What now?

 65 degrees, partially cloudy--a lovely spring day in the Ozarks

"To travel is to take a journey into yourself." ~ Danny Kaye

We've been back from Norway for a while now, and if you've been following my blog at all, you know I always like to have a sparkly thing glittering on our horizon--a new adventure to anticipate and plan for. So the DH and I have been kicking around ideas for what our next extended voyage should be like and when. The when is 2025. (We have a total eclipse of the sun coming to our town in April of 2024, otherwise, we'd have tried to go next year!) 

And until our next adventure, the view from our back isn't too shabby...

We stumbled into our 2018 Princess World cruise when the fare took a serious nosedive about 7 months before embarkation. Where was it going? It didn't matter because we hadn't been to most of the places a world cruise typically visits. We agonized over our next big trip, first booking on Cunard, then Princess, and finally landing on Viking for 2022, (I suspect our longsuffering travel agent, Teresa Skeim of Cruise Specialists was ready to tear her hair out by the time we booked the Viking voyage, but she very kindly helped us with all our bookings and refunds and rebookings without complaint. Bless the woman.) 

So as we started thinking about a new adventure, we looked at Oceania's Grand Voyages for 2025. Before Christmas, we booked part of their 2025 WC, leaving Miami and ending in Singapore. The itinerary was chockful of new-to-us countries and ports, including the Amazon and South Africa! We got so excited because the only repeat ports for us were Montevideo, Cochin and Singapore! 

77 days on the Insignia! Awesome itinerary & small ship casual elegance!

And then I started thinking about the Yellow Fever vaccine that was required for this trip. I'd thought I could squeak by with a waiver from my doctor because, due to some meds I take for my lung condition that suppress my immune system, I can't take a live-virus vaccine. And it could work for me to do that, but the more I read about the actual disease--bear in mind, I am a mosquito magnet--the less I felt like rolling the dice. Then there's the super long flight home from Singapore...

So we called our TA and cancelled. Oceania was quick to refund our deposit, but our insurance through AIG was not refundable. We could, however, transfer the coverage to another trip, so we were committed to making another big decision.

While we were on the Viking Venus, we toyed with the idea of doing their Australia, Asia, Alaska 78 day Grand Voyage on the Orion. We were offered a nice discount for booking while we were on our trip to the Northern Lights, and we know we love the Viking experience. 

Lots of new-to-us countries and ports! 

While we were considering whether to make this booking, we realized it had the same problem  as the Oceania trip--the long international flight. We could probably do it, but I need to use my portable oxygen concentrator when I fly. Even though I've always been able to plug my POC into an airplane outlet for long flights, I'm still required to carry enough batteries with me to cover one and a half times the amount of time the entire trip takes, including time on the ground. So if the flight to Sydney takes 25 hours, I need to have 37.5 hours of battery life to cover it. That's a lot of batteries! 

And I hate to think about it, but there have been times when either Herkimer (my big POC that rolls around like a carry-on) or Percival (my purse-sized POC) have sputtered out an error message and given up their battery operated ghost. It would be a catastrophe if, somewhere over the Pacific, I lost one of them. Without the support of supplemental O2 at a plane's cruising altitude, my O2 sats drop to below 80 in about a minute. 

Not good. 

So we did some research, talked about what we really wanted in our next big adventure, and decided to go full out for another World Cruise instead of a shorter Grand Voyage. Here is our list of must-haves:

• Full Circumnavigation--Even though we've been blessed to take 2 world cruises, we've never sailed all the way around this beautiful blue marble. We'd like to have a Phileas Fogg experience of crossing every longitude line and returning to where we first embarked. 
• Under 120 days--Our Viking WC stretched the limits of our willingness to be away from family and friends. I hate to give up our land life for any longer than that.  
• Westward travel--When you sail westward, you lose a day crossing the International Dateline, but you are rewarded with multiple 25 hour days to get it back. Traveling east means 23 hour days and if it is tiring for us to lose sleep, just imagine how hard it is for the crew! 
• Embarkation & Debarkation from a US port--No international flights. 
• Emphasis on enrichment, art classes, passenger choir, a bent toward classical music on board, and if there's a spa with heated stone loungers, we'd be in heaven. We love sea days, and are perfectly capable of entertaining ourselves, but it's always good to have full slate of activities on offer. 
• A relaxed itinerary with enough sea days to rest between ports. Especially when you hit the Med, you're likely to have port, port, port. We'd rather be able to thoroughly enjoy the ports we visit and take longer excursions, knowing we'll have time to recuperate before the next one. 
• Traditional cruising--This means we want a set dining time and table so we can have the same wait staff each night. For choice, we'd like a 6 place table so we can make some new friends. We'd also enjoy some Formal Nights. Life's too short not to be able to see the DH in his tux more often!
• Self service launderette--Even if we have free ship's laundry, there are still some things I like to wash for myself. 
• Must meet our budget--I hate debt more than just about anything. As much as I love the romance, the excitement, the wonder of an extended voyage, I want it all paid for before we step on the ship. 

So that's our list. How about you? What are your "must have's" for an extended adventure?