Escape to the Caribbean

Leaving Port St Lucie to return the rental car back to Fort Lauderdale Airport was much smoother than the pick up. Be forewarned that the signage outside any of the terminals in very limited and one needs a clairvoyant to discern where to pick up a rental car shuttle. Once that is revealed, then one needs to schlep one's luggage onto a huge bus with 50 of his or hers best friends. After an inordinately long line, we found our car. Return was the polar opposite. We drove right in, dropped the car and were in the terminal in less than 10 minutes. We were so early that I needed to call our transfer company to pick us up ahead of schedule for our trip to the Miami port. Alex,our driver was great and we made it in under 30 minutes. The new tunnel to the port is a dream. What previously took 45 minutes in traffic was done in 10.

We are sailing on the Regent Seven Seas Navigator to the Southern/Western Caribbean. This is a small ship with under 300 passengers. It is all suite and all inclusive and I mean ALL. Excursions, gratuities and beverages. Internet is not unless you take advantage of a promotion or are in a high category of suite or are a frequent Regents passenger. Check in here took less than 15 minutes. We had lunch and waited for our cabins to be available. While waiting, we noticed that the demographic of the ship was WAY below the norm. There is a Mi tel president's club group on board that is 1/2 of the total passengers. We met a couple from Amsterdam and some sales ladies from South Carolina. These are the top sales people and they are not shy nor are they quiet. The suite is lovely with walk in closet, full bath tub and a separate shower and a separate sitting area. 

We ate dinner with the geriatric crowd around 6 and decided to see the "show". This is where things go a bit off... The lead entertainment singer on the ship had put together a production called "Me and my shadow". Well, it appears that this young man was encouraged a bit tooooo much by parents and grandparents. He was under the opinion that we ALL would love to hear about his life story, peppered with show tunes. He might be all of 35. If it was Tony Bennett or Frank, one might be interested in his first audition of folding towels. really... folding towels. We learned he was a fat kid, we learned he wasn't popular in school and we learned to use our Irish exit, spaced 5 minutes apart to not hurt his feelings. Yikes!

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