Saturday, March 25th:
Once in Miami, we had a LOOOOONG concourse to walk to get to the terminal and the down escalator to baggage claim to meet our driver. Being as we only had carry-on bags, we were quickly out of the airport and headed to our hotel!
It has been over 13 years since we'd been in Miami and the traffic has only gotten worse... hard to believe that's possible. Glad we'd paid a flat fee to get to Doral! Gotta love ExecuCar!
Once at the Doral, checked in and semi-settled into our room, we called longtime friend (one we'd met in 1977 back in our Ryder days, some 40 years ago). And as arranged a couple of weeks ago, she came up to Doral for adult beverages and dinner at Champions. In the 1980's & '90's, she and I and a couple of other "girls", used to make periodic trips to the spa there.
The hotel and buildings have been seriously refurbished and are beautiful. The service was excellent! All of the villas are named after well-known golfers, ours was "Tiger Woods".
Sunday, March 26th:
After such a delightful evening, we were "up and at 'em" and ready for breakfast before heading to Port Miami!
A few pictures from our balcony... 1st is the building next to ours and, just like ours.
Looking further around to the right is, if I remember correctly, the golf school.
And looking back to the main building, Greek or Roman gods adorn the top, reminded me of the Acropolis (Athens).
The breakfast buffet in Champions was superb! Unfortunately, we didn't think to take pictures!
Check out time was noon so, we had plenty of time to get back to our room, get our "stuff" back in our bags and head to the lobby, check out and wait for the Regent coach to take us to the port.
About 12-12:30, we were off to the port.. and soon, we caught the first view of our "home" for the next 14 days... Regent's Seven Seas Explorer!
Unfortunate, our one pic from the docks was "photo-bombed" by a "Budget" truck!!
Check-in was VERY efficient, more-so than on prior cruises... YEAH!!!
We were advised that our suite / cabin was available so we headed there with glass of welcome aboard champagne in hand!
Annnnd, waiting in our cabin was a chilled bottle of champagne! That's Tom in the background checking out all the cabinets to find out what's where!
Next picture is looking from the sitting room into the bedroom. Off to the left, you can see the bathroom porthole window with a jacuzzi tub below it. Yes, there is also a separate shower, and a separate small room that contains the most used facility in the room!
At 6pm, we could could hear activity outside the ship as the ship was being made ready to pull away from the dock and head out to Bermuda!
As we left "Port Miami", we passed seemingly dozens of freight handling cranes... seems the national bird of every port city is the crane (! oh boo!) We were amazed at how the port area has grown in the past 14-15 years!
Ahhh, the magic of Miami Beach, aka South Beach or SoBe!! Seen from the ship as we head out toward Bermuda through Government Cut! This port has soooo expanded in the last few years, not only in cruise but also cargo handling... we guessed the land has been expanded into the bay to accommodate the growth.
Looking back toward Miami as we near the end of "Government Cut"!
The end of SoBe, just before we are in the open sea! When we were first in Miami (mid 1960s) there was a Dog Track where the tall building stands today.
One last look at Miami as we are out to sea and heading back in for a cocktail before dinner! Bring on the Black Label!!
And we were off and headed for 2 days at sea before "landing" at the Royal Dockyards at the tip of the fishhook at the western end of the Bermuda Islands!
The seas were rough all the way to Bermuda... but not too rough to sleep!! The ship was pitching and rolling all the way. Our cabin is all the way at the front of Deck 7 and, as the ship would pitch and slap back to the water, it sounded like an explosion! We soon became accustomed to the sound and slept right through it!
Arriving beautiful Bermuda, at the Royal Navy Dockyards, on March 29th, we found it to be a BEAUTIFUL day! It was delightful to have still waters!! Getting our land-legs back wasn't as hard as we expected!!
WOW! It has changed enormously since our visit in 1987... some 30 years ago!! Lots of shops and "party" places for the young folks!!!
We had a Shore Excursion, a Glass Bottom Boat cruise that afternoon and a "Scenic Southern Shores" trip the next day. More on those in the next post!!
rf
Once in Miami, we had a LOOOOONG concourse to walk to get to the terminal and the down escalator to baggage claim to meet our driver. Being as we only had carry-on bags, we were quickly out of the airport and headed to our hotel!
It has been over 13 years since we'd been in Miami and the traffic has only gotten worse... hard to believe that's possible. Glad we'd paid a flat fee to get to Doral! Gotta love ExecuCar!
Once at the Doral, checked in and semi-settled into our room, we called longtime friend (one we'd met in 1977 back in our Ryder days, some 40 years ago). And as arranged a couple of weeks ago, she came up to Doral for adult beverages and dinner at Champions. In the 1980's & '90's, she and I and a couple of other "girls", used to make periodic trips to the spa there.The hotel and buildings have been seriously refurbished and are beautiful. The service was excellent! All of the villas are named after well-known golfers, ours was "Tiger Woods".
Sunday, March 26th:
After such a delightful evening, we were "up and at 'em" and ready for breakfast before heading to Port Miami!
A few pictures from our balcony... 1st is the building next to ours and, just like ours.
Looking further around to the right is, if I remember correctly, the golf school.
The breakfast buffet in Champions was superb! Unfortunately, we didn't think to take pictures!
Check out time was noon so, we had plenty of time to get back to our room, get our "stuff" back in our bags and head to the lobby, check out and wait for the Regent coach to take us to the port.
About 12-12:30, we were off to the port.. and soon, we caught the first view of our "home" for the next 14 days... Regent's Seven Seas Explorer!
Unfortunate, our one pic from the docks was "photo-bombed" by a "Budget" truck!!
Check-in was VERY efficient, more-so than on prior cruises... YEAH!!!
We were advised that our suite / cabin was available so we headed there with glass of welcome aboard champagne in hand!
Annnnd, waiting in our cabin was a chilled bottle of champagne! That's Tom in the background checking out all the cabinets to find out what's where!
Next picture is looking from the sitting room into the bedroom. Off to the left, you can see the bathroom porthole window with a jacuzzi tub below it. Yes, there is also a separate shower, and a separate small room that contains the most used facility in the room!
At 6pm, we could could hear activity outside the ship as the ship was being made ready to pull away from the dock and head out to Bermuda!
As we left "Port Miami", we passed seemingly dozens of freight handling cranes... seems the national bird of every port city is the crane (! oh boo!) We were amazed at how the port area has grown in the past 14-15 years!
Ahhh, the magic of Miami Beach, aka South Beach or SoBe!! Seen from the ship as we head out toward Bermuda through Government Cut! This port has soooo expanded in the last few years, not only in cruise but also cargo handling... we guessed the land has been expanded into the bay to accommodate the growth.Looking back toward Miami as we near the end of "Government Cut"!
The end of SoBe, just before we are in the open sea! When we were first in Miami (mid 1960s) there was a Dog Track where the tall building stands today.
One last look at Miami as we are out to sea and heading back in for a cocktail before dinner! Bring on the Black Label!!
And we were off and headed for 2 days at sea before "landing" at the Royal Dockyards at the tip of the fishhook at the western end of the Bermuda Islands!
The seas were rough all the way to Bermuda... but not too rough to sleep!! The ship was pitching and rolling all the way. Our cabin is all the way at the front of Deck 7 and, as the ship would pitch and slap back to the water, it sounded like an explosion! We soon became accustomed to the sound and slept right through it!
Arriving beautiful Bermuda, at the Royal Navy Dockyards, on March 29th, we found it to be a BEAUTIFUL day! It was delightful to have still waters!! Getting our land-legs back wasn't as hard as we expected!!WOW! It has changed enormously since our visit in 1987... some 30 years ago!! Lots of shops and "party" places for the young folks!!!
We had a Shore Excursion, a Glass Bottom Boat cruise that afternoon and a "Scenic Southern Shores" trip the next day. More on those in the next post!!
rf
