Day 1 - Miami / Everglades - Dec 27th, 2014

We arrived in Miami around 5:30 pm. on Friday night. We went to pick up our rental car and headed to our hotel, the Ramada. When we checked in, I realized I had booked us smoking rooms. Kim is allergic to smoke, so she was really concerned. The hotel was a dump also, I was very disappointed. One of our 2 rooms didn’t smell as bad as the other, so Curtis and Kim and mom stayed in that one. We spritzed both rooms down with water and that helped some. Then we went to a steakhouse for dinner. The food was really good and we were really hungry since we hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast in Boise. Saturday morning we got up and went to breakfast at IHOP. We then drove about 45 minutes west to the Everglades. We went to the safari park there and signed up for an airboat ride and alligator show. It was so fun! The everglades are just a swampy river of grass with small islands here and there, inhabited with alligators, snakes and turtles. We rode around on the airboat and stopped at a few islands to watch alligators. We saw a few big ones and one island had several little baby alligators all over. The alligator show was interesting. Our guide fed them and kissed them and taught us a little about the everglades and alligators. We even got to hold a baby alligator named Snappy! He was so cute! There were also jungle trails we walked along, and then stopped for water and ice cream in the restaurant. We bought a few things in the gift shop. I just got a keychain, but Curtis and Kim bought alligator head and claw for their kids. After we left the everglades, we took our car back to the rental agency and a cab picked us up and took us to the Miami port. We then boarded our ship, the Costa Luminosa. It is an Italian cruise ship and it feels like we are in Europe. Not many people speak English on board, and food is definitely Italian and European. We had a buffet lunch as soon as we boarded, and then found our cabins. We left mom in her cabin to rest and the 4 of us spent the next 3 hours exploring all the decks and finding where everything was. There are several bars and shopping areas, a couple theaters, a gym and spa. I prefer the top decks though, so you can enjoy the water and breeze. Our dinner time is at 6:15, so we all met for dinner at the restaurant and was served a 5 course meal. It was really good! 3 of us had beef tenderloin, Curtis and a tuna steak and Kim had chicken. We all loved our desserts and Kim and Dave ordered 2. Dave, mom and I then went to a broadcast of a Michael Buble concert. We then rested in our cabins for an hour before we had to do a long and boring emergency drill in 5 languages!