Friday, November 26, 2021

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?

4 comments:

  1. Interesting itinerary … Saudi used to be closed to tourism entirely, so that is a curious addition. Doing overnights is a good way to fill the holes caused by COVID while giving pax extra time to explore. Was Hawaii ever on your itinerary? That Hawaii is still closed to ships is one of the reasons I wonder about our February HAL departure?

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    1. Yes, Hawaii was always part of the plan. At first, we expected just to have an overnight in Honolulu. Later, when it became clear we were losing Australia and New Zealand, a revised itinerary added three other Hawaiian islands. Now it's off-limits to cruising, which I find curious since they are accepting tourists by air right now.

      Anything can happen in two months. Unless something drastic happens, I expect they'll be open to you in February.

      Enjoy HAL! It seems I'd be welcome on that line again now too. They have lifted the ban on passengers with portable oxygen concentrators. Unfortunately, they still refuse those who need supplemental oxygen delivered in canisters and those who travel with portable dialysis machines.

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  2. Glad to see your cruise will be happening. It will be interesting to follow along and see what your final itinerary is.

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    1. We're still a little in a haze of disbelief. I'm not sure I'll believe we're really going until the Star comes alive beneath my feet!

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