sandfarmer
Filing Flight Plan
What's the best airport and easiest way to go about it? Royal Caribbean if it makes a difference.
Anybody flown GA into Miami to go on a cruise?
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comanchepilot
En-Route
I'm thinking Opa Locka. . . . get a car service.
BGF_Yankee
Line Up and Wait
+1 on Opa Locka. Dropped people off before down there for a trip and they say Opa Locka is way more friendly for ya.
OpaLocka or Tamiami. Tamiami has a hotel across the street and I'm pretty sure they will run their shuttle to the port. You may want to check on that. Also I think there are more transient hangar deals on Tamiami if you want one.
pericynthion
Pre-takeoff checklist
I've never understood the appeal of a commercial pleasure cruise. I'd much rather sail with Henning.
denverpilot
Tied Down
Haha. The only time I'll say "commercial". MIA.
Why?
The whole damn airport is loaded up with a million forms of ground transport all waiting for the hoards of people going to the pier. It's insanely cheap and you can damn near negotiate your own price. Even the cab ride is flat-rated to a reasonable price by the city.
You can often find a Town Car or nicer, more than willing to do the run over to the pier for the same price as the taxi...
Last time we were there, some idiot on my boat, left the boat (he had it from departure to re arrival in the states) with an old school radioactive compass.
Good lord the freaking Security Theater false drama (news chopper even... I waved from the pool deck...) and three hour delay THAT horse crap was. Entertaining to watch from on board where we were stuck since we didn't have to catch a flight that day, but many folks were totally screwed on catching theirs.
Totally useless. It set off the radiological monitors. They knew what it was. There wasn't a whiff of wrongdoing. But boy they had to ham it up for the press. Gotta look useful when the dispatcher sends 15 squad cars and a 10 fire engines and the shiny freshly washed DHS Suburbans. It really was good theater. The container ships offloading down the pier probably didn't have half their containers even looked at as they drove by on the multimodal trailers, headed into the city.
Dude with the radioactive compass wasn't any threat.
Anyway... Commercial. Find a nice Limo. Treat the wife to a cushy ride. Haha.
mtuomi
En-Route
I flew a P28R to KMIA couple of weeks ago. Nice, hassle free experience. Obviously not the cheapest option though.
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Kayoh@190
I would too, but I'm pretty sure I can't afford it!
Depends on what boat you want. On a 36-42' sailboat, you could do a week in the Bahamas on a comparable budget with an upgrade balcony cabin on a cruise ship if you partake in the party part of the cruise. Booze and the casino is where a cruise ship earns its profit, the excursion tickets are good revenue for them too, basically they keep half. Normally if you book your activities shoreside direct you will get an upgraded activity for less money, and yes, they will have you back to the ship on time. Retail space seems to be a big factor in the last couple of generations of cruise ships, that may be adding a big income as well.
If you want to get with me on a 160' motor yacht, yeah, that gets pricy. Total bill on something like that is frugally $250,000 per week, and more typically $360,000-$420,000 when you add the fuel, booze, food, berths, fees, and crew tip. Hookers and gambling losses are a whole extra adjustment page to yachting expense we won't get into.
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Everskyward
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Everskyward
Must depend on the time of day. I also flew into KMIA about a week and a half ago and it was almost impossible to get a word in on both ground and tower. On the other hand, the hotel we were at (Embassy Suites) was close by and seemed to be a staging ground for cruises.
Every hotel in South Florida is now a staging point for cruise ships. Fort Lauderdale is the worst. In the last decade it went from yachting Mecca to Cruise Ship Mecca. I read somewhere that Port Everglades boards more cruise ship passengers than anywhere else, and they are year round trade. It's really brought down the local standard of living and economy. The only people thriving are the hotels and rental cars and a couple of strip malls by the port entrance.
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Kayoh@190
That's definitely a lot of money. But what if I were to split it with some buddies? How many does a boat that size sleep comfortably? Is 15 a reasonable number? It's still a huge amount of cash, but I can see a situation where for a very special occasion I can get 15 of us to put down about $25K each.
And hypothetically speaking, do I arrange the hookers and blow through you, or is that something I just do on my own?
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That's definitely a lot of money. But what if I were to split it with some buddies? How many does a boat that size sleep comfortably? Is 15 a reasonable number? It's still a huge amount of cash, but I can see a situation where for a very special situation I can get 15 of us to put down about $25K each.
And hypothetically speaking, do I arrange the hookers and blow through you, or is that something I just do on my own?
Most boats in that size will sleep between 8 and 12 in the guest accommodations. Rarely will you see a yacht take more than 12 guests because adding the 13th throws you under a whole new set of international rules that make getting a "yacht finish" interior very difficult and expensive to achieve. You have to remember a typical yacht is built like a mobile home inside a hull with very fancy veneers. Typically they will not meet the fire requirements for the 13th passenger (they also burn to the water line within a few minutes of catching on fire).
Also there is a legal matter of payment. Yacht Charters operate under demise rules rather than passenger vessel rules, that means only one person can be responsible for paying the bill. There is nothing to keep you from collecting from your friends, but there can only be one party responsible for the charter.
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Kayoh@190
Interesting! I had no idea. I've spent a lot of time around business jets, but this kind of thing is a level of wealth that I simply have a hard time wrapping my head around.
vkhosid
Cleared for Takeoff
Most people don't believe it actually exists because movies lie. There is no lie to the extremes of wealth and excess that exist. Abramovich has over a billion dollars in one of his several yachts.
sandfarmer
Filing Flight Plan
After posting this over on BT also I had pretty much decided to just go into MIA, high fuel yes, but other charges seemed reasonable and I would have easy access to transportation to and from the port. Don't mind class bravo, I'm sure it's busier than KMEM during fedex push but that's part of the appeal for me is flying myself and accepting the challenge lol!
comanchepilot
En-Route
$300k a WEEK? for a mobile home afloat? ygbsm
Well....
You are in the presence of Henning,, so that adds about $299,000 of that figure..
It's a 3 story double wide with a Jacuzzi, 2 bars, jet skis, diving off the back deck or tender, and the ability to go to sleep and wake up somewhere new, and yep, that's the base cost. That does not include the food, champaign, booze... that usually adds 20-50%, if it's for something like Cannes Film Festival 100% is not impossible. Fuel bill depends on how much you move and if you are using generators or shore power. Figure 50gph traveling at 11 kts. If it is a higher speed semi-displacement 160' boat, figure you are using 240gph to do 18 kts, 600gph to do 27kts and 1700gph to do 38kts. Above that and you start using turbo shaft engines and fuel consumption hits stupid numbers.
Normally you do that speed once for three minutes when they ask to see how fast it goes, then I point out the fuel flow and they ask me to slow way down.
Figure 3gph at anchor on generator at minimum 'sleeping boat' load, higher if we have a bunch of service loads on and I need to run 2 generators, making 100kW isn't cheap. Making water figure 12¢-25¢ a gallon depending on the price of fuel. (Costs about the same at the dock in the Bahamas).
Hey, if you want to get a $30,000 a day hooker, you gotta be able to attract her.
comanchepilot
En-Route
I'm not even sure what s/he could do any different than anyone else that makes it $29,900 more than the lady in the 'massage parlor' down the road
Make them feel loved and adored, it's the only way they can get that feeling. The hookers are getting paid no more than top end actresses.
sandfarmer
Filing Flight Plan
Silly me, I thought these WERE the stupid numbers!
World Is Not Enough was rumored to be sucking over 17,000gph to do 70kts.
But yes, they are all stupid numbers and it's stupid to make the boats this fast.
The US Navy is the world's largest consumer of oil, and a significant amount of their horsepower is nuclear.