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“LIVE FROM” 2019 Oceania Insignia World Cruise, Jan. 11-July 11


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Hi Oceania family…especially those who will be sailing with us during this great adventure! 

I’m starting this “Live From” thread today so that anyone who will be sailing on the world cruise and its segments can start posting their preparations for and travel to the 3 ports of embarkation…New York City on 1/11, Miami on 1/14 and Los Angeles on 1/30, as well as the segment embarkation ports along the way.  I will be posting to the thread, of course, but this is also an opportunity for anyone sailing on this Insignia cruise to share their stories and adventures too.  I’m hoping that it will also serve as a place for us to communicate with each other as we travel. 

To all of you who are not on the Insignia…please feel free to ask any questions or share your comments as we travel the world.  I hope this thread can serve as a source of information for those who will sail the world cruise in 2020 and later years.  I have gained a lot of helpful knowledge in reading previous world cruise Live Threads and Blogs, so maybe this can pay it forward.

Some statistics: the entire cruise will visit 5 continents, 36 countries, 35 islands, 91 ports, 96 Unesco World Heritage Sites, 2 oceans and 16 seas.  There will be 14 overnight stays, 2 equator crossings, 1 international date line crossing, 24 time zone crossings and 46,925 nautical miles sailed going east to west.  The city with the largest population will be Tokyo and the smallest population will be Monte Carlo.  Overnight stays will be in Bali, Indonesia; Tokyo, Japan; Shanghai, China; Hong Kong, China; Saigon, Vietnam; Bangkok, Thailand; Rangoon, Myanmar; Luxor, Egypt; Jerusalem, Israel; Lisbon, Portugal; Bordeaux, France and St. George, Bermuda.

There will be 8 segments: New York City to Los Angeles; Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia; Sydney to Tokyo, Japan; Tokyo to Singapore; Singapore to Dubai, UAE; Dubai to Rome, Italy; Rome to Southampton, England; and Southampton to Miami.         

 

Our story:

Connie and I are good friends who met 30+ years ago in nursing school.  We’ve traveled together many times and had decided to take a “big” cruise when I retired (which just happened a week ago!), so about 2 years ago we started thinking of where to visit.  We read about world cruises and began researching those offered by different cruise lines…which differed in the amenities offered, itinerary, type of ship and cost.  We narrowed the choice down to Oceania and booked it on the day bookings opened up in 2017.  We really liked this itinerary…includes most of our bucket list locations and also goes to places we’ve been to before but are looking forward to seeing again.  Having now spent thousands of hours of preparation, we are very excited to get underway.  The last thing we have left to do is to get our luggage picked up on Jan. 17, then we leave for LA on 1/28.  We’ll spend 2 nights at the Beverly Wilshire hotel (where O is putting us up), tour LA and board the ship on 1/30.  Can’t wait to meet everyone in about 3 weeks!

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Found you. Thanks for starting this. My husband and I will be joining the ship for the Tokyo to Singapore segment. In 2016 we were on the ship from Singapore to Rome. A fabulous experience. Feeling a little envious of those preparing to do the ATW. It will be fun to follow this boards. Thanks again

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Thanks, Lisa, for getting this started.  I am going to give the link to this thread to my family and friends back home, so they can follow my great adventure.

 

This will be my first time on Oceania, although it is about my 35th cruise, overall.   I will be travelling solo, (could not find anyone I know that had this much time to share).   I am going all the way around from New York, and will stay aboard for the six 'bonus' days from New York to Miami at the end.  This is also my "retirement gift to myself", (I retired November of 2017).   I picked this over some of the other world cruises available, as it is truly a 'dream' itinerary, that if I couldn't improve upon, if I wanted to.

 

Today I was scheduled to have UPS pick up my two bags for transfer between 1:00 and 5:00 PM....they surprised me at 11:47 AM....glad I was there...:classic_wink:

 

I also took care of some last minute business....filed for tax extension, and suspended my cable-telephone-internet account for six month's.  Still keeping my wireless active.

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I've just finished updating my trip files and making printouts at 2:30 am here in Vancouver. We have a small amount of packing and house securing Tuesday and then we fly out Tuesday night. Looking forward to meeting our first new friends at the dinner Thursday at Brasserie 8.5. Friday we meet a few more, the roll call has 81 Worldies on it. It has been great talking about this trip on the roll call, thanks for starting it Lisa.

 

See you all Friday, Bill & Darlene

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Looking forward to seeing you all at the M&G after Dubai. We already know some of you from our last Oceania Insignia sailing, so it will be great to catch up and get started on some new adventures and mischief together. Have fun Worldies 2019 and Bon Voyage!!

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9 hours ago, bob brown said:

Thanks, Lisa, for getting this started.  I am going to give the link to this thread to my family and friends back home, so they can follow my great adventure.

 

This will be my first time on Oceania, although it is about my 35th cruise, overall.   I will be travelling solo, (could not find anyone I know that had this much time to share).   I am going all the way around from New York, and will stay aboard for the six 'bonus' days from New York to Miami at the end.  This is also my "retirement gift to myself", (I retired November of 2017).   I picked this over some of the other world cruises available, as it is truly a 'dream' itinerary, that if I couldn't improve upon, if I wanted to.

 

Today I was scheduled to have UPS pick up my two bags for transfer between 1:00 and 5:00 PM....they surprised me at 11:47 AM....glad I was there...:classic_wink:

 

I also took care of some last minute business....filed for tax extension, and suspended my cable-telephone-internet account for six month's.  Still keeping my wireless active.

 

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Today I'll be getting the third (of 4) Hepatitis A & B vaccine, called Twinrix. This is the last one before I leave.  Already got the annual influenza, Prevnar-13 and took the typhoid fever capsules. Had the Tdap 6 years ago so didn't need it yet.  

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19 minutes ago, bob brown said:

The rest of the book was mostly a detailed description of all the different shore excursions that were offered, plus more pages of the cruise contract and some ads for other services.

The "Blue Booklet" on steroids!  😄

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Lisa,

Thanks for starting this thread. I look forward to meeting you in person at the meet and greet after you board. I am also looking forward to making 11 new friends Thursday evening at Brasserie 8.5 in NYC. It should be a fun way to get our adventure started. I plan to reconfirm our head count tomorrow with the restaurant, so if there are any folks who want to join at the very last minute, it is fast approaching.

Lee

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23 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Is  this going to be a travel blog  or just conversations between guest onboard ??

Reading the 1st post  it is hard to tell

I look at it as both....

We’ll post our experiences, photo’s, and answer questions from those following us, as well as use it like a continuing roll call...

Is that okay?

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29 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Is  this going to be a travel blog  or just conversations between guest onboard ??

Reading the 1st post  it is hard to tell

A combination of both I think. At the moment everyone is getting excited to be soon starting their trip.  I know I am just starting to pull things together for January 29 when I fly to Los Angeles to board. My better half is a bit worried about being on board for 59 days as we are doing two segments. I’m not worried, just looking forward to meeting new and old friends.

 

Bon voyage to all those boarding on January 11th

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3 hours ago, bob brown said:

The rest of the book was mostly a detailed description of all the different shore excursions that were offered, plus more pages of the cruise contract and some ads for other services.

 

Thanks for posting those photos. I call it my "gold" book cuz this time it's not blue.  My friends and family who cruise other lines were impressed with this book.

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1 hour ago, aikilee said:

Lisa,

Thanks for starting this thread. I look forward to meeting you in person at the meet and greet after you board. I am also looking forward to making 11 new friends Thursday evening at Brasserie 8.5 in NYC. It should be a fun way to get our adventure started. I plan to reconfirm our head count tomorrow with the restaurant, so if there are any folks who want to join at the very last minute, it is fast approaching.

Lee

 

Have fun at your pre-cruise dinner!!

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We're all looking forward to you adventures.  Be of good cheer, you have lots of fun ahead!  I think those of us who can't go on these long cruises at this time get real pleasure reading all the posts about a RTW.

 

Palakika

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Wishing you all a grand adventure!    I've followed the Live threads from the ATW cruises the last few years.   Dreaming of our own "retirement gift" in another 5 or so years....   🙂

 

Joe

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