1) What places did you enjoy the most?
[I should have thought about how impossible this question would be to answer before I suggested it.]
I’ve had two types of experiences to flash back on our cruise history. First is when I clear out photos from the camera after I have saved them onto the computer. Second is when I scroll down through the text that I’ve done for the blog on a Word document. In both of these cases, I am amazed at all that we have done.
In reality, this past 4 months has been like we have taken 25 to 30 significant serial vacations. We have been to so many places. Some have not been especially eventful. Some have been spectacular.
Places: Angkor Wat, Egypt (Egypt had less impact this second visit than it had been to us 20 years ago when we first saw it, but it is still amazing for its age), and the Great Wall. The Taj Mahal and le Mont St-Michel were unique to the point that at first each seemed like it might have been some giant painting rather that something that we were actually seeing.
2) What would you do differently if you had the cruise to do over again?
a) Pack less…a lot less.
b) Spend more time prior to the cruise figuring out the excursion plan. I left this up to Kathleen this time, and neither of us realized the degrees of freedom and the financial leverage you had by setting up excursions on your own.
c) Look more at opportunities to do several-day excursions off the ship. We never had more than a part of one day at any single place unless we left the ship for a night. Think of the ship as a moving home base, and be okay leaving it several times for a day or so each time.
3) Would you do another cruise of this type again?
Absolutely yes. I have 3 that I now would like to do. First is a 60 day cruise around South America, that includes going up and back down the Amazon. You can leave and return to Ft. Lauderdale, so we could do this with no airplane flights. The southern tip of South America is said to be more dramatic than Alaska. I hope Kathleen decides that she will do this with me because she remains my first choice for a roommate.
Two other interesting ones are going around Africa, and going to Antarctica. On Antarctica there are two types: the cruise line sail by but do not land, and the ice cutter ships that land. I want to do the latter. This is going to be the toughest version to get Kathleen to agree to do. (One passenger who did this one said that the ship rocked so much that the water line went above their port hole. This is the cruise where they told people only to walk forward when the floor is moving upward!)
4) What are your most memorable events?
Most of the answer to this is the same as to question #1, as it relates to the places.
Animals: the giant Galapagos turtles, kangaroos (napping with them, the baby diving back into his Mom’s pouch), Kuala Bears, Tasmanian devils, camels (roaming the country roads in Oman), parrots engulfing us in Kuala Lumpur, swimming with a sea lion.
Most informative and enthusiastic tour guide: Ellwood at Normandy. Most informative and enthusiastic port lecturer: Aki Akram in the Arabian Peninsula.
A very dear, close friend of mine (my age) passed away unexpectedly on the 3rd week of the cruise. Unfortunately, this will has to be on my “most memorably” list for its very sad reasons. I won’t say much else about this personally emotional topic except for two things: a) it certainly affected the lenses through which I viewed the rest of the trip, and b) it is worth considering each day of your life whether you are living it the way you would if you knew when your last day would be.
People on the cruise are memorable. Most notably, we were pleasantly surprised how quickly you establish an extended temporary family on a long cruise. After only a few weeks we had established a group of 30 to 60 passengers who we would feel comfortable to do some activity with us, or that we would gets requests from for an activity.
People from all of the countries are memorable. (I’m going to write a lot more about this in the “supplementary comments” posting below. It would seem distorted if I put all of my thoughts in this overview.)
Finally, I should add that my very most memorable event has to have been simply to be with Kathleen all of this time. (What a sweet guy I am!)
5) At any point did you think doing this cruise had been a mistake?
No. This never came close to being a thought. I wanted to extend our cruise by 12 additional days, but Princess was stupid with us about how they would handle the airline rebooking costs, so it was their loss.
6) What recommendations do you have for someone preparing to take a world cruise?
a) Pack less, pack less, pack less. (And after you have done this, remove some items beyond this.) Do not focus on what you think you will need; think about what you will have to bring back after you have purchased extra stuff.
b) Bring extra cash. (Okay, not a huge issue because you are talking only a 3% premium on whatever extra money you need to capture, but think about avoiding this.) Bring at least two different credit cards. (Several passengers had one card stopped due to the unusual purchase activity or a compromised data base.)
c) Plan more excursions on your own. Spend the time prior to the cruise to figure this out. You can do a lot of ports “on the spot” with a cab and get a better tour and better value than the ship offers. Whenever there are a lot of sea days, look for an opportunity to take a flight and be off-ship for some days. [This is your biggest cost leverage item, after the basic tour booking, of course.]
d) Do it sooner rather than later. You are only going to get older and less able to enjoy it.
e) Figure out your computer situation prior to taking the trip. Perhaps buy a new computer. Kathleen was delighted that she had bought a compact Acer computer of her own. Get the right software installed so that you can do you e-mail offline. If you are doing a blog, learn the off-line method to handle most of this.
f) Buy a good pocket camera with a zoom, and also a “sports” setting that handles fast-motion photos.
g) Visit the cruisecritic.com web site ahead of your cruise to get info and ideas, and to make contacts.
7) How easy or hard has it been to keep in touch with loved ones?
We did have e-mail and the blog. Those seemed to work well. Phone calls were a disappointment. We signed up for Skype (a cheap phone system over the internet) prior to the cruise because that was said to be possible. However, Princess blocked Skype, so we were greatly constrained on phone contact. This bothered me a little; it bothered Kathleen a lot. If this had not been an issue, she might have been more interested in extending the cruise. As is, I expect she is going to have a whole lot of long phone calls the first week that we are back in the US.
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