Miami and Port Canaveral

We’re a couple of sea days past these stops now – at the risk of upsetting anyone – there’s been too much sunshine since to miss out on! Sadly for us it’s much cooler and cloudy today (Wed 29th) and we’ve had some rain, so here’s what we’ve been up to:

Miami

We were warned it was Spring break so would be extra busy. We had a two part excursion booked – first was a boat trip around Biscayne Bay including pointing out some homes of the rich and famous but unfortunately due to road closures that part had to be cancelled. There was also a change in our pickup point which we hadn’t got a message about resulting in us walking several blocks and getting a taxi to catch the second part of our trip which we did by the skin of our teeth!

This was an airboat trip through the Everglades and was fabulous. We saw several alligators in their natural environment along with vultures flying overhead and were told about the plants and other wildlife that exists there. It was a great experience.

After the boat there was a guy in an enclosure with several alligators. Our initial thoughts were “this can’t be in the alligators best interests” but he explained that they had been classed as “nuisance alligators”. If an alligator, believed to pose an immediate threat to people, their property, and/or pets, smaller than 4 feet is caught it can be released but if it is larger than 4 feet the trapper can either kill it or sell it to an alligator farm, animal exhibit or zoo, it can’t be released into the wild. Apparently these alligators would have been harvested for their meat and hides had they not been rescued. He was very entertaining and explained why they were unlikely to see him as ‘dinner’ but even so….

Back in the city things were getting loud and busy but great fun to be a part of – 1000s of students in festival clothes and make up and a buzzing atmosphere. We decided we needed to sample a burger American style and sat outside in the sunshine at ‘Margaritaville’ watching and listening to it all. They were delicious but obviously large and on a huge plate. We didn’t struggle too much so it’s a good job we don’t do this every day!

Back on the ship we had live music out on deck until around 11p.m. which was lovely.

Port Canaveral

Most importantly – Anna’s birthday. We had a Whatsapp video call in the morning and another one later in the day which were lovely but it seemed very strange not being there.. sad face.

Today’s trip was to the Kennedy Space Centre. Neither of us were sure how much we would enjoy this trip but had been told by several people how good it was. They were absolutely right – it was fantastic. So much to see and do that unfortunately we ran out of time to experience the simulator which puts you in the shoes of an astronaut during a launch, but we managed to cover most of the rest of it. There were loads of interesting exhibits, information, spectacular 3d films and old footage of launches.

It was a really good day and as we waited for our bus back to the ship we sampled a bottle of Mountain Dew lemonade and a Root beer float – both delicious at the end of another very hot day!

This last picture is in the Firing Room Theatre, and Google description is – “relive the launch of the first manned NASA mission to orbit the Moon onboard the huge Saturn V rocket in 1968. As you watch and feel the massive Saturn V Moon rocket lift off from the launch pad and blast into space, experience the count for Apollo 8 on the real consoles used during the Apollo missions”. It was quite an experience.

So that’s the end of the main part of this trip. Five sea days before our final stop at Ponta Delgada in the Azores on Sunday 2nd.

Couple of things that have happened over the last few days –

Remember we had to miss our first port of call in Bermuda? Yesterday we had a tannoy announcement that sadly due to another medical evacuation (or the daily medivac as we now know them as) our course was being diverted to Bermuda being the nearest land. So we saw Bermuda, but from our windows… you couldn’t make it up!

On the latest formal night we took the opportunity to book a photo session. We also ate in the fine dining restaurant ‘Epicurean’ which was sensational. A wonderful experience, sitting on the balcony watching the sunset enjoying delicious food. We paid a quick trip to the driving range as well!

We’ve had some fabulous entertainment in the evenings, brilliant singers, comedians and great quality variety shows – the conspiracy theory is they keep the best for last to minimise complaints – but we are just enjoying them!

Hopefully the weather will be kind and we see some more sunshine for our last few days!