Finalized Shore Excursions

After much thought, we finalized our list of excursions and reserved them online. There are plenty of places along this route that we have visited several times previously. And, many we may never visit again, so we decided to book as much as possible--at least what we could afford!!. Below is a list of things we have reserved. Two of the shore excursions are 3-day events off the ship. Those are the Taj Mahal and the Safari in Kruger National Park and Shishangeni Lodge.

Motu Islet Beach - Moorea, French Polynesia Date: Feb 10

City Drive/Cleland Wildlife Park - Adelaide, Australia Date: Feb 25

Elephant Kraal - Bangkok (Laem Chabang), Date: Mar 10

City Drive/Chinatown/Orchid Garden - Singapore, Singapore Date: Mar 13

Cellular Jail/Aberdeen Bazaar Tuk - Andaman Islands, India/Andaman Date: Mar 16

Delhi / Agra / Taj Mahal - (3-day India land excursion)
Cochin, India Date: Mar 20

Grand Mosque & Bait Al Zubair - Muscat (Mina Qaboos), Oman Date: Mar 25

At The Top: Burj Khalifa - Dubai, United Arab Emirates Date: Mar 26

Kruger: Shishangeni Lodge Camp -(3-day Safari) - Maputo, Mozambique Date: Apr 06

Table Mountain - Cape Town, South Africa Date: Apr 11

Cape Of Good Hope - Cape Town, South Africa Date: Apr 12

Slavery,Voodoo & Zangebeto Dances - Lome, Togo Date: Apr 20

Pink Lake Of Retba - Dakar, Senegal Date: Apr 25

Rabat (city tour) - Casablanca, Morocco Date: Apr 30

Monaco/Monte Carlo (city tour) - Monte Carlo, Monaco Date: May 05

Grand Adventure

Over the years we began to consider whether to do a World Cruise.  There were places on the globe we hadn't yet had the opportunity to visit.  Most notably were India, Cambodia, Indonesia, and the southern part of the African continent.  Early in 2009 we became aware of a new sailing by Princess Cruises that would travel around the African continent stopping at nine ports.  Once we got to review the brochure showing the extent of the full World Cruise itinerary, we made the decision to do this cruise on the Pacific Princess scheduled for January 2011.




Princess Cruises World Cruise Brochure

 

But, how do you begin planning for such a cruise?  What are the little things you need to know before leaving home for nearly 4 months?  Although we have cruised many times to locations all over the world, this adventure would be something very new to us.  Not knowing all the answers but knowing we wanted to visit more of the world, we went ahead and booked this cruise in September 2009.  After the cruise was booked the hard part really began.  We searched for people who had done a world cruise before and searched for Blogs by other world cruisers.  All of this in an attempt to learn what you should and shouldn't do.   

Basically what were the lessons learned by people who had taken a similar cruise?  Over the coming months we tried to learn as much as possible about our itinerary; the ship; weather for the route, packing issues; tax extensions; immunizations; visa requirements; foreign currencies, global cell phone, travel insurance and all the other things that one needs to consider in their overall planning process.  What are ALL the other things!?!