Travel Day to Miami

We had an early morning flight to Miami. We booked the early morning flight for a few reasons:  1) we had never traveled the day after Thanksgiving by flight and weren't sure how busy the airports would be; 2) it was a direct flight, so less chance of delays or lost luggage; and 3) we wanted to make sure if something did happen to our flight, we still had time to find a way to get to Miami before we needed to board the ship Saturday.

While we all set early alarms, I'm not sure any of us really needed them.  None of us could sleep we were so excited.  We were up and ready to go and when my dad arrived around 4am to take us to the airport, we loaded the truck and were off.  

My daughter and her fiance had spent the night with his mom who lives closer to the airport and we all just happened to arrive to the airport about the same time.  We got the bags checked in, went through security and met at the gate.  Then we each headed out to find something for breakfast before boarding the flight.  On the way back from getting our food, we saw someone getting arrested.  Apparently, it's frowned upon to bark like a dog in the airport.  Not sure what that was about.  

Once we were on board, we realized we had a dog sitting next to us.  Cute little thing and was very well behaved.  No issues or complaints from us on that.

Our flight arrived in Miami a little ahead of schedule and we knew we couldn't officially check into our AirBNB yet, but Taylor messaged the owner to see if we could at least drop our bags off.  The AirBNB was located in Little Havana, so we figured we could walk around, grab some lunch and get the last minute cruise essentials (wine and some sunscreen) before officially checking in.  He said that would be fine and he would meet us there.  We hopped into two taxis and were quickly at the AirBNB.

After we dropped our bags and changed into some shorts, we were off to find some food.  We walked about a mile and a half and found a great little local Mexican food restaurant that had something we could all eat.  

After lunch, we hit up the CVS and got some bottles of wine to take on board as well as some sunscreen, chapstick, etc.  Then we headed back to the AirBNB to officially check in and get settled for the night. It was a three bedroom, two bath, so plenty of room for everyone.  There was also a large backyard with a covered patio, so we hung out back there and played some card games for a while.  We ordered some food for dinner, found college football on the TV and enjoyed the evening. 

 Our Eight Day Southern Caribbean Cruise on the Carnival Horizon

When my daughter graduated from college, we took a family trip to Cabo.  When my son graduated from college, we were supposed to go to Grand Cayman, but he graduated in 2020 and we all know that trip didn't happen.  We tried a "make up" trip to Orange Beach in September of 2020 and got caught in hurricane Sally (I'll post about that retroactively in another post).  So, we felt like we still needed a nice family trip, especially since my daughter will be getting married in 2024.

While we were looking at possible honeymoon places for them, the topic of cruises came up.  We started looking and found an 8-day southern Caribbean cruise to Bonaire, Aruba, La Romana and Amber Cove... places we haven't been yet.  We were all intrigued.  My son asked one of his friends if he would be interested in going and soon the cruise was booked.  We would be flying to Miami the Friday after Thanksgiving and boarding the ship on Saturday, November 25th.  

On Thanksgiving day, my son and his friend drove in from the Dallas area and we met my daughter and her fiance at my parent's house for Thanksgiving lunch and some card playing.  Then it was time to head home for last minute packing and to get some sleep before our early morning flight.