John and Diane's Amazing Adventure - Part II

[luvcruisn']

Looking forward to reading about your adventures. Happy Holidays.

[Nursekaye]

Diane and John,

 

I am so happy to discover you are going on another world cruise. I followed your travels in 2008.I looked forward to each entry. I so appreciate the time and effort you put forth to share your experiences with the rest of us.

 

Wishing you Happy Holidays and a fantastic cruise.

 

Kaye from Northern Illinois

 

PS by the way it is 19 degrees here today and Christmas Eve we were without electricity for 16 hrs. due to a VERY heavy ice storm - wish I was in Warm California walking on the beach!!!!!

[BeachFan53]

I am relatively new to this board, and sincerely loved following KweenKaren and the Stansfields cruise earlier this year. How does one follow John and Diane's? Will you be posting on a blog or keeping a single thread running on this board or ?? Thank you for taking the time to share with so many, it is quite generous to take the time while cruising to include us in your adventure!

[neilb]

Hope you have a fabulous trip! Followed you on your last world cruise and loved every minute of it!!! Can't wait to follow you on this one too.

[innlady1]

I'm pretty sure last time it was a thread here on the HAL forum.

 

I'm looking forward to following the adventures vicariously again! :D

 

It was posted here on the HAL board...I remember it well...and look forward to John and Diane's latest adventure. If I recall correctly, he had just retired from teaching.

[hylasgirl]

Great! Can't wait to follow along again. When does the cruise start?

[Johnny B]

The cruise sails from Ft. Lauderdale on January 6, and we'll disembark in Los Angeles on April 29. Can't wait!

[innlady1]

The cruise sails from Ft. Lauderdale on January 6, and we'll disembark in Los Angeles on April 29. Can't wait!

 

Can't wait to read your journal, Johnny! Is the other couple joining you? Bill and MaryAnn, I think they're names are ???

[Johnny B]

Bill and Mary Ann joined us for the last segment of the 2008 cruise, did the whole 2009, but this time around they've opted for the 70-day Round South America on the Prinsendam, as did Gene and Shirley Pontrelli, our tablemates from the 2008 cruise. We'll miss them.

[janmcn]

I hate to get "personal" but I will (since I think I'm not the only one who is curious) and you can answer as much as you want. For those of us for whom this is still a dream, could you give us an idea of how much more than the cost of your "basic cruise" you found you last cruise cost overall? How much are you "budgeting" for this year's cruise either in terms of percentage of your basic cruise cost or in dollars. It would include all your various tours, side trips, off-ship expenses, etc. It's such an overwhelming idea to even begin to estimate, but I'm sure you now have a better idea of approximately how much more you have to have put aside for your expenses for this trip.

 

We'd love to think of this, but with elderly parents still around it's not possible now, but perhaps in the future, so we can try to plan ahead and save.

[ger_77]

John and Diane, I can't wait for your cruise to begin. I remember following your last trip with enthusiasm, and look forward to being taken along on another "trip of a lifetime". Stay well, and thanks for staying in touch!

 

Smooth Sailing! :):):)

[Johnny B]

Don't you just love travel days? If it were only a travel day, it would have been fine, but that which came before nearly drove us crazy. The family drove safely back to Davis on Sunday, and then were inundated by forty of John's former students that evening. It went really well and we got to hear about their college and post-college adventures, including one at Yale Med (Yikes!) The next morning it only took two hours to de-Christmas the house, including the tree. While doing that, however, we discovered "termite dust" on the mantle over the fireplace, and that began our comedy of errors. We scheduled our termite people (who don't tent) for Monday AM, but then they changed to Monday PM, and then to Tuesday between 12 and 2. After we got back from taking Phoebe (our cat) to friends at 1:00 on Tuesday, we found their notice on the door - we had completely forgotten! Hopefully they came early this morning and Bill, our neighbor, let them in. Otherwise the house may be completely consumed by the time we got home.

 

This morning was ever so much fun. We got up at 4:15 to take a 5:15 shuttle from our local hotel to the airport for a 6:25 flight to Phoenix and then to Ft. Lauderdale, where we're enjoying a wonderful view of the freeway right now. We were really, really grouchy after traveling, but John's just finished his second rum and coke and he's ready to go!

 

Tomorrow we drive to Key West and we're looking forward to a lot - seeing somewhere new, beautiful scenery, a reservation at a great restaurant on New Year's Eve, and a full moon with a bottle of Champagne. Life is good.

[Johnny B]

For Janmcn - I'll take some time tomorrow to answer your question (as well as I can).

[luvcruisn']

Happy New Year John and Diane. Looking forward to reading about your adventures.

[alsas]

Happy New Year to you both,enjoy the sunset and the champagne.Hopefully we will meet in the crows nest and we can toast to the voyage ahead. Safe travels to the Amsterdam. Alsas.

[hylasgirl]

For Janmcn - I'll take some time tomorrow to answer your question (as well as I can).

 

 

Oh, thank you! That is such a great question. I am trying to talk the husband into a 69 day segment and he has asked pretty much the same thing. I don't need to get all crazy on land tours, but there are a few places that I obviously want to see more in depth.

 

It will be great to hear from you. I hope things are going well getting ready to go. I am SOOOO envious!

[Johnny B]

OK, I'll help as much as I can about extra expenses.

 

First, those on the ship: Computer time is fairly expensive, 25 cents a minute if you buy the 1000 minutes package. Wine can be expensive too, so we buy a package that gives us each a glass of wine every night at dinner. That's $393 per person. We also get unlimited laundry (such a treat) for $450 (both of us)

 

Regarding shore excursions, it's really a mixed bag. The MOST expensive way to do it is to book through HAL. Sorry, but that's the truth. Example: On our last WC, we wanted to do an overland tour through India, five days, four nights from Madras to Delhi to Agra to Jaipur to rejoin the ship in Bombay. HAL had a package for $5600 EACH, but we booked it through an Indian agent (recommended to us by the India Tourist Office in NY) for $1700 each. We stayed at the same hotels as HAL (Oberoi - amazing), went to the same places, but they were on a bus and we had a private car and driver and a private guide. They did get lunch and dinner and we only got breakfast, but you can buy a lot of meals in India for $3900 each. We did the same type of thing in Egypt, took an overland tour from Safaga to Alexandria with DeCastro tours (recommended on CC) and paid about a third of HAL's. You do have to do some research and have faith that travel professionals in other countries will do a good job, but boy, you really save money, and we had wonderful tours. We do tend to be fairly fearless tourists and have traveled on our own a great deal.

 

The middle route is through our cruise agent, those "specialists" in Seattle. They do their own program and we do them from time to time. Last cruise we took their Cambodia overland to Angkor Wat for 4 days and it was wonderful. This time we're taking their Warriors/Li River excursion in China. That one was about twice what a Chinese travel agent quoted us, but we thought we'd spring for this one.

 

In individual cities, often the best and cheapest way to see it is to just get a local taxi, tell the driver what you want to see (read HAL's brochure), bargain for a price, and just GO!

We'll do that in several ports, as we did last tour. For example, we had an extra day in Bombay, so Gene, Shirley, John and I booked a taxi, paid $10 each, and we had a very thorough tour of the city.

 

I hope this helps. I know people who don't do anything nor do they go to see anything, either because they've already "been there, done that" or just enjoy staying on the ship,but we're not in that category. We also know people who won't go on a tour unless HAL offers it, often because they feel that if the tour is late, the ship will wait for them.

We try to strike a happy medium, seeing what we want to see while trying to save as much money as possible.

 

If you have more questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

[Johnny B]

What is it that Florida has against us? When we sailed two years ago, we flew into Ft. Lauderdale three days early to "soak up some sun." The day we arrived it had been in the high 70's, but we didn't get in until about 11:00. The next three days Florida experienced the worst cold snap in recent history, and northern Florida even had snow flurries. We looked at the pool through a lot of glass from a nicely warmed hotel lobby and dug out our (very few) warm clothes. Three days later, when we boarded the ship, it went back up to the high 70's. Bugger!

 

Now, we're back in Florida, Key West this time, and the first day was beautiful. John got in pool time while I took a nap to try to fight off my incipient cold. Then the next day we spent from 10:00 until 12:00 at the pool, soaking up actual sun (if my dermatologist is reading this, I sincerely apologize). By 3:00, however, it was raining the proverbial cats and dogs, but it had cleared by dinner time, so we ate outside at Caroline's. What we hadn't figured in, however, was the wind. Every time it blew, the beautiful tropical trees shared their leftover moisture with us. So kind.

 

This morning we woke up to another cold snap. It was in the high 40's but mid-day is supposed to be in the high 50's - joy! With the wind, however, it feels a lot colder. Someone in the elevator told us that his family has been coming here for years, and this is the coldest weather he's ever experienced here.

 

WHY US? If the Florida Chamber of Commerce knew about us, they'd stop us at the border.

 

Oh, a flashback to New Year's Eve. We've spent it lots of places (our favorite being Paris), but this has to be the wildest place we've ever seen. After (a very overpriced and disappointing) dinner at Nine-One-Five, we wandered two blocks down Duval to the center of the excitement. New York may have their ball to drop at midnight, but in Key West a transvestite in a pink ball gown is lowered to the ground- ever so delicately - in a huge pink high heeled slipper. I'd heard about it, but one truly has to see it to believe it!

 

Two more nights here and then to Ft. Lauderdale. We'll probably bring snow with us.

[RuthC]

Oh, a flashback to New Year's Eve. We've spent it lots of places (our favorite being Paris), but this has to be the wildest place we've ever seen. After (a very overpriced and disappointing) dinner at Nine-One-Five, we wandered two blocks down Duval to the center of the excitement. New York may have their ball to drop at midnight, but in Key West a transvestite in a pink ball gown is lowered to the ground- ever so delicately - in a huge pink high heeled slipper. I'd heard about it, but one truly has to see it to believe it!

:eek: I've never heard of it. But now I know I have to see it some day. Sounds like more fun than I've had on New Year's Eve in a long, long time.

[cruz chic]

:eek: I've never heard of it. But now I know I have to see it some day. Sounds like more fun than I've had on New Year's Eve in a long, long time.

Me too. Key West is such a fun place. I just love it!

[nyfarmgirl]

I thought south FL only hated me. I used to work for a company based in West Palm Beach and every trip there was always unseasonably cold and unusually rainy!

 

I can't wait to read about more of your adventure. Happy travels.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

What is it that Florida has against us? When we sailed two years ago, we flew into Ft. Lauderdale three days early to "soak up some sun." The day we arrived it had been in the high 70's, but we didn't get in until about 11:00. The next three days Florida experienced the worst cold snap in recent history, and northern Florida even had snow flurries. We looked at the pool through a lot of glass from a nicely warmed hotel lobby and dug out our (very few) warm clothes. Three days later, when we boarded the ship, it went back up to the high 70's. Bugger!

 

Now, we're back in Florida, Key West this time, and the first day was beautiful. John got in pool time while I took a nap to try to fight off my incipient cold. Then the next day we spent from 10:00 until 12:00 at the pool, soaking up actual sun (if my dermatologist is reading this, I sincerely apologize). By 3:00, however, it was raining the proverbial cats and dogs, but it had cleared by dinner time, so we ate outside at Caroline's. What we hadn't figured in, however, was the wind. Every time it blew, the beautiful tropical trees shared their leftover moisture with us. So kind.

 

This morning we woke up to another cold snap. It was in the high 40's but mid-day is supposed to be in the high 50's - joy! With the wind, however, it feels a lot colder. Someone in the elevator told us that his family has been coming here for years, and this is the coldest weather he's ever experienced here.

 

WHY US? If the Florida Chamber of Commerce knew about us, they'd stop us at the border.

 

 

You're not the only ones! First time I went to Florida I took only warm weather clothes. Just about froze to death! Had to purchase a sweatshirt in Sanibel.

 

Last February I went to Key West--luckily I had my Minnesota clothes with me (to wear on the plane)--it was really cold! Funny to see everyone running around in fleeces in Key West!

[yellowbird23]

Two years ago, in 2008, we took a "once in a lifetime" world cruise. Because we knew we'd never do it again, we booked the balcony and took eleven bags. We had amazing overland adventures in Cambodia, India and Egypt. We came home exhausted but incredibly happy with what we had seen.

 

So, you might ask, what are they doing now? Well, we're doing it again. Our "twice in a lifetime" world cruise, so to speak. After loving the westbound itinerary, which resulted in getting an extra hour's sleep every four nights, we swore we'd never take an eastbound cruise. Guess what? This one's eastbound. We'll sail from Ft. Lauderdale again, and then go through the Panama Canal, but this time we'll partially circumnavigate South America, stopping in Ecuador (where we'll begin an overland tour to Machu Picchu), Peru, Chile, and Argentina. In the midst of that, however, we'll nip down and see Antarctica. It's sounding marvelous already. They we cross the South Atlantic, heading to Namibia and South Africa, where we'll go to a game preserve for four days to celebrate John's birthday. After Africa, we continue to Mauritius, Seychelles, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Korea, Japan, Russia, and then across the North Pacific to Vancouver, Seattle, and Los Angeles, where we'll disembark.

 

The bags are packed, the shots and visas are taken care of, and now if we can just get through the holidays, we'll be on our way. We hope you'll be able to join us along the way.

Please tell me where I can find this upcoming blog! I want to go along too! Thanks so much. Happy journey!:)

[hylasgirl]

Please tell me where I can find this upcoming blog! I want to go along too! Thanks so much. Happy journey!:)

 

It's going to be right here... this is the start of it.

[Cruisergal1208]

Johnny B, do you have to purchase visas for where you are going? Do you have to have certain shots to be able to get off the ship at certain ports? How do you handle bills due for payment back home while gone? I will probably think of other such questions but this is enough for now. Thanks for all you great info and best wishes for smooth seas and a great WC.

Just read a previous posting about visas and shots. Which ones?