Miami, FL, USA
Cursing the Florida Straits
Buongiorno fellow travelers. Getting up this morning was a little difficult to say the least. The body has for so many years been trained to get up before 6 and retire by 9, it is having difficulty with not getting to bed after it has gone 10 or 10:30. The little coffee machine in the suite is useless. There are espresso cups and pods, but the stuff coming out of the machine is just dark colored water.
Finding a coffee station was a bit of a challenge in the hazy condition. Finally, the one near the Veranda Restaurant and the pool side area, appeared. A very quick cappuccino, followed by one to take back to the suite. Slowly, ever so slowly, the sleep began to disappear. Miami from the ship does indeed look magical. The description in the daily newsletter paints a picture of a seeming beautiful city. If you don’t venture to far off the main thoroughfares, it probably looks a lot like that. Other wise it is a concrete jungle.
In order to get the brain and body working together today, it was off to the fitness room. Three miles and 57:37 later things were coming into focus. Up to the poolside dinning area for lunch. Just a simple hamburger patty and a few fries. Water to drink. Doing the best possible thing and avoiding the Diet Coke. There was a really big layout in the Veranda Restaurant right next door, but it was too much. Looked great, smelled great and surly it tasted great, but who needs all that food.
Then it was off to the Serene Spa & Wellness center. It has been since early November for a hair cut and after using the treadmill for nearly an hour, it was easy to see shorter hair was called for. There is also a need for a manicure and a pedicure as well for the same reason. There was a combo package for a men’s facial along with a shave. Mary thought it would be nice, so that was booked as well for 1:15.
The ship left the Port of Miami at 1 PM. This begins the 1,200 nautical mile journey to Cartagena, Columbia. That is about 1,380 miles for most of us. We will dock in Cartagena on Wednesday January 10 about 7 in the morning. The next two full days will be cruising the Florida Straits and Caribbean Sea.
The shave and facial took about two and a half hours! They weren’t finished with me until nearly 4. High tea starts at four. We had an appointment with the cruise consultant at 4. We headed down to the cruise consultant just before 4. Here we booked the April 2026 cruise to Japan and adjusted the booking for the January 2025 for the South American/Antarctica cruise. Regent is currently having a two-level suite upgrade on most all cruises. Taking advantage of this allowed us to reduce the cost of the South American/Antarctica cruise and made it so the Japan cruise was only a $1,000 deposit.
Then we headed to the afternoon high tea in the Horizon Lounge. There were lots of events this afternoon and tonight which we opted out of. After the high tea dinner seemed like overdoing it, so we decided to opt out of dinner. Mary was watching her football games, so I went off to the Connoisseur Club for a cigar. This was the first time I wore my smoking jacket! It was a big hit. People knew what it was!
After the games were over, and a couple cigars smoked, I headed back to the suite. We played canasta, I lost, made out our request for breakfast to be delivered between 6:30 and 7, and then called it a night. The day got off to a rough start but ended on a good note.
Buonanotte, Ciao Enrico
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