October 10, 2023 to December 22, 2023
Prequel
If you’ve kept up with what has been going on in our lives than you know that I came out of retirement and worked for a friend in California in 2021 for 3 months. We didn’t need the money but the circumstances were such that I wanted to help my friend out. The money was …. hmmmm … significant, is a good word. I stashed the money and told Jeff that I wanted to do something EPIC with it. Since I’ve been retired, I have a new job …. full time travel planner, researcher and blogger. I LOVE my new job – the hours and the benefits are awesome! If we aren’t traveling than we’re getting ready to travel. If we’re traveling, then I can guarantee you that I’ve already got at least 4 more trips booked and I’m working on the details and the research for those trips. But I digress! I have this “significant” sum of money stashed and it took me a little while to find what I wanted to spend it on and it took a LOT longer to convince Mr. Davis that it was a good idea.
We’ve never been ones to shy away from long trips, I think we actually prefer them but Jeff’s definition of long and my definition of long come from two different dictionaries. If we go to the beach at south Texas we stay a minimum of 30 days, more likely 60 days. On those trips we’re still in the US and our travel buddies (Willie and Waylon) can go with us. When we do the longer cruises the boys have to stay home which involves finding a dog and house sitter. The longest cruise that we’ve taken since we got the pups has been 54 days. Yes, I’m attached to them, but Mr. Davis can’t stand to be away from them and had told me that 30 days was his limit without his dogs. So, when I found this 72 day cruise I knew I had my work cut out to convince him. I’m fairly certain I had to promise him the naming rights to our next offspring (not likely to happen in this lifetime!) or that I would NEVER again propose such a long cruise. And then when I found out that HAL changed the rules and wouldn’t allow him to bring his beloved Dr. Pepper on board, I thought it was all over. In the end, I’d like to think that I was very persuasive, but he probably just got tired of hearing me whine about it … LOL. Truthfully, I think the tipping point was when I pointed out that we were now 4 star mariners and would be getting free laundry!
We booked early enough that we got OBC (on board credit), 4 bottles of booze, prepaid gratuities, a couple of excursions, and luggage delivery. WHAT? Luggage delivery? That’s new to my world of cruising. HAL hires a company to pick up 2 suitcases PER cruiser (in our case, it was UPS) and they will be delivered directly to our state room at the beginning of the cruise and delivered back to our home after the cruise ends. We’re going to be gone from home for two and a half months and you’re telling me that I DON’T have to shlep 4 suitcases through the airport?? SOLD!! Okay, that’s not a fair statement. I was actually sold when I read the amazing itinerary!
Jeff got an entire suitcase to himself, I got a suitcase, one suitcase was for all our snorkel stuff and the final suitcase for our formal/dressy nights plus our Halloween costumes and books… lots of books that we will leave for others when the cruise is over. We will still end up taking another suitcase with us that has our meds, vitamins, OTC medicine, and electronics that couldn’t be shipped ahead of time.
My takeaway from a 72 day cruise BEFORE I even step foot on the ship? It’s going to be warm (I hate cold weather), and I don’t have to cook, clean or do laundry until Christmas! We’re going to visit 21 countries, 2 of which are at the top of my bucket list. This is going to be an EPIC trip! Come, travel with us!
Also, if you’ve followed my blog before I normally post the entire trip under one blog post. This time, since the trip is so long and since we have Starlink internet onboard, I will be posting each day separately,