Arrival In Virginia

On December 18th we made the flight from Las Vegas to Chicago to Washington Reagan National Airport.  Curt Jr. and Marisa met us at Baggage Claim and then we made the drive across town to South Riding, Virginia.  It was good to be off of the plane and back in a warm home!

Over the past few days, Lance and Marisa have been completing their last few days of school for this year.  Maria and Curt Jr. have been working hard at their jobs and the grandparents have been spending time with the grand kids after school.  Yesterday we did a little final Christmas shopping for the upcoming Annual Christmas Dinner at The Cornell's scheduled for Christmas evening.  The weather here has been pretty good--little cold, but still good.  However, today (December 21st) there has been light rain all day with more expected for tomorrow.

Marisa invited us to join her for lunch at Little River Elementary School.  We got there at about 11:00am and her class made it down the main hallway heading for the cafeteria at 11:15am.  The cafeteria was full of school kids, all of which were very well mannered.  Here is a photo of all enjoying lunch.

(Curt, Marisa, Cindy)

The highlight of the day was Santa's arrival in the school cafeteria!  This jolly ole man greeted all the children and they gave his a very loud welcome.

27 Days And Counting

Time is really getting short now.  We are all packed and completed all the preparations for this grand trip around the world.  Later today, we will go over to our daughter and son-in-law's home (Stephanie and Andy) for the afternoon and evening.  And then in the morning we fly back to Virginia to spend the holidays with Curt Jr., Maria, Lance and Marisa.  Looking forward to Christmas and New Years back east.

We heard from other world cruisers that Brett Siborne will be our Cruise Director again this year.  He does a great job and we are looking forward to seeing him again.

After the New Year, we will be making our "Annual" week long stay in Pompano Beach, Florida with our good friends, Leslie and John.  They will be picking us up at the Miami Airport when we fly in from Virginia.  Thanks Leslie and John--we really appreciate you doing this for us!!!

I'm sure time will pass quickly and before we know it we will be sailing away from Fort Lauderdale.

Shore Excursions Booked

After researching and reviewing the tours and shore excursions offered during the world cruise, we have finally made up our minds and booked several.  Much of the cruise itinerary isn’t new, so we focused on finding tours to places or areas we had not previously visited.  Here is what we have reserved so far.

·         San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua---Granada, Masaya Market and Volcano, Lunch and Shopping

·         Cairns, Australia---The Great Barrier Reef for Marine World (Snorkeling, Semi-Submersible Boat Tours, Underwater Observatory, and Marine Touch Tank)

·         Tokyo, Japan---Imperial Palace Grounds, Meiji  Shrine and Temple

·         Hiroshima, Japan---Bullet Train, Kintai Bridge and A-Bomb Dome

·         Shanghai, China---Zhujiajiao:  Qing Dynasty Post Office,  Covered Bridges, and Shopping

·         Hong Kong, China---Hong Kong Vintage Tram By Night, Shopping At Temple Street Night Market and 8-course Beijing-Style Duck Dinner

·         Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam---The Mekong Delta,  Mekong River Cruise to My Tho Island in the Mekong Delta, Sanpan To Traditional Homes and visit Coconut Candy Factory and a Village.

·         Phuket, Thailand---Phuket Town On Your Own

·         Chennai, India---The Monuments at Mahabalipuram, Five Rathas Temple Models

·         Mumbai, India---Elephanta Island and Caves

·         Manama, Bahrain---Bahrain Fort, Jasra House, Bahrain World Train Center, Camel Farm, and  Handicraft Center

·         Dubai, United Arab Emirates---4WD Desert Safari, Arabian Campsite,  and Camel Ride

·         Aqaba, Jordan---Petra (The Lost City)

·         Safaga, Egypt---Grand Overland 4-days Off The Ship: Luxor, Karnak, Valley Of The Kings, Aswan Dam/Aswan, Abu Simbel and Cairo

·         Koper, Slovenia---Medieval Piran

We are looking forward to participating in these organized shore excursions and learning about many new places.

Princess Announcements

This morning Princess Cruises announced two senior positions on board the Pacific Princess for the upcoming World Cruise.  These positions are the Hotel General Manager and the Maitre'd Hotel.  We sailed on the last World Cruise with Michele Castiglioni, the Hotel General Manager.

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.

World Cruise Trivia

Here are some pieces of trivial information about the upcoming world cruise. 

How far will the Pacific Princess travel?

• 56,658.05 Kilometers
• 31,672.81 Nautical Miles
• 36,448.41 Statute Miles

How many ports will we visit?

• 39 Ports

To how many continents will the Pacific Princess travel?

• Six

Will the Pacific Princess cross the Equator?

•  Yes, twice.  Prior to arriving at American Samoa and after leaving Australia.

What affect will crossing the International Data Line have on the cruise?

• This will cause us to loose or not have February 12, 2012.

How many laps around the Pacific Princess Jogging Track equal a mile?

• 13 laps

What are the vital statistics for the Pacific Princess?

• Passenger Capacity 680
• Length 593 feet
• Gross Tonage 30,200

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.