May 16-31, 2025 Florida to New York

Lisa and I left Greg and the van behind and headed south towards the cruise port of Miami. On the way, we did a pit stop at the Hardrock Casino. We had dinner and gambled for a couple of hours and then headed to the Courtyard Marriott for a quick ovenighter. Lisa booked the hotel with her app and I booked the parking with the cruise parking app. It worked out perfectly and in the morning, we took the free shuttle to the cruise port.

The wait at the terminal was a bit much . We got there at 10 but they don’t let you in the ship til 12 so tons of people waiting. We were boarding group number two which was nice but still all the idiots packed around the entry way with number 17, 24,12 we’re just clamoring to get on line, instead of just sitting and relaxing till their number was called. It was a bit chaotic and not a lot of signage or announcements. But we did finally get on. Got checked in for our safety drill. On Norwegian, they don’t let you put your bags in the room until your room is ready and the rooms aren’t ready when you get on the ship so everyone is wandering around the buffet and the ship with their roll on luggage and duffle bags and backpacks. It’s pretty ridiculous if you ask me. The doors where the rooms are were closed so that people wouldn’t enter to put their bags away. But in good New York fashion, we just opened the door and walked down that hallway like we owned the place. Lisa pulled out the “I have a bad arm” card and before we knew it we had our bags hidden in the room and off we went to the buffet.

The buffet line was out the door, not exactly the best set up. The salad area was empty so I made a bee line to that and then in the back of the ship with the outdoor tables there was a smaller buffet so we just headed back there to eat dodging all the people and their luggage. 

After lunch we explored the ship a little and then finally around 2 pm they opened the rooms so we headed towards our balcony suite and it was magnificent!! 

That night we had dinner in the main dining room. Table 1 overlooking the ocean.We both ordered the NY strip steak. It was delicious.

0h I forgot to mention that Lisa cut my hair which was very much needed. And I love it!! We went to the comedian show after dinner and then did a little gambling. 

Next day we woke up in the Bahamas at Norwegians Private Island, Stirrup Cay. We had to take a boat ride from the ship to get there. They are in the process of building a pier. When that pier is finished then this Port will be perfect. The boats that take you to the island hold 300 passengers and they make you sit on the boat until it’s full, even though they have 4 boats running. So it’s like 40 minutes of waiting. But once you get to the island you forget all about that because the island is a paradise. White sand, blue water and plenty of lounge chairs. 

We had the best time at the beach. Spent most of the day in the water. They had a nice lunch set up on the island which was great. We headed back to the ship and then I headed up to the pool and Lisa relaxed in the room. We took showers and headed to dinner. We went to the other main dining area for dinner and we both had the NY strip steak again because it was so good.

Dinner took a little longer than expected so we missed Bingo. We headed to the casino again, Lisa was winning so I left her there to get a quick view of the late sunset.

I headed up to pack around 10:30 which is super late for me and then went to bed. Lisa was a dirty late stay out and didn’t get to bed till 1am. Next day we woke bright and early to beat the crowds and see the sunrise. We were off the ship by 8am. It was the opposite of chaos getting on. Getting off was smooth and getting an Uber was so easy. We picked up Lisa’s car which we left at the Marriott and headed back to Fort Pierce to meet up with Greg and start our long journey back to Long Island for a wedding. We put some major mileage in because 90° is just too hot for van sleeping so we drove all day with the air conditioning on to cool off the van for sleeping. We stayed on the road for three nights either at Cracker Barrel or rest stops.

We made it to New Jersey to visit my Dad and Rosemarie and it was raining and cold. And stayed like that for a couple of days. My dads been working on this cute little Japanese Truck. The steering wheel is on the wrong side plus its a stick shift. Very confusing if you ask me.

The next day we drove to Long Island. It took us 4 hours to drive 84 miles. The traffic was the worst I have ever seen it or maybe I have just blocked out the misery from my mind. We arrived at my brothers house, still rainy and cold. 

Next day was my friend Rachael’s wedding and she was getting married in the catering hall that Kenny and Kaitlin live above so we got to go to the wedding and also visit with the cats.

Next day Laura Jean and Jim had some family over which was so great. We ate and laughed and played Left Right Center. It was a lot of fun. 

We decided to leave Long Island at 4:30 am to see if that really is the trick to missing the traffic.  We hit a small amount on the expressway but after that it was pretty smooth sailing. We saw an amazing sunrise on the Throgs Neck Bridge and made it to Raquette Lake in record time. 

The second we got out of the van we were swarmed with Blackflies. I, of course, immediately went in the house and stayed in the house. Greg brought in all the groceries and hooked up the water. Thankfully we have a Blackfly jacket which definitely works.

Our friend and mail collector came over with our mail and to pick up her NY bagels which our friend Timmy treated her to. There’s a bagel place right by his and Lisa’s house in West Islip and he definitely has connections because we were able to pick up hot fresh bagels at 4:30 am. They smelled delicious the entire drive up.

So we are adjusting and settling into a life without driving. The weathers been cold but that actually keeps the Blackflies away. We checked on Mindy’s Place and tested out our new Starlink Mini WiFi Device. It worked great. It’s going to be a total game changer having that.  

My garden is starting to come along and the hummingbirds are back visiting us. Our boat is in the water but the weather so far has been too cold or too buggy for me atleast. Greg managed to hitch a ride with Jerry and Cindy in their small boat.

This is my last blog for Season Five. Our adventures have been so awesome this year. It’s amazing that no matter how much we travel we still manage to see new things. It’s a big wonderful country that we live in. For the month of May, we spent $629 on Diesel. I think that’s the most we have ever spent on Diesel. But we only spent $119 on camping. See you all again in November.