Delicious Ambiguity

Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.” ― Gilda Radner

If you check the countdown clock at the bottom of this blog, it says we'll be boarding the Viking Star in something less than 50 days. I'm still hopeful. There's no joy in not trying to stay positive...but the chances that this trip will happen seem to be diminishing. 

First, we lost Australia and New Zealand, which accounts for about a month's worth of our travel destinations. Neither country is opening for cruise tourism yet and seems to be in no hurry. Then Santa Barbara, the 2nd stop on our itinerary closed their port to cruise ships. Just this week, we learned that though the Hawaiian Islands are welcoming tourist who fly in, they are not going to be open to cruisers by the time we expected to be there.

I know Viking is scrambling, trying to do everything they can to put together a world class itinerary for us, but so much is out of their control. We are still waiting for visa kits from GenVisa, a service Viking provides for us, because the itinerary is still not set. And frankly, how can it be with so much uncertainty in the world?

Still, we've been able to do a few fun, anticipatory things, just as if everything was going along swimmingly. We were able to book a bunch of shore excursions for the second half of the voyage, which still seems to be a go. We booked specialty dining with our friends Kristy and Dave for the first couple of days on board, as well as for my birthday. 

Viking is giving us all a lovely jacket with their logo. We had to let them know our sizes so the garments will be waiting for us in our stateroom when we board.  

We've been doing our part to get ready. The DH and I have both had our Covid-19 booster shot. We're driving to Springfield, MO next week to apply for TSA Pre-Check, which should make our flights easier. Just today, we did a practice pack of our carry-on's. It's amazing how quickly that space fills up! 

I'm on a Cruise Critic Roll Call, a Facebook Group for this voyage, and an email loop. Some of my new internet friends have contacted Luggage Forward to schedule their pick ups. Viking will pay for us to ship two 50 lb. suitcases ahead of time. I plan to call them next week. They are supposed to pick them up at our home. Bet they'll be surprised how far out in the boonies we live.

Those online spaces are awash with speculation about where we'll be going... maybe the Mexican Riviera instead of island hopping around Hawaii. Someone suggested another Indian stop will be added and possibly Muscat. But no one really knows.

This week, we received another email from Viking on November 19th, letting us know they are still hammering out the last details for us. They plan to send the completed itinerary and updated Visa kits next week.

Just in time for Thanksgiving! 

Still, this promises to be a Magical Mystery Tour to beat all. And the entire exercise in revision reminds me of the old military adage--"No plan survives first contact with the enemy." 

And in this case, the enemy is a virus that has crippled the entire world.   

So many other cruise lines have already cancelled their 2022 world cruises. As far as I know, only Viking and Oceania are still soldiering on. If the Star sails out of Los Angeles on January 10th, we intend to be on it. 

Who can resist a chance to be travelers instead of just tourists? To go for the sake of going? To live out Robert Louis Stevenson's "the great affair is to move?" 

Because even if the ship sails, I'll be ever so surprised if we know where we're going.