Today we board at 1:30pm. We are both feeling more confident by the hour. For Cathy, who by nature has, for weeks, been overthinking every conceivable detail and what could possibly go awry, this is a relief. She is calm. Steve, on the other hand, who has tenaciously held on to the philosophy that “it will be what it will be,” can no longer keep his anxiety under wraps.
7:00am: The photo you see above is what greets us when we wake up. Our ship, MS Riviera, has arrived and is full view. Ahh, a very good omen, we think. We turn on NBC’s Today Show out of habit, and, lo and behold, today is the show’s 70th anniversary. We watch for an hour or so, and it turns out to be quite interesting. For Steve, seeing Dave Garroway, the very first host, brings him back to his childhood. We really are reliving television history.
As much as we don’t want to admit it, we are hiding out. If it weren’t for the dreaded Covid, we would have ventured out on this beautiful day and perhaps explored the surrounding neighborhood this morning. But we don’t.
9:30am: We head down to breakfast. The lobby is a madhouse, and this would be a good time to explain what we have been observing since we arrived at the InterContinental. Across the street, an event named Wodapalooza 2022 is taking place, whose website describes the event this way: “The Wodapalooza descends on Miami’s Bayfront Park for 4-days … and brings together thousands of athletes, spectators and fitness fanatics to celebrate fitness, community and life.” On their website, they offer special hotel accommodations at our hotel. So what we have been seeing since we have arrived are hundreds of incredibly fit, competitive and excited young people and, in most cases, their families. These are not the hotel’s customary clients, which makes it even more fun and interesting to observe. Add in the noise of the event going on twelve hours a day and you have a very entertaining happening surrounding us.
Okay, so we head for breakfast. It’s an elaborate buffet. We are seated, offered coffee and tea, and head for the buffet. Great choices. Toward the end of the meal, we are curious about how to settle up. Does breakfast come with the room? No one asked for our room number at the door. Is it extra? We flag down a server, who explains that maybe it is free and maybe it isn’t. They check for us, and it isn’t, and she hands us a check for … $74.60! Hmmm, I’ll bet all the Wodapalooza athletes got a different deal; at least we hope they did. Oh, well, live and learn. Us Hampton Inn types just got taught a valuable lesson.
10:15am: Back to the room. Cathy watches those two strange Court shows we described in yesterday’s post. Steve finishes the January 12-13 post, struggling to navigate the “new and improved” WordPress website, the site used to create these posts. He hasn’t used it in over two years, and spends a fruitless and frustrating hour and a half trying to figure out how to load a photo and post.
12:30pm: We head back to the lobby, check out, and call Uber. Our ride is there in one minute. The driver is Luis, who speaks not a single word the entire way to the Port of Miami. We cross the bridge on to the port, and Steve says: “See that ship? That’s where we want to go.” The silence continues, and Luis, ignoring Steve’s ridiculously simple directions, takes us to another ship on the opposite side of the port. We inquire of Luis what is going on, and he points to his directions on his phone. Steve apparently signed up for a trip to this exact dock where we are, and Luis indicates this is the end of the trip. Steve’s temperature and blood pressure are rising fast, and he tells Luis: “Well, we’re not getting out, so you’d better fix this.” He grunts that we must “change the destination,” which Steve cannot figure out how to do. Luis finally figures out that if he wants to get rid of these old farts, he has to go off the Uber script and actually go where these people told him. Meanwhile, Cathy calls Judi Gallagher, our sainted travel agent, who gets us the exact street address of the correct pier. By then, we have arrived at the ship. Luis and us gratefully part ways in less than a minute.
1:00pm: With Steve now in high anxiety mode due to the maddening Uber experience, it’s a perfect time to face the source of the previous three weeks’ anxiety: the dockside Covid test. There are staff people all over the place to help because no doubt Oceania Cruises knows full well that everyone is feeling the stress. We are relieved of our bags and pointed toward a huge white tent. Fortunately, there is no waiting. We go from one station to another, and, within three minutes, we have taken the test. We now have a four-digit number that will appear on a big TV screen … if we pass. A text will also be sent to our phones. In the meantime, we are seated to answer more questions and fill out additional paperwork.
Within about ten minutes or so, we receive the text and see our numbers (7392 is Steve’s; 7786 is Cathy’s) and our blood pressure immediately drops by 100 points. We head for the exit, are given a wristband that indicates we are Covid-free and head for the embarkation building. Through security with our carry-ons being scanned, and check in where photos of us are taken and ship cards given out. Within twenty minutes, we step aboard the ship. We made it!
2:00pm: We enter the world of ocean cruising and its incredible friendly service. We are directed to a person at the entrance to our Muster Station, who happens to be part of the show talent, and he explains the whole emergency procedure. This is in place of the actual muster drill that customarily begins a voyage, because that gathering risks exposure to Covid. The cruise lines are going to extraordinary lengths to prevent an outbreak, and this is our introduction to them.
We arrive at our stateroom: 11011, obviously on Deck 11 (the ship has 15 decks, 11 deemed as passenger decks). This one is called a Penthouse Suite, which we booked at the recommendation of Judi Gallagher. Seems that after we booked our customary Concierge Level, it left us with a substantial credit – money we had already paid for canceled cruises and left with the cruise line to be applied to new cruises. That credit has to be used up by the end of 2022 we found out. Judi suggested we just spend a bit more money, use up these cruise credits and book the Penthouse Suite. We liked the idea.
Well, it sure is an upgrade as far as we’re concerned. The suite is 30-35% larger than the one we had originally booked. A full bathroom instead of just a shower; way more storage, seating and just plain room to move about; as well as a larger balcony with better chairs. Add to that access to an exclusive area where you can find coffee, soda, snacks and computer access 24/7 as well as a butler! Our guy is named Arun (A roon’) from southern India. We could get used to this level of accommodation very easily! As always, Cathy loves the lotions, etc.
The rest of the afternoon is spent getting unpacked (the extra room allows us to totally unpack everything, which makes us feel right at home), visiting the library, touring around the ship a bit, and sat around and read.
5:45pm: Sail-Away commences. If you have never cruised, this is a period of quiet excitement and anticipation. The pandemic and the almost-twenty months of canceled cruising because of it, this sail-away has an air of celebration about it. Well, that and the fact that the ship’s bars were having a one-hour free drink period.
We celebrate by going up to deck twelve, which is where the pool area and other open-air areas are. We want to watch the ship negotiate its departure from Miami. The sun has set behind the impressive Miami skyline. It’s a beautiful cool evening – perfect weather to be outside.
The bow of Riviera points toward the shore; thus the ship must be turned around to head out. Steve wants to take lots of photos, and (inaccurately, it turns out) surmises that it will be turned completely around first, making the stern definitely the place to be for pictures of the Miami skyline. But a tug first pulls the ship away from the dock and the city before Riviera commences to turn around. Riviera is towed stern first for at least a half mile, past several container ship docks. That means Steve runs around correcting for his wrong assumption. Nevertheless, it is a wonderful sight to see Miami slowly disappearing from view. After weeks of angst and anticipation, we are actually seeing this long-awaited voyage begin!
6:45PM: Dinner in the Grand Dining Room awaits. We are beginning to sense that the ship is not carrying its full complement of 1,250 passengers – far from it, it seems. Our arrival in the dining room confirms that observation. We are seated by ourselves at a table for two, but, fortuitously, only a few feet of another couple with the same arrangement.
A conversation started up right away. Of course, it starts with an inquiry about previous cruises. The woman, whose name is Wally, (short for a German first name – she was born in Germany and moved to the U.S. when she was five after her parents died), mentioned it was their ninth cruise and asked about how many we had been on. We answered that this was our third. Somehow the question came up about our first, and we mentioned that it was the ATW cruise in 2018.
This was a real ice-breaker, as you would think it might be. Wally immediately said that she would love to do that, and her husband Ken jokingly asked us to tell her it was an awful experience. Obviously, we told them both otherwise. Turns out they live in Jacksonville FL and have four grandchildren. Both of them were very interesting and interested, and we spent the next hour in conversation about all manner of subjects, primarily about travel. They have traveled extensively, often with an outfit Cathy knew about named Road Scholars.
We left having had a delicious dinner and having met two very nice people who we hope to meet again. They were delightful and the four of us got along well.
The day ends for us as it always does on a cruise – early. We turn in and the ship gently rocks us to sleep as it heads south toward the Dominican Republic. We’ve anticipated this journey for months, and we’re finally on our way.
