And the Journey Begins

When I say that the journey began at 4:45am today, that wouldn’t be accurate.  The journey really began June 25, 2024.  We were on a 14-day Scandinavian Cruise with our friends, Scott and Anita, and they mentioned signing up for Princess’s 2026 114-day World Cruise, which had an itinerary similar to the one we did in 2023 (WC23).  Speaking of which, we originally met Scott and Anita on that WC23 and became fast friends.  As Forrest Gump would say, “We were like peas and carrots”.  They asked if we would consider joining them on the 2026 cruise. 

The candid truth is we hadn’t considered doing another such cruise.  We LOVED the WC23 but there was the obvious cost hurdle, the time away hurdle (Sherri was still working), and just a quiet whisper in the back of our minds, “Been There, Done That”.  It was a lot of money for a do-over that really didn’t need doing over.  Plus the Israel/Hamas war had started in October so we likely wouldn’t be able to traverse the Suez Canal again, meaning the ship would likely reroute around the southern tip of Africa (like it had to do for WC24).  Not a preferrable itinerary.

On the other hand, re-experiencing something so amazing was appealing.  Scott said they were running unheard-of deals, including offering the Premier Package for free.  At a normal price of $90 per day, per person, that was over $20k in savings.  And, in the end, it was a low commitment to sign up as the deposit was 100% refundable until Sept 2025.  And so, from the Sky Princess, in the Baltic Sea somewhere near Sweden, we signed up for the WC26.  Upon returning home after both the Scandinavian cruise and a back-to-back Rhine River cruise, we transferred the reservation to Costco (more on that in a later post) and began the mental leap of faith that we’d actually follow through with our second once-in-a-lifetime cruise.

And then the most serendipitous itinerary change.  Princess decided to forego the Suez and Mediterranean completely, opting instead to head east after Malaysia toward the far east.  In order to keep it at 114 days, they eliminated the Florida to LA portion and suddenly it was LA to LA and renamed from a World Cruise to the Pacific Circle.  BUT, Princess honored our reservation segment for the portion from FLA to LA and so we received an additional 17 days FREE, including the premier package during that entire segment.  The only negative is we have to fly home from LA….a very small price to pay for 17 free extra days.  In true Bob Barker fashion, “that’s a prize package worth” about $10,000.  And now we were going to bucket list places like Japan, China, Vietnam and S. Korea.  Serendipity at its best.

So now we were fully committed.  Even though we were still a year from embarking, the serious research started (more on that later), the purchasing of new necessities (more on that later too), and generally re-setting all of life’s obligations so that we could take a sabbatical from our life for 4.5 months.  Which catches us up to today which started at 4:45am. 

Because we had been packing for about 2 weeks, everything was ready to load into the one-way rental I’d picked up on Friday.  The car was packed and we were pulling out of the driveway at 5:15am on the dot.  Of course no such departure would be complete without a few obligatory rituals.  The first is similar to one we experienced in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, but instead of saying, “Show me your ___”, it was “Show me your ……… passport”.  All hell could break loose, luggage could go missing, you name it, but we ain’t getting on that boat without our passports.  Everything else besides the passport was optional.  So we always make sure we each have our passport.  The other ritual…..”Did you lock the front door?”.  So after a quick u-turn and a jiggle of the knob, we were truly off on the adventure of a lifetime.

On the ride down, we listened to the first 4 chapters of Jordan Peterson’s, 12 Rules for Life.  We started listening to audiobooks in the car many years ago when we were commuting between Atlanta and Augusta to babysit our new granddaughter.  That was 7 years ago now.    We love a good audiobook.  Truth be known, a 10 hr audiobook takes us 12-15 hrs to finish since we’ll pause it and discuss it at various points.  I know this isn’t a marriage blog, but it can’t hurt to take advice from a couple spending 131 days together in a 180 sq ft inside cabin.  Use that car-time wisely and audiobooks are a great way to spark conversations you might never have otherwise.  Now back to our regularly scheduled blog.

After 4 chapters and 7 hrs of our 10 hr trek, we switched to Ina Garten’s Be Ready when Luck Happens.  Much lighter and easier to discuss as we approached the final 3 hours of the trip.  We’re still in the early parts of the book and it’s interesting but I’m assuming her parents have passed on because if not, they ain’t happy about their daughter’s reflection on their relationship.  And in true Forrest style, “that’s all I have to say about that”.

We checked into a hotel about 13 miles from the port and were so tired (more mentally than physically), we decided that finding a place for dinner would be more taxing than we were hungry, so we skipped it.  The next 131 days would be full of great food and drink, so no regrets.  I think that will be the theme for the next 131 days…..no regrets!