Saturday, November 19, 2022

November 18, 2022 - Miami


What a long day it’s been.  I got up at 2:45 AM to get ready for my 4 AM pick-up to take me to Richmond for my 6:10 flight. I didn’t originally book a flight leaving that early, but nowadays schedules seem to go through multiple changes between the time you book and the time you actually fly.  Oh well, it was a nonstop to Miami and it was a nice flight.  After I made my way to the baggage claim carousel the first thing I saw even before my bags came out was my driver with my name on his iPad.  My luggage was about the first to come out and Ender, my driver, led me out to my ride.  Traffic was horrendous, but he was a great driver.  He told me he came here from Venezuela more than 20 years ago, and a prouder American I haven’t met in a long time.


There were eight ships here at the port of Miami today.  My ship looked tiny next to the behemoths docked fore and aft.  I had a long wait on a bench outside the terminal, but it was an absolutely gorgeous day here so it wasn’t bad.  There was a nice breeze and no humidity.  A few other early birds came along and I had a very lovely conversation with an English couple.  Eventually we were told we could come inside and shortly thereafter we were onboard. I found out later that part of the delay was that today was the first time the Sojourn had been to the US in a couple of years. Therefore they had to undergo a complete inspection by Customs and Border Enforcement and the US Coast Guard.  The captain made an announcement sometime in the afternoon about the process and proudly informed us that the ship had passed all inspections with zero deficiencies, flying colors!


My cabin is exactly the same as the one I had last month, albeit an older version because this is Seabourn’s oldest ship (it’s 11 years old).  I liked the color scheme on the newer ships a little better I think, but that’s just an unimportant  cosmetic thing.  My luggage came quickly and there’s more than adequate room for everything.


Around 6:30 PM I went to a get-together for solo travelers in one of the lounges.  The assistant cruise director always hosts that and I had been invited to dine with him afterwards.  Only one other lady showed up and we had a nice conversation and then we all went to dinner in the restaurant. There were two other people at the table when we got there.  We had a pretty lively conversation and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.


This afternoon as I was going into the Colonnade to have lunch I ran into a couple I sailed with back in the spring.  In fact, they were on my trivia team and they’re the ones I spent my birthday with in Ephesus.  I even posted a picture of us on my blog back in May. What a nice surprise it was! You really can make lasting friends on cruises.


We were the last to leave the dining room and by then I was so tired that I couldn’t even read before turning off the lights.  It’s Saturday morning as I write this and I feel so much better after a good night’s sleep.  There’s something about hearing the thrum of the engines and feeling the gentle rocking that really helps me sleep well.  So that’s all for the moment.  I’ll write about today later.


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