<![CDATA[Miami Miami, ain’t we got style]]>There always has to be something that goes not quite as planed. This trip it happened to be the flight to Miami. Our 4pm flight sat in the taxi line for about 40 minutes which made our flight land about an hour late.

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Once we collected our baggage and the shuttle driver found us on the curb we finally made it to the hotel at about 9pm. One would think the woman at the hotel checking people in would have some idea of the surrounding area to answer guests questions. I guess I was wrong.

It took us about 20 minutes worth of walking around and visiting 4 restaurants to finally find one that was open at 9:30 on a Tuesday night. We always try to eat local when visiting places and we stumbled upon a gem.

El Tropico was wonderful. We knew we were in an authentic Cuban restaurant when we couldn’t understand anyone speaking around us. The hubby ordered the special Fried Beef with rice and beans and sweet plantains. I ordered the Fried Pork with rice and beans and Tostones. We each also ordered a Tamal. I had 2 delicious margaritas and he had 2 El Presidente beers.

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This morning went much smoother than yesterday. We ended up back at El Tropico for breakfast. The hubby had the meat plate and I had the Chorizo omelet each with 2 Cuban coffees.

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After breakfast we called a cab and headed to the cruise port to meet up with our friends who we are cruising with, we had some laughs while we waited for them to let us on.

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We boarded the cruise ship by 11:30 and had champagne and wandered the ship to see everything we could.

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After lunch we wandered some more and then settled in at the Sunset Bar for drinks before the muster drill.

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At the drill we met these 2 funny homos when I butted into their conversation about the ship.
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A quick stop back to the room to freshen up after the muster drill then it was up to the top deck for sail away.

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Now we sit and drink in our friends cabin and wait for our 8:30 dinner reservation.

So far our only mishap was forgetting to pack the dress belts to wear for dinner. So it will be off to the shops on board to buy one so my pants that happen to be a size too big now since the weight loss, don’t fall down.

We moved on to the Molecular bar for a drink after enjoying some quiet time in the cabin. The hubby ordered the 20yr Martini and I had the most fabulous Mojito ever. The cool thing about the molecular bar is all if the fancy foams and liquid nitrogen they use in the drinks.

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That pretty much sums up day one. Look for a separate post all about dinner at Qsine and other recapping the rest of our trip.

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