Panama Cruise - Pre-Cruising Days

There is two parts to the pre-cruise adventures; the day before our flight and the day of our flight.

December 6, 2008

The night before our flight I dropped Peter off at Grandma Shultz's around 4:00, picked Michael up at home and then drove to the Sheridan at the airport. Unfortunately, winter decided to visit before our trip and we had to drive through a snowfall described as 'light'. As you might expect, despite the snowfall being 'light', traffic was very slow moving (because we have so much time between snow falls that it is easy to forget how to drive in them) and we didn't get to the hotel until nearly 7:00. We wanted to make sure we got a good night sleep so we were ready for the trip down to Miami. We ordered room service for dinner and then watched Get Smart and went to bed.


December 7, 2008

We woke up at 6:15 and got ready to head over to the airport. We kept the car parked at Terminal 3 near the hotel so we had to take the train over to Terminal 1. Normally the check in line for business class passengers is short or non-existant, but we actually had to wait in line to check in. The customs line was even longer since all passengers have to filter through the same line, but we had a very chatty and friendly customs official. Because of the long lines, we only had a half hour to enjoy the lounge (where I, not wanting to wait any longer for my vacation to start, changed into my summer attire). After having to wait 20 minutes to de-ice the plane, we had a perfect flight with decent food and even arrived 2 minutes early.

Once in Miami, we gathered our luggage and took a taxi to our downtown hotel (Holiday Inn), settled in and then headed across the street to the Bayside market in search of much needed sandals and Bath and Body Works (which has gone downhill). For dinner we went to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co and had some very yummy food – mine was called “After the storm Bucket of Trash” filled with lobster, shrimp and fish served in a bucket along with some fries. Michael had coconut shrimp. The next day was destined to be a long one so we just watched TV and went to bed early.