Thankful!

First, let me share that we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family yesterday. My mom and dad hosted 10 of us for the big meal. Everyone brought something so my mother didn't have to totally exhaust herself. I cooked the turkey, a side dish and pumpkin pie. We prayed and ate and laughed together, feeling so blessed to be able to gather around in person this year. And Gracie, my great-niece who'll be 4 in January, led us all in a hilarious game of "Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?" 

It was a delightful day, and I bless God for allowing us to all share it together. 

This morning we decorated the house for Christmas because, always trying to stay hopeful, we want to enjoy the holiday as long as we can since we'll be bugging out for the world cruise on January 8th. 

And today, we got our first Christmas present from "Uncle" Torstein--a 9 page email with our FINALIZED ITINERARY! 

Leaving from LA, here are our travel plans:

Jan. 10 -11 ~ Los Angeles, California 
Jan. 12 – 19 ~ Sail the Pacific Ocean 

Jan. 20-21 ~ Taiohae, Nuka Hiva, French Polynesia 

Jan. 22 – 23 ~ Sail the South Pacific Ocean 

Jan. 24 - 26 ~ Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia
Jan. 27 - 28 ~ Jan Bahia d'Opunohu, Moorea, French Polynesia 

Jan. 29 -30 ~ Vaitape, Bora Bora, French Polynesia 

Jan. 31 –  Feb.1 ~ Sail the South Pacific Ocean 

Feb 3 ~ Cross the International Date Line  (As you may have noticed, Feb. 2nd disappeared!)

Feb.4 – 5 ~ Sail the South Pacific Ocean 

Feb 6 – 7 ~ Suva, Fiji 

Feb 8 – 19 ~ Sail the South Pacific Ocean (My Kindle will smoking with this stretch of sea days!)

Feb 20 - 22 ~ Singapore, Singapore 

Feb 23 ~ Port Klang (Kuala Lumpur), Malaysia 

Feb 24 ~ George Town, Penang, Malaysia 

Feb 25 ~ Langkawi, Malaysia 

Feb 26 ~ Phuket (Patong Beach), Thailand 

Feb 27 ~  Sail the Andaman Sea 

Feb 28 – Mar 1 Scenic Sailing: Bay of Bengal 

Mar. 2 - 3 ~ Chennai, India 

Mar 4 – 5 ~ Sail the Laccadive Sea 

Mar 6 - 7 ~ Cochin, India 

Mar 8 ~ Sail the Arabian Sea 

Mar 9 -10 ~ Marmagoa (Goa), India 

Mar 11 - 12 ~ Mumbai (Bombay), India 

Mar13 ~ Sail the Arabian Sea 

Mar 14 – 15 Sail the Gulf of Oman 

Mar 16 ~ Doha, Qatar 

Mar 17 ~ Abu Dhabi, UAE 

Mar 18 ~ Dubai, UAE 

Mar 19 ~ Sail the Gulf of Oman 

Mar 20 ~ Muscat, Oman 

Mar 21 – 23 ~ Sail the Arabian Sea 

Mar 24 ~ Salālah, Oman 

Mar 25 – 26 ~ Sail the Gulf of Aden 

Mar 27 – 28 ~ Sail the Red Sea 

Mar 29 -30 ~ Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 

Mar 31-April 1 ~ Yanbu Al-Bahr, Saudi Arabia 

Apr 2 ~  Sail the Red Sea 

Apr 3 - 4 ~ Aqaba, Jordan 

Apr 5 ~  Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt 

Apr 6 ~ Safaga/Luxor, Egypt 

Apr 7 ~ Sail the Gulf of Suez 

Apr 8 ~ Scenic Sailing: Suez Canal 

Apr 9 ~ Alexandria, Egypt 

Apr 10 ~  Port Said/Cairo, Egypt 

Apr 11 ~ Jerusalem (Ashdod), Israel 

Apr  12 - 13 ~ Haifa, Israel 

Apr 14 ~ Sail the Mediterranean Sea 

Apr 15 ~ Rhodes, Greece 

Apr 16 ~  Kuşadasi/Ephesus, Turkey 

Apr 17 ~  Sail the Aegean Sea 

Apr 18 - 19 Istanbul, Turkey 

Apr 20 ~ Sail the Aegean Sea 

Apr 21 - 22 ~  Athens (Piraeus), Greece 

Apr 23 ~ Sail the Ionian Sea 

Apr 24 ~ Sicily (Messina), Italy 

Apr 25 ~ Naples, Italy 

Apr 26 ~ Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy 

Apr 27 ~ Monte Carlo, Monaco 

Apr 28 ~ Sail the Balearic Sea 

Apr 29 - 30 ~ Barcelona, Spain 

May 1 ~ Murcia (Cartagena), Spain 

May 2 ~  Sail the Strait of Gibraltar 

May 3 ~ Lisbon, Portugal 

May 4 ~ Sail the Atlantic Ocean 

May 5 ~ Scenic Sailing: English Channel 

May 6 ~ Portsmouth, England 

May 7 ~ Scenic Sailing: Strait of Dover 

May 8 - 9 ~ London (Tilbury), England 

May 10 ~ At Sea 

May 11 ~ Bergen, Norway (disembarkation) 

57 sea days (though some of those are Scenic Cruising days, which kind of don't count as sea days)

18 overnights! That's kind of unheard of. (Except I'm not sure what we'll do overnight on Nuku Hiva. It's the headhunter island that was featured on Survivor and in fact a German tourist did go mysteriously missing back in 2010 in that chain of islands.) 

We've lost a few place since we first booked this cruise--no Santa Barbara, Hawaii, Kiribati, New Zealand, Australia, Komodo, Bali, Viet Nam, Myanmar (Burma), or Sri Lanka. But we've gained some new countries--Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as extra ports India, Oman, Egypt & Israel. We're thrilled to have 4 ports of call in Egypt, instead of just one, and an extra stop in Israel (also happy we won't be in Jerusalem on Easter in this schedule. That would have been a madhouse!) I really like the idea of so many overnights. It means we can take a leisurely pace with our stops and not feel we have to cram everything into one day. 

Of course, at the bottom of the email, in the teeniest of ant-track fonts was the warning:

Itinerary and ship routing are subject to change.

Ain't it the truth?