Idle Friday night thoughts

While I have at least 139 days aboard cruise ships none of my previous ones have totalled more than 21 days so the planning for this one will have to be a lot more detailed. Things like trying to pack for 49 days and where there is likely to be a variety of weather conditions will mean planning to do some laundry on board - the Grand Princess has coin-operated laundries on the ship and they will likely offer a bag full at a set price.

Also unlike NCL where I have top Platinum rewards levels I only have two short cruises on Princess - a seven day to Alaska and a five day Pacific coastal so very few on board perks.

I have only set foot in South American once before and that was last year when on my 2nd Panama Canal cruise we stopped at Cartagena, Columbia so my lack of Spanish wasn't much of a factor.

Also on my previous cruises using US $$$ has never been a problem but some of the SA countries  - Brazil and Chile - aren't big fans of the greenback so I will need to figure out having some local currency to use - fortunately living downtown in a big metro area the foreign currency exchanges and major bank branches are close at hand so that should alleviate some of that concern.

A great tool for cruisers is the web site - www.cruisecritic.com - I joined a number of years ago and have almost 6000 posts to my credit - what usually happens is someone on a cruise will start a thread for their cruise and once a few people are on board a meet and greet on the ship is planned - the cruise lines see value in these types of meetings and once about 25 or more people have indicated their participation the organizer contacts the ship and a room or bar is offered for the meet and greet - this is how I have meet several of the people who I cruise with now.

This cruise has a very active thread with some 200 or so people wanting to attend the M & G's and since it is a three part cruise we will have three of them. While we sometimes meet for a sail away drinks most M & G's are held on the first sea day.

Generally among the group will be people who have done some or part of the itinerary previously and thus are a good source of information. That is the case with this cruise - every time i have posed a question I have gotten a good answer.

Well it is just about bed time so it's time to sign off for the evening.

As always Cheers!

A quickie update

While I have been planning this cruise I have been wrestling with what to do with the two NCL cruises that I have booked this fall - one a 7 day cruise to Bermuda and then a 14 repo from NYC to NOLA - they were booked as Plan B when it didn't look like I would get on the South American cruise - while I decided some time ago to cancel the repo - other than cruising with some people who I have met through Cruise Critic I have been to all the ports more than once - I haven't been to Bermuda so still wanted to go there - well I hummed and I hawed - something I am quite good at - it was also complicated by the fact that I have a hotel booked through Hotwire for two nights in NYC that can't be canceled - I finally decided today to officially cancel both of those cruises - I have a friend in NYC who is a travel agent - gonna see if she can get someone to take over the hotel booking - otherwise since it is long paid for I will just eat the cost.

I did however do some more bookings - have booked a 14 day B2B Boston to Quebec City and back to Boston and then 7 days on the same ship to Bermuda - I am on the Norwegian Dawn and in the same cabin for both legs.

I have a couple who I met on a cruise about 5 years ago who are also doing the 14 days - it will be nice to have someone to lean on if necessary - we will both also celebrate our birthdays on the first leg of the cruise.

Since I don't fly anymore this will allow me to visit the four Maritime Canadian provinces for the first time and return to Quebec City for the first time since the 1967 Expo in Montreal.

Now that I have that challenge taken care of it is full speed ahead on the South American cruise planning.

Cheers

Some facts and figures about this cruise

As I am getting over a cold and staying indoors despite the sunny weather outside thought it might be a good idea to supply some facts about this cruise.

I have already stated that it is basically a three part cruise with Buenos Aires and Santiago as embarkation/disembarkation points as well.

In the full 49 days there will be 22 port calls - not including Fort Lauderdale and San Francisco - and two days where there will be for a lack of a better word special events cruising - that will be around Cape Horn and the Amalia glacier.

By my count excluding the United States I will visit 14 countries - okay I know the Virgin Islands are a US possession and that not everyone agrees that the Falklands are a separate country but that is how the view the ports that I will visit.

There are six ports that I visited at least twice before - St Thomas, Barbados, Antigua, Puntarenas, Acapulco and Cabo San Lucas.

The most sea days in a row is four - from the time I leave Trinidad to I get to Fortaleza, Brazil.

The most straight ports days is four - near the start when St. Thomas, Antigua, Barbados and Trinidad are visited on consecutive days.

I have two over night stays in Rio and Lima - the Rio stay coincides with the 2013 Carnaval so that should be a wild time.

I have four tender ports - Falklands, Punta Arenas, Chile, San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua and Cabo.
In those ports - except for Cabo - I will likely do ships excursions as I don't have any early off tender privileges with Princess.

So far I have booked three tours offered by some of the cruise critics cruisers on our roll call - they are in Fortaleza, Brazil, Ushuaia, Argentina and Manta, Ecuador - which is the gateway to Quito but to long for just a one day visit.

Over the next little while I will start to share with you my plans, thoughts, concerns about the various ports that I will be visiting.

Cheers until next time.