December 28 – Fort Lauderdale to Miami

finally here!

Weather – 23º, windy

Steps – 5,832

Travel day! We thought our travel day would be uneventful…we were just slightly mistaken! We had another lovely lie in not having to be at the ship until our assigned check in time of 12:30.

We foolishly assumed that getting an Uber/Lyft would be easy-peasy. This was a fool us twice moment. We had our ride cancelled on us 2 days ago when it is was raining and guess what…that happened AGAIN!!! So ANNOYING! PLUS, the original ride I booked was $38 and the new one was $58! A rider will get penalized for cancelling a ride, but drivers can do it.

Anyway, by the time we found Daniel (or as we came to call him – DJ Mario) we were 30 minutes behind schedule. Our plan was to arrive at the port around 12:30, but we didn’t get there until 1. In addition to leaving late, traffic was BRUTAL!

home for the next 10 days

The ship wasn’t leaving until 7, so we weren’t at all worried, but just wanted to get on, have a glass of champagne and get this cruise on the road.

Daniel was an amazing driver. He drove faster than the vast majority of the other vehicles on the road and played music he selected specifically for us…loud. His Spanish accent was a bit tough to understand, so when he first asked us if we like Maroon 5, we had NO idea what he was talking about, i can usually figure things based on context, but this time I was clueless. When we finally

Miami sail away

realized he was asking us about music we said we liked everything – we explained that we were going to a cruise where we’d spend the next 10 days listening to ‘oldies’ and as long as the music wasn’t from the 40s or 50s, we’d be fine – and please for the love of God, don’t play Lady in Red! I kept hoping he’d play some Latin stuff, but we had to be satisfied with AC/DC, Queen and as Daniel put it “classic stuff. I had a feeling he sussed us out and played what he thought we’d like. He wasn't entirely wrong, but a bit more Latin flair would have been the cherry on top of the ride.

Over an hour later (should have only been 45 min) we were at the port and 30 minutes after that we FINALLY had our welcome glass of champagne.

A bit of lunch, a visit to the library, and a visit to the tours desk to change a tour that had been cancelled on us (theme for today??) and we our room was ready.

Since Covid, there have been NO face-to-face safety orientations. Now, all you have to do is watch a 3-minute safety video a couple of times prior to boarding

more Miami skyline

and find where your muster station is as soon as you board. The video also plays on the TV - the channel can’t be changed until the video plays a few times. I’m not sure how safe this new procedure is, but the old way probably wasn’t super safe either. Once everyone is onboard, there is also an announcement about safety and then that is that.

I started napping prior to the safety announcement and knew I’d be disturbed, but figured a short nap is better than no nap. I woke up, but I think I may have slept though some of the info.We put out the laundry we accumulated over the past few days in Fort Lauderdale. Laundry used to be a perk for sailing a certain number of days. Once we got it for our loyalty level back in 2019, we were thrilled. This is another change since Covid. Now it is included for everyone on Regent – stuff all your dirties in a bag, itemize them on a slip and it’ll be back tomorrow in superb condition. They give us $100 to make up for it. Included laundry is worth so much more to us than $100, but as long I continue to get it, I don’t care. Next cruise we’ll be up another loyalty level and will get dry cleaning…I may just bring my parka to be cleaned even if it is a hot weather cruise!!

It didn't take long for us to fall back into our old cruising routine. A predinner drink, followed by another while we waited for a ‘table by the window’, dinner and then the show.

After the show we wandered through the casino which was surprisingly busy. We didn’t stay, but picked up a coffee and sweet snack to finish the day back at our room.