First Announcement:  

Upcoming Cruise--Caribbean Palette
Oceania ms Insignia

1-15 July 2018
-and- 
New York City Visit
15-19 July 2018

It has been over six months since I last posted on LFLatSea, so I will be publishing this post in several different parts to make your reading experience less burdensome.

I am happy to announce that Will and I are sailing again this summer. Since we returned from our 14-day "honeymoon" cruise in the Mediterranean last November, we have been enjoying the quiet life of winter in Tucson and marveling (via the news) at all the snow and ice that had accumulated back East.

In fact, my only travel since the fall has been a recent five-day trip to Las Vegas with my good friend Anita.  We drove up and back (about six hours each way) in her VW Eos convertible and drew looks of envy from all the other drivers.  We stayed in a two-bedroom suite at the Hilton Elaria Grand Vacations Resort, at which Anita has time-share privileges.  The resort is located right off the strip and can be accessed through the Miracle Mile Mall, with 170 stores and 15 restaurants. The 52-story deep-blue glass-curtained building was formerly the Planet Hollywood Hotel.  When the Aladdin Hotel next door closed its doors a few years ago, Planet Hollywood moved into that larger and more traditional building, and the glass tower was purchased and renovated by Hilton.

   

Although the Las Vegas area is today at the northern limit of the Mojave Desert, the whole area was deep under water--about one billion years ago. So I guess it still qualifies for the "at Sea" label of this blog.   I will post pictures from our Las Vegas adventures in the next blog entry, but for now I wish to emphasize the upcoming cruise, since our departure from Tucson is only 17 days ahead. 

Jul 1 Sun	Miami, Florida, United States	Embark 1 PM	5 PM
Jul 2 Mon	Havana, Cuba	8 AM	6 PM
Jul 3 Tue	Cruising the Old Bahama Channel
Jul 4 Wed	Cruising the Caribbean Sea
Jul 5 Thu	Oranjestad, Aruba	11 AM	8 PM
Jul 6 Fri	Kralendijk, Bonaire	7 AM	1 PM
Jul 7 Sat	St. George's, Grenada	1 PM	10 PM
Jul 8 Sun	Castries, St. Lucia	8 AM	11 PM
Jul 9 Mon	Roseau, Dominica	7 AM	5 PM
Jul 10 Tue	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Jul 11 Wed	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Jul 12 Thu	St. George, Bermuda	8 AM
Jul 13 Fri	St. George, Bermuda		3 PM
Jul 14 Sat	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Jul 15 Sun	New York, New York, United States	Disembark 8 AM

We chose this cruise so that we wouldn't have to subject ourselves to long overnight flights (more difficult to endure as we get older and more decrepit--more about that in later blogs); we would have several days in New York City to see friends and relatives; and we would visit several ports in the Caribbean that neither of us has visited previously, especially a one-day visit to Havana, Cuba, at the start of the trip.  Other ports new to both of us are in Grenada, St Lucia, and Dominica, and Will is also a first-time visitor to Aruba, Bonaire, and Bermuda. 

Oceania's ms Insignia caries 625 passengers and is small enough to berth at all the ports.  This is my fifth cruise on Oceania and Will's third.  We enjoy the ambience of Oceania's smaller ships (their largest carries only 1200 passengers), as well as their all-inclusive service and costs (including airfare).  We have a Concierge-Level Veranda Stateroom, which allows us early boarding and other special privileges.  

Let's hope we don't run into any hurricanes.  Although most cruise ships are very good at avoiding and skirting hurricanes, we will not be able to avoid the blistering sun and heat (which we are used to from Tucson), and the intense high humidity (which, or course, is totally absent from Tucson--today's humidity was 8 percent, although the temperature soared over 100 degrees.).

We leave from Phoenix on Saturday, 30 June, at 1:40 in the afternoon on a non-stop flight to Miami.  Our friend Anita is driving us to the PHX airport; there aren't any non-stops from Tucson to Miami, and PHX is only 90 minutes from our house, since we live on the Northwest side of Tucson and PHX is on the south side of Phoenix (Tucson Airport is on the south side of the city and is thus about 45 minutes from our house anyway).

We arrive at 9:07 in the evening and will spend the night at the Marriott Biscayne Bay Resort.  Oceania provides private transportation from the airport and from the hotel to the ship on Sunday around noon.

During the next two weeks I will be reporting more fully on this trip, including our four days in New York City, where we have tickets to see three of the top musicals on Broadway (Hamilton is still out of the reach of folks like us):  the revivals of Carousel and My Fair Lady, and the new Tony-winning production of The Band's Visit.

What's Next in 2018:

Before ending this blog entry, I will leave you with a brief mention of another cruise for which Will and I have paid a deposit:  

14 days on Holland America's ms Zaandam, sailing from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Santiago de Chile, from 3 -15 

December 2018.   This trip will conclude my journey around the circumference of South America that began in April 2013. 

The next post will have photographic highlights of my trip to Las Vegas, 28 May - 2 June 2018.