Welcome back! I’m so happy you’re joining us for our tenth season of cruising! I think when we made it to nine years of extended travel, there was little doubt we’d go for ten. I’m not certain if it’s due to an absence of personal restraint (especially when it concerns something we both enjoy so much), or the fact that we just like base numbers. I guess we’ll find out next season. ;-)
Our favorite part of the ship
You might recall that, at the end of last year, we promised ourselves that this season was going to be much, much easier than the previous one. As I’ve said before, it’s not that we didn’t love what we did last year, but, let’s face it...traveling around the world is not without its challenges. At the top of that list were the five overnight flights we took in Economy Class seats. The “making do without” minimalism we experienced the entire season. The myriad of languages and currencies and immigration requirements. And, finally, the frequent moves we made (hotel, ship, hotel, ship, ship, hotel, ship, hotel, hotel). It was fun, it was adventurous...it was exhausting.
We were prescient then (or maybe just lucky) that we had already booked cruises for this year that nearly perfectly fit our need for a more relaxed season. The only surprising part is when- and where- we’ll be starting our travels.
The day Princess opened their 2019-20 Australia season for reservations in May, 2018, I booked several Ruby Princess cruises back to back, primarily in Australia and New Zealand, but occasionally running up to what Aussies call “the islands” (New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji). Frankly, there wasn’t then, and hasn’t been since, any decision to be made about where we’d spend our time. We loved our cruises out of Sydney in 2017-18. They seemed tailor-made for us, and offered the perfect combination of all the things we’re most interested in when we travel: history, scenery, animals and beaches. And, except for the middle part of the New Zealand cruises (seven ports in a row), they were really relaxing. We understood the language (mostly), there were minimal immigration requirements, and the same two currencies (Australian and New Zealand dollars) were all we needed. In addition, the people were just So. Darn. Friendly. that we couldn’t wait to return.
On a whim, I also booked the Sun Princess circumnavigation of Australia departing Sydney in early October and the Ruby Princess repositioning cruise from Los Angeles to Sydney in September, after it spent this summer in Alaska. I was fairly convinced we wouldn’t be on the latter, but you know how much we enjoy not having to change cabins between cruises. It was nice to have it locked in...just in case. Imagine my surprise when, in our hotel room in Hawaii in January, just a few days after we’d flown from Shanghai through Incheon to Honolulu, G announced that he thought we really ought to start our 2019-20 season in Los Angeles and cruise down to Sydney. I’m still recovering from that bombshell.
Our last transpacific cruise was in 2006, and G hasn’t yet stopped commenting about those endless sea days, especially the four or five we had sailing from Honolulu to San Francisco on our eastward crossing. He was pretty much over them by then, and that cruise really changed our attitude toward our future cruises. Port days: good; sea days: not so good.
No surprise then that, after our eleventh hour change of plans regarding last year’s cruise between Rome and Singapore, I kept waiting for the cancellation shoe to drop. Especially when the 2020-21 Pacific Princess itineraries were announced, and there’s a good chance we may be back in the South Pacific again next year, I thought certainly G would have a change of mind and we’d be flying to Sydney in October either to start our season with the Sun Princess circumnavigation or to meet the Ruby Princess once it arrived there. But when final payment was made in May, we were locked in, and there was no turning back. We’re going to Australia the long, scenic, relaxing way. And, boy, that slow pace could not be better timed (details following in my next post).
We’ll be returning to several favorite ports on the transpacific cruise: Honolulu, Kauai (knock on wood...it’s notoriously missed due to wind), French Polynesia (be still my heart) and American Samoa. Even better, our westward journey means lots of 25-hour days. I’ve always said that the only thing better than a day on a cruise ship is a 25-hour day on a cruise ship. No jet lag either...easy peasy! And, despite the “been there, done that”-ness of this season (a wonderful thing, with no pressure to see and do it all), there are still two ports that will be new to us: Isle of Pines and Lifou. We’re especially looking forward to those.
We’ve been on the Ruby Princess before, but only for 20 nights, years ago when Tony Yeomans (aka Captain McCharming) was on the bridge. Still, it will seem very familiar to us. It’s almost identical to the Emerald Princess, and we’ve spent a fair bit of time on that ship. There is much we love about it, although it lacks the covered pool and hot tub area we’ve enjoyed so much on the Golden Princess two years ago and the Sapphire Princess last year. That will be missed, especially in Tasmania and New Zealand. But we have reserved our favorite cabin on our favorite deck in our favorite part of the ship for the duration of our stay, the benefit of being among the very first to book these cruises. I can’t recall the last time we’ve made a plan early on, booked cruises on opening day and stuck with them...probably since we repeatedly did the Emerald Princess in the Caribbean. It’s nice!
Our favorite part of the ship
Source (and many more ship pics at):
The only drawback to our plan this year? An early departure. We’ll be boarding the Ruby Princess in San Pedro, the port for Los Angeles, on September 24th. Things have been intense this year, and preparing to leave a bit difficult, at least for me, but embarkation day is our 36th wedding anniversary. Is there a better way to celebrate than boarding a ship for a tenth season of extended cruising?
We’re going to Australia!
Life is good. :-)