Dec 17 Christmas Cruise from Miami

 Hi there.  Attempting to avoid potential  building repairs and just go somewhere, we joined our old friend Oceania's Insignia with a room right next to the one we occupied for 180 days going around the world.  

As is customary for Oceania, particularly in Miami, they royally fouled up the check-in.  The ship was 5 hours late arriving due to storms (we had tropical storm winds the night before).  Oceania helpfully sent out an email saying the ship was delayed, don't arrive until 2pm, which we received at 10:30am, after we had already arrived at the terminal for our 11:00 check-in.

Insignia arriving late, accompanied by two tugboats as it was still quite windy.

To continue to fu, once they were ready to board passengers they did nothing for crowd control.  There were boarding groups assigned by by number.  They were stanchions and ropes to create lanes for people to queue for the check-in people.  But when they called a group number, everyone just stormed the check in desk leaving the queues far behind.  And why you finished check-in, the swarm of people pushing to fill your spot made it near impossible to move away and get to the gangway.

Just a little coordination getting people into the queues would have worked wonders.  When I talked to the Executive Concierge, he blamed it all on the late arrival and refused to accept any responsibility for anything that followed.

But when we got on board things improved.  Lot of Christmas decorations.

The Miami skyline at dusk is always pretty.  They now have Ferris wheel, because every town needs one.

Two days of chugging through the ocean followed.  It's a surprisingly long trip to the ABCs off the coast of South America.  We've spent enough money with Oceania that we get invited to wine tasting events.  This one was French wines.  And cute little bites to go along with each one.  It's all wasted on me, but I enjoy the pomp and ceremony.

Something for everyone to aspire to.