DAY-34: Cruise Bonus Day #8 - The Caribbean
DAY-34: Cruise Bonus Day #8 - The Caribbean
Day – 34: Sunday, March 22, 2020
Starting Location: M.S. Marina at Sea in the Caribbean
Ending Location: M.S. Marina at Sea in the Caribbean
Let's start the new day off with a healthy breakfast.
This morning we passed the western-most point of Cuba at Punta Cajon (Point Cajon); from there we turned to the northeast and paralleled the Cuban coast throughout the day passing to the north of Havana this afternoon.
Today will be much like yesterday except that we are one day closer to debarkation. A schedule for debarkation has been published, we're Brown-#5 but other than being after #1, #2, #3 & #4 we won't know the details until tomorrow. Our timing has continued to improve and we're now scheduled to arrive at Port Miami around 7:30 tomorrow morning. The expectation is that it will take a couple of hours for arrival administration and customs/immigration clearance of the ship before anyone goes ashore.
Gradually we're learning more about what to expect in Miami and so far it seems that we'll have a relatively easy experience. For us, as we have a rental car reservation and no time-critical flight arrangements we'll likely not be the first people off the ship, but for my personal internal planning I've assumed we'll be off the ship by noon and in a car bound for St. Pete Beach by 2 PM. There's been no indication that we'll experience any delays due to COVID testing and questioning. Maybe our long time at sea is enough evidence that we've passed the viral incubation period and have had no further exposure; we'll see.
So for the day we had lunch on the pool deck. We're finally seeing shortages of various food and beverage items, for example the ship ran out of ice cream cones so if you want ice cream it's either scooped into your hand or into a bowl, Diet Coke supplies were depleted yesterday and certain brands of beer are no longer available; what will we do.
The pool deck was packed for this final day of sun, the last opportunity for those headed to northern regions to add to the lustrous tans achieved over the past week.
Sheila played cards for the final day and later we attended what must be the final lecture by Dr. Kus. Today's enrichment topic was "Why Did The Classic Maya Civilization Collapse". As expected the demise of the Mayans was attributed to cultural in-fighting, disease brought from Europe, global warming, failure of crops due to mis-use of limited fertile growing areas, you know, disease, famine, natural cataclysmic events, etc.
As afternoon wore on, we began the packing process. We have six bags to check plus our carryons. Almost anything could distract me from packing, for example, the passing of other ships. It's not like we haven't seen ships over the past week but for sure we hadn't seen these two, both likely heading to the Panama Canal.
As we progress up the coast of Cuba the sun is setting not only for real but metaphorically on this cruise and adventure.
For what will be our final night at sea we again opted for the Red Ginger restaurant. After dinner we returned to the room for the final pack so that our bags would be outside the door by midnight for pickup and storage until offloaded tomorrow.
Ending Location: M.S. Marina at Sea in the Caribbean
This morning we passed the western-most point of Cuba at Punta Cajon (Point Cajon); from there we turned to the northeast and paralleled the Cuban coast throughout the day passing to the north of Havana this afternoon.Today will be much like yesterday except that we are one day closer to debarkation. A schedule for debarkation has been published, we're Brown-#5 but other than being after #1, #2, #3 & #4 we won't know the details until tomorrow. Our timing has continued to improve and we're now scheduled to arrive at Port Miami around 7:30 tomorrow morning. The expectation is that it will take a couple of hours for arrival administration and customs/immigration clearance of the ship before anyone goes ashore.
Gradually we're learning more about what to expect in Miami and so far it seems that we'll have a relatively easy experience. For us, as we have a rental car reservation and no time-critical flight arrangements we'll likely not be the first people off the ship, but for my personal internal planning I've assumed we'll be off the ship by noon and in a car bound for St. Pete Beach by 2 PM. There's been no indication that we'll experience any delays due to COVID testing and questioning. Maybe our long time at sea is enough evidence that we've passed the viral incubation period and have had no further exposure; we'll see.
So for the day we had lunch on the pool deck. We're finally seeing shortages of various food and beverage items, for example the ship ran out of ice cream cones so if you want ice cream it's either scooped into your hand or into a bowl, Diet Coke supplies were depleted yesterday and certain brands of beer are no longer available; what will we do.
The pool deck was packed for this final day of sun, the last opportunity for those headed to northern regions to add to the lustrous tans achieved over the past week.
Sheila played cards for the final day and later we attended what must be the final lecture by Dr. Kus. Today's enrichment topic was "Why Did The Classic Maya Civilization Collapse". As expected the demise of the Mayans was attributed to cultural in-fighting, disease brought from Europe, global warming, failure of crops due to mis-use of limited fertile growing areas, you know, disease, famine, natural cataclysmic events, etc.
As afternoon wore on, we began the packing process. We have six bags to check plus our carryons. Almost anything could distract me from packing, for example, the passing of other ships. It's not like we haven't seen ships over the past week but for sure we hadn't seen these two, both likely heading to the Panama Canal.
For what will be our final night at sea we again opted for the Red Ginger restaurant. After dinner we returned to the room for the final pack so that our bags would be outside the door by midnight for pickup and storage until offloaded tomorrow.
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