cruisin USA

Epilogue… We we’re pretty surprised to see this Xmas picture from Mike Pack and his staff. GTFO is 2nd from left

Our 20 minutes went pretty fast. We all loaded up and headed the first airport drop off, Miami. Didn’t take very long to get there(15-20 mins). We dropped everyone off at their respective terminals. Next up, our airport, Ft Lauderdale. It was about a half hour to get there. The bus driver had been radio’d about a traffic jam on the highway, so we took a shortcut. A little of the long way around, but we got there. I would definitely recommend this excursion for anyone with a later flight. They had loaded or luggage into the bus at the cruise parking lot, and there it stayed until they let us off at the terminal. Our flight was on time and we ended up getting home by 10pm. We. Picked doggie up the next morning and had the best reunion ever. Well folks that’s it. My “Good Things on the Horizon” review is over. Congratulations to all who made it to the end. Sorry for the interruption. That pandemic did a number on all of us. I raise my glass to you and propose my favorite cruise toast and customary way of ending my reviews Remember this……You Can Get as Just as Drunk on Water… …..As You Can on Land Next cruise is FFS5 with John Heald aboard Carnival Magic. I promise, no font problems are going to happen with that review. This is your humble and lovable reporter on the high seas, signing off(for now). ☮️❤️🥳🛳

Gratuitous shot of Ignacio.

The scope of all this graffiti. I have so many more pictures. These will have to do.

Blocks and Blocks of graffiti art. Evidently, many artist converged upon the district to make it what it is today. Pretty amazing. The bus stopped once again so we all could check it out further.

Wasn’t too long before we had to go to meet at the bus. We load up and head to our last stop before we all head to our airports. On the way, Ignacio starts setting up our last stop. He explains that we’re heading to the Wynwood district. Evidently, there was an area in Miami owned by a wealthy man. There was someone who would spray graffiti on his buildings. He would have it painted over, but the graffiti kept returning. The man came up with a plan to catch them in the act. He did, and the 2 men had a talk. Ignacio went so far as saying that they had ended up smoking the peace pie(whatever that means), and the wealthy man made the graffiti artist elevate his game into real art. This is how the Wynwood district was started. We were there right after his talk. Driving through this amazing area

Stopped to watch them play Domino’s for a bit. Dominos is the GAME here apparently.

Pretty Cool McDonald’s “Havana” style

Well fed, we went out to explore Little Havana.

Back across the bridge and into the city. Once we passed over the bridge, it wasn’t even 10 minutes till we got to our next stop..Little Havana. The bus driver parked and we were all allowed to get off the bus. Ignacio told us we’d be stopped here for 45 minutes. He recommended we roam, stretch our legs, and maybe get a bite to eat. Food! We hadn’t eaten. We went into one of the restaurants. We both ordered Cuban sandwiches. They didn’t take long. Ham, Pulled Pork, Pickles, and mustard on a special bread. They were served with potato sticks and we were so hungry that they they got ate up before I could think to take a picture. The coke in a glass bottle hit the spot. The Cuban coffee gave us the jolt we needed to continue.

We pass hotel row and start heading back across the bridge and back into the city.

We passed by the Versace mansion(now a hotel). This is where Versace was shot, right outside the front doors.

To the right we passed all the fabulous boutique hotels of South beach. Miles of ‘em!

He talked for a couple minutes about it the Jewish immigrants helping to build Miami into the great city it has become. The bus started up again and in a few minutes we were soon cruising South Beach. To the left was the buffered grassy area leading out to South Beach.

We pass through the hotels area. We come to this intersection. Ignacio tells the driver that we are going to stop for a moment(Heck with traffic). He points over to the right. There, we see the Jewish Holocaust memorial. He starts talking about the many Jewish migrants that had settled in Miami in the 40’s and 50’s. Ignacio goes on about living in Miami since he was a child. He could remember seeing people that had numbers tattooed on their arms. “Not so much, nowadays”

To the right we’re all the “Swanky” Hotels. Art Deco is an amazing architectural style. Miami does it up BIG!

We made our way over to the South Beach area. Looking left, was “Millionaires Row” Ignacio said this view was used on Miami Vice. Lots of nice houses and boats on the channel.

Ignacio explained that we would be heading to the South beach area first. We started crossing the bridge over to South Beach. I remember when we did this in an open top bus once. It was a wind tunnel! We could look across and see the Horizon across the channel.

We just sat there. We were one of the first on. People are starting to file in. We see an older gentleman climb aboard. He had a name tag on. He must be our guide. His name was Ignacio. He got on the microphone mentioning that we’d be leaving just as soon as the rest boarded. He spoke in a mildly broken English. Loaded up, the bus started out of the parking spot. Ignacio introduced himself. Turns out he was of Cuban decent. As we would come to find out, he was a eloquent and impassioned speaker. Very good throughout our ride. We pulled out of the Port of Miami and started heading past Bayside Mall.

Got up early. We had number 2 luggage tags, so we’d be one of the first off. They called our number pretty quickly. We made our way down to the debarkation area. There was a line to get off the ship. We were almost off when I spot the comedy MC. “I know, I know. GTFO” I said. He replies…”No, today it’s only safe travels”. Nice. With that we were off the ship. Down the escalators to go find our luggage and then through customs. Easy-Peasy Now we had to find the “Best of Miami” bus. Last year, for the South Beach tour they had us scrambling to find our bus. This time they had a small booth outside of the terminal that could point you in the right direction. Found our bus. Loaded our luggage. Stepped aboard and waited for the bus to fill.

We made our way back to the casino. There were people still playing. We decided to play a slot machine near the front of the casino. The one with the super bright led’s. Mary Ann wanted to play off what she had accumulated. It wasn’t much. The thing was.. We played and kept on winning. Not much but it took quite awhile to wear it down. Not too many people left in the casino when we finished. We made our way back to the cabin. I left Mary Ann off. I wanted that one last slice of pizza. One last time up to lido…sigh Back to the cabin to have my pizza on the balcony. It was pretty late. Had a big day tomorrow.

It was an 80’s party. The music was pumping, people were dancing throughout the atrium. I spot Mike Pack. He’s standing on the bar in an outlandish 80’s get up, complete with orange leg warmers….lol. Very entertaining. Of course, I DO remember people dressing like that…hehe. Mike get’s on the mic and starts hosting. We stayed for awhile. We still had some cruise left!

We filed out with the rest of the showroom. The atrium was filling up by the time we got to our usual observation spot.