Our Second "Once in a Lifetime" World Cruise

We know how special it was to be able to take even one cruise around the world, and here we are doing it again! We are going on the Pacific Princess which is the same ship as the one in 2013. It's also special that so many people that we met in 2013 are also on this one! We look forward to seeing them again and doing some tours together. We also look forward to all the new people we will meet and tour with this time around!

The Pacific Princess is a small ship with 680 passengers and around 350 crew. Her inaugural cruise was in 2003. There are pros and cons to small ships. The best part is she can get into more ports without the use of a tender boat. There isn't a flexible dinner schedule due to her size. It becomes like a big family on the smaller ships and even the crew were saying "welcome home" when we returned from shore excursions. We personally don't mind a larger ship with flexible dining in the evening and more options for restaurants on the ship, but we enjoy the Pacific Princess of course!

Pacific Princess

Like last time we decided to do a combination of touring ports on our own with and without a guide, renting cars and touring on our own, and for our overland tours we used tour companies. For the guided tours we booked many with small groups of people from our roll call on Cruise Critic and some we chose to do with “just us”. We booked 2 ship tours, one for the Great Barrier Reef because the port times conflicted with any I tried to book locally and the other for Ceuta, Spain (Spanish Morocco) to Chefchaouen.  I love to plan and organize tours and after almost a year and a half of planning it's finally time to board the ship and hope all goes well with my planning.

We did 3 over-land trips off the ship last time and are doing 2 this time. An over-land is when you leave the ship in one port and catch the ship at the next port a few days later. This requires permission from the cruise line and it's a good way to see some areas in more depth. We prefer to do it over sea days so we aren't missing any ports we have not been to before. 

Here is a link to the ship cam:
http://www.princess.com/webcam/pa_bridge.jpg

Last time it was time prohibitive to add photos to my blog, but I kept up my Web Albums to go with the text in the blog. We'll see how it goes this time, but it may be the same this time. Like last time I will keep up the blog on sea days.

Here is the link to the photo albums: https://get.google.com/albumarchive/116659709528973371528

I have no delusions that any of this will be great writing or terribly interesting, but it will help me keep our travels straight and family and friends can know where we are and what we are up to. So, please be kind and ignore typos, misspellings and any ignorant statements that I'm sure I'll make. I read world cruise blogs for years in hope of doing one some day and I learned a lot from reading about other people's experiences.

When traveling the best way to reach me is by email since I unfollow everyone on Facebook until we get back. We will miss you one and all!

We are often asked how many countries we have been to. I do keep a list as I'd have no idea otherwise. We have been to all 7 continents and at least 69 countries prior to this cruise. If we make all the ports on the itinerary we will have 42 port days, 66 sea days and 3 canal days. We will have 24 new ports and 18 repeats and 10 new countries.

We have had 2 port changes so far. Originally, we had Gibraltar, Great Britain and it was replaced very early on with Ceuta, Spain (Spanish Morocco) which despite belonging to Spain it is on the continent of Africa. The second one was recent and expected with the safety in Turkey. Bodrum, Turkey was replaced with Rhodes, Greece. It's all good as we have not been to either.

Here is our itinerary:

Blue means we've been there before and red indicates new ports and/or countries for us.

DAYS	DAY	DATE	PORT	Arrive	Depart
1	Tuesday	3-Jan	Ft. Lauderdale, Florida		4:00 PM
2	Wednesday	4-Jan	Cruising the Caribbean Sea
3	Thursday	5-Jan	Cruising the Caribbean Sea
4	Friday	6-Jan	Aruba	12:00 PM	8:00 PM
5	Saturday	7-Jan	Cruising the Caribbean Sea
6	Sunday	8-Jan	Santa Marta, Colombia	7:00 AM	5:00 PM
7	Monday	9-Jan	Cruising the Caribbean Sea
8	Tuesday	10-Jan	Panama Canal, Panama	5:00 AM	4:30 PM
9	Wednesday	11-Jan	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
10	Thursday	12-Jan	San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua	7:00 AM	5:00 PM
11	Friday	13-Jan	Acajutla, El Salvador	10:00 AM	7:00 PM
12	Saturday	14-Jan	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
13	Sunday	15-Jan	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
14	Monday	16-Jan	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
15	Tuesday	17-Jan	La Paz, Mexico	7:00 AM	5:00 PM
16	Wednesday	18-Jan	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
17	Thursday	19-Jan	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
18	Friday	20-Jan	Los Angeles, California	7:00 AM	4:00 PM
19	Saturday	21-Jan	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
20	Sunday	22-Jan	Cruising the Pacific Ocean	Cross Equator
21	Monday	23-Jan	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
22	Tuesday	24-Jan	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
23	Wednesday	25-Jan	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
24	Thursday	26-Jan	Honolulu, Hawaii	7:00 AM	8:00 PM
25	Friday	27-Jan	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
26	Saturday	28-Jan	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
27	Sunday	29-Jan	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
28	Monday	30-Jan	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
29	Tuesday	31-Jan	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
30	Wednesday	1-Feb	Pago Pago, American Samoa	8:00 AM	5:00 PM
31	Thursday	2-Feb	Cross International Date Line	12:00 PM	1:00 PM
32	Saturday	4-Feb	Nuku'alofa, Tonga	8:00 AM	5:00 PM
33	Sunday	5-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
34	Monday	6-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
35	Tuesday	7-Feb	Bay of Islands, New Zealand	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
36	Wednesday	8-Feb	Auckland, New Zealand	7:00 AM	10:00 PM
37	Thursday	9-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
38	Friday	10-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
39	Saturday	11-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
40	Sunday	12-Feb	Sydney, Australia	7:00 AM	6:00 PM
41	Monday	13-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
42	Tuesday	14-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
43	Wednesday	15-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
44	Thursday	16-Feb	Cairns, Australia	7:00 AM	5:00 PM
45	Friday	17-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
46	Saturday	18-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
47	Sunday	19-Feb	Rabaul, Papua New Guinea	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
48	Monday	20-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
49	Tuesday	21-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
50	Wednesday	22-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
51	Thursday	23-Feb	Yap, Micronesia	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
52	Friday	24-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
53	Saturday	25-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
54	Sunday	26-Feb	Cruising the South Pacific Ocean
55	Monday	27-Feb	Kaohsiung, Taiwan	6:00 AM	5:00 PM
56	Tuesday	28-Feb	Cruising the South China Sea
57	Wednesday	1-Mar	Hong Kong, China	7:00 AM	Overnight
58	Thursday	2-Mar	Hong Kong, China		10:00 PM
59	Friday	3-Mar	Cruising the South China Sea
60	Saturday	4-Mar	Sanya, China	7:00 AM	4:00 PM
61	Sunday	5-Mar	Cruising the Gulf of Thailand
62	Monday	6-Mar	Cruising the Gulf of Thailand
63	Tuesday	7-Mar	Singapore	10:00 AM	Overnight
64	Wednesday	8-Mar	Singapore		6:00 PM
65	Thursday	9-Mar	Cruising the Bay of Bengal
66	Friday	10-Mar	Phuket, Thailand	7:00 AM	6:00 PM
67	Saturday	11-Mar	Cruising the Bay of Bengal
68	Sunday	12-Mar	Cruising the Bay of Bengal
69	Monday	13-Mar	Cruising the Bay of Bengal
70	Tuesday	14-Mar	Cochin, India	8:00 AM	5:00 PM
71	Wednesday	15-Mar	Cruising the Indian Ocean
72	Thursday	16-Mar	Mumbai, India	7:00 AM	8:00 PM
73	Friday	17-Mar	Cruising the Indian Ocean
74	Saturday	18-Mar	Cruising the Indian Ocean
75	Sunday	19-Mar	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	1:00 PM	Overnight
76	Monday	20-Mar	Dubai, United Arab Emirates		8:00 PM
77	Tuesday	21-Mar	Cruising the Arabian Sea
78	Wednesday	22-Mar	Cruising the Arabian Sea
79	Thursday	23-Mar	Cruising the Arabian Sea
80	Friday	24-Mar	Cruising the Arabian Sea
81	Saturday	25-Mar	Cruising the Arabian Sea
82	Sunday	26-Mar	Cruising the Arabian Sea
83	Monday	27-Mar	Cruising the Arabian Sea
84	Tuesday	28-Mar	Aqaba (for Petra), Jordan	7:00 AM	7:00 PM
85	Wednesday	29-Mar	Red Sea Suez Canal, Egypt	7:00 PM	Overnight
86	Thursday	30-Mar	Suez Canal, Egypt		5:00 PM
87	Friday	31-Mar	Cruising the Mediterranean Sea
88	Saturday	1-Apr	Rhodes, Greece	7:00 AM	6:00 PM
89	Sunday	2-Apr	Chania - Soudha Bay, Greece	8:00 AM	5:00 PM
90	Monday	3-Apr	Zakinthos, Greece	7:00 AM	4:00 PM
91	Tuesday	4-Apr	Bari, Italy	9:00 AM	7:00 PM
92	Wednesday	5-Apr	Hvar, Croatia	7:00 AM	5:00 PM
93	Thursday	6-Apr	Venice, Italy	9:00 AM	Overnight
94	Friday	7-Apr	Venice, Italy		6:00 PM
95	Saturday	8-Apr	Sibenik, Croatia	9:00 AM	6:00 PM
96	Sunday	9-Apr	Cruising the Mediterranean Sea
97	Monday	10-Apr	Valletta, Malta	8:00 AM	8:00 PM
98	Tuesday	11-Apr	Sicily (Trapani), Italy	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
99	Wednesday	12-Apr	Cruising the Mediterranean Sea
100	Thursday	13-Apr	Cruising the Mediterranean Sea
101	Friday	14-Apr	Ceuta Spanish Morocco	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
102	Saturday	15-Apr	Algarve Coast (Portimao), Portugal	8:00 AM	5:00 PM
103	Sunday	16-Apr	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
104	Monday	17-Apr	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
105	Tuesday	18-Apr	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
106	Wednesday	19-Apr	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
107	Thursday	20-Apr	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
108	Friday	21-Apr	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
109	Saturday	22-Apr	Bermuda (Hamilton)	9:00 AM	5:00 PM
110	Sunday	23-Apr	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
111	Monday	24-Apr	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
112	Tuesday	25-Apr	Ft. Lauderdale, Florida	7:00 AM

                                              
Happy New Year!!!