Embarkation and Sailaway

This World Cruise began early on Friday, January 13, 2012.  Our friends Leslie and John drove us from Pompano Beach, Florida to Terminal 2 at the Port Everglades. 

What a surprise to see an empty check-in terminal!  We sailed through the administrative processes and within minutes we were onboard the Pacific Princess.  By 3:30pm we headed to The Club Restaurant for the General Emergency Drill.  There we were pleased to see our friend Sandy Gunder (Captain’s Circle Host/Future Cruise Consultant) as the Officer-in-Charge of the drill.  Sandy was on the 2011 World Cruise with us.  Shortly after the drill it was up to the open decks for the Champagne Sailaway Celebration.  We ran into many friends from last year.  It was really good to see them all.  Our luggage wasn’t delivered until almost 8:00pm just prior to dinner.  Our great Stateroom Steward, Gabby, went below decks and located our luggage.  We can’t thank him enough.  So the stateroom was in total disarray when we headed off to the evening meal.  But, the day didn’t end badly  It was capped off in style with a wonderful dinner in the Club Restaurant headed by the Executive chef,  Antonio Cortese and the Maitre d’Hotel, Carlos Da Rosa. 

Day 2—Sea Day

On the second day of the cruise, January 14^th, the Pacific Princess navigated along the northern coast of Cuba through the old Bahama Channel.  The water in this area is extremely shallow.  Today was spent getting our stateroom organized for the next 118 days onboard. Finding little places to put all the necessities we brought is always fun and, of course, trying to remember where you put things is an adventure in itself.

The Captain came on the public address system during the day to inform us of a change to the itinerary.  We were originally scheduled to visit Santa Marta, Columbia on January 17^th.  But due to incidents of drug related violence in Santa Marta and the city being paralyzed for days by dozens of gangs, Princess has elected to bypass this stop.  Instead, we will be going to Cartagena, Columbia on January 18^th, and will have a shorter period of time ashore.    

Day 3—Sea Day

The Pacific Princess is maintaining a steady south easterly course across the Caribbean Sea en route to Aruba.  Early this morning we passed between Haiti and Jamaica.  Today is one of many brunches which are held between 10:30am to 1:30pm on Sundays when we are at sea.  And, tonight is the first of 9 formal nights to be held during the world cruise.  The ship is holding The Captain’s Gala Cocktail Party.  Captain John Foster will be addressing the passengers at two events, time depending on whether you are 1^st or 2^nd Sitting for dinner.  On this cruise we elected to do 2^nd Sitting.  The main reasons for this choice were due to returning to the ship last year from tours and being rushed to make 1^st Sitting and we always missed sailaway from many of the ports. 

Today, Curt got a belated Birthday surprise from the ship (balloons, a card, and birthday cake)!!

Tomorrow Is The Day

It's been a long time in preparation for this upcoming World Cruise.  In fact it's been 567 days since we booked this cruise and now tomorrow at 4:00pm we will be sailing away from Fort Lauderdale.

After breakfast tomorrow, our friends, Leslie and John will be taking us to the cruise terminal for check-in and boarding.  We are really looking forward to seeing friends from last year's world cruise and seeing many returning crew members.  Of course there is the unpacking, arranging the stateroom, muster drill, and all the other administrative things we will need to do to get settled in and begin the cruise.  The ship should have a grand sail-away celebration on the top open desks as we slowly pass through the channel and head out into the Atlantic.  First stop after sail-away will be Aruba.

Bon Voyage to all our other passengers!!!
 

 

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.

Itinerary Change

Princess announced a change to our departure from Fort Lauderdale.  Here is the change.

Please be advised that due to operational considerations, your ship will now
now depart Ft. Lauderdale at 4:00 pm and not 5:00 pm as originally scheduled.
As a result of this change, our flight guidelines have been amended. Passengers
with Princess eZAir will be rescheduled on earlier flights as needed and a new
confirmation will be sent. Passengers with independent air arrangements will
need to reschedule their flights to arrive in Ft. Lauderdale at or prior to
2:30 pm (domestic) and 1:45 pm (international). If you are flying into Miami,
you will need to reschedule your flights to arrive at or prior to 1:30 pm
(domestic) and 12:30 pm (international). Please contact Customer Relations at
1-800-PRINCESS (1-800-774-6237) if you have any questions regarding air change
fees. The revised itinerary displays in full at the end of this notification
.

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!

Booked World Cruise 2012

Booked this fantastic cruise on June 24, 2010 after seeing this itinerary.

Segments

2012 Pacific Princess World Cruise Segment Voyages

Ft. Lauderdale to San Diego (15 days): January 13, 2012 – January 28, 2012
San Diego to Sydney (29 days): January 28, 2012 – February 26, 2012
Sydney to Singapore (31 days): February 27, 2012 – March 29, 2012
Singapore to Venice (32 days): March 29, 2012 – April 30, 2012