World Cruise News!

"All journeys have destinations of which the traveler is unaware..." ~ Martin Buber

True that!

And wouldn't travel cease to qualify as an adventure if this were not so? Knowing everything that's coming in life would take all the wonder, all the surprise, all the mystery out of it. I'm grateful each day is an unwrapped gift from God that I get to enjoy, fresh and un-predetermined.

That said, part of the reason we booked the 2022 Viking World Horizon Cruise was because several ports of call were huge draws for us--notably, Israel and Egypt. But we have known for a long time that Australia and New Zealand are denying entry for tourists traveling in cruise ships of over 100 passengers. We figured that Viking would have to devise a new plan to fill the month the original schedule would have had us spending in those two countries. Then recently, Santa Barbara closed its port to cruise ships until March 2022. So our hopes were sinking that this world cruise would ever leave the US. 

Then yesterday, we got an email from "Uncle Torstein" with a revised itinerary. Coincidentally, it arrived in the in-box while we were on the phone with our friends Kristy and Dave, who are planning to make this voyage with us.  

Here's what the wizards at Viking have come up with:

Date	Original Itinerary	New Itinerary
Jan. 10, 2022	Los Angeles, California	Los Angeles, California
Jan. 11, 2022	Santa Barbara, California	Sail the Pacific Ocean
Jan. 12-15, 2022	Sail the Pacific Ocean	Sail the Pacific Ocean
Jan. 16, 2022	Sail the Pacific Ocean	Nawiliwili, Kauai, Hawaii
Jan. 17, 2022	Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii	Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii
Jan. 18, 2022	Nawiliwili, Kauai, Hawaii	Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii
Jan. 19, 2022	Sail the Pacific Ocean	Lahaina, Maui
Jan. 20, 2022	Sail the Pacific Ocean	Hilo, Hawaii
Jan. 21-23, 2022	Sail the Pacific Ocean	Sail the Pacific Ocean
Jan. 24, 2022	Vaitape, Bora Bora, French Polynesia	Sail the Pacific Ocean
Jan. 25, 2022	Bahia d’Opunohu, Moorea	Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Kiribati
Jan. 26, 2022	Papeete, Tahiti	Sail the Pacific Ocean
Jan. 27-28, 2022	Sail the South Pacific Ocean	Sail the South Pacific Ocean
Jan. 29, 2022	Sail the South Pacific Ocean	Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia
Jan. 30, 2022	Skip into future (due to dateline)	Sail the South Pacific Ocean
Jan. 31, 2022	Cross International Dateline	Sail the South Pacific Ocean
Feb. 1, 2022	Sail the South Pacific Ocean	Papeete, Tahiti
Feb. 2, 2022	Waitangi, Bay of Islands	Papeete, Tahiti
Feb. 3, 2022	Auckland, NZ	Bahia d’Opunohu, Moorea
Feb. 4, 2022	Auckland, NZ	Vaitape, Bora Bora, French Polynesia
Feb. 5, 2022	Auckland, NZ	Sail the South Pacific Ocean
Feb. 6, 2022	Tauranga (Rotorua), NZ	Sail the South Pacific Ocean
Feb. 7, 2022	Napier, NZ	Sail the South Pacific Ocean
Feb. 8, 2022	Wellington, NZ	Pago Pago, Tutuila, American Samoa
Feb. 9, 2022	At Sea	Cross the International Date Line
Feb. 10, 2022	Sail the Milford & Doubtful Sound	Sail the South Pacific Ocean
Feb. 11, 2022	Sail the Tasman Sea	Suva, Fiji
Feb. 12, 2022	Sail the Tasman Sea	Sail the South Pacific Ocean
Feb. 13, 2022	Hobart, Tasmania	Sail the South Pacific Ocean
Feb. 14, 2022	Phillip Island, Australia	Noumea, Grande Terre, New Caledonia
Feb. 15, 2022	Melbourne, Australia	Sail the South Pacific Ocean
Feb. 16, 2022	Sail the Tasman Sea	Sail the South Pacific Ocean
Feb. 17, 2022	Eden, Australia	Port Vila, Efate, Vanuatu
Feb. 18, 2022	Sydney, Australia	Sail the Pacific Ocean
Feb. 19, 2022	Sydney, Australia	Sail the Solomon Sea
Feb. 20, 2022	Sail the Tasman Sea	Honiara / Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands
Feb. 21, 2022	Brisbane, Australia	Sail the Solomon Sea
Feb. 22, 2022	Sail the Coral Sea	Kieta, Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea
Feb. 23, 2022	Airlie Beach, Australia	Sail the Banda Sea
Feb. 24, 2022	Cairns, Australia	Sail the Banda Sea
Feb. 25, 2022	Sail the Coral Sea	Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Feb. 26, 2022	Thursday Island, Australia	Sail the Banda Sea
Feb. 27, 2022	Sail the Arafura Sea	Sail the Banda Sea
Feb. 28, 2022	Sail the Arafura Sea	Sail the Banda Sea
Mar. 1, 2022	Sail the Timor Sea	Sail the Banda Sea
Mar. 2, 2022	Komodo, Indonesia	Komodo, Indonesia

And then we'll rejoin our original itinerary:

Thursday, March 3	Bali, Indonesia
Friday, March 4	Bali, Indonesia
Saturday, March 5	Bali, Indonesia
Sunday, March 6	At Sea
Monday, March 7	Semarang, Indonesia
Tuesday, March 8	At Sea
Wednesday, March 9	At Sea
Thursday, March 10	At Sea
Friday, March 11	Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My), Vietnam
Saturday, March 12	Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My), Vietnam
Sunday, March 13	Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My), Vietnam
Monday, March 14	At Sea
Tuesday, March 15	Ko Samui, Thailand
Wednesday, March 16	At Sea
Thursday, March 17	Singapore
Friday, March 18	Singapore

Because Yangon, Myanmar is in a state of political upheaval and is unsafe at this time, Viking has made these changes to substitute for the three days in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma):

Date	Original Itinerary	New Itinerary
Mar. 19, 2022	Sail the Strait of Malacca	Singapore, Singapore
Mar. 20, 2022	Phuket, Thailand	Kuala Lumpur (Port Klang), Malaysia
Mar. 21, 2022	Sail the Andaman Sea	George Town, Malaysia
Mar. 22, 2022	Yangon, Myanmar	Langkawi, Malaysia
Mar. 23, 2022	Yangon, Myanmar	Phuket, Thailand
Mar. 24, 2022	Yangon, Myanmar	Sail the Andaman Sea
Mar. 25-26, 2022	Scenic Sailing: Bay of Bengal	Scenic Sailing: Bay of Bengal
Mar. 27, 2022	Scenic Sailing: Bay of Bengal	Colombo, Sri Lanka

 Then we're back to the original schedule:

Monday, March 28	Colombo, Sri Lanka
Tuesday, March 29	Colombo, Sri Lanka
Wednesday, March 30	At Sea
Thursday, March 31	Cochin, India
Friday, April 1	At Sea
Saturday, April 2	Goa (Mormugao), India
Sunday, April 3	Bombay (Mumbai), India
Monday, April 4	Bombay (Mumbai), India
Tuesday, April 5	Bombay (Mumbai), India
Wednesday, April 6	At Sea
Thursday, April 7	At Sea
Friday, April 8	Salalah, Oman
Saturday, April 9	At Sea
Sunday, April 10	At Sea
Monday, April 11	At Sea
Tuesday, April 12	At Sea
Wednesday, April 13	Petra (Aqaba), Jordan
Thursday, April 14	Luxor (Safaga), Egypt
Friday, April 15	At Sea
Saturday, April 16	Suez Canal (Cruising)
Sunday, April 17	Haifa, Israel
Monday, April 18	Haifa, Israel
Tuesday, April 19	At Sea
Wednesday, April 20	Rhodes, Greece
Thursday, April 21	Ephesus / Kusadasi, Turkey
Friday, April 22	Istanbul, Turkey
Saturday, April 23	Istanbul, Turkey
Sunday, April 24	At Sea
Monday, April 25	Athens (Piraeus), Greece
Tuesday, April 26	At Sea
Wednesday, April 27	Messina, Sicily, Italy
Thursday, April 28	Naples, Italy
Friday, April 29	Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy
Saturday, April 30	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Sunday, May 1	At Sea
Monday, May 2	Barcelona, Spain
Tuesday, May 3	Cartagena, Spain
Wednesday, May 4	Strait of Gibraltar (Cruising)
Thursday, May 5	Lisbon, Portugal
Friday, May 6	At Sea
Saturday, May 7	At Sea
Sunday, May 8	London (Tilbury), England
Monday, May 9	London (Tilbury), England

Then because Viking is sailing the Star back to its home port of Bergen, we have been given the opportunity to add those extra days to our trip and stay on board until we reach Norway on May 11th! 

We're delighted with the new plans. First of all, it's always a treat to spend time in the Hawaiian Islands. Then there are a number of new-to-us countries and ports in the substitutes: Kiribati, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Malaysia. We're sorry to miss returning to NZ and Oz, but it's hard to resist the allure of a string of beautiful South Pacific islands.

Will our schedule change again? Undoubtedly. Weather. Changes in political situations. Covid spikes in our intended ports of call. Accident or sudden illness. Anything can derail even the best-laid plans. 

But we've been trying to take a second world cruise for a while now. We were originally booked on Cunard's Queen Victoria for 2021, but after spending time on the Queen Mary 2 in 2019, we decided that three formal nights a week was too much to keep up over a long voyage.  So we canceled and rebooked on Princess. We'd had an amazing experience with them the first time around this gorgeous blue ball in 2018. But then when Princess cancelled their 2021 WC because of Covid, we decided to "go big or stay home" and jumped ship to try Viking in 2022 for the very first time. 

We're so in hopes the third time is a charm.