Impressions of World Cruise on Pacific Princess

First off I want to say it was privilege to be able to experience such an amazing journey around the globe. We made special friends that shared in the journey that we will remember for a lifetime, as we shared meals, tours and just passing in the halls.

It seems most people want to know which place was our favorite. That’s impossible. Below I will list some of the highlights. There were very few lowlights, so the list is long. Others want to know if we got bored on the sea days. Heavens no! We wished we had more. They are very nice relaxing days, but still kind of busy. I wished I’d had more time just to read. We never tired of just watching the ocean, even when it was days without seeing anything at all but water. Of course it was nice to see whales, dolphins, flying fish, small boats, large boats and oil rigs etc.

Many can’t imagine being gone for almost 4 months. The time flew by and we could have kept going. Though I would have needed a whole new wardrobe since I gained 17 lbs! Yikes, I haven’t weighed this much in years.

Highlights: (in no particular order)

Motu on Morea from Tahiti (snorkel and picnic on the beach)

 

Riding an elephant in Phuket

 

Riding a camel in Egypt to the pyramids

 

Snorkeling in the Red Sea of Egypt

 

Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef in Australia

 

Dinner cruise on the Bosphorus in Istanbul

 

Glow Worm caves and the scenic beauty of New Zealand

 

Kangaroo feeding in Tasmania and Blue Mountains

 

Sounds of Silence Dinner at Ayers Rock

 

Seeing a kangaroo and wallabies in the wild

 

Having dates with a Bedouin woman in the guest tent in Oman

 

Climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge…even in the rain

 

Bullet train & tasty lunch in Kyoto, Japan

 

Korean BBQ in Korea

Hawker or street food in Malaysia, Beijing, Singapore and Hong Kong

Halong Bay all day boat trip and watching the monkeys

Walking side by side with the soldiers in Tiananmen Square

Standing on the Great Wall of China

Fishing Village tour in Bangkok, excellent meal with local family

Exploring the Hutongs in Beijing in a rickshaw & lunch with a local family

Petra & Wadi Rum were amazing!

Floating in the Dead Sea was a blast!

The sail in to Kotor was beautiful as was the walled city

 

Surprises:

Iced coffee at Rex’s ……. in Saigon.

Holy cow, I loved India!

The Taj Mahal exceeded my expectations

How tasty kangaroo is

Jordan and Israel are beautiful countries

Loved Istanbul, especially the Spice Market and the Turkish Bath

How much I loved dates 

Lowlights: 

Though “interesting” the bathroom scene in Tiananmen Sq. with Bonnie, with all the pushing and shoving, will be remembered forever. 

The very few tour mates that caused problems on a couple of the tours. Most of our tour mates enhanced our tours!

Only 2 tours weren’t as “promised”. (and those weren’t THAT bad.) 

Pacific Princess Experience:

Food in general was very good! Especially the Sunday Brunches. Beef in general (including the specialty restaurant) was tough with little flavor and always served with a brown gravy. Lamb was tasty and tender.

While we prefer a larger ship with flexible dining times, it was nice to have the same waiter and it was easy to navigate about the ship.

The biggest negative was the Captain. He wanted to leave as soon as everyone was on board. If the published time was 9:00 to 5:00, all aboard was at 4:30 (which is normal), but even if you were there at 4:20 you were made to feel you were late. They would be pulling up the gangway as you walked on. No using that last half hour to prepare to leave.

Princess did not hold an event just for the people on the full world cruise until the last segment. It would have been nice to meet each other in the first segment so we might have gotten to know each other better. They did hold an event for those who had already done a full world cruise. Princess didn’t make us feel “special” until the last segment. Though we were presented with backpacks with the world cruise emblem on them and a world cruise lanyard to hold our cruise cards. That was nice!

Princess did a fabulous job of providing a wide variety of entertainment for such a long time. Though everything can’t be to everyone’s taste, we found the variety quite good as well as the quality of the entertainment as well. There were really only 3 or 4 that we didn’t care for.

It was an amazing journey with many experiences to remember for a lifetime. Heck, it may take a lifetime to get through the thousands of pictures we both took!