Friday 26/4/2024 - At Sea

 We slept in this morning, after having a late night, which didn't matter as it was an at sea day.  We had lunch in the dining room, and spent the afternoon in the Top Sail Lounge, as it was windy again ! 

Tonight was Elegant Night, and it was nice to see everyone (most people) dressed for the occasion.  Dinner was very nice, we both enjoyed :Pan fried sea scallops for entree, and Surf and Turf for mains, John had Tiramisu for dessert, while I had Chocolate cheesecake.  We then went to the show, which was The Beatles Song Book.  It was ok, but a little disappointing.  Back to the Top Sail Lounge, where we sat talking to an elderly couple from the UK, and then to Jim and Maggie.

Thursday 25th April - Anzac Day New York

 John was up early on Thursday, and did a walk around the ship and noticed that on the dock beside the Aircraft Carrier Museum, "USS Intrepid", there was a Dawn Service being conducted.  

We had a relaxing morning, and lunch in the Dining Room.

John went and toured the "Intrepid" Museum.  Among the exhibits on board  were, The Concord, the Space Shuttle, Enterprise, and the Soviet Union Soyuz Capsule

I stayed on the Ship and sat in the Top Sail Lounge, with a coffee, doing my cross stitch.

The ship departed New York at 6.00pm, whilst we enjoyed the Sail Away Party on Deck 18, drinking Manhattans and Cosmopolitans, eating sliders and assorted finger food. It became really cold and windy, so we decided to go to one of the lower decks.  We sailed past the Statue of Liberty and under the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge heading for Bermuda

We sat up until 12.30 talking to Malcolm, a man we met from Jersey, off the coast of France, and then remembered that the clocks had to go forward 1 hour !!!!

23/04/24 New York

 When we woke this morning we were docked at Pier 88 in Manhattan. It was quite overcast to start,

but improved as the morning went on.  We decided to take our time leaving the ship today, and left at 12 noon and waited about 15mins for a taxi.  It took about 1/2 hr to get to Grand Central Station. It huge and has over 44 platforms and 67 tracks on 2 levels.  It is the world's largest train station by number of platform and by area occupied

After a good look around - it was time for coffee! And then another taxi ride to Ellen’s Stardust Diner for lunch. 

Right in Times Square😊

We were expecting there would be a queue to get in, but luckily we got in straight away. It’s such a fun place.  The waiters all take turns in singing! and boy can they sing 🎤🎼 This was our waitress :)

We eventually left the diner and managed to hail a taxi, which isn’t that easy! As there were so many people! This time we were headed for Central Park South, for a horse & carriage ride through Central Park.  

The ride lasted about 45 mins, and was fantastic.  The park is huge, about 843 acres . I think for people living in the centre of New York, in high rise accommodation, the park is a necessity!

Another taxi ride, towards the Stephen Sondheim theatre, where we sat and had drinks before going to see a show, & Juliet, which was fantastic, we both really enjoyed it. So many talented people 🎼🎤

On the way back to the ship, the taxi driver (the only one all day, that bothered to talk), commented on how busy it was for a Wednesday night @ nearly 11pm.  

Back into the ship just after 11pm, plenty of time for a night cap before bed.

Such a great day😍

 

Tuesday 23 April, 2024 - at Sea

When we arrived back in the cabin last night, the was a bowl of fresh fruit, and some gourmet biscuits, along with an invitation to a Cocktail Party with the Captain in the Top Sail Lounge at 11am this morning, for member of Yacht Club.

It was really great, all the waiters in tails and white gloves, the Butlers there to meet us on arrival, Prosecco, Aperol Spritz, Martinis, etc, etc. all very swish !!!We spent the time with Jim, Maggie and Malcolm

Thankfully, the weather has calmed a bit, the sun was out, so along with Jim and Maggie, we decided to head to Deck 18 as a different option for lunch.  It didn't take long to realise that the it was still to windy and cold, so back to the Le Muse Restaurant we went, where we had lunch with Malcolm and his wife Jean, Jim and Maggie.

The wind seemed to die down and the sea was quite calm, so after lunch John & I went back to Deck 18 and had a spa (Hot tub) which was lovely, 

Back to the cabin and some cross stitch for me, and surprise, surprise a sleep for John.

Found this little guy on the bed when we returned :)

We had pre dinner drinks in the Top Sail Lounge and were the escorted by our butler to Le Muse Restaurant for dinner, which was a Mediterranean theme, and then back to the Lounge to listen to some music.

Monday 22nd April

Today is an at Sea day and has been rainy and windy with quite a heavy swell, which has meant that its been a bit rocky. We have had a really relaxing day, John went exploring the ship a little, morning tea in the Top Sail lounge, then lunch in the Le Muse Restaurant, we met up with Jim and Maggie for a drink, then a little cross stitching, pre dinner drinks in the Top Sail Lounge and dinner.

We met Malcolm from Jersey, (not New Jersey), off the coast of France, in the Lounge after dinner.

Sunday 21st April

We were collected by our Uber driver from last night, Cerci, at around 11.15am.  She was amazing, and when she realised we had plenty of time to get to the port, she drove us around back streets and different areas of Miami, instead of just taking the freeway.  She even stopped at Walgreens Store for us. 

On arrival at the Port of Miami, which is huge, our check in procedure was very quick, as being in Yacht Club, gives priority boarding.  We were escorted onto the ship by one of the butlers and taken to the Top Sail Lounge, in Yacht Club, for drinks.

There were at least 5 other cruise ships docked and boarding at the Port. 

Carnival Horizon, Carnival Celebration, Norwegian Breakaway, Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Sea, Virgin Scarlet Lady as well as our ship MSC Divina

Check out the Roller coaster on the top

Our cabin is very comfortable, king size bed, 24hr room service, and a butler to look after us.

We had dinner in Le Muse Restaurant, with Jim and Maggie, who are from Tallahassee, Florida.

 

Saturday 20th April, 2024

 We both slept reasonably well, but were awake at 6.30am.  John went for a walk, and we then both went back to bed and slept until nearly midday (we were obviously tired!!)

We then called an Uber into the centre of Miami, to the Bricknell Centre. An amazing complex with lots of high end shops and places to eat, that spans a couple of blocks.  We shared some lunch here, and most of the conversation we could overheard was Spanish, or as one of the waitress called it " Spanglish"

We the wandered around for a while, and were trying to figure out what direction the port was in, and as we were in need of another drink - coffee for me, we went back to where we had lunch and asked the hostess which direction it was !! her reply was priceless !! "I don't know, I lived here all my life, and didn’t know there was one !!!! I will go get the manager "

Miami is considered the largest cruise port in the world, and is probably 15mins from the Centre where we were 😊

The manager, was very informative and spent some time talking to us.  
We then decided to go to Bayside Marketplace, as it was after 5.30 pm. What a great place !! lots of market stalls and eatery places, right on the bay.  Lots of scenic cruises and party boats leave from here.  We just sat and soaked up the atmosphere, which was amazing.  Music, dancing, (they love to dance, and have such great rhythm!!. We can only explain it as "Darling Harbour on steroids x 100"

After dinner, we ordered an Uber (what a mixup!) and eventually had a lovely lady driver, take us back to the hotel and also agree to collect us to go the the ship in the morning.

And so it begins :) 18th April-19th April 2024

 We left home at around 11am on Thursday 18th April and dropped our little Mazda at Deanne's.  Deanne and Daniel then drove us to Albury Airport. when we were nearly there, John realised that he had left his phone in the Mazda, which Deanne kindly went to retrieve.  Thank you.

Janene, Ness & Laura & Cathy were already there, having coffee, and we were lucky to say goodbye to Janene before she boarded her flight to Brisbane, before heading back to Sweden. Deanne and Daniel then joined us after collecting John's phone.

The flight to Sydney was very quick, only 1 hr, so we had time to relax before Chris collected us for a lovely dinner at Brighton Le Sands.

Friday was an early morning (I hate early mornings!!), we left the hotel at 7.15am, and even then the traffic around the airport was horrendous.  The check in at Sydney was very busy and unfortunately, not well organised.

Our flight to LA was QF17, on a Boeing 787, which left just over 40 mins late was very comfortable, and service and food was great, but we didn’t  manage to get much sleep.  Arrival into LA, was 30mins earlier than expected, and getting through customs and security was a breeze - not what we expected.  I have an assistance on flight booking, and LA worked like clockwork - very different to Sydney, which was disorganised to.

We had about a 5 hr layover in LA before our flight to Miami, which was good.

The flight to Miami was on a Neo A321, American Airlines, overbooked !! 

Arrival into Miami 4hrs 30 mins later at approximately 8pm (local time) at which point we had been travelling for 24 hours since departing Sydney.

We caught a cab from the airport to the hotel, which was quite close, but the airport is so big and the fare was $28 before we actually cleared the airport !!

Both exhausted, were showered and fell into bed.