he confirmed that yes, the lady had been arrested because after she checked in and boarded, I guess they run your particulars through “the system” and it turned out she had a warrant out for her arrest.  So the ship let the officials come on board and arrest her.  Yikes.  So no cruise for her.

For sail away, we went to the Observation lounge, where we ended up in a nice conversation with a nice couple and a third person whose spouse ended up having to travel for work so he was alone with his two friends. So we hung out there during sail away discussing the joys of traveling until it was time to get ready for dinner.

 

For dinner, we went to Savor.  I don’t remember what we had for starters, but for the mains DH had the Chicken Piccata and I had what I swear was one of the best pasta dishes I’ve ever eaten.  It was shrimp scampi with lemon butter pasta.  The pasta was so creamy, buttery, and lemony that it was just delicious.  I couldn’t finish it so I passed the plate to DH, who also agreed that it was excellent.  We were too stuffed for dessert so walked around a bit and then sat in the observation lounge and read for a while before I called it a night while DH went to the Maltings bar to get a double scotch to bring back to the room.

 

Next up: Day 2.  Great Stirrup Cay.   And sheesh, I told you I was wordy.

Edited December 21, 2021 by melodyesch
can't spell

[Sand and Seas]

I love your Day One!   

Please be as wordy as you want as your details are just what I was looking for☺️

[ColoradoChill]

Yes! Keep the details coming! The longer the better. Was there a Welcome Aboard show the first night? 

[melodyesch]

Day 2: Great Stirrup Cay

 

Before I begin on GSC, let me just provide a few additional details.  Our room Steward was Agus, from Indonesia.  He was very nice and never asked us if we wanted service once or twice per day.  He just automatically came twice.  Frankly, we’d really prefer only once a day service, but the couple of times we were in the room in the evening when he asked to turn down the bed, he seemed a little disappointed when we said we were good.  He always left a paper copy of the Freestyle Daily and he happily brought me an extra pillow (those damn go-flat pillows again) and a twin blanket for when I was sitting on the sofa.  We didn't have a single towel animal the entire cruise, but we are OK with that.  I personally think it's a waste of water and energy to do all of that extra laundry unless you have kids.  But I know some people really find it a highlight so I guess you could ask for them.

 

I heard from several people that the count on the ship of passengers was around 1900.  So less than ½ capacity.  It showed.  Anywhere we went we had our choice among many seats.  And the crew on this ship were so friendly.  We’ve always though NCL had the friendliest crew and this was no exception.  We didn’t meet a single crew member in the hallways or wherever that didn’t say hello or good day.

 

One warning about the ship is that it was COLD.  It could be because there weren’t as many people or whatever, but I was pretty much cold no matter where I went.  Next time I will definitely bring a sweater and some sort of casual pants to wear indoors.

 

We arrive at GSC early on Monday morning and I think you had to get a tender ticket to go early.  But by the time we were ready at about 9:00 they were just letting anyone board and we were off pretty quickly.  We had never been to GSC before and it is very pretty, but it’s true that the availability of shade is lacking. There were so many loungers, but only a small fraction have any shade to speak of.   We are way too white to sit in the sun so we found a shady spot under some trees in front of the little cabanas by the tower.   I think there was enough shade for the amount of people who went, but if the ship is at full capacity or if there is more than one ship, it would be a hard thing to find loungers not in full sun unless you get there early.  But our loungers were in the perfect spot and it put us with a great view of the zip lines, which was fun to watch.  And we were pretty close to that cove that’s under the zip lines.  

 

One of the things that I observed while watching the goings on is that there were several paddle boarders out in the water that were clearly inexperienced.  And there was a lifeguard or some security person on a jet ski that kept going really fast back and forth pretty frequently inside the roped off area for no obvious purpose.  This wouldn’t have been a big deal, except every time he did that, he was causing a wake for the paddleboarders.  He probably thought nothing of it but watching from a distance I thought it was pretty rude.

 

We hung out at GSC for a couple of hours and then headed back to the ship and ate lunch at the Garden café.  It could be my imagination, but it didn’t seem like there was as much variety as on previous cruises.  It seemed like several stations had exactly the same thing.  That’s not to say there wasn’t plenty to choose from and even by taking just a tiny bit of the things that appealed to me, I ended up with an overly full plate.  The Indian food is always so good, and this trip was no exception.   I’m not a pizza person, but I overheard a conversation at a nearby table where one person said at least it was better than Domino’s and their companion said no, it wasn’t.  So there's that.

 

For the afternoon, we spent part of the time on our balcony, part in the observation lounge and part on Deck 8 outside.  It was just a lovely afternoon with perfect weather.   We finally made it back to our cabin to shower and get ready for dinner, which was at Los Lobos.  Now I know that’s not that big of a favorite with other people, but we love the table side guacamole, DH loves the Enchiladas with Mole and I like the carne asada and the Mexican street corn.  I did have the cactus salad, which seemed very intriguing when I read it on the menu, but in reality, tasted like something I would expect a cactus to taste like.  I was not a fan.  But everything else was really good.  DH had one of the ultimate margaritas and I had a pina colada, that was pretty strong, but good.   No room for dessert, though.  The server was excellent, and we filled out a vacation hero card for her.

 

After dinner, we walked around a bit, went to the garden café for a cup of coffee and then sat in the observation lounge reading (and freezing) until near time for bed.   My DH went to the garden café to pick up some charcuterie for a later snack, but the pickings were slim.   He discovered the next night that the selection was much greater if he went immediately after we ate dinner and took it back to the room.  He ended the night with a couple of drams of Scotch from Maltings.

 

I think that’s it for Day 2.  DH did meet a man in the elevator later in the week who had fallen and broke his arm either at GSC or on the ship sometime Monday.  And I, unfortunately, lost my driver’s license somewhere between showing it to the security gate at GSC, riding the tender and then making it to our cabin. I had hoped that someone would turn it in during the week, but it never appeared and now I must brave the St. Louis City DMV.  Ugh.  But thankfully we had our passports, so I was able to use that to get back on the ship and on the plane home.  I did wonder what would happen if we were traveling with a birth certificate????

 

Next up:  Sea Day on Day 3

[melodyesch]

19 hours ago, ColoradoChill said:

Yes! Keep the details coming! The longer the better. Was there a Welcome Aboard show the first night? 

Sorry, I really didn't pay any attention and don't have the Dailies to look.  The only show we went to was Choir of Man.

[ggTexasGal]

Melody (lovely name), I am sorry that you lost your MO Driver's License.

Can you order a replacement online?

Anyway, I hope that everything goes well for you! 

Great review.

[ShelleyQT]

Maybe you can check the DMV website to see if you can just order a replacement driver's license.  I was able to do that here in Washington State.

 

Regarding being cold on the ship, I am nearly always cold in the indoor areas of the ship, especially the Observation Lounge.  This is so disappointing for me, since I live in Seattle and  I go to warm places for vacation so I can be warm.  Everyone loves the observation Lounge, but I just couldn't enjoy it.

[ggTexasGal]

@melodyesch I hope you are well. I would love to see the rest of your review.

Happy Holidays!

[limeyalchemist]

Melody - thank you for doing this review, it is sooo helpful.  We are sailing the almost exact same itinerary in early January and this helps give us some good tips.  Please keep these going...

 

I'm planning on doing a short daily blog while on-board, answering questions if I can, and then a deeper dive when I return home, as I know how important and exciting hearing from others who have sailed is...

 

Thank you!

[phillygwm]

Great recap.  I sailed the same week as you, though on the Bliss out of LA.  A couple of the particulars were slightly different (Eurofins versus CVS for testing) but overall the check-in experience was remarkably similar.  

[classy_cruiser]

Thank you for the review! I’m interested to hear about Puerto plata please, not much out there about that particular  port. 

[melodyesch]

I'm back to my review.  Family came for Christmas so I had to do the obligatory cleaning and cooking.  Happy Holidays!

 

Sea Day, Tuesday, Dec 14

We love sea days.  We like to find different places around the ship to sit and read.  I also brought a couple of small Christmas crafts to work on.  They are felt ornaments from the Twelve Days of Christmas.   I mention it because no matter we were, one or more of the crew would stop and ask me about it.  They really seemed eager to connect with people on this trip.  We had a pleasant conversation with several of the crew, talking about the hobbies they have at home or the things they do on the ship during their off time.  One of the guys from the outside area of the garden café spotted me later in the afternoon in a different location and made a point to ask me if I had completed what I had worked on that morning, so I showed him my finished work.  Anyway, such pleasant crew.

 

So breakfast was in the garden café and lunch in Taste.  I was happy on this cruise that there was crispy bacon at every station.  I don’t normally cook bacon at home, but I only want to eat it if it’s crispy.  There was both crispy and non-crispy.   I did also take note that there were little containers of JIF peanut butter, but I didn’t notice particularly any Nutella spread (remembering a thread about these things a couple of weeks ago).  And there was muesli, which I LOVE from NCL. 

 

For lunch, DH surprisingly had two apps in Taste, the tomato/mozzarella salad and the corn chowder.  The salad was nothing special, but the corn chowder was delicious.  I tried a bite.  I had bruschetta for a starter, which was good.   For mains, DH had chicken parmesan, which he liked, and I had a poached blue fish in broth.  I chose that specifically to offset the bacon extravaganza from breakfast and it was as you’d expect a poached fish in broth to taste. 

 

An added note here that while we don’t go to the main pool deck since we don’t do sun, we did walk through and although the immediate pool area had plenty of people, I wouldn’t call it crowded.  There was room in the pool and loungers in that space to be had.

 

After lunch, we decided to spend the afternoon in the spa.  I had tried to buy passes online prior, but they never showed up as bookable.   But others on cruise critic said to call so I did that in advance.  But here at the spa, we encountered our probably one and only less than pleasant crew member.  We stepped up to the desk and I mentioned that this was our first trip to the spa this cruise, so we needed the sticker on our cards.  It was almost like when you wear the clothes you’d wear to Dollar Tree into Neiman Marcus, and they look at you like you don’t belong.  The lady looked at us with her brows raised and said, “YOU have a spa pass???  What, did you book online??”  I said I called prior to the cruise, and she said, “Well, let’s just check the manifest.”  A couple of minutes later she said, “Oh, I guess you DO have passes.”  Anyway, I am not normally one to get offended and I didn’t this time.  I just mentally said f-you and we went on into the spa.

 

The spa itself was great and there were plenty of loungers (and heated loungers) to be had, but again, it was FREEZING.  And I felt kind of bad, because I used up a month’s worth of towels in one afternoon.   When lounging, I had my robe covering my upper body, a towel covering my legs.  And I don’t know if I’m just made differently or what, but I have never been able to sit comfortably in a lounge chair for any length of time because my knees start to hurt.  So, I have to roll up a towel to put under them so that they are somewhat bent.  And this is even before I’ve used any towels in which to dry off.  It’s been a couple of years since we’ve been on a smaller ship, but they did have a small section of regular chairs that sat upright.  I always prefer those to a lounge chair.  Not sure if the smaller ships still have them, but definitely the larger ships do not.

 

After the spa, we got ready for dinner at Cagney’s.  When we discussed the specialty dinners ahead of time (2 from the package and 2 platinum), we had said that we weren’t going to do Cagney’s since the last cruise we just didn’t think it was that great.  My DH had bought a grill that cost as much as a compact car and had taken grilling classes at Weber Grill and really has become a fabulous cooker of steak.  But I went ahead and make a reservation ahead of time in case we wanted to go, and we both decided that we did.  I am SO glad we did.  It was such a great meal.  We both had shrimp cocktail, then a salad.  DH had the porterhouse and ate EVERY bite.  If he could have picked the bone up and gnawed it without looking like a piglet, he would have.   I had the 16 oz rib eye, and it was really good, but could only manage about half of it.  For sides we shared potatoes au gratin, grilled zucchini, mushrooms and creamed spinach.  All were excellent.    There was no room for dessert, but we did have coffee, which was a great improvement from the garden café coffee.  

 

After dinner, we did our normal walking around and then found a quiet spot in the observation lounge until I headed off to bed and DH headed to get his scotch from Maltings to bring back to the cabin.

 

Next Up:  St. Thomas

[melodyesch]

On 12/25/2021 at 6:31 AM, limeyalchemist said:

Melody - thank you for doing this review, it is sooo helpful.  We are sailing the almost exact same itinerary in early January and this helps give us some good tips.  Please keep these going...

 

 

Thanks for commenting.  I plan to finish up this week.

 

On 12/21/2021 at 6:32 PM, ggTexasGal said:

Melody (lovely name), I am sorry that you lost your MO Driver's License.

Can you order a replacement online?

Anyway, I hope that everything goes well for you! 

Great review.

 

Thanks.  I think my Mom jinxed me because I have no musical talent whatsoever. 🙂

And no, you have to go into the DMV here.   I am hoping it will be found and mailed to us, but that is starting to seem unlikely.   I work from home so I'll give it a week or so then go get another one.

 

On 12/21/2021 at 9:11 PM, ShelleyQT said:

Regarding being cold on the ship, I am nearly always cold in the indoor areas of the ship, especially the Observation Lounge.  This is so disappointing for me, since I live in Seattle and  I go to warm places for vacation so I can be warm.  Everyone loves the observation Lounge, but I just couldn't enjoy it.

 

I hear ya!  I am not a tiny person so normally am not that cold.  But I was freezing.  DH had to put on his jeans and I was wearing the wrap I wore to get from the car to the airport.   But without it, it was just uncomfortably cold.  I'll know for next time.

 

On 12/24/2021 at 6:46 AM, ggTexasGal said:

@melodyesch I hope you are well. I would love to see the rest of your review.

Happy Holidays!

 

Thanks!  Getting back to it.

 

On 12/25/2021 at 6:31 AM, limeyalchemist said:

Melody - thank you for doing this review, it is sooo helpful.  We are sailing the almost exact same itinerary in early January and this helps give us some good tips.  Please keep these going...

 

 

Thanks!  I think you'll have a great time!

 

17 hours ago, classy_cruiser said:

Thank you for the review! I’m interested to hear about Puerto plata please, not much out there about that particular  port. 

 

I'm going to continue so I'll get to that in a couple of days.  We did only go into the shopping area, but it's very nice.

[melodyesch]

St. Thomas, Wed, December 15^th

Before I get into St. Thomas, let me talk a little bit about masks around the ship.  I know that things have changed in the last two weeks and masks are mandatory now, but on our sailing, they were not.  ALL of the crew were wearing them, but I would say 98% of the passengers were not.  My DH is one that was unsure of not wearing a mask, even with the 100% vaccination.  He’s been the one going out into the world with COVID and also runs the errands for his elderly mother and was terrified of bringing something into her house.   He started out wearing a mask on the ship, until I pointed out that if I’m exposed, HE’S exposed.  One day we were in the elevator bank waiting for an elevator and a man lifted up his mask to cough directly INTO the open air.   So obviously he didn’t understand the fundamentals.

 

Also, several of the crew had noted that they were not allowed to leave the port area off the ship and in Puerto Playa, they weren’t allowed to leave the ship at all.   So they really are trying to limit the exposure of the crew.  One interesting thing is that when we asked how they were able to get any personal items, one of the ladies explained that they have an Amazon drop address to which they can have products sent.  She had several amazon packages waiting for her in Miami for when we returned.  So that’s good.  

 

Anyway, while we were very happy to go on this cruise and felt like it was as safe as it could have been, we still were not comfortable going out into the towns.  At each stop we simply walked around the port area for a while before getting back on the ship.   St. Thomas was no exception.  We spent a couple of hours walking around the port shopping area.  My DH was after some Scotch and found a type of Glenmorangie that he can’t get at home so he bought two bottles.   Those, plus a t-shirt were the only purchases of the day.  And he surrendered his scotch when we arrived back onto the ship.

 

It may be a common occurrence, but in St. Thomas the weather was perfect and then suddenly it poured down rain for 10 minutes or so.  Then it was sunny again.  The first time we were in a store so just had to wait under the awning and then the second time we were under cover sitting on a bench.  So we would just wait it out and then start moving again when the shower was over.   We’ve been to St. Thomas several times before, but I can’t remember if that happened to us prior.

 

Our lunch was at the garden café (Indian food again) and then the afternoon was at the spa.  For dinner, my DH wanted to try Q, but we weren’t that hungry so decided to not use the dining package for it.   We each had an appetizer and then both had a BBQ baked potato.  The meal was really good, the server was good, and we got in and out pretty quickly.

 

Tonight was the night we went to see The Choir of Man.  Remembering out last cruise and standing in line to get into see Six, we went to the theatre about 20 minutes early, but walked right in with no wait.  So yeah, we really are at 50% capacity.   There was a big presence of servers so we both ordered a drink and it came pretty quickly.

 

We both enjoyed the show very much, although it did seem to get off to a slow start.  After a little bit, it picked up and was really good.   I would recommend it.  Part of their schtick is handing out beer to the audience if you raised your hand and that took a bit to do, but once they show actually got started we enjoyed it.

 

Next up:  Tortola

[Bdarlin]

On 12/20/2021 at 7:34 PM, melodyesch said:

I know there have been other threads on the Encore, but I thought I would give an after-the-fact review (from memory) on our experiences on the Encore the week of 12/12.  It was me (Melody) and my DH {an anonymous man).  We are in our early 50’s and this was our 8^th NCL cruise (first time as Platinum).  This cruise was 7 nights leaving from Miami and going to GSC, St. Thomas, Tortola and the Dominican Republic.  There will be no pictures since I don’t really take many and it won’t be a diary of the goings on all around the ship since we’re mostly boring people. But I did want to talk about some of the things we did and ate.  We really did have a very relaxing time and loved the cruise, the ship, the food, and the crew.

 

Just a fair warning that although we’re boring and don’t do much, I’m pretty wordy.  Feel free to skim.

 

Pre-Cruise Day:  December 11.

We arrived at the Miami airport from St. Louis at around noon on Saturday, December 11^th. We took a cab to the JW Marriott Marquis for Saturday night {using hotel points}. It took us a bit to get there since the draw bridges were up and allowing boat traffic to pass.  It seriously irritated our cab driver.  But when we finally did arrive around 1:00, we received an upgraded room right away.  It was a large, lovely room with a partial water view, a large desk area and two separate sitting room chairs with ottomans.  It had a large, separate tub, which I always enjoy and a TV that appeared in the bathroom mirror (which I thought was ridiculous).

 

I am the one who does our packing because we usually do carry-on and it’s a bit like Tetris to get everything that we want to take to fit.   Plus, I like to split clothes so that each case has clothes for both of us in case something happens to one of the bags, should we decide to check or give them up at the port.  So we have a pre-packing discussion about how many shirts, shorts, etc., we think we need for the week. DH gathers his things and then I make it all fit into the luggage.  I also make sure everything we need for the pre-cruise night and the next day is in one area of one case so that we don’t have to spread out everything in the room.

 

Anyway, after settling into our room, we took a taxi to Little Havana and walked around, as we’d never been there.  We had lunch in a very crowded restaurant with live music, where DH enjoyed an authentic (I guess) Cuban sandwich.  I had a pork and onion sandwich that was good, if a little in need of some sauce.  DH had a beer, and I had an excellent pina colada.  It was so loud in the small place with the band that we could not hear each other across the table.  But the music was good and so we just listened while we ate.

 

Little Havana was very crowded and very touristy, which we expected.  But we were very leery because we’ve been keeping to ourselves during covid, and it was a bit unnerving to be amongst the crowd.  We did our best to distance and wear our masks when we were around other people.

 

One thing that we discovered is that we had to come into this decade and get the Uber app.  One just can’t walk into the street and hail a cab any longer.  There are none to be found!  So we ordered an Uber and headed back for an early night.   There is a CVS and a Whole Foods right near the hotel and so DH picked up some toothpaste since we only had ½ of a travel tube and then a couple of snacky things for a lite dinner.  We had an early night in a comfortable bed.  Although I can’t for the life of me figure out why hotels supply pillows that are over a foot high when sitting on the bed but sink to .5 inches when you lay your head on them.   But that’s a topic for another day.

Thank you for reviews