Regent Moving to Port of Miami

[Responder]

If the airplanes will shut off their engines for the moment, I might offer another view of Miami.

 

My wife and I are probably older than most anyone on this CC board or those cruising on Regent. We have lived in the greater Miami area since 1949...yep!

 

Not a whole lot we haven't seen or experienced in all these years. In my tale, consider that I am totally apolitical and tell it like I see it.

 

When I moved here and started at the University of Miami...Coral Gables...there wasn't much of a school, and many of the studens were on the GI bill coming back from the war.

In those days, who had a car?...so I never had a problem hitching a ride to and from...anytime of the day or night. Safe as could be..we never locked our apartment door until the last one was home.

 

In the late 50's Cuba entered the picture and since than, almost the entire Dade County(Miami area) has a majority of Latin influence.

In those days, there were no suburbs to speak of, only the urban downtown area. One could traverse day or night with no trepidations.

 

As the years progressed, the commissioners planned highways and bridges and of course you can guess the neighborhoods they chose to demolish. As a result, and for many years thereafter, those areas mostly in the urban areas had a lot of unrest and riots, etc. There are still baaad areas and hardly a day goes by without a car hijacking or shooting or?

 

In recent times, they built a huge American Airlines arena for basketball...a concert hall, only about $250 million $$ over budget, and demolished a landmark Orange Bowl Stadium to build a ballpark for the Marlins...all virtually with taxpayer dollars.

 

The downtown area has many new condos and South Miami Beach has has a revival and seems to be doing OK, also with a plethora of restaurants going in and out of business daily. The Beach has a new concert hall for the New World Symphony and so on.

 

All of this for younger folks and certainly for tourists offers a wonderful exposure to a different lifestyle and culture. It's an experience .

 

My point in this telling is to explain that for my wife and myself, we don't go downtown, nor do we attend any events in that area. For us at our ages, it's too big a hassle to drive down...public transportation doesn't begin to exist here...parking is a bear, and the costs are usuurious for many events and for most restaurants.

 

We live in the Northernmost part of Dade County and for us, we are very fortunate to have favorite restaurants and theater and concerts not too far North of us...along with easy parking and far less hassles. After a few glasses of wine with dinner, I don't want to be too far for the drive home.

 

We will miss the convenience of Port Everglades(20 minutes from home), but fully understand why they are consolidating with Oceania...anyone who has been in business will understand the economy of scale they will achieve.

The port area has improved considerably from the days of poor signage causing tourists in rental cars to get lost and mugged by bad guys. The parking fees are quite steep, but for lengthy cruises, a taxi from the airport is probably better.

 

We are and have been ardent Regent cruisers and will continue do so even at the Port of Miami.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Just wanted to say that I too hate stop-overs or changes of any kind. I'm lucky enough to live in a major hub for Canada, Europe, Florida and California, so it's rarely an issue (although we pay through the nose for this privilege, of course). But I feel for the westcoasters who, I know, have a hard time getting to Florida. Looks like Vancouver doesn't have any direct flights to Miami either (just checked Expedia). Guess that's why, as a holiday destination, Hawaii is so popular in the west.

 

As for MIA, I just hope that there are some good, reliable park'n fly lots, if we ever cruise from there in the winter while we're living in Florida.

[SnoBirdCruiser]

Personally, I rather like Miami. Being from Toronto we are lucky to have multiple non-stop flights there.

My one dislike is when we disembark and all those mega ships are doing the same thing.....MIA is a zoo then....better to stay over a night and catch flight home next day.

 

My favorite restraunt is Joe's Stone Crabs....always eat there. Never eat at Cuban restraunts...didn't care to much for Cuban food when we used to vacation there and still dont.

Easy to get from hotels to the docks.