Mariner of the Seas Live Blog: The Drive to Miami

The day started nice and early. We all got restful sleep and got up and finished packing. Our daughter K was so excited when she got up... She could hardly contain herself. Lol

We hit the road at 12:00... picked up the friends in our rental Chevy Suburban and headed for Miami. The Suburban was great for the 7 of us. We had the perfect amount of room for all of our luggage. Would we have enough luggage room for 7 days? Not 100% sure... 😀

The drive was good. We took the Turnpike straight down to Miami. We stopped for some time at the rest stop for gas and sandwiches at the Earl of Sandwich. We sang, danced, and slept of course along the way... as well as watched a video of one of our past cruises on the entertainment system!

We saw construction on the new Hard Rock Casino expansion on the drive near Ft. Lauderdale. The tower will be shaped like a guitar!

We arrived at our stop for the night. A Hyatt Place. A nice hotel with all you really need for an easy one night stay. The room has a king bed, desk, high tech tv system with all the connections you need, a Mini-Fridge and the “cozy corner” sofa bed. Really nice room and modern.
They also have a nice free breakfast each morning from 6-9:30 which we will use in the morning.

We headed out for a dinner. The area is just west of the airport and there are many choices for dinner all around the area. We decided to narrow down on a few choices and highest vote count sent us to Panera. Easy dinner before the big week ahead.
We got back, quickly walked around the hotel. Stopped at the fitness room. Worked off dinner with some walking on the treadmill. Lol. Working off the calories before the extra food. Lol. See a trend, here?

Everyone then headed back to their rooms for an early night before heading to the port early tomorrow!

Quick observations:

Rental car was a great idea to allow us all to travel together for a fun ride.
Making a fun music playlist is key for the enjoyment of all. We asked for the group to choose songs ahead of time. It made a large playlist which had a good random assortment of music for all.
Going the day before is key! No stress with any timelines to have to stick too and a relaxing night.

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Coronado Springs Resort Refurbished Room 2018

We got to stay in a refurbished room at the Coronado Springs Resort in late July 2018.

The area we were in is known as Casitas 2. Casitas 2 is closer to the main building, as preferred, but starting to get a little further away. Not as far as the other areas. From what I can tell these areas were the first to be refurbished as the resort is still going through the existing room refurbishment.

The entire resort is getting its own extreme makeover. Besides the guest rooms, the common areas and restaurants are getting a new look as well as the pool area later this year. In addition they are building a brand new 15 story tower with new rooms as well. The theme is the southwest. They are toning down the heavy theme and making the rooms more upscale for the heavy convention clientele as this has one of the largest convention areas on property.

In our eyes they did a great job! Very updated, modern but a hint of theme and not over the top. The use of granite topped furniture and bath…

Mariner of the Seas Live Blog: Day 3- Nassau

Today’s title should be really called "Ship Day in Port"! As is customary for our group we like to utilize the ship facilities and explore when we are in a standard port. In this case Nassau. The ship was docked really early at about 8 am and left at 11:59 pm.

We woke up late at about 9 am. We got dressed and went to a packed Windjammer buffet. Nothing really good to write about. The place was jam packed and no room anywhere. We were there late enough to get a seat in Chops after they stopped its use for real suite guests. Junior Suites don’t rate this special perk. I found the food to be cold and very blah. Oh well. Maybe it was late, but it seemed half the ship was there. Another part of our party went to the dining room and said it was good. We shall try there tomorrow.

We then all met for mini golf at the Mariner Dunes. Very nice refurbished golf course. It used to be in the back of the ship where the new Flowrider, Skypad and water slides were addded.
Th…

Mariner of the Seas Live Blog: Day 4- Sea Day

It’s Sea Day... we decided we were going to do breakfast in The Dining Room. The group met on level 3 to start the meal. The breakfast has hot meals that can be ordered from the wait staff and a buffet for all the cold and continental items. The wait staff was great and the food came out just right. Nice and relaxing compared to the Windjammer.

After breakfast K and a friend went to Jaime’s for a pre-reserved Cupcake decorating class. K says: "It was so much fun! We worked with pre-made cupcakes from the chef. He showed us how to ice them with special designs. He showed us how to make a rose out of fondant. It was so cool. We decorated four cupcakes each." 8 cupcakes for the whole gang to eat later!

While the decorating was going on, the rest of the group walked around the ship and everyone met up at our cozy Starbucks corner. Drinks and snacks just like on land with a great view outside the big ocean view and promenade window.

The gang went up to the Viking Crow…

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