Our 4th in a lifetime World Cruise! Can’t believe we are going around the world again. When we took our first one in 2013 it really was something we thought would be a once in a lifetime adventure. It will be the first time that we have left a house and a car. Most of you know our "story", but in short, we sold everything at the end of 2012 and took the 2013 WC. Then moved to Panama for 3.5 years. (rented a furnished condo on the beach) Then, moved back to the States and took the 2017 WC. Came back and bought a large motor home and traveled around the states for about a year and a half. Sold the coach and went on the 2019 WC. Came back and road-tripped by car until our house was built. So, we now have "roots" again.
After having 2021 and 2022 canceled due to Covid we are ready to travel the world again. It was so much work booking excursions and then unbooking all of them. Twice. Putting private tours together is always a bit of work (but so worth it), but after Covid it got way more complicated. Many small and large operators went out of business. It was hard to trust new ones that cropped up without reviews, so I used a company called ToursByLocals for quite a few this time around. They do an excellent job, but a bit pricier than booking directly with a guide. Luckily, many were still in business, but it wasn’t easy corresponding since they were short staffed and handling a huge influx of queries since people are traveling again. I am so fortunate to have met some great friends on various cruises, so gathering tour-mates was easier. (not that there weren’t cancelations and additions to people that needed to cancel the cruise for various reasons) We will meet a few new people on a few of the tours. I did have the help of some fellow travelers who took my over-flow of people and set up their own tours and added them. Thank you, Heather and Trish for all of your help!
This will be the first time doing the World Cruise on the
Island Princess. The rest were on the small Pacific Princess which was sold
off. We did the 60-day South America on the Island, so we’ll see how the world
goes on her. We prefer her sister ship the Coral Princess since they didn’t
take out lounges and showrooms to add cabins, but it is what it is.
The Pacific only held 640 people with 350 crew. The Island has 2,200 people and 900 crew. So, a different experience for sure. (pros & cons)
We had a few changes to the itinerary before we sailed. First Venice was replaced with Ravenna which was fine by us since we have been to Venice many times and are excited to visit new places. Due to the size of the Island our Bora Bora port was replaced with Moorea. (no issues as we have been to both) The most recent change is the elimination of San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua and replaced with a sea day. (government concerns of safety) I enjoyed our tour last time and was looking forward to sharing it again so Cathy, Tom & June could do it for the first time. I'm sure more changes await as this cruise goes on. (weather and any number of other reasons can cause changes)
Here is our itinerary:
5 Jan Thursday Ft. Lauderdale, Florida embark 3:00 PM
6 Jan Friday Sea Day
7 Jan Saturday Sea Day
8 Jan Sunday Cartagena, Colombia 7:00 AM 3:00 PM
9 Jan Monday Transit Panama Canal-Cruise Only -- --
10 Jan Tuesday Sea Day
11 Jan Wednesday Puntarenas, Costa Rica 7:00 AM 7:00 PM
12 Jan Thursday Sea Day
13 Jan Friday Sea Day
14 Jan Saturday Huatulco, Mexico 8:00 AM 5:00 PM
15 Jan Sunday Sea Day
16 Jan Monday Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 8:00 AM 5:00
PM
17 Jan Tuesday Sea Day
18 Jan Wednesday Sea Day
19 Jan Thursday Los Angeles, CA 7:00
AM 3:00 PM
20 Jan Friday Sea Day
21 Jan Saturday Sea Day
22 Jan Sunday Sea Day
23 Jan Monday Sea Day
24 Jan Tuesday Honolulu 9:00 AM 11:00
PM
25 Jan Wednesday Nawiliwili, Kauai, Hawaii 8:00 AM 5:00 PM
26 Jan Thursday Sea Day
27 Jan Friday Sea Day
28 Jan Saturday Sea Day
29 Jan Sunday Sea Day
30 Jan Monday Sea Day
31 Jan Tuesday Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia 7:00 AM 4:00 AM
1 Feb Wednesday Moorea, French Polynesia 8:00 AM 5:00 PM
2 Feb Thursday Sea Day
3 Feb Friday Sea Day
4 Feb Saturday Pago Pago, American Samoa 9:00 AM 6:00 PM
5 Feb Sunday Sea Day
6 Feb Monday Sea Day
7 Feb Tuesday Lost Day – crossed International
Dateline
8 Feb Wednesday Sea Day
9 Feb Thursday Bay of Islands, New Zealand 8:00
AM 6:00 PM
10 Feb Friday Auckland, New Zealand 7:00 AM 6:00 PM
11 Feb Saturday Tauranga, New Zealand 6:15 AM 7:45 PM
12 Feb Sunday Sea Day
13 Feb Monday Picton, New Zealand 7:00 AM 6:00 PM
14 Feb Tuesday Wellington, New Zealand 7:00 AM 5:00 PM
15 Feb Wednesday New Plymouth, New Zealand 7:00 AM 5:00 PM
16 Feb Thursday Sea
Day
17 Feb Friday Sea
Day
18 Feb Saturday Sydney, Australia 7:00
AM 9:00 PM
19 Feb Sunday Sea
Day
20 Feb Monday Tangalooma, Moreton Island,
Australia 7:00 AM 6:00 PM
21 Feb Tuesday Sea Day
22 Feb Wednesday Airlie Beach (Whitsundays), Australia 7:00 AM 4:00
PM
23 Feb Thursday Cairns/Great Barrier Reef, Australia 10:00 AM 8:00
PM
24 Feb Friday Sea
Day
25 Feb Saturday Sea Day
26 Feb Sunday Sea Day
27 Feb Monday Darwin, Australia 8:00 AM 10:00 PM
28 Feb Tuesday Sea Day
1 Mar Wednesday Sea Day
2 Mar Thursday Komodo Island, Indonesia 7:00 AM 5:00
PM
3 Mar Friday Sea Day
4 Mar Saturday Sea
Day
5 Mar Sunday Singapore 9:00 AM 10:00 PM
6 Mar Monday Sea Day
7 Mar Tuesday Langkawi, Malaysia 7:00 AM 6:00 PM
8 Mar Wednesday Phuket, Thailand 7:00 AM 5:00 PM
9 Mar Thursday Sea Day
10 Mar Friday Sea Day
11 Mar Saturday Colombo, Sri Lanka short tour
then fly to India
12 Mar Sunday Sea Day
13 Mar Monday Sea
Day
14 Mar Tuesday Sea
Day
15 Mar Wednesday Sea Day
16 Mar Thursday Dubai, UAE* 7:00 AM --
17 Mar Friday Dubai, UAE 2:00
PM
18 Mar Saturday Mina Qaboos, Oman 9:00 AM 6:00 PM
19 Mar Sunday Sea
Day
20 Mar Monday Sea
Day
21 Mar Tuesday Sea
Day
22 Mar Wednesday Sea
Day
23 Mar Thursday Sea
Day
24 Mar Friday Aqaba (for Petra), Jordan 7:00 AM 11:00 PM
25 Mar Saturday Transiting the Suez Canal-Cruise
Only -- --
26 Mar Sunday Transiting the Suez Canal-Cruise
Only -- --
27 Mar Monday Ashdod (for Jerusalem/Bethlehem),
Israel 7:00 AM 8:00 PM
28 Mar Tuesday Sea
Day
29 Mar Wednesday Kusadasi (for Ephesus), Turkey 8:00 AM 5:00
PM
30 Mar Thursday Gythion (for Sparta), Greece 9:00 AM 5:00
PM
1 Apr Saturday Ravenna, Italy* 8:00 AM --
2 Apr Sunday Ravenna, Italy -- 10:00 PM
3 Apr Monday Koper, Slovenia 8:00AM 6:00 PM
4 Apr Tuesday Split, Croatia 8:00 AM 6:00 PM
5 Apr Wednesday Kotor, Montenegro 7:00
AM 5:00 PM
6 Apr Thursday Sea Day
7 Apr Friday Valletta, Malta 7:00 AM 9:00 PM
8 Apr Saturday Catania, Sicily, Italy 7:00 AM 5:00 PM
9 Apr Sunday Sorrento, Italy 7:00 AM 8:00 PM
10 Apr Monday Civitavecchia (for Rome), Italy 7:00 AM 7:00
PM
11 Apr Tuesday Villefranche, France 8:00 AM 7:00 PM
12 Apr Wednesday Marseille/Provence, France 8:00 AM 6:00
PM
13 Apr Thursday Barcelona, Spain 8:00 AM 10:00 PM
14 Apr Friday Sea Day
15 Apr Saturday Málaga, Spain 7:00 AM 6:00 PM
16 Apr Sunday Casablanca (Marrakech), Morocco 8:00
AM 10:00 PM
17 Apr Monday Sea
Day
18 Apr Tuesday Arrecife, Lanzarote, Canary
Islands, Spain 7:00 AM 5:00 PM
19 Apr Wednesday Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands,
Spain 7:00 AM 5:00 PM
20 Apr Thursday Sea Day
21 Apr Friday Sea Day
22 Apr Saturday Sea Day
23 Apr Sunday Sea Day
24 Apr Monday Sea Day
25 Apr Tuesday Sea Day
26 Apr Wednesday Sea Day
27 Apr Thursday Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 7:00 AM
Of course, it’s always subject to change due to weather
& political climate and now Covid.
We are doing one overland this time. We are leaving the ship
in Sri Lanka and after a short tour there (it’s our second time here, so seeing
a few things we didn’t get to last time) and flying to India to spend a couple
of days in Jaipur and a couple in Varanasi before flying to Dubai to spend the
night and catch up with the ship in Dubai. Our tour guide is picking us up at
the hotel and then going to the ship to pick up the rest of the tour mates
(which Bob has graciously said he would do for me, Thanks Bob!) to tour as scheduled. I’m
sure we will be exhausted but should be so worth it!
As always, I will keep up the blog as best I can and will
add photos IF the internet allows. If it’s too sluggish I’ll upload to the web
albums and post a link and then add them in when I get home. I think it may be
possible this time to add photos since we have unlimited internet and it’s
supposed to be fast. We’ll see…….
Picked up the rental minivan and did our observed Covid-tests. We are as ready as we can be!
Tomorrow, we drive to Fort Lauderdale!
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