For eight of the last nine years, we have sailed on a world cruise this time of the year. With an ever expanding family of three grand children, two of whom were born just last November and December respectively, we decided to spend more time at home rather than being away for so long on a World Cruise. We do have several travel plans for 2016, but almost all of them will be of relatively short duration, with one exception.
We decided to book a short-getaway cruise to get away for a little while in January, which is how we decided on this cruise.
We looked at luxury cruise line sailing to/from Florida. We selected this cruise given the dates of this sailing, and the ease of getting to and from Florida, rather than the itinerary. If the itinerary was the driver, we would not have booked this cruise. Admittedly, we have not booked any excursions either through Silversea or independently. We will make an attempt to walk around most of the ports of call, although there is one port of call that likely we will just make a sea day and spend most of the time on the Silver Spirit.
An interesting anecdote about the itinerary is that when we first booked the cruise the itinerary was in reverse order and instead of Key West being our first port of call as it is now, it was our last. We were informed a few months ago about the change and never asked why it was revised. Maybe it was just a mistake. It wouldn't have changed our plans ,but it was the first time we have ever booked a cruise where the order of the entire itinerary changed. As they say, there is always a first for most everything.
We sailed Silversea one prior time and that was in August of 2009 when we sailed the Silver Shadow in Alaska. We have seen the Silver Spirit which we will be sailing on this voyage in some ports that we have visited in recent years. The photo on the home page of this blog was taken on May 26, 2015 while we were on Crystal Serenity and both ships were anchored off the coast of Sorrento, Italy.
We will spend a few days in Fort Lauderdale prior to boarding the Spirit on January 7.
Up until 2007, the times we sailed on cruises out of Florida were primarily from Port Everglades. Since that time, all of the cruises we have sailed to and/or from Florida have been with Crystal Cruises and that was around the time frame that Crystal Cruises stopped sailing Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale and started to sail Port of Miami. We have really come to enjoy Miami and even since 2007 we have seen enhancements all around Miami with each passing year. After all these years, it will be nice to revisit Fort Lauderdale.
We plan to post daily starting shortly after arriving to Fort Lauderdale.
As is the case with all of our travel, we do look forward to making memories which will last a lifetime.
Wishing each of you a very safe, healthy and Happy New Year. May 2016 be the best yet.
Keith & Anne Marie
