And we're (almost) off!

Today was an uneventful travel day - the best kind! Our friend John Skrabanek arrived a little before 6:30 a.m. to drop us off at Ground Shuttle which took us to Houston’s IAH for our flight to Miami. 

 

Goodbye, TexMex!

Chihuly glass art in security

Houston IAH

           

landing in Miami

Our flight was on time and only took 2 hours. Upon arriving at Miami airport, we met the Oceania representative at the baggage claim area, along with 3 other couples who will also be going on the 180 Day World Cruise. Everyone was very friendly and I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of them over the next 6 months. Eurindia and Richard are from Seabook, TX. Rod and Merry are from Kansas and the other couple (didn’t catch their names) is from Denver. We were taken to the Biltmore where we’ll spend the night before boarding our ship tomorrow. The Biltmore is a very old and prestigious hotel - much nicer than where we would normally stay!

Welcome to Biltmore Miami

Biltmore lobby

ceiling detail

view from lobby balcony

our room

our ridiculously large private balcony

waiting on uber

Rather than have dinner at one of the super pricey hotel restaurants, we decided to uber to an area called Miracle Mile which has lots of eateries and pedestrians out and about. The Christmas decorations were still up, so naturally I started snapping pictures of everything. 

 

pedestrian street with lots of eateries and outdoor tables and chairs

 

selfie reflection in giant ornament

There were choices of pretty much every cuisine you can name but we ended up at a Mediterranean cafe. Ronnie had chicken and I had falafel. We were extra hungry so everything tasted really good.

 

first real meal of the day

 

Neither of us slept very well last night so after a long day, we were both ready to head back to the hotel. I forgot to mention that we've already met a couple who were on our other 180 cruise, Linda and Craig from Ohio. They really liked us, and not just because we gave them our “free” alcohol the last time. Ha! I know there will be others on the ship that we’ve sailed with before, some for the full 180 and others just for different segments. And we’ll be getting to know lots of new folks over these next several months. In the meantime, thanks for coming along and I hope it will be a fun trip around the world for you too!