As many of you know we recently retired and moved to Nova Scotia. One stipulation was that we would be gone in the winter. Well we did survive December and currently this is the snow we have! (actually we have more than that as this was a few days ago) Ironically we had a green Christmas.
For years I have been following Yellow Fish Cruises blog as they spend their winters cruising (and more recently adding land holidays) and knew that we wanted to do the same.
I already knew we would be leaving early January and doing some Caribbean cruises. January 12 - 26 was easily booked on the Royal Princess. Bernie insists he has to be away for his birthday - who am I to argue.
Then I start my contract with Princess as their Destination Expert for the South America Grand Adventure. They asked me to come a week early to do some crew training. So we join Jan 26 for a week Caribbean cruise.
Then we sail on this amazing itinerary around the horn ending in Los Angeles in March.
We knew we did not want to head home late March as winter is NOT over then. We also HAVE to attend the wedding of a very close friend in Vancouver mid May.
It made no sense to fly all the way home. Then 5 weeks later fly all across the country again for the wedding, then fly back after the wedding. Plus airfare would be crazy (around $4,500 total just in airfare)!
So we started contemplating options of what to do when this cruise ends.
We had lots of options we weighed.
- Stay on the ship and keep sailing.
- Get off the ship and try another cruise line to Mexico.
- Sail round trip on the Coral thru the Panama to Florida and then back to LA. But the dates did not work well.
- Get off ship and fly somewhere for a long stay holiday.
- We looked at places in Mexico. Then we considered going to the Cook Islands. Even thought of Australia. Even though prices were reasonable it was adding up when you added air, accommodations, food, transfers, etc.
So what did we decide.
On March 23 we will switch from Port Lecturer to passenger again on the Royal. We will do a 7 day Mexican cruise (which we love).
Then when the Royal returns to LA we will get off and cross the pier and board the Star Princess for it's 28 Hawaii/South Pacific Cruise. Have always wanted to visit the South Pacific but prices have been crazy. We just got the cruise for $100 US a day for an obstructed ocean view. So it was an easy decision.
It again returns to LA and again the Royal will be parked right beside us. So we will get back on the Royal and sail a 7 day Mexican again and then stay on for the 7 day California Coastal cruise up to Vancouver.
We will get off a week before the wedding. Rent a car, stay in an Airbnb, visit with old friends and finally attend Katrina and Rob's wedding before flying home a few days later.
In total we will be gone 4.5 months. In total we will visit 25 different countries. Visit 63 ports. Relax with 55 sea days. And enjoy countless glasses of wine.
Since we won't be travelling as passengers on the 49 day South America cruise we will not have a WiFi package. So I will not be blogging at all that voyage.
Also since we are also as crew I don't really want to talk about that side of things out in social media for the respect of the crew, the Royal Princess, and Princess Cruises.
I will be keeping a journal and may share some of it after the cruise but haven't decided yet.
Not sure how much blogging I will do prior or after but knowing me I will want to share with you all how great cruising is and how amazing the crew are.
One great thing is we have our nephew living with us currently (as he too recently moved back to Nova Scotia) and he will be here the whole time we are gone. It worked out perfectly.
Thanks for following - I know many of you have commented that you will be on one of the above cruises and like I responded to you in your comment "I really do want to meet up with you!" So make sure you say hi when you see us on board.
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