Miami/FL - Transatlantic NCL - Feb 2025 - Chapter 00

Chapter 00

The (long-haul) flight year 2025 kicks off for me with a trip to Miami. In fact, several trips to Miami are planned this year, but I’ll start with a C Award and the following flights:

• 05 Feb DUS-ZRH with LX1016
• 05 Feb ZRH-MIA with LX64

Yes, this is a one-way ticket. And no, I’m not following through on my “threat” to emigrate to the USA. My return to Europe will be aboard the NCL Breakaway, sailing from Miami to Southampton across the Atlantic in 12 days.

The journey begins in Miami on 07 Feb. After eight long days at sea, I’m scheduled to arrive in Ponta Delgada, Azores, on 15 Feb, where I’ll take my only shore excursion on this cruise. Arrival in Southampton is planned for 19 Feb.

In Southampton, after a quick detour to Stonehenge, I’ll head to London, where I’ll take a late afternoon flight from LHR to Düsseldorf on BA0932. My arrival in DUS is scheduled for 19:45 on 19 Feb.

In Miami, I’ve booked a one-night stay at the Hampton Inn Airport East for my arrival day. On 06 Feb, I’ll move to the Hilton Downtown. Unfortunately, the Hilton was fully booked the night before, and even though I have a DIA booking guarantee, I wasn’t in the mood to argue with the hotline about the outrageous prices they charge when using that benefit.

Even though I’ve been to Miami numerous times, I’ve planned a bus tour on Thursday to explore the city from a double-decker bus. From the start, I knew this trip would be different from previous ones. But then some last-minute changes threw my plans into even more chaos. Let’s take it step by step.

First, I’m traveling solo this time. I usually fly alone 80% of the time, but I’ve never been on a cruise without my family. +1 and +0.5 are staying home, eagerly awaiting my travel updates.

We’ve sailed with NCL many times before and always book a HAVEN Family Villa. But as a solo traveler, a HAVEN suite doesn’t make sense for me, so I jumped on a deal for a Panorama View cabin. Yes, it’s like downgrading from First Class to Economy, but we’ll see how it goes. As an NCL Platinum, I still get perks for embarkation and onboard.

A Last-Minute Dental Emergency

The day before departure, I suddenly felt pain in a tooth that was already scheduled for treatment. Of all times, it had to start hurting right before my trip. So, on 04 Feb in the afternoon, I went to my dentist, who gave me the bad news: I needed an urgent root canal treatment. At that moment, I started thinking about all the cancellations I’d have to make—I couldn’t imagine taking a long-haul flight just 16 hours after a root canal treatment.

But the treatment went smoothly, and the dentist didn’t explicitly say I had to cancel the trip. Instead, he told me to decide the next day. As long as I was pain-free, there was no medical reason not to travel. So, on departure day, I got up at 5 AM to reassess my situation. I had packed my suitcase as usual the night before. By morning, I was completely pain-free, and +1 encouraged me to go, saying I’d regret it in two days if I stayed home. And since +1 is always right, I loaded up the car, and at 07:30, we drove to the train station, where my train would take me to DUS Airport in 40 minutes. I was finally excited for my trip—but little did I know that things were about to take yet another unexpected turn.

To be continued…

Written on February 5th, 2025 by Thorsten Scherf travel miami ncl