What A Market

So sorry Covid go ahold of you. Heidi and I have had once apiece. Neither of us had extremely symptoms. Get well soon!

And more, including the Welcome bottle of champagne

Here’s some photos of the Oceania Suite (Deck 12) version.

The new location for ice cream and shakes. Makes a lot more out here (across from hot tubs in pool deck), instead of squeezed into a corner in Waves.

The Oceania Suite and its interesting/weird TV room. And the Safety Video still required viewing in the room. (Only the third or fourth time I’ve watched, including online check in and various emails. Lol)

And Boom! We’re on. That was painless.

In Uber on way to port. Quoted about $13.00 for trip. Of course not including all ancillary fees. 😒

Beautiful day on South Beach. Grabbing rideshare from hotel to ship. Shooting to board between 11:00 and Noon. Can’t wait!

Hi marieps Boarding tomorrow as well. Also can’t wait!

Hi everyone. Going to make an attempt at posting live from the Riviera. Embarking tomorrow for a ten day Miami to Miami cruise. Oceania is definitely my cruise line of choice. Our last O cruise was this past September on the Regatta for a Pacific Coastal cruise. My wife and I were joined by daughter and SIL. This was my first Pacific coastal cruise. We had a great time. Easy trip when you live in Arizona and embark and disembark in Los Angeles. I’ll definitely do this cruise again. I tried (miserably) to post live from that cruise. This is our fifth cruise since Covid “ended.” Yep, putting ended in quotes. Not sure how best to phrase that. Maybe better to say “since cruising returned.” Other than the Oceania Coastal cruise, we’ve done three cruises with Celebrity since cruising returned to normal. Two on the Apex and one on the Reflection. I guess I’ll say Celebrity is my backup cruise line to Oceania. All those cruises were fun as well. Definitely a different experience from Oceania, particularly on the Apex as a bigger ship. Currently flying from Phoenix to Miami. Non-stop flight to start the trip. Flying back home at end of cruise thru Dallas. Staying one night at the Marriott Stanton South Beach. Getting in so late this evening that in retrospect it seems stupid to stay in South Beach. Posting this after checking in at hotel.

Happy to see a deeper Gin list. Thanks for posting!

Caravan in The Club was our favorite. Enjoyed the cabaret style of the show. Many of the performers did a mini-show in the Eden bar. Also fun.

I guess it would depend on the Apex’s arrival time in port. If 7:00AM or earlier, then probably ok to have your luggage handled by the ship’s normal offloading process. I’m assuming Sky Suite has all normal Retreat disembarkation privileges. If so, don’t worry about disembarkation groups. Just let them know you want to disembark thru the Retreat.

Ok, loads of conditions and caveats about booking and making this early AM fight after disembarkation. Note: This is not a recommendation. Probably like many of you, I am always wondering what time is reasonable for booking flights. And also like many of you, I read numerous postings on this subject. Here’s my experience. Our cruise was on the Equinox. In and out of Port Everglades. We just disembarked yesterday. (I started a Live thread, but that was a complete bust.) We flew in a day early. (Flying from Arizona to Florida makes all but impossible to fly in same day of embarkation. I wouldn’t risk regardless.) A work event created the situation where I needed to get back to AZ by at least late afternoon. Flying out of Fort Lauderdale was the ONLY reason I booked a flight out at 9:00AM. I’ve flown in and out of this airport a number of times for both cruises and work, so I’m as comfortable with this airport as one can be. Other factors that made this “doable”: We were in Retreat, so had access to private/early walk off. We also kept our luggage with us. I pre-booked private transportation to airport. Flying first class. We both have TSA. Disembarkation did not begin until 7:30AM, so this was somewhat stressful. The posted arrival time in port was 7:00AM. The Retreat hosts said earliest time for disembarkation would be 7:15 to 7:20. DW and I stood at Retreat disembarkation door just to be sure we could be first off. (I always feel stupid doing this. LOL) We cleared an actual in-person customs check quickly. My car arrived within a couple of minutes, and we were off to airport. We were at gate for flight before 8:10AM. Would I do this again? Not sure. Likely only if work dictated. (Retiring in a few months, so likely I never have to think about this again.) Obviously, everything went right to make this work. The cruise ship not clearing their own clearance process would have blown the whole thing up from the start, but the travel gods smiled upon us this time.

Thank you for that tip! Breakfast this morning in the Retreat.

Beautiful day for a sea day. Very little wind, patchy cloud cover, and no seas. Perfect!

Photo

Doubled up playing roulette. Definitely my game when I’m drinking. lol

Photo bombing beer cart girl up on the track above the pool

At first when I saw the headline: “Over 60 Activities,” I was like “Now wait one second! I’m over 60, but I refuse to be catered to…..” Now I realize what it’s saying. Doh!

Another sea day today. Lazy day on Grand Cayman yesterday. We didn’t do anything other than walk around the shops and hit a couple of bars. We plan to be a little more energetic on the ABC islands. Weather has been perfect so far (trying not to jinx it). I wasn’t expecting the temps to be so warm — mid plus 80s. The pool side denizens are certainly soaking it up! Growing up in Phoenix in the 60s and 70s, before the days of sunscreen, as a competitive swimmer and working as a roofer during the summers means I’ve had all the sun on person should be allowed. (If you’ve followed my live posts from other cruises, you know my DD has fought a protracted battle with Stage 3c melanoma cancer. So I’m pretty much F@#k the Sun.) Lots of fun/happy people on this cruise. Easy to have a quick chat or share a story while hanging at a bar. There are some truly awesome people with this crew taking care of everyone. Speaking of bars and fun at bars, I can report that the ship is broadcasting American football all day today. A morning game, afternoon game and even the evening game will be shown.

Still doing horrible job posting live. Here’s quick note on Oceanview for breakfast this morning: No Greek yogurt No berries And worse — No hash browns!!!

Here’s the room service menu for items other than breakfast.

Ok, this has been a bust for a Posting Live thread! I’ll try to get my act together. Lol Retreat boarding was a breeze. We arrived at Terminal 25 at just before noon to no line whatsoever. After our friends arrived at around 1:00, we decided to go grazing for lunch and went up to Oceanview. It was packed. We grabbed seats at a shared high top table. I sampled a number of dishes from the Indian food station. It was all tasty. After lunch we went “grazing” around the various outside bars. Busy busy, but lots of fun people enjoying the afternoon. Getting served requires some patience at these busy bars, but a simple cheat for getting a beer was to go to the Mast Grill instead of the Mast Bar. Beer sitting on ice at the staff there was quick to hand you whatever was on ice. I’m sitting at Cafe al Bacio as I do every morning. Plenty of sitting available for relaxing with your morning espresso. The line for takeaway is frequently huge. Heading off for breakfast in Luminae shortly.

Boarding day! I booked this cruise only two months ago. That may be a record for shortest time between booking date and cruise date. Basically a last minute decision when we found out friends had been planning this cruise. Not sure when we’ll board today. Being in the Retreat gives you the option of showing up pretty much at anytime. That said, the Celebrity App still has you select a boarding time. The Shoreside Concierge also asks if you have a preferred boarding time. I’ll try to post as frequently as I can. I usually start out with a bang, but peter out later in the cruise. 😆