Welcome family & friends to our simple website and first blog. If that is not you then well done for finding us as we are pretty much hidden and you will probably be bored witless reading this but that is your choice!
For everyone else, we hope to keep you all regularly updated as we adventure around the world.
It was July 2021 when we decided to book this trip. Our 25th wedding anniversary cruise in August 2020 was cancelled due to Covid, as was another small cruise, so we wondered what cruise(s) to use our future cruise credit against. Pamela had always wanted to go to Australia but we both hate flying long distance so had dismissed the idea. Being a cruise fan I was aware of world cruises but we didn't want to just spend a few days in Australia - we wanted to travel around!!! Occassionally, cruise ship itineraries from/to Southampton work out so that you can catch one ship out, spend time in Oz, then catch another ship back. It just so happened that 2023 was one of those years, and it coincided with Pam's 50th, so we went for it.
As we write this we are 23 days away to boarding P&O Arcadia bound for Brisbane. The world of cruising has had lots of challenges over the last 2 years and we know of others that felt that 2023 is to risky for them to continue with their world cruises and have moved them back a year. The 2024 dates would not have worked for us (too short a time in Australia) so we stayed booked and hoped that the countries would relax their restrictions and everything would go ahead. It seems that we could be fortunate and, except for possibly some mask wearing now again and maybe a covid test, most restrictions have been lifted.
As you all know we are ultra planners and so we have achieved a lot in the past few months. We have our travel insurance (far more difficult to obtain than we thought due to the length of time away and what we are doing); We have been jabbed for everything from flu to hepatitis A; Pam has been a dab hand at obtaining online visas; We have booked all our travel excursions (some provided by cruise lines, some independent and some we will just wander to certain sites); We have planned our way around Australia with a couple of flights, car hire, hotels and some venues/activities pre-booked.
Except for packing, and a few little items on our to-do list, we feel that we are ready to go. The common 2 questions asked are:
How are you feeling now? Well, excited but also anxious. We have only ever travelled to Europe and east coast USA so this is a big leap for us. We have also never spent more than 2 weeks away from family, and often our 2 girls come with us, so we know that will be a wrench but life is for living and communication tools are marvellous though they haven't mastered hugs properly yet!
What are you looking forward to most? Mark: Seeing the Caribbean for the first time; Going thru the Panama Canal & Safari's in Africa. Pamela: Staying at the reef suite on the Great Barrier Reef; Going to Uluru (Ayres Rock); Day visit to Polynesian Center in Honolulu and many many more.
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