Sunday 8 Flying Spirit
We woke in time and the taxi arrived 15 minutes early. J had done a fine job of packing, weighing, and measuring and we were feeling as confident as we could be about the luggage. I carried my heavy coat with the fleece attached and the pockets stuffed with fridge magnets. Reminiscent of my father flying to Africa in 1957 with his carpenter’s tools stuffed in the pockets of his greatcoat.
The first thing we saw at the airport was a checkpoint where they weighed all the hold luggage – ours was just fine. They were distracted while we weighed the cabin bags and missed my innocent looking backpack, which weighed over 7kg. There were steel frames meant for testing the size of hand luggage but nobody pushed us into checking ours so we didn’t.
Checkin went smoothly, and we remembered to tell them to direct the luggage to Fort Lauderdale because we were not using the onward flight to Orlando. We forgot to ask for seats on the right hand side in the hope of seeing the Andes, but it was murky and we might have flown out at sea anyway. We were surprised to see that Miami is actually west of Lima – we had always thought that S America is right under the USA – in fact it is a long way to the East.
The 5 hour flight passed smoothly enough, although the seats were pretty close together. We got through immigration easily enough and the man even put the stamp over a few others. The bags were waiting and we jumped into a shared shuttle bus which took us to the hostel on South Miami beach via Miami airport and the downtown area, where we got stuck in dense traffic coming out of the Miami Heat stadium.
The hostel was expecting us and the man reassured us that the area was very safe and sent us off for a stroll along the beachfront. It was reminiscent of Clark Quay in Singapore - heaps of very classy restaurants serving steak and seafood. Pretty well packed with people. Very smart sporty cars and generally an upmarket location. We found a pizza restaurant and had chunks of veggie pizza. We haven’t eaten much in a few weeks.
And so back to the hostel, where we had the upper bunks in a 4 bed dorm (yaay).
Monday 9 April Miami (Once)
A noisy night with some hearty snoring. The hostel was full and the only mens loo upstairs was out of service. They were cleaning downstairs L Luckily there was a facility in the lobby. We booked another night for the 13th, without great enthusiasm, ate the lacklustre breakfast, which ran out early, largely due to the appearance of about 20 Hollanders who unpacked their luggage in the foyer and started getting changed.
We walked down to the southern point of the island, from where we could see the cruise ships docked in what is effectively a huge lagoon between the downtown area and a fringe of coastal islands. There are a scattering of islands in the lagoon, one of which houses big boats. There were some spectacularly opulent apartment blocks overlooking the heads and the seaward side of the island was clustered with high rises rather like Surfers Paradise.
We got onto the white powdery sand and walked a few blocks north. By then it was time to pack up and catch a taxi. The checkin process was the easiest yet. We scarcely had to wait at all – pretty much checked our luggage where the taxi dropped us, walked 100 metres and then went straight up to someone who issued us with cruise cards. The only forms we filled in were health declarations (we sooo lied). And then it was straight aboard – we took our hand luggage up to the buffet because the cabins were not available for another 15 minutes. Lunch was good – one of the better looking buffets we have seen.
We unpacked the big bags with some interest. Some of the stuff has been round the world and not yet worn. My suit was fairly well pressed and actually closed very comfortably. I had some idea that I might have lost weight and this seemed to be confirmed by Anna’s scales, although we were mainly concerned by the weight of the luggage.
The lifeboat drill was good – only one language and no need to bother with lifejackets. They squeezed us up against the wall next to a lifeboat, made a simple announcement and then let us get on with our holiday. We stood up top while we sailed out through the heads and out of the channel.
We ended up selecting the set dinner times and shared a 6 seat table with a couple from Minnesota. He is a retired air traffic controller. Dinner was good, if you don’t mind a “medium” steak that runs red. The desserts were a bit special and the main courses excited the juices. The evening show had a quick appearance by the song and dance squad (lacklustre) and an American comedian, who was very good. He did a couple of impressions, including De Niro, which had the crowd in stitches just with the facial expression even before he made a sound.
Our cabin was good – a good sized squarish window. The boat is 20 years old but was refurbished a couple of years ago. It will do us very nicely for 4 nights.
Tuesday 10 Nassau
We cruised in before 7. Breakfast did not disappoint then we went up for a look. It was already quite warm and the harbour surroundings were very tropical palm/ green/ lush. The beach stretching away to Cable Beach was shiny white, which showed through the water as pale turquoise. The area immediately outside the harbour is an extended area of jewellery retailers. It seems Americans go cruising primarily to buy diamonds and exotic stones from Tanzania and Columbia. If you see it and you love it . . Buy It! We just did the circuit with the maps and coupons given out by the ship’s shopping consultant (all the jewellers pay to go on the recommended list). We collected a handful of free charms and gemstones, bought a fridge magnet and a cap, replaced our stash of US dollars from an ATM, and went back for lunch.
How quaint. Policeman in portable hut in front of the hmmm Parliament or Court. Can't remember.
Gotta love the hair/hat and the shirt.
A big after-lunch nap accompanied by half watching The War Horse and the new movie about MaggieThatcher, which was very interesting. Panic when we discovered it was 6.38 and dinner had started without us! We just cleaned up, donned our smart clothes and redirected to the buffet and then straight to the Captain’s cocktail party. We inhaled two drinks each and then sneaked out to the trivia quiz, which we WON, although it must be said that our team had most of the participants.
The production show was hmmm weak. They went through the motions but did not inspire. Certainly not the classical elegance of Cunard or the raw explosive impact of MSC. On the way out, we paused in the casino, where J won a prize for naming the actor with most performances as 007 (Roger Moore). She got a few gambling tokens and a voucher for an airbrushing tattoo (wait for the pic). We took a chance and plugged the laptop into the shaver socket – as you can see it worked.
Wednesday 11 Coco Cay
We woke to the roar of anchors being lowered right next to our room. We have moored just off Coco Cay, a rather grim looking atoll thingy which belongs to Royal Caribbean. There is another ship moored some distance away and a third seems to be approaching.
We had salmon for brekky, which is always a good start. The queue for the transfer boat was very long so we went to the gym instead. We put in a good hour, which was our first session this year. Imagine our alarm to then find that the buffet was closed! They had a beach bbq on the island instead. So we went to the dining room, which was a good outcome. The food really is a notch better than average here.
We were half the passenger complement of the 250 seat tender boat. It only took 5 minutes to get to the island, which was a pleasant place to spend a day. There were lots if water sports, snorkelling beaches, adventure structures in the water, bars and seating places. It only took 15 minutes to walk around and a similar time to stroll through the straw market with the usual T-shirts etc. We got onto the next boat back.
J went for her free tattoo – a pair of dolphins outlining a heart shape. This on her left ankle. She joined a bunch of Poms for the (American) TV theme music quiz – and won!!! Came back with a very good RC money belt.
We made it to dinner with the New Jersey couple. The food was very good again. We went on to the evening show – a very good juggler. We filled in time watching “60 seconds or less” and then back to the theatre for the marriage game – usual questions . . usual answers (just in American accent).
Thursday 12 Key West
The southernmost point of the continental USA. Joined to Florida by a 100 mile causeway. We watched the approach to the dock and saw the tail end of a very large dolphin or more likely an orca disappearing under the bay. We have to do immigration today, which is a waste of an otherwise good day. Later – they were generous enough to leave cards in all the cabins apologising for the delay and offering a free cocktail. This is a good cruiseline.
Key West is a pleasant touristy kind of place. I left J at Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum, where you have to get to the front of the queue before you find out how much it is going to cost to get in (believe it or not). Irritating! The only internet place I found didn’t support wifi so I couldn’t get the blog up but it is always good to get no emails from anybody (in a sense) and scan through the non-news items.
Two headed rabbit and pig. Were several more as well. eww
We came back for lunch then returned separately to town. I browsed in a desultory manner, not really wanting to fill up the luggage with any more schtuff. J walked to the “end of the road” at the southernmost point and then wondered why she did J
This was reward for a very long walk on a pretty hot day.
This guy was sitting on a tombstone in the cemetery that is on Passover Lane.
Sponge man!
Then Tarpin fish were HUGE. Many of them in the marina area. We went looking for manatees which frequent the shallows but had to make do with the fish.
Dinner caught us totally by surprise again. This time it was 6.45 when the room steward came knocking. We decided to front for dinner, and were very happy to have done so – nothing fancy but they certainly cooked it well. A sensibly small starter of scallops on risotto, cooked beautifully, hearty lamb shanks that absolutely fell off the bone, and a light fluffy tiramisu. Attentive but not demanding waiters and finally they all gathered and sang O Sole Mio for the guests, including the impossibly high note at the end. They repeated the point that the dining room staff represent 45 countries (no Italians) and yet they all work together (in English) to produce such good results. I think it is largely the warm and accommodating nature of the Indonesians (Balinese) and the Fillippinos and their solid work ethics. They don’t seem to have any prima donnas with huge egos.
We really enjoyed our Royal Caribbean experience and look forward to sailing with them again, hopefully on a longer cruise next time.
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