Welcome back! We are once again preparing to take a cruise or two (or three). I have to admit, I’m quite excited about what we have in store this fall/winter, and I’m so happy to think that you might be following along.
Beginning another year of blogging compelled me to look back at where- and when- this all began. Fifteen years and nearly 2300 posts ago I was publishing blog posts by emailing them to a blogspot address, with no way to see what I was posting and certainly not enough internet minutes while on the ship to do any editing. Some things haven’t changed though…I’m still preparing all these posts on an iPhone, still not using dictation (I’m not sure G would appreciate that at 11pm while he’s trying to fall asleep), and still not doing much editing until I return home. And because I’m using Slide to Type to write posts, the autocorrects can be pretty egregious. Buckle up for another wild ride.
Let’s jump right in with where we’ll be cruising this fall, and I’ll do a “what we did on our summer vacation” post next (for those who are interested. Remember, this is my diary, not a travel journal).
We’re starting with a 10-night cruise that was supposed to be to the Sea of Cortez (but can only be most loosely considered that now);
…followed by a 28-night crossing to Sydney; ,,,followed by a 30-night crossing to Los Angeles!
So many of our cruises these days are of the last minute variety. Even if we book ahead, plans change, and then change again. But this fall, the two transpacific cruises have been on the books since April 2025. I am desperate to return to the South Pacific. And New Zealand. And to sail in and out of Sydney Harbour again. G, though, was not interested in another flight to or from Australia. A flight home from Rome last year with a 0Dark30 departure from the ship in Civitavecchia and a long layover in Munich just about did him in. He is clearly over 24 hour travel days regardless of how appealing the destination. As a result, I had just about given up hope of ever seeing Australia again and was reconciling myself to the fact that our four previous visits would have to suffice (oh, enough with the eye rolling already!😆).
So when the opportunity to cruise to Sydney, spend one night there and then turn around and cruise back was presented a year and a half ago, I had both cruises booked for us in a quick minute. The fact that we will be stopping at Dravuni Island, Fiji twice and Mystery Island, Vanuatu once was the icing on the cake. There are no new ports for me, but that’s okay when the itinerary is this good. New ports are getting harder and harder to come by anyway. And G has never before been to Western Samoa (and I’ve been there only once on a transpacific cruise he couldn’t go on). I really can’t say we’ll be traveling in Australia…but we will get a sail in and out of Sydney Harbour and that’s the next best thing.
I was in the process of booking a pre-cruise hotel night because of those five sea days at the start of the westbound transpacific (missing the ship could derail everything) when it occurred to me that it made more sense to simply book the cruise just prior as a sort of buffer. We could fly out the same day and save $250 on a hotel night. Always preferring more cruise days to fewer, G immediately agreed. As things grew closer, he suggested we might still want to book a pre-cruise night, but NO. I really dislike pre-cruise hotel nights. While I concede that they are at times imperative and even more often quite prudent, I think traveling for McGee’s races has put me off hotels for years to come. We’ll take our chances with a same day flight knowing that our world won’t end if we miss that first cruise. Plus, what are the odds of another simultaneous vehicle mechanical failure / blizzard resulting in witnessing a fatal car accident en route to our home airport (à la last November)? And we survived that perfect storm just fine, right? 😳
It helped that I also love Sea of Cortez cruises and was not disappointed with the extra ten days on the ship, However, I’ll admit that when the town of Loreto in July outlawed any large cruise ships to protect the local marine life and our itinerary was changed to instead include a freight port on the west coast of Mexico (Guaymas) that sounds kind of sketch, I wasn’t thrilled. I understand the rationale, but I think it’s valid to be disappointed. I truly love the little town of Loreto and the scenery along the Sea of Cortez.
So we are off in two days on a 10-night Mexico cruise where we may or may not even sail south to Mexico due to Hurricane Polo, and even then may not leave the ship in at least one port, but it’s still better than a hotel night pre-cruise. Our first 38 nights will be spent on the Grand Princess, the oldest ship in the fleet. We haven’t been on the Grand in over 10 years, and then it directly followed several Pacific Princess cruises that made the ship seem huge by comparison. Something tells me we’ll feel quite content with the ship’s comparatively smaller size this year. Our third cruise, following an overnight in Sydney, will be on the Crown Princess, exactly like the Emerald Princess we were on so much last winter. That one will feel more familiar.
Frankly, our many upcoming sea days hold a lot more appeal now than they would have 15 years ago. Dare I say I’m looking forward to them as much as our ports? I loved the enrichment activities on the Emerald Princess Hawaii cruises last year and hope we have more of the same to look forward to this time around. The month of September has been quite busy (heck, the whole summer has) and the opportunity to slow down quite a bit is very attractive.
Tomorrow is our 43rd wedding anniversary and I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate than a ten week vacation to some of my favorite places in the world with my favorite person in the world.
Life is good. :-)
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