Cindy's Foot

When we were in Shanghai, Cindy tripped and broke her foot. She is recovering onboard the ship and hopes to get a cast that will allow her to walk in the next few days.

Today we are in Hong Kong and will be heading out of here tomorrow (March 21st) at 5:00pm en route to Phu My, Vietnam.

We are behind on the blog by 5 ports, but should be able to catchup on the blog real soon since we has had to cancel many shore excursions.

Final Visa Arrived And More

This afternoon, FEDEX delivered our passports with the new 1-year, Multi-Entry Chinese Visas.  This was the last visa we needed for the upcoming world cruise with the exception of visas that the ship will obtain for everyone (Australia, Vietnam, Dubai, Jordan, Egypt).  There wasn't any requirement for us to obtain a visa from India, since ours is a 10-year and still in effect.

With the visa preparation out of the way, it's on to deciding what we really need and what can stay at home.  On the last world cruise we prepared a list near the end of the cruise of items that we really needed and the quantity for each.  This has come in handy for getting everything together in one room for sorting and packing.  When you are planning for a total of 119 days on board a ship at sea it is important to really do a little planning so something isn't left behind.  Of course if you aren't careful this can lead to taking too many items as well!!

We went online to the US Postal Service (USPS) yesterday and setup a Temporary Change Of Address to our Daughter's home.  All our mail will go to her during the time we are gone.  This is important since the USPS will only hold mail for 30 days.  One good thing about a temporary change of address is that the USPS won't forward "junk mail".

Several  administrative items were taken care of yesterday.  We made arrangements with our Cable TV and Internet Provider to put each of them on "Vacation Hold".  This allows us to keep these services in an inactive status and not have to pay the normal bill for services and not incur any reconnection fees.  In December we will do a similar thing with our automobiles and their insurance coverage.  Insurance companies allow a procedure called "Garaging".  In our state our insurance company allows you to remove most of the coverage with the exception of limited comprehensive coverage with substantial savings.

One administrative item that has not been accomplished is our Taxes.  The forms to file an extension of the filing date are already available from the Internal Revenue Service.  However, we won't have the exact figures to use for filing until sometime in January.

Stateroom Assignments

This morning we checked the Princess Personalizer and there it was.  Yes, we finally have a stateroom assignment.  Our original booking was for a Category BD Balcony Guarantee, basically anywhere on the ship in that particular category.  So, to our surprise, we received a Category BC on a higher deck and a good location.  We are now assigned to stateroom 7102 which is on the port side just 6 staterooms from the aft of the ship, our favorite location.  Well, as we continued looking at the Princess Personalizer this morning we got our second surprise.  On our extension of the World Cruise to the Holy Land we originally had a Category BF Balcony Guarantee.  But, Princess surprised us again and assigned us to 7102 for this cruise.  So, now we won't have to move between these two cruises.  This will really make things much more enjoyable and we will be able to enjoy "turn-around day" in Venice instead of packing up to move to a new stateroom.

 Thanks to Princess Cruises for giving us an excellent stateroom and understanding that moving between cruises isn't fun.  We really appreciate this nice gesture!!!

Yesterday we received an email from China Visa Service saying that they had received our visa paperwork on Monday and had begun the processing.  Hopefully our applications will get processed quickly and our passports will be back to us soon.

This morning we are down to 58 days until embarkation at Port Everglades and Sail-Away.

62 Days And Counting

(PACIFIC PRINCESS CREST)

We are counting the days down until embarkation.  Just 62 days remaining.  Sent off our request for a 1 year, multiple-entry VISA to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco through a visa service yesterday.  It's our plan to use this visa for both the World Cruise and a return visit to China later next year when we will spend 3 weeks on a land excursion.

Princess has not yet assigned us a stateroom number for the cruise.  We are still in a Guarantee Balcony status.  But we will be happy with any stateroom in any location, since the price for a guarantee was outstanding.  Probably won't know anything more until we get to Fort Lauderdale and embark the ship.

Our friends Leslie and John have graciouly volunteered to pick us up at the airport when we fly down to Florida.  Also, we will be shipping a box to them loaded with all the heavy items for the cruise.  This will really help with the airline luggage weight restrictions!  Thanks Leslie and John!!!!  They will be joining us for a week in Fort Lauderdale just prior to the cruise. 

Princess finally added several overland excursions for the world cruise.  We selected a 4-day through Egypt that visits Safaga, Temple of Luxor, Valley of the Kings, Sound & Light Show at the Karnak Temple, Colossi of Memnon, Queen Hatshepsut's Temple, Aswan High Dam, Philae Temple, Unfinished Obelisk, Felucca Ride on the Nile, Abu Simbel, Cairo, Dinner Cruise on the Nile River,  Egyptian Museum Of Antiquities, The Great Pyramids, and The Sphinx.  This trip will mean that we will travel the full length of Egypt, traveling by motorcoach, airplane, and river boat and will rejoin the Pacific Princess at Port Said.

Chinese VISA

We will be sending off for our Chinese Visa next week.  Looks like Princess Cruises will be handling all the other visa requirements; however we did get a 10-year visa for India last world cruise.  With just 139 days left prior to boarding the Pacific Princess in Fort Lauderdale, it's time to begin getting serious about pulling everything together for this grand adventure.  From all that we have seen on the Cruise Critic Roll Call thread and the Princess Facebook thread http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=222439144461608 , many friends from last year's world cruise will be returning for another voyage.  Can't say anything yet, but several members of the previous crew are also joining us for the 2012 World Cruise.  So, now it's time to figure out how to keep from over packing!