NOVEMBER, 2015-Miami to St. Maarten

SOUTH MIAMI BEACH: We started our adventure by spending our first afternoon and night in the Art Deco area of Miami Beach. If you have not visited here let me summarize by saying the beach is spectacular, the prices are high, and the area is slightly seedy. 0ne day is ample.

OCEANIA REGATTA: We set sail on the evening of Nov. 4th and are at sea until Nov. 7th. However, there is lots to do to try and avoid eating all the time. On Thursday I attended two lectures; one on the "Real Pirates of the Caribbean" which was excellent and one on the "Mystic and Mystery of Baseball" which could only be appreciated by more dedicated baseball fans than I. We also had a meet and greet with the people with whom we will be taking a couple of tours on the Amazon. Next we attended the Captain's cocktail party which preceded more pre-dinner drinks while listening to a string quartet. Dinner was excellent as expected, particularly the starting course of sturgeon caviar. At dinner we sat with a Magician and his beautiful wife/assistant. They were charming dinner companions.

ROUGH SEAS: We were awakend on Friday by the slightly more than gentle rocking of the bed. I decided to go to the walking track to try and burn off a few calories. The track and all other outside decks were closed due to the weather and the Captain announced that Saturday's scheduled stop at St. Bart's was cancelled on the advice of the port authority. Apparently we are sailing to St. Maarten (where there is no need of tendering) instead. Since we have been to neither island it really is of little consequence.

We spent the rest of the day, doing laundry, reading, and attending a great lecture on the "Amazon"; the first of series which will happen before we get to Brazil. After dinner we went to the Magic show. Both Betty and I got picked to go on stage. At one point Bronwyn (the assistant) was wrapped and tied up in coils of rope before being put into a large sack. I then joined her in the sack. A few seconds later the sack was removed and Bronwyn was wearing my suit jacket underneath her layers of rope coil. Despite my moment in the sack with Bronwyn, guests today are giving Betty the kudos.

DEMOGRAPHICS: On most of our previous cruises Canadian guests were only slightly outnumbered by Americans. This time there are almost no Canadians. Guess that's the result of a 75 cent dollar. On the other hand, the 631 guests, while better dressed, are no younger than the guests at your home-town nursing home. The staff (450 of them) to guest ratio is much better. Perhaps the biggest difference is that on ship the guests are not fed pills but medicate continuously on expensvie booze.

ST. MAARTEN: Despite the predicted rain we had a 15 minute hot and sunny walk into Philipsburg, on the Dutch side (as opposed to the French side) of St. Maarten. The town is essentially a kilometre long strip of high-end shops, of which 75% sell diamonds. I can't imagine there could be that many customers. We were told the prices were very good. Perhaps a good place to visit if one were about to become engaged. However, I expect there's not a lot of that on our cruiseship. Nonetheless a pleasant enough place with good beachfront. On the other hand, we are back on ship and about to spend the rest of our afternoon by the pool.