Grandeur of the Seas: Sea Days

Literally, a sea day is a day on board ship when you are not in port. What is it like?

The Captain's voice comes on the PA system and he tells you that the ocean beneath you is a mile deep. Or more.

You have a great desire for a deck chair, a pair of sun glasses, and a 32 ounce Foster's.

You sit at an an outside table near the Windjammer Cafe, sipping coffee, listening to the steel drum band playing near the pool, writing your thoughts down in a notebook.

You order afternoon room service (free) and romance ensues.

Miami Redeemed

In downtown Miami, located at the edge of Biscayne Bay, is a shopping complex named Bayside Marketplace. Most sophisticated people think it is too slick, too un-Miami "cool," a place to be avoided. That's probably why I like it.

One of the attractive things about Bayside is that they have a small square and bandstand where local indie bands--usually Latin--play for free. People get up and dance--salsa, samba, etc. Young people. Old people. Whoever. The rhythm, the beat and the sensual grace of the dancers is captivating. Latin music is at the very soul of the culture in Miami. If one of the communities in greater Miami is having a block party (Coconut Grove, for instance), you can be sure to hear exciting Latin music and people dancing. They go hand-in-hand.

There are about 150 shops at Bayside, including restaurants and a Hard Rock Cafe, a 150 slip marina and charter fishing boats.

Just down Brickel and over the small drawbridge spanning the Miami River is a small, raunchy bar/restaurant called Tobacco Road (try the Death Burger there). It is one of the oldest surviving bars in Miami and a former hangout for Al Capone.

Sunset Drive (72nd street) in South Miami is another example of one of the charms of some parts of the Miami area: small shops, small interesting restaurants. Most of the smaller restaurants have sidewalk tables as well as indoor seating. One example is Deli-Lane, a small, award winning restaurant specializing in breakfasts. There is also the tiny Morning Call Bakery, featuring great coffee and awesome croissants (try the almond, though the chocolate croissant is good also). They, too, have outside tables. (for a recipe for croissants, click here The Food Network).

Then there is Coral Gables with the haunted Biltmore Hotel and the nearby Venetian Pool. The entire community of Coral Gables was planned by George Merrick, who favored the Mediterranean Revival style.

The Venetian Pool--a frequent location for fashion shoots--has grottoes, cascading waterfalls, and architectural elements that mimic Venice, Italy.

The Problem with Miami

I've been gone for a week and thus, no posts. Before I get back to my exploration of my Western Caribbean cruise, I need to say a few things--both positive, and negative--about the city I just returned from: Miami. First, the negatives.

One of my daughters lives in Miami, so I have been there periodically over the years. Here is an anecdote about her that will best introduce my first topic. She bikes her way around the city, often peddling from South Miami to South Beach. A couple of years ago, she was riding her bike, pulling out of a parking lot when an SUV struck her and sent her flying. The woman driving the SUV rolled down her window and berated her violently, blaming her for getting in her way. And then drove off. My daughter then had to literally crawl into a nearby business which finally allowed her to make a call. She called her boy friend who then transported her to the hospital. She was on crutches for a couple of months after that, but luckily suffered no permanent damage.

Not so coincidentally, Miami was named today the top city in the United States for road rage--for a second year in a row. See the article at CBS News. But this is not road rage in the usual sense: people are not (as far as I know) pulling guns on fellow motorists after being cut off. In fact, cutting people off is considered good driving in Miami. Barely missing slamming into other cars is considered good driving. Honking the horn at someone when he or she is actually obeying the law and driving safely--this too is considered good driving. It makes it not only the top city for road rage, but also the rudest, most impolite city in the country.

I can guess at the trigger for all of this (I won't dignify it by calling it a "cause"). It is the I-95 corridor. It seems that the majority of the traffic in Miami is funneled down a single highway. It is incredibly busy, spilling over into the side streets and feeder highways. Never have I been on residential side streets that have so much traffic. But people have choices. Your surroundings can destroy your character or make you stronger as a human being. Many of the people in Miami (at least those in their cars) have a creepy kind of evil about them. They have made their choice.

A second problem with Miami is the aforementioned unfriendliness. Miami is only incidentally an American city. It is a Latin American city--which, as I'll mention tomorrow, is also one of its greatest strengths and charms. Everywhere you go--grocery stores, shopping centers,gas stations, restaurants, hotels, people are speaking Spanish, not English. It is charming, but at times it crosses over to what feels like contempt for the gringo.

Many of the hotels on Miami Beach (to some extent Miami Beach must be seen separate from Miami in more ways than geography) have horrible reviews. Rudeness is always at the top of the list of complaints. One of my theories (and only a theory) is that Macho is still a strong part of Latin culture. When you put a vibrant Latin man in a service industry role, it does not compute well.

Tomorrow, some of the things I love about Miami.

Norovirus: What Is It?

In my last post, I mentioned "norovirus." This is one of the things that scares many people away from taking a cruise. But just what exactly is norovirus, how dangerous is it, and how prevalent is it on cruise lines?

According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control), noroviris is the stomach flu. You know, barfing and...well, you know.... This is not some strange, rare disease that will put you in the hospital. But cruise ships take it seriously. If you come down with it, the ship's doctor will quarantine you in your cabin--not that you will feel like waltzing around the ship anyhow. And I have been on a ship concerned with norovirus. They will put bleach everywhere and not allow you to get any of your food on your own; everything will be ladeled onto your plate if you are going through a cafeteria line.

According to the Cruise Line International Association, "It is estimated by the CDC that 23 million Americans contract norovirus every year, or one in every 12 people, when less than one in every 3,600 cruise passengers has actually been affected by norovirus."

Julia Street Dock: Embarkation

There are two potential boondoggles when you go on a cruise: embarkation and debarkation. Both have the potential for being a total nightmare--a nightmare, at least, if you hate long lines, being wanded by security, losing your luggage, and uncomfortable surroundings.

This day, the weather for embarkation was sunny. We arrived by car and ended up parking almost at the top of a multi-tiered parking garage ($12 per day to park). From there it was a fairly short walk (while pulling luggage) to the terminal.

The Julia Street Cruise Terminal itself has the architecture of a warehouse. It is not elegant, but we have been in worse. At first, everything went well. We did, though, have to swear that we did not have any flu symptoms (cruise lines are hyper about Norovirus). Then the wait began. And the lines waiting to get on the ship got longer. People began to get irritated. And then things got worse. By now, boarding should have begun and everyone knew it. What in the world was going on?

We had arrived early and so were at the beginning of one of the lines. Then, to our surprise, a Royal Caribbean official came up to us and said that anyone who was not a V.I.P. (meaning a member of the Crown and Anchor Society) had to get immediately out of the line and go the end of the line next to us. I looked to the end of that line. I squinted and looked again. It was a long way off.

Other people started to complain. "Why hadn't you told us about this earlier" they asked. "Where is there a sign saying Royal Crown Society Only?" The officials were saved from at least a verbal pummeling by the fact that at that very moment the lines started to move.

Then cruise justice stepped in. Someone at the front of the other line grabbed us. "Dude," they said. "Merge in here." And we went with the flow.