Friday, 11 December 2015
Tucson, AZ

Getting Ready to Sail

Welcome back to LFLat Sea.  Will and I are in the last stages of packing and preparation for our cruise that begins tomorrow in Miami. We hope you enjoyed our reporting from New York City and Charleston, SC, over the Thanksgiving holiday--I was able to include quite a few pictures.

But now we are ready for a real "at sea" adventure.  We are using a shuttle service from Tucson to the Phoenix Airport, so we don't have to drive and don't have to leave our car in expensive airport parking for 10 days.  The shuttle leaves Tucson at 9:40 this evening and arrives at PHX about 75 minutes later.  Because Oceania Cruise Lines offers free airfare, we don't have much choice about schedule.  We are flying nonstop from PHX to MIA--which is great--but we are on a red-eye that leaves Saturday morning at 1:55am (!) and arrives at MIA shortly before 8am--which is not so great.  We have priority early boarding on ms Riviera at noon, so by the time we pick up luggage, have breakfast at the airport, and taxi to the cruiseport, we shouldn't have a long wait before heading to our suite for an afternoon nap.  

The ship leaves Port of Miami at 5pm. I want to be awake for the departure since this is my first time sailing from Miami; on other cruises from Florida, I have used Port Everglades in Ft Lauderdale.  I will tell you more about our Penthouse Suite on ms Riviera once we are on board and can send pictures as well.

We are both very excited about sailing on a new cruise line and spending time in several ports visiting important sites related to the Mayan cultures of Mexico and Central America.

Itinerary

Voyage Map

DAY		PORT  = Anchor Port	ARRIVE	DEPART
Dec 12	Sat	Miami, United States	Embark 1 PM	5 PM
Dec 13	Sun	Key West, United States	8 AM	5 PM
Dec 14	Mon	Cruising the Straits of Florida
Dec 15	Tue	Costa Maya, Mexico	8 AM	6 PM
Dec 16	Wed	Belize City, Belize	8 AM	6 PM
Dec 17	Thu	Santo Tomas, Guatemala	8 AM	6 PM
Dec 18	Fri	Roatan, Honduras	8 AM	4 PM
Dec 19	Sat	Cozumel, Mexico	8 AM	5 PM
Dec 20	Sun	George Town, Cayman Islands	12 PM	7 PM
Dec 21	Mon	Cruising the Straits of Florida
Dec 22	Tue	Miami, United States	Disembark 8 AM