The pools were closed, and the crew was prepping for the next sailing.

Rachel actually knew someone on the next Encore cruise - her sorority sister was going to be boarding the ship with her family today for the New Year's Eve sailing.

To disembark, there was a relatively long line that took us through the Manhattan Room. We were able to see the Disney Magic that was docked behind us. No photos of that - you'll just have to take my word for it.

Once off the ship, we went through customs (long line, but to be expected) and then ordered Ubers to pick us up at the terminal and take us to the Marriott Biscayne Bay.

I did not pay to upgrade to a bay view this time, but they gave us a room on the 8th floor that was much larger than we had pre-cruise, located on the corner of the building with a partial bay view.

We could see the seven ships in port -

The other portion of our view -

We thought we'd spend the day at the pool, so we put our swimsuits on and headed to the pool.

What we learned when we got there is that this area was already partially under construction. The pool was still open through the end of the holidays, but would be closing in January for a major remodel. The website states that the pool will be closed through January 2023 for construction, so I may not be booking Marriott Biscayne Bay for our cruise this year (though it is a great nightly rate due to the construction).

It was HOT and there wasn't much shade. The hot tub was full of children splashing around, and the pool wasn't that appealing.

We decided to abandon our pool day plans and instead venture around in Miami.

We tasked the guys with choosing a lunch spot, and got an Uber to Wynwood, the Arts District in Miami.


The Wynwood walls are covered in large murals and commissioned street art. This is the spot to go if you're looking for Instagram backgrounds.


I like the pink doodles.





The chosen lunch spot was The Taco Stand - the line was out the door, so it must be good.




I picked out the local beer La Rubia, from Wynwood Brewing Co.

This wasn't the easiest place to dine with six people. We all crammed together around a table for four in the back. Also the pick-up was confusing - Aaron and I were being runners and grabbing people's food, but we didn't know what everyone had ordered. I think Rachel and Judy's orders were both wrong. We fixed something, but not everything.

After lunch, we set out to walk around with no real plan. This is something that I'm good with in a new city. Though I've been to Miami before, I'd never walked around in Wynwood. 

Others in our party were not so content with walking around and admiring the architecture, so we decided to walk toward the nearby Wynwood Brewing Company.





Wynwood Brewing Company was cool. They had games, so we played Phase 10.


After the brewery, we decided to head to South Pointe Park to watch the ships set sail.


The ships were all setting sail very late. I'm not sure what the hold-up was. Possibly positive Covid tests? That's just a guess - who knows.









The pier actually closes at dusk, so if the ships are setting sail after the sun starts to set, you won't be able to watch from the pier. No worries, though - there are plenty of other spots in the park to watch from.


We did get to watch all of the boats coming in for the evening while we waited on the cruise ships to leave port.

The first ship out was the Carnival Freedom.










The next ship to set sail was Celebrity Summit.


Aaron and I will actually be sailing on the Summit Christmas 2022.

There was a long lull in the ships, so we decided to start walking north. We walked through the marina and onto MacArthur Causeway. There is a protected pedestrian lane, but it's not the most enjoyable pedestrian walk.

I was worried that we had managed to miss the remaining ships, but they were still there. We watched the Encore and Oasis set sail from the bridge.


Bon Voyage, Norwegian Encore!


Landon convinced us to turn around rather than attempting to walk the length of the bridge (it's 4 miles). Then we headed back to the hotel and ordered pizza.

What an amazing vacation!