Update from LA

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We are now in LA after our week long cruise and five days in South Beach Miami, we had a great time on the cruise and  would recommend it to anyone who wants a week of indulgence. We also enjoyed the five days in South Beach, it's an interesting place particularly the Art Deco district.
We boarded the 'Allure of the Seas' on Sunday the 9th of January, the boarding process was extremely well organized and took less than 20 minutes, this was quite impressive considering the ship has about 5,000 passengers. Once on board we quickly found Ronald Dela Cruz who advised us that the rest of the group were having lunch in the Windjammer restaurant on deck 16, we found our 'Stateroom' on deck 6, dropped off our hand carry, then joined the others for lunch. That was the start of a lot of eating, early on I decided to load up on the veggies and salad at lunch as dinner was always a set menu in the main dining room and the meals usually only had a fairly small serve of greens.
Roger's wife Maryanne had booked all our show's in advance, this was good planning as most shows were booked out. The first night we watched the Broadway musical 'Chicago', we all enjoyed it, the entertainment on board was of a high standard with a show every night except the last night.
The next day was our first port of call, Nassau in the Bahamas, as there was 15 in our group we decided to organize our own tour of the island. This was very easy and soon after arriving we had a mini bus to take us around the island. The cost was $25 per person, quite reasonable for the two and a half hour tour. This stop was only a half day and we had to be back on board by 1 pm. The tour was quite interesting, we saw some historic sites such as an old fort and jail and the exclusive and not so exclusive residential areas. The bus dropped us off at the shopping area which was close to the pier, I bought some board shorts as I'd only packed one pair.
Back on board the Allure it was time for lunch followed by my first go on the 'flow rider'. This was a like a wave machine, the water rushed up a ramp at quite a pace, the idea was to ride a small surfboard (not much bigger than a skate board) up and down the ramp, letting the water wash you up and then by changing your weight on the board glide back down. It wasn't all that easy and though I never quite nailed it, after a few attempts I was able to stay upright for a while. There was also a boogie board version that was much easier, the wait was longer though as people didn't fall off as quickly as the stand up version.
The second nights entertainment was a comedy show featuring two comedians, one was an African American, the other was Jewish American. They were both quite good and I was able to enjoy a couple of beers while watching the show. The drink prices on board were quite reasonable, about $5 for a beer, $6 for a glass of wine and between $6 and $9 for a cocktail. We smuggled three bottles of wine on board so we also had a few pre dinner drinks in our cabin. Actually they were quite strict about not bringing any alcohol on board, Roger Dela Cruz had some of his confiscated, he got it back at the end of the voyage though.
The third day was at sea, this was a chance to explore the ship and try a few more activities such as rock climbing. It was quite high and a bit of a challenge, I made it to the top though and was able to ring the bell signalling to those below that I'd conquered it. After dinner and another show we went to one of the night clubs, Dazzle, to watch a Filipino band, they were quite good. This became our regular after show venue, the entertainment was good and there was a dance floor, I put down a few moves when the music moved me. The ship had a number of night clubs and bars each with a theme, there was a Latin American style one, one that catered more to the younger crowd called Blazes, an English Pub, a Martini and Champaign bar to name a few.
On the fourth day we had our second stop, the Caribbean Island of St Thomas. I'd booked a sailing and snorkeling tour on an old pirate ship called 'Bones' so I was one of the first off the ship, the others went shopping. The six and a half hour tour was good value for $99 as it included a barbecue lunch and drinks - beer and rum. The crew were three guys who did a good job keeping us entertained and glasses full.  After boarding 'Bones' we travelled for about an hour to the snorkeling spot. The going got a little rough and a few on board needed the bucket, I was good as I'd taken a Kwell before the trip, one tablet was enough and it didn't make me drowsy. The high light of the snorkeling was the green sea turtles, I saw quite a few and they were quite close when they came up for air, the coral wasn't very good though, the Great Barrier Reef is a lot more impressive.
After snorkeling drinks began, I started on the local beer - Blackbeard Ale, it was quite a good drop, an old style beer not unlike some of the Aussie dark beers. We stopped for lunch at a nice little beach that was sheltered from the wind, the lunch was ready for us as soon as we were ashore, I swam from the boat as did a few of the others. It was a good lunch, ribs and chicken plus salads and baked beans. The only beer they took to the beach was Corrs lite, a low carb beer lacking any taste, I had a couple but would  have to rate it amongst the worst beers I've tasted. After lunch I swam back to the boat to get a decent beer, a Blackbeard. On the trip back to the pier I sampled the local rum with diet coke, not a bad drop. When I got back to the ship it was past the official return time but as the tour was booked on board there was no problems.
The fifth day was our last port of call, the island of St Maarten. We organized another island tour for our group when we got off the boat, the cost was $25 again though for a longer tour. This island has two sides, a Netherlands side and a French side.  The tour started on the Netherlands side, crossed over to the French side then back to where we started. We stopped at the French capital and a beach with surf, I was able to do a bit of body surfing there. Eleanor got a massage on the beach, $10 for 15 minutes, I would have like one also but we had to get back to the mini bus. The tour ended at another beach near the main shopping area, this was walking distance back to the ship. It was a good beach with beers costing $1 at the bottle shop. I had a couple of Red Stripe beers, a Caribbean beer that I've seen advertised during cricket matches with the West Indies. I also had a Heineken at one of the beach bars, still good value at $3.
The last two days were at sea, the conditions were pretty calm and I had a few more goes on the flow rider and a couple more climbs. On the last day Eleanor and I had a drink in the Viking lounge at sunset, this was the highest bar on board and the view of the sunset was good. I had a martini and Eleanor had a lava flow, the martini was good, I don't usually drink martinis but decided to try one for a change. 
We arrived back in Fort Lauderdale on the 16th, after getting off the ship we all got a shuttle bus to the rental car depot at the nearby airport. At this point the group was diminished by one, as Riza (Roger and Maryannes daughter) left for Spain where she is teaching. We still had fourteen so needed to rent two vans and a car to accommodate all of us plus luggage. The trip from Fort Lauderdale to South Beach Miami took about 90 minutes after a few wrong turns. Eleanor and I were dropped off at our hotel, the Shelborne, whilst the others continued onto another hotel further down the road. We booked the Shelborne online directly with the owner of the apartment, this was considerably cheaper than booking a room with the hotel. The hotel was a combination of owner plus hotel owned rooms, the main difference apart from the price was that our room wasn't serviced daily. The room itself was comfortable with quite a good view of the ocean plus a glimpse of the beach, this was largely obstructed by palm trees. Eleanor was a bit disappointed with the bathroom as it was of the older vintage, the room itself had been updated though.
We spent the first two days with the group, they left on the third day (Wednesday) whilst we stayed until Friday (today). During the first two days we did a tour of the Everglades and Crocodile farm, visited a few shopping malls, spent some time on the beach, had a look at the Art Deco area, had dinner at the Bayside area in Downtown Miami and checked out the oldest light house in Miami and some nearby beaches.
On Wednesday Eleanor and I booked a one day tour to Key West. The bus picked us up at 6.20am, after picking up other passengers at other hotels we started the trip to Key West stopping at Maccas for breakfast and the seven mile bridge for photos. We arrived a bit before lunch and by then were feeling hungry so we looked around for  a seafood restaurant. We found a good one a short walk from where the bus dropped us off, Eleanor had fish and chips while I had a fish sandwich, we both had a Mojito, a lime cocktail with a touch of mint, it was very refreshing. After lunch we bought tickets on the hop-on, hop-off bus that toured the main attractions on Key West. One of the stops was a local beach where I had a swim, the water was very shallow, I walked a long way out and the water didn't get even get up to my waist. 
One of the high lights on Key West is the sunset, the bus didn't leave until 6pm so we were able to see most of it whilst enjoying a Marguerita. We got back into South Beach about 10.30pm, it was long day but we enjoyed the trip.
Yesterday was our last day in Miami, we started it with a good breakfast on Ocean Drive in the Art Deco district then had another look around. We continued our walk to the Jewish Museum then return to our hotel via Espanola Way, the Spanish district. In the afternoon I went to the beach whilst Eleanor went shopping, we then went back to Ocean Drive for dinner and drinks, it was a great place to eat with lot's of specials and the Art Deco hotels lit up with neon lights. 
This morning we were up early to get the Airport Flyer bus to the airport, we were going to get a taxi but whilst googling airport shuttle prices the Airport Flyer option appeared, $2.35 each and it left about 50 meters from the Shelborne. We arrived in plenty of time so had a light breakfast and coffee at Starbucks. 
Most of this blog was written on the notes section of my iPad on the flight from Miami to Houston, when we changed planes at Houston for LA I was able to copy it to Travelblog.
We arrived at LA (John Wayne Airport, Orange County) a little ahead of schedule and Boy was their to meet us. When we arrived at the house we noticed that things didn't seem right, the house had been ransacked with some lap-tops, jewellery and money stolen. It took quite a long time for the Police to arrive but when they did they were quite thorough, taking finger prints, photos and lot's of details, hopefully they will catch whoever did it. It was very bad luck for Sue, Boy and Josh but at least no one was hurt.
Tomorrow we will go to San Diego with Sue and Boy, we'll meet with Rose who's going to spend a few more days with us then on Monday we fly back to Australia. It's been a good trip and hopefully Michael and Justine will have the house clean and the lawns mowed when we get back.

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Photos

Go with the flow
Attempting to tame the flow rider