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36 Days To Go

Our 3-month 'world' cruise departs in just over a month. We're sailing on a Crystal ship called Serenity. We've been on the Serenity a couple of times before but it's recently been in dry dock for a major refurbishment and we're looking forward to seeing all that's new.

The Crystal website has a 'check-in and planning' section where we can book services such as massages, hair and nail appointments, dining reservations and excursions. Although I'm not counting the days until we leave, each time I check into the site it tells me how many days are left. As of today there are 36 days until we set sail.

Our new passports arrived. They're the 'large' size, having 52 pages versus the 'standard' size which have 28 pages. There are 43 blank pages for visas and entry/exit stamps. Some countries that we'll be going to require more than the usual 2 stamps (in and out) and some are picky and require blank pages that face each other. Having brand new, 52 page passports should take care of all these requirements.

As for visas, the only one we have to get ahead of time is for Australia and we applied for that online so it's now checked off our 'to-do' list. The ship will obtain visas for us in the 3 or 4 other ports where they're needed.

Crystal offers complimentary private car transfers for world cruisers. A chauffeured private car transfer is available in LA to bring us to the ship prior to sailing and another can pick us up in Monte Carlo at the end of the cruise and bring us to the airport in Nice. We're going to take advantage of this and I've already filled out the forms to request the service.

It's also possible to have guests visit us on the ship in certain ports. We have family in LA and they're interested in seeing the Serenity so we've begun the paperwork to make that happen. It costs $20 per person and some of the information required is for security purposes. More forms to fill out! LOL!

As a world cruiser, Crystal will reimburse us for extra baggage charges on our flights because they "recognize that world cruise guests travel with extra luggage." No kidding! We fly to LA on Southwest to start the cruise and since Southwest lets each of us check 2 bags at no charge, we should be fine for that part of our trip. However that will not be the case when we fly home from Europe so we're taking the excess baggage reimbursement (which is $500 per person) and shipping 4 suitcases back to the US - once we do some research to find the best company to provide this service. It'll be nice to have very little luggage to haul around the airport in Nice and when we land back in the states.






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