We flew to Miami on a redeye. Now redeyes are grim by definition. This one's flavor was "Extra Grim". With three across, Susanne & I take the aisle/window seats and hope for the best with the middle. We were forsaken. The middle seat went to a hugely plus-sized woman who overflowed her space & fidgeted the entire flight. I'll say no more.
Because we arrived Miami early in the day, it took hours to arrive at the dockside check-in by crowded bus, check in by "rank" (we're in the 3rd group from the top) & get on the ship. Here's the ship from the check-in area, too close to get the entire ship, too boring to show more. I took a video, will upload it from Barcelona.
But once on the ship, it's all good stuff.
We had lunch at the ship's burger place & finally got into our cabin. It's quite nice, large by ship standards. The bathroom has both a tub/shower & a separate shower. There are even bath salts, two kinds including Himalayan, no less. (I'm getting carried away.)
We have a veranda & the weather was fabulous. So we sat there as the Riviera set out to sea. Miami crawled away ever so slowly. It was moving on towards sunset; Susanne shot a beauty.
Picture this. We're on the veranda gazing out over the water, a soft ocean breeze is washing over us. We’re not saying anything. I looked at Susanne. Over the last year or so, she's been through alot with the deaths of her parents and uncle. And she was losing weight and feeling poorly for the last few months before our trip. But at this moment, there was the expression of total happiness and contentment on her sweet face. I’m trying to describe it but the words just aren’t there; I can only say that seeing her then was also a moment of pure and total joy for me.
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We had a pleasant dinner in the Grand Dining Room sitting with a nice couple from Charleston.
Being on a ship we're reminded that it moves (well, YEAH!) but it also has an internal motion all its own. And the motion is different in different parts of the ship. Our cabin is aft and high (Deck 10 of 14 decks) and the motion is horizontal. We shift sideways back & forth, (sometimes multiple times in the same direction before reversing) only a few inches but several times a second. It's neither pleasant nor unpleasant...it's just there. But it did rock us to sleep last night.
At the burger place located on a lower deck a bit aft of midship (where we had fruit for b'fast this morning) the motion is a vertical vibration. Again, it was just there.
Oh yeah, the food. You could eat yourself into oblivion here, especially when it's a two week cruise. One dining room serves a buffet for every meal. Picture the grandest Las Vegas buffet, then double it. I tend to take up the challenge at any good buffet, so we have to make sparing use of this dining room. At home we always make a special Sunday breakfast together. So we'll be there on the weekend.
There are four specialty restaurants. Tonight we're going French for a one week delayed celebration of Susanne's birthday. Later on, we'll have Italian, Asian, & steak/seafood. We can only book a dinner at each of these once during the cruise. Fortunately, at no additional cost. These four are supposed to be the bonus of cruising Oceania. But the other "come anytime, sit anywhere" restaurants are quite fine.
Today we're exploring the ship. Found the spa and fitness area, waiting for the yoga schedule to be published later today. There are dance lessons available, but not tango (line dancing this afternoon). There's dancing every night; will have to see if the ship's orchestra can play a tango or two.
Susanne is having a wonderful time taking photos. She continues to get better. Later on I'll devote some posts exclusively to her shots.
The ship is full of art...paintings and sculpture and she's clicking away. They're all tagged with name and artist except this one. I call it "Perky".
Here's another of her shots, I call it "Lines, Curves and Shadows".
Love to all!!!
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