ccrain Posted January 19, 2019 #1 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Now its 4 suitcases, 4 carry-ons and a toolbox! A toolbox from Home Depot, wheeled, cheaper than a new piece of luggage, duct taped closed, filled with 4 months of toiletries and STUFF. Oh yeah, let’s not forget umpteen different charging cords and the futility of trying to make sure your laptop and all your electronics are updated while still connected to decent WiFi – and knowing full well that the moment you get on the ship and leave the harbor, every device will require a major system update and app updates totaling more gigs of bandwidth than the entire Apollo program used in its lifetime – and those update will only last about 2 weeks… When did cruising get so darn complex! Oh I forgot, we signed up for our first world cruise! To paraphrase a famous general, everyday cruisers think fun, drinks, exotic ports, sun, sea, surf – serious cruisers think logistics, alternate plans, closet space, backups upon backups (what if the toothbrush charger goes out?) – how many days of vitamins and supplements? How many bottles of shampoo and conditioner? No wonder the house budget consists of 20% food and the rest – STUFF! (Good thing we don’t have to bring toilet paper!) But I get way, way ahead of myself. Hi Everyone! For those of you who don’t know us, Judy and I have been sailing since 2001 when we got hooked on an Alaskan cruise on the old Ocean Princess (Sun Class). 50+ Princess cruises and a little over 600 days and here we are – on our first World Cruise and our first cruise on the Pacific Princess. Yep, from a ‘can you fish off the back of the boat’ guy to a serious OCPD (Obsessive Cruise Planning Disorder) engineering approach to World Cruising. We are presently ensconced at the Doubletree in San Pedro having had our breakfast, inventoried and re-packed a bunch of STUFF, and are enjoying a nice cup of coffee before heading out to purchase MORE STUFF. After spending almost $600 last night in STUFF for the next 100+ days on the ship, what more STUFF could we possibly need? Glad you asked. Crystallized ginger and Stevia from Whole Foods. A closet organizer, flip flops and a couple of other things from Walmart, with a backup location of a Target in Carson just in case the Walmart fails me. So welcome to a Live From thread on the 2019 Pacific Princess World Cruise. Roundtrip LA. Or at least we are doing the R/T LA. Several of our Cruise Critic band has already started the journey from FLL. And many will get off in FLL as we circle the world. But I wanted to do a World Cruise. The whole enchilada. So here we are. Why the 2019 WC? In a word, Africa. When we booked, I didn’t think they would do Africa very soon after that, although the 2020 cruise also does Africa. But we have already booked our Route Sector Deviation and will be doing a 3 Day safari from Durban, catching up with the ship in Cape Town. But again, I get ahead of myself. The 2019 cruise, for us, starts in LA and then goes on the following itinerary. The Indian Ocean and Africa part of the itinerary is what caught my eye. Parts of the world we will probably never see, and face it, we’re not getting any younger. To quote another famous general “L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace”! Sun, Jan 20 Los Angeles, California Mon, Jan 21 At Sea Tue, Jan 22 At Sea Wed, Jan 23 At Sea Thu, Jan 24 At Sea Fri, Jan 25 At Sea Sat, Jan 26 Honolulu, Hawaii Sun, Jan 27 Maui (Lahaina), Hawaii (Tender Required) Mon, Jan 28 At Sea Tue, Jan 29 At Sea Wed, Jan 30 At Sea Thu, Jan 31 At Sea Fri, Feb 1 At Sea Sat, Feb 2 Tahiti (Papeete), French Polynesia Sun, Feb 3 Huahine, Polynesia (Tender Required) Sun, Feb 3 Raiatea, French Polynesia Mon, Feb 4 Raiatea, French Polynesia Tue, Feb 5 At Sea Wed, Feb 6 Cross International Date Line Fri, Feb 8 At Sea Sat, Feb 9 Nuku'alofa, Tonga Sun, Feb 10 At Sea Mon, Feb 11 At Sea Tue, Feb 12 Auckland, New Zealand Wed, Feb 13 At Sea Thu, Feb 14 At Sea Fri, Feb 15 Dunedin (Port Chalmers), New Zealand Sat, Feb 16 Stewart Isand, New Zealand (Tender Required) Sun, Feb 17 At Sea Mon, Feb 18 At Sea Tue, Feb 19 Sydney, Australia Wed, Feb 20 At Sea Thu, Feb 21 At Sea Fri, Feb 22 At Sea Sat, Feb 23 Cairns, Australia Sun, Feb 24 At Sea Mon, Feb 25 At Sea Tue, Feb 26 At Sea Wed, Feb 27 Darwin, Australia Thu, Feb 28 At Sea Fri, Mar 1 At Sea Sat, Mar 2 Komodo Island, Indonesia (Tender Required) Sun, Mar 3 At Sea Mon, Mar 4 At Sea Tue, Mar 5 Singapore Wed, Mar 6 Singapore Thu, Mar 7 Kuala Lumpur (Port Kelang), Malaysia Fri, Mar 8 Langkawi, Malaysia Sat, Mar 9 Phuket, Thailand Sun, Mar 10 At Sea Mon, Mar 11 At Sea Tue, Mar 12 At Sea Wed, Mar 13 Colombo, Sri Lanka Thu, Mar 14 At Sea Fri, Mar 15 Maldives (Male) (Tender Required) Sat, Mar 16 At Sea Sun, Mar 17 At Sea Mon, Mar 18 At Sea Tue, Mar 19 Seychelles Islands (Mahe) Wed, Mar 20 At Sea Thu, Mar 21 At Sea Fri, Mar 22 Nosy Be, Madagascar (Tender Required) Sat, Mar 23 At Sea Sun, Mar 24 At Sea Mon, Mar 25 Port Louis, Mauritius Tue, Mar 26 Pointe des Galets, Reunion Island Wed, Mar 27 At Sea Thu, Mar 28 At Sea Fri, Mar 29 At Sea Sat, Mar 30 Durban, South Africa Sun, Mar 31 East London, South Africa Mon, Apr 1 At Sea Tue, Apr 2 Cape Town, South Africa Wed, Apr 3 Cape Town, South Africa Thu, Apr 4 Cape Town, South Africa Fri, Apr 5 At Sea Sat, Apr 6 Luderitz, Namibia Sun, Apr 7 Walvis Bay, Namibia Mon, Apr 8 At Sea Tue, Apr 9 At Sea Wed, Apr 10 At Sea Thu, Apr 11 Saint Helena, Great Britain (Tender Required) Fri, Apr 12 At Sea Sat, Apr 13 At Sea Sun, Apr 14 At Sea Mon, Apr 15 At Sea Tue, Apr 16 Natal, Brazil Wed, Apr 17 Fortaleza, Brazil Thu, Apr 18 At Sea Fri, Apr 19 At Sea Sat, Apr 20 "Devil's Island (isle Royale), French Guiana Scenic Cruising" Sun, Apr 21 At Sea Mon, Apr 22 Barbados Tue, Apr 23 Guadeloupe (Point-a-Pitre) Wed, Apr 24 "Marigot, Saint Martin Tender Required Thu, Apr 25 At Sea Fri, Apr 26 At Sea Sat, Apr 27 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Sun, Apr 28 At Sea Mon, Apr 29 At Sea Tue, Apr 30 Aruba Wed, May 1 At Sea Thu, May 2 Panama Canal (Scenic Cruising) Panama Fri, May 3 At Sea Sat, May 4 Puerto Quepos, Costa Rica (Tender Required) Sun, May 5 At Sea Mon, May 6 At Sea Tue, May 7 Huatulco, Mexico Wed, May 8 At Sea Thu, May 9 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico Fri, May 10 At Sea Sat, May 11 At Sea Sun, May 12 Los Angeles, California For this itinerary, we have a mix of DIY, Private Excursions and Princess tours scheduled. The largest and most complex, of course, is the safari in Durban. The DIY ports are mainly those that we’ve been to before – Hawaii, Auckland, Dunedin, Sydney, Darwin, Singapore – and the private excursions where we could get on them. Then we just filled in the rest with Princess excursions. As we go through the cruise, I hope to give everyone an idea of what we did, who we did it with and how it all went. Especially the mechanics of what we did for those of you infected with OCPD. We have over 150 Cruise Critic members on this cruise. Meet and greets planned for FLL, LA and SYD. Hopefully we can do group luncheons and dinners as well – we had a great time on the Coral late last year during the 60 Day Northern Pacific cruise. I will try and give everyone, especially those on the 2020 cruise, a good idea of shipboard life, cabin space, food and entertainment, as well as the ports. After all, you can’t get enough information when planning something like this… So that’s the morning before update… Later! 11 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coo359a2 Posted January 19, 2019 #2 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Good to see you beat out the bad weather and arrive LA safe and sound. We'll see you in Sydney 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLJBLJ Posted January 19, 2019 #3 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Hi Charles and Judy, Just got off the Grand and this next 111 days will help me get over my PCB (post cruise blues). I thought of you guys on day 8 of my cruise to Mexico because I woke up sick with a sore throat and cough. Hope you guys stay well and have a GREAT time. Thanks for taking us all along. Brenda 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrysalis Posted January 19, 2019 #4 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Enjoy....we have friends already on board for the WC.....they boarded in Ft Lauderdale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AF-1 Posted January 19, 2019 #5 Share Posted January 19, 2019 wow what a lifetime thrill. That is a long time at sea; but it will be fun. I did follow you on your Alaskan trek and northern pacific. So this should be fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Working 2 Cruise Posted January 19, 2019 #6 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Hi. I've followed many of your adventures. This one promises to be spectacular! Enjoy the cruise of a lifetime! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacificsunflower Posted January 19, 2019 #7 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Thank you, again, for all of the organization! See you tomorrow! Allison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare PescadoAmarillo Posted January 19, 2019 #8 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Thanks very much for doing a LIVE FROM on a World Cruise! Your first post already made me laugh twice: when you talked about serious cruisers needing to be much more systematic in their approach (so true..no place on earth has cheaper vitamins and supplements than the US) and that, despite your best efforts, everything will need to be updated two weeks after you embark (even truer). Thanks for for bringing us along with you. Safe travels and stay healthy! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrivesLikeMario Posted January 19, 2019 #9 Share Posted January 19, 2019 I have 4 friends on this cruise and am anxious to read your views as well as hear from them. What an incredible experience! Can you tell me if Sandy, the FCC, is onboard with you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sea Hag Posted January 19, 2019 #10 Share Posted January 19, 2019 I'll be very interested to read your continuing reviews. I hope you and your STUFF have a wonderful trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare 4cats4me Posted January 19, 2019 #11 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Thanks for letting us follow along! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tvlbum Posted January 19, 2019 #12 Share Posted January 19, 2019 3 hours ago, ccrain said: Several of our Cruise Critic band has already started the journey from FLL. Can some one post the link to this thread. I found one but it is only a segment not the World Cruise. Thanks. Lookng forward to followiing both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crzn-Life Posted January 19, 2019 #13 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Hey Charles and Judy! Hope your new adventure exceeds the last one. At least the crew on the Pacific know how to plan and stock for a long cruise! Wishing you fair winds and calm seas. The Pacific can really rock and roll in heavy weather. Judy, I hope you took lots of meds because rough seas on the Pacific will make the rough days on the Coral feel downright calm. I know you two will have a fantastic adventure! We’re on the Crown now...just relaxing. Bill knows where the ship is!!! Enjoy. Walking! Wanda and Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlf1 Posted January 19, 2019 #14 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Following, always enjoy your Live Reports Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewgood Posted January 19, 2019 #15 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Have a wonderful cruise. I will be reading along wishing I was there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tawlaw1526 Posted January 19, 2019 #16 Share Posted January 19, 2019 I will be following along. What a wonderful trip you have ahead. Enjoy every minute of it! BON VOYAGE!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slwildflower Posted January 19, 2019 #17 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Thank you Charles & Judy 🙂 Your information has been SO HELPFUL!! I hope you don't mind my adding a suggestion for anyone who might be interested...... My Sister (Barbara) has a famous booth at KCC (Kapiolani Community College) Open Air Market near the base of Diamond Head where she makes "Fried Green Tomatoes" like you have never had before!! The market is open every Saturday from 7am to 11am and her booth is called "Two Hot Tomatoes". Her line is usually filled with Japanese Tourists.... go figure. She has been doing this for over 15 years and it is an experience to taste her tomatoes. Also, the Market is filled with so many other homemade original Hawaiian treasures.... flowers, food, nuts, etc. and is SO WORTH a trip if anyone can arrange the time. Tell her Bonnie says "Hi" and I'll see her after market....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grumpy69 Posted January 19, 2019 #18 Share Posted January 19, 2019 WOW. Can't wait to follow along! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccrain Posted January 19, 2019 Author #19 Share Posted January 19, 2019 3 hours ago, Crzn-Life said: Hey Charles and Judy! Hope your new adventure exceeds the last one. At least the crew on the Pacific know how to plan and stock for a long cruise! Wishing you fair winds and calm seas. The Pacific can really rock and roll in heavy weather. Judy, I hope you took lots of meds because rough seas on the Pacific will make the rough days on the Coral feel downright calm. I know you two will have a fantastic adventure! We’re on the Crown now...just relaxing. Bill knows where the ship is!!! Enjoy. Walking! Wanda and Bill Is Bill sure? I know how persnikity he can be! Judy brought lots of EVERYTHING! Oh my aching back, and that poor UBER driver from LAX. His Prius had to have 3 of our luggage pieces in his front seat! Take care guys and have fun. Wake Bill up for me - ok? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sun Lakes Cruiser Posted January 19, 2019 #20 Share Posted January 19, 2019 27 minutes ago, slwildflower said: Thank you Charles & Judy 🙂 Your information has been SO HELPFUL!! I hope you don't mind my adding a suggestion for anyone who might be interested...... My Sister (Barbara) has a famous booth at KCC (Kapiolani Community College) Open Air Market near the base of Diamond Head where she makes "Fried Green Tomatoes" like you have never had before!! The market is open every Saturday from 7am to 11am and her booth is called "Two Hot Tomatoes". Her line is usually filled with Japanese Tourists.... go figure. She has been doing this for over 15 years and it is an experience to taste her tomatoes. Also, the Market is filled with so many other homemade original Hawaiian treasures.... flowers, food, nuts, etc. and is SO WORTH a trip if anyone can arrange the time. Tell her Bonnie says "Hi" and I'll see her after market....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sun Lakes Cruiser Posted January 19, 2019 #21 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Hey Bonnie ...Great to see you on CC ... Guess I'll get double of you ...CC and SLCC...Have a great trip! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccrain Posted January 19, 2019 Author #22 Share Posted January 19, 2019 1 hour ago, slwildflower said: Thank you Charles & Judy 🙂 Your information has been SO HELPFUL!! I hope you don't mind my adding a suggestion for anyone who might be interested...... My Sister (Barbara) has a famous booth at KCC (Kapiolani Community College) Open Air Market near the base of Diamond Head where she makes "Fried Green Tomatoes" like you have never had before!! The market is open every Saturday from 7am to 11am and her booth is called "Two Hot Tomatoes". Her line is usually filled with Japanese Tourists.... go figure. She has been doing this for over 15 years and it is an experience to taste her tomatoes. Also, the Market is filled with so many other homemade original Hawaiian treasures.... flowers, food, nuts, etc. and is SO WORTH a trip if anyone can arrange the time. Tell her Bonnie says "Hi" and I'll see her after market....... Since the Honolulu Stadium flea market was such a bust last November, maybe we will gather some people and do an excursion. Thanks for the tip! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccrain Posted January 19, 2019 Author #23 Share Posted January 19, 2019 4 hours ago, DrivesLikeMario said: I have 4 friends on this cruise and am anxious to read your views as well as hear from them. What an incredible experience! Can you tell me if Sandy, the FCC, is onboard with you? I will check tomorrow when I post the first patter details. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccrain Posted January 19, 2019 Author #24 Share Posted January 19, 2019 The trip in to LAX yesterday was typical January Colorado weather. A blizzard. 2 hours late into LAX on a direct flight from the Springs, but at least it was on an E-175 with decent E+ seating. Even got a little nap. In winter we always fly two days early. Especially for a cruise this important. All 4 bags made it off the luggage belt - #1, 2, 3 and 5. Found a cart laying around and headed up to the departure level to grab an UBER. (LAX United UBER stops at the departure level between T7 and T8.) It was rush hour so UBERX, no UBER XL was available, was $85 to the Doubletree and took about 45 minutes. I think a taxi would have been over $100 with the stop and go traffic. The Doubletree is our go-to hotel for San Pedro departures. 30,000 HHonors points per night, free breakfast (for Gold and Diamond), free shuttle to the port, free shuttle to a lot of places nearby and a nice place to walk around the Marina. We have used Super Shuttle before, but with this delay we would have missed our assigned shuttle and would have had to wait for another. Waiting time for UBER was about 5 minutes. After getting something to eat, OCPD kicked in and we shuttled to Home Depot to pick up a roll around toolbox – which I, of course, had previously scouted out on-line and at our local Home Depot – and walked down to the Target to pick up almost 75 items on our STUFF list – which of course we had previously scouted on-line and in person at our local Target. Two hours later, we had everything we could find on our list and called the shuttle to pick us up. That was the end of my day for sure… This morning we (Judy) removed all the packaging, broke out the duct tape and filled the tool box, which will serve as a storage coffee or end table on the ship, with the STUFF purchased so far. Some friends of ours picked us up to complete the shopping quests for the day. Walmart and Whole Foods had almost everything we need. Anything else we will pick up in Honolulu at the Ala Moana Wal Mart. After intensive shopping, our friends took us to Din Tai Fung, in the Del Amo Fashion Center mall in Torrance. WOW. This is really good dim sum. As good as the dim sum we had in Hong Kong last April. The pork/soup dumplings (Xiao Long Bao) were fantastic. The cucumber salad could have used a bit more spice, but was very good as well. The Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork Shao Mai were fantastic, but the dish that stole the show for us was the Vegetable & Kurobuta Pork Dumplings in a spicy sauce. That sauce was to die for. The braised beef noodle soup was also really good as well! This was, what I refer to, as WOW food! A really good start to the trip for sure! So now, OCPD is sated for the day. Time to kick back and relax, watch the boats in the Marina and join fellow cruisers for happy hour. So until tomorrow… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccrain Posted January 19, 2019 Author #25 Share Posted January 19, 2019 BTW - Starting tomorrow afternoon, I will be 'on the clock' as in using ship wifi. So I will try and answer questions, but if someone else jumps in and answers it, I probably won't. I always compose off-line and upload, then log off, reading messages cached on the screen. Helps keep the wifi bill down a bit. For those of you interested in more details on this cruise and the people involved and some of the other stuff we did in preparation, the Shutterfly website is in my signature line below. So later all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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