Miami to Panama City - March 9, 2024

March 7 2024

After our “red eye” flight and 6:30am arrival in Miami we were picked up by Oceania services and taken to a nearby hotel for breakfast and lounging around until 11am when we were bused to the cruise terminal for early boarding on the Sirena, a sister ship very similar to the other 670 passenger Regatta class Oceania vessel (Nautica) we’ve been on in the past. However, this time we reserved a “Penthouse suite” on the 8th floor (starboard side) and we’re already loving all the extra living and bath space (including a big walk in shower), extra drawers, and our own butler + maid services. We connected on board with Don and Kim for lunch; they also reserved a penthouse suite but on the port side. They’re coming over at 6pm and we’re going to open our bottle of champagne and toast to our trip just as our ship casts off and then head off to the dining room. We have a full day at sea tomorrow and early the following day (Sat) make our first docking on the Yucatán peninsula.

March 8, 2024

It’s our first full day aboard Oceania’s Sirena (along with ~460 other passengers) and we’re now spending a full day at sea cruising along the north shore of Cuba and heading for the Yucatan Peninsula (Costa Maya, Mexico), then down the coast of Central America (Belize, Guatemala, Honduras) and ultimately into the Panama Canal. While Mom spent the morning fiddling about in our luxurious Penthouse suite, I enjoyed some tropical (it’s 85F outside) time out by the pool deck (see photo from above that deck); do you recognize the couple in the hot tub? After lunch we all headed down to the main entertainment lounge room (with stage) for the first of our “Enrichment Series” presentations by an older university professor, Dr. Alan Fisher (Political Science/Government), who today spoke about the Mayan calendar and then compared it to all other calendars developed since 4,000 BC. So here’s the trivia question for today (provided by Dr. Fisher):  What happened on October 10, 1582? (Answer to trivia quiz: NOTHING, because that day never existed! The switch from the Julian calendar (used since ~40 BC) to the current Gregorian calendar in October 1582 needed to eliminate 10 days so it did.)

March 9, 2024

Our Sirena ship battled 8 ft waves hitting us broadside as we were cruising at 18 knots against a 30 mph gale for past 24 h (despite sunny 80F air and sea temps), effectively facing >40 mph wind outside on deck, reducing the number of passengers interested in eating anything today, and also thwarting our ability to dock at Costa Maya this morning, cancelling all shore excursions and committing us to another 24 h at sea heading for Belize. How much indoor Bingo, Trivia or knitting bracelets can I possibly tolerate? By the way, while you guys set your clocks forward an hour tonight, we get to set our shipboard clocks backward an hour!


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