Emperor Norton

Eventually we found our way to our first brewery.

We had 18 or so beers to sample (all pours were sample sizes and all beers were shared between 5 people).

Interesting cask re-purposing

They had an interesting take on a corporate clown

A cat that caught a rather large bird

Worlds smallest bamboo "forest"?

New Orleans gives you a year and a day for the above ground crypts before your remains are shoved to the back to make room for someone else.  Wynwood apparently gives you art a year to live on the walls.

Why not another classic car?

Don't stare at this for too long

Even the portas are covered in art

Eventually we did arrive at one of our destinations

Apparently this artist likes modern Mustangs and old Corvettes.

What a Christmas tree in Miami may look like.

One of the local buildings

Apparently Solo is now making cups in "Grotesque Gulp" sizing.  Who knew.

Even the parking garage looked nice.

Will this be the submersible on the new exploration ships?

For the man/woman child in you - the drifter big wheel.

Our second day in Miami was spent walking around Wynwood viewing the art (including the Wynwood walls) as well as sample some of the local micro brews.

The first thing we came across was the setup for a I believe charity event for/run by? Gloria Estefan.  There was a nice classic just sitting there begging to have its picture taken so I obliged and even captured a somewhat relevant corporate mascot in the process.

Even the local overpasses were interesting (more so at night)

On 12/10/2019 at 4:17 AM, markham said:

When we were recently on Odyssey I did notice that some crew have small arm and/or leg tattoos that were not covered with bandages or whatever they were expected to use in the past. So what. These are the same dedicated young and younger people who make our cruise so pleasurable and successful, and I like their warmth and enthusiasm. I am glad they are not wasting their time applying them and glad they are not making more garbage.

 

To head off possible questions, Seabourn, in my experience, does not hire staff with tattoos show violent or vulgar content and intent. 
 

Does this help?

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

They don't seem to mind cultural appropriation.  Not sure if serious.

Edit: When I was on Sojourn last week they seemed to have a surplus of those bay shrimp.  I'm surprised they didn't end up in random dishes as surprise ingredients.

I can at times be very pedantic. Especially so when it comes to things that are ingested. A little example of this is when asked as to whether I want my martini up or on the rocks. The issue is that once you take Mr. Martini out of the martini glass and serve him in a rocks/old fashioned glass (with or without rocks) he is no longer a martini - ergo it's a pointless question. Granted this is just annoying that's all.

Mea culpa: It was a Double Tree (also by Hilton) that had the actual silverware/plates.

It's nice to hear hours have been limited for the crew.  The loss of crew (numbers - there seemed to be less about than on previous cruises) however doesn't escape notice - though the Secret Squirrel earwigs in the Restaurant are kind of funny.

While In Miami we stayed at a hotel that close to Wynwood so we could walk to a few breweries and see some of the local street art.  The hotel was geared more towards business travelers than say a Ritz property.  This lead to an interesting breakfast offering that I was shocked to see as even Embassy Suites provided solid plates/silverware.  Other locations for this chain also provided ceramic plates and metal silverware.  This location however...

(Yes those are plastic utensils and paper plates).

The rest of the breakfast offerings

What I believe to be powdered scrambled eggs (which seemed eerily similar to the scrambled eggs in the Colonnade) and pre-made Western omelets

On my cruises (line agnostic) I've found the Restaurant (or equivalent) to be slow at best for breakfast (Regent still wins with ~45-55 min for a toasted English muffin).

I now prefer the Colonnade, though this time it took changing sections a few times to find a section to my liking.

For in the restaurant we found the service good the first two sea days and comically bad the third and and painfully slow the fourth.  The staff for the last two sea days was different the first - I think they were left to their own devices and I don't believe they were ready for that.

Sean Smit should be boarding tomorrow. Sadly so will a couple that special orders every meal every day. 

35 minutes ago, purpleally said:

 

And it shows. 

Sadly very much so. 

The visible crew tats are new too. At least the Germans haven’t given us a few drunken versions of their national anthem (unlike say the Belgians). 
 

The sun is out today and they’re setting up for a the pool party. 

The dress code issue appears to be corporate not allowing staff to do anything. They can mention the dress code but that’s it. They must seat/serve the violators. 
 

Found a stowaway 

Rain, rain go away 

1 hour ago, margbem said:

 Apparently short shorts are ok in the restaurant for some.  

 

 

WHAT????? Men or women?!!

It offended me when someone wore a baseball cap all through dinner when we were on the Odyssey in October. I wish the Maitre 'D would enforce the dress code a little!

Young woman who uhh amply filled them n

To be fair IME the Caribbean cruises have always been a bit “different”. 

Thomas is the restaurant manager.

Carambola is correct. Today the caviar was delivered to the beach in front of the tender dock (random pier was to the left)

no talk of a new bar manager as of yet. Chef Jes takes over Jan 4. Apparently short shorts are ok in the restaurant for some.  

Guess it’s more popular now 

People are slowly filtering in. 

Waiting to tender. 

Today is the caviar in the surf event in the (new to me) location. It started to sprinkle after leaving the colonnade so hopefully that stops before the event starts. 

Setting up for the local steel pot band.