Dirigido a Cuba

Thomas and I are off on another trip. This time on a Viking Ocean Cruise. Our trip is called Cultural Cuba and we are on the Viking Sun. We sail from Miami to Key West then to Cienfuegos and then back to Miami. The plans for this trip began about a year ago and we have had a couple of hiccups along the way. Originally, we were suppose to go to Key West, Havana, Belize, Cozumel and Miami. But because of docking issues they changed it to the current itinerary. Not too bad as the new trip gives us more time in Cuba. And Viking gave us a $500 ship board credit. Then came all the hurricanes. Thankfully for us, Cuba wasn't hit too bad and our trip didn't change. So now we are off on this new adventure.

Our day began at 3:30am when the alarm went off. We got ready and loaded the car and left for the Albuquerque International Sunport a little after 4:00am. Everything went smooth, we checked our bags in and got our boarding passes. We were TSA Pre so going through security was quick and easy. Our flight from Albuquerque to Dallas was on time and we had no problems until we landed in Dallas. Our connecting flight has been delayed two hours. Now we have a cause for concern. We were landing in Miami around 2:00pm and then we would get shuttled to the ship by Viking. But with the delay we wouldn't arrive in Miami until 4:00pm. This worried me as my itinerary said the ship left the port at 5:00pm. So, after checking with the airline about the delay I called Viking. They changed our arrival time and said a Viking representative would be waiting for us and they would get us to the ship. I inquired about the departure time and was told that the ship wasn't leaving the port until 7:00pm. There wasn't anything else we could do so we just found a place to sit and read until our flight at 12:30pm.

Our flight didn't change again and we boarded our plane starting at noon and we took off at 12:40pm. The plane was pretty big - two seats on either side at the windows and three seats in the middle. There were 44 rows (not sure if this included first class or business class). We were in row 42 and we had all seven seats across for ourselves. Obviously, the plane wasn't full. We spent the two hours and 45 minutes reading and resting. We arrived in Miami a little after 4:00pm and after what seemed like an hour we got off the plane. Once we arrived at baggage claim we found the Viking representatives and let them know we had arrived. Then we waited about 15 minutes for our bags. There were two other people (also on our flight) and they shuttled us to the ship. It took us about 30 minutes to go through security and to get checked in. Once we had our cabin keys we made our way there to get settled. Then we contacted our friends (who happen to have the cabin next to us) and they came over and we visited for a few minutes and then we all decided to head to the lounge for a drink before dinner. Then at 6:30pm we headed to the dining room and had our first dinner on board the Viking Sun. It was fantastic. The ship offers a nightly menu, a destination menu (based on food from the area we are cruising to) and a set menu that is available every night. Thomas and I both got the destination menu which consisted of bacon wrapped plantains for a starter, coffee crusted ribeye with potatoes for the main course and peanut butter brownie sundae for dessert. Viking offers free wine and soda at lunch and dinner so we each had a couple of glasses of wine.  After a great meal and a lot of talking we headed out to explore the ship a bit. The thirty minutes later we headed for our cabin. We got things put away and took showers. Then figured out what we are doing tomorrow.

It has been a long day and now we need some sleep so we can enjoy Key West tomorrow. We are meeting our friends for breakfast at 8:00am and then we will head off the ship and explore Key West.