Day minus 5 - All our bags are packed, we're ready to go!

In three days, we will be heading off on a jet plane, but we will know when we will be back again… April 1^st, to be exact!!

Packing for a fly/cruise is so different to packing for a cruise only.  Suddenly you must be more selective to ensure that you keep under the weight restrictions, and also leave enough room to bring any goodies back that we may pick up along the way…

So basically, all those little luxuries that may our stateroom feel more like home, will not be packed. Clothes and shoes have the priority.  The balancing act is, don’t take too much that you don’t wear half of it, or don’t take too little that you feel that have to enhance the wardrobe along the way.

We are taking a mascot, Kev the Kangaroo.  He is going to feature in all the post cards that we send home to the grandchildren.  A few years ago, a fellow cruiser introduced me to Touchnote.  An app that allows me to create our own personalised postcards.  Tired of paying extra for cards and stamps if we don’t have the correct currency, and then not even knowing if the card will arrive at it’s destination, we think this is a great idea …  Firstly, we have someone to chase up if it doesn’t arrive in the 5 – 7 specified days and secondly the kids are excited about seeing pictures of us rather than just some random sight.  This is the first card that we will be sending with Kev explaining that he is actually a stow away!!

Day minus 21 - The Adventures Keep Coming.

I thought I better get this blog started as I am beginning to direct people to it… and let’s face it, they will want something to read.

They say third time lucky and yes on our third try, we are finally well and truly set to cruise around South America…

Our first try, well really wasn’t much of a try. Whilst on the 2011 World Cruise, a super duper, you beaut deal came out to do this same cruise back in 2012 on the Grand, hmm or was it the Crown Princess?  Like dominoes the cabins fell of the availability list as word starting filtering around the ship that anyone whose anyone was booking.  By the time we decided to jump on the band wagon, it was totally booked out, and alas we were the 42millionth people on the waitlist.

We were not long home when those plans were dumped as Princess released a Circle Pacific Cruise, and then that got gazumped when they released the 90 Day Round Europe cruise….

Our second try was 84 Days Round South America – Sydney to Sydney, woo hoo …. One of the first to book…  But once again our plans were thwarted when a delay in the settlement of our new apartment was destined to coincide during the time we would be on the other side of the world.

Touch wood this time, we are 21 days out of boarding our flight that will take us to Ft Lauderdale Via Dallas, to join the Royal Princess on our 49 day Grand South America Adventure.