Parting Thoughts and More ...

It didn’t take too long to re-enter our normal lives. Although I did miss having our linens changed daily, Larry was delighted to get back home so he could eat dinner wearing shorts (not long pants) ... which he couldn’t do on the ship.

Because I get sea (and motion) sick I used the scopalomine patch on this cruise. Usually Bonine is enough but the cruise started in rough waters (crossing to Hawaii from LA) so I decided to use the patch. It worked really, really well with no side effects so I continued using it. When it was prescribed (by two different doctors) I asked each if using it for almost 3 months would be an issue and both said 'no.' Well, I should have done more research as it turns out you can get addicted and experience withdrawal .... and I did. I wasn't able to get off it until the 3rd time I tried and even then it took about 3 weeks to be free of all symptoms. After going online to find out how to withdraw, I saw that some people have much more trouble than I did and the symptoms can be serious. Fortunately all is good now.

A few thoughts about the cruise:

Crystal’s excursions were good, but not great. We usually book private tours but there were several ports where we opted for a ship tour either because we couldn’t find private providers with decent reviews or had safety concerns.

Overall we took about 6 ship tours out of the 32 ports we visited. Two were awful. Everyone received a 50% refund on the first one and a full refund on the second. The tours were disappointing because they weren’t up to the standards you’d expect from Crystal. In light of these experiences (which happened on the second segment) we cancelled most of the ship tours we’d booked for ports in the third and fourth segments.

In the other ports we found private operators offering the same excursions as the ship or they designed a tour based on what we wanted to see. All were about half the cost of the ship’s and were very good to excellent. 

The food on the ship was excellent as always. In the first month we each gained about 3-5 pounds because everything was so tempting. However, as time went on we went back to eating the way we do at home and the extra pounds came off. Unlikely as it seems, I actually lost a a bit of weight! :-) In part this was because we don't drink a lot, we went to exercise classes on the ship or played paddle ball and we tended to take excursions where there was a decent amount of walking and/or hiking. 

Internet was great. Maybe not quite as fast as at home but pretty good overall. The only time it went wonky was when entering or leaving a port but that was only for an hour or so. The tech people on the ship were wonderful and it was great to be able to have them print things out for us.

Post-cruise:
We used Luggage Forward to ship 4 suitcases home. We did this so we would only have carry ons for our flights home making it easier to get through the airports and customs. The Luggage Forward people met us on the dock as we left the ship and took our luggage. Easy peasy. The suitcases were due to arrive at our house in 4-7 days. On day six, 3 pieces of luggage arrived. Uh-Oh. 

Noah at Luggage Forward was great about keeping us updated on the whereabouts of my wayward suitcase. He'd call on a daily basis with a progress report. Turns out the suitcase went from Monte Carlo to Miami FL to Tampa FL to Sydney Australia where it spent Easter/Passover. It then went to California, Cincinnati and finally made it home to Sarasota - no worse for wear - about 16 days late. 

Crystal gives the world cruisers a number of gifts throughout the cruise. It began the first night when I had a vest and sweater waiting for me on our bed and Larry had a vest and golf shirt waiting for him. We got at least 3 canvas tote bags plus many other small gifts that were given after we visited various ports including an adorable stuffed koala named Kaylee who showed up during our time in Australia. I also got a charm bracelet with various charms added as the cruise progressed and near the end of our journey we each got a set of fancy headphones. The best gift came on the last night of the cruise when we got a thumb drive with a movie of the entire cruise! It's been fun to watch and share with family and friends.

The piece of luggage that traveled back to Australia just happened to contain Kaylee, the stuffed koala. I think she wanted to go back home so she hijacked the suitcase back to Sydney! LOL! 

This is Kaylee the Eucalyptus Koala. Isn't she cute?

So, what can go wrong at home when you're away for 3 months even though you tried to plan for every scenario? We had a house sitter check our house weekly and start our cars. One day we got a frantic call that all the lights on one of our cars were lit up, the car wouldn't start AND the fire alarms in the house were going off. Fortunately her husband came to the house and was able to start the car and our wonderful friend John bought and installed all new fire detectors since replacing the batteries didn't fix the problem. 

We also needed to have our bedroom and bathroom repainted and decided to have it done while we were away. We'd picked the paint out before we left with the approval of our designer and had a painter we trust do the work.The first call we received was from the designer who said the paint color was wrong ... and it was. Larry had given the painter the wrong swatch so we said to stop the painting until we got back. However the painter had moved our bed (frame made of sea grass) and thought there were termite droppings on the floor. The next call/text was from him along with some pictures. Since we'd been thinking about getting a new bed at some point, we had him throw out the existing one out since he had us scared and we were half way around the world and helpless to do much about it. We did call our pest control people and they came to the house right away and said there were no termites. The 'droppings' had fallen out of the sea grass bed frame when the bed was moved. So we came home to no bed.

About two weeks before the end of the cruise our neighbor emailed us a picture of the grass in our back yard which had turned brown. He said there must be something wrong with our sprinkler system and he wanted us to know. We called our sprinkler person who went out to the house to check. Turns out that very neighbor had had some sod put in and his contractor had cut our sprinkler line! 

So this is the end of our amazing world cruise journey but probably not the end of this blog. Writing helps document each special moment and how blessed we are to have them. Since we hope to continue our adventures, the blog will go on. Next up is a trip to Michigan this summer followed by a trip to South Africa in the fall. This time we're golfing our way around South Africa and ending with a week of safaris.

I'm glad you've been on this adventure with me but totally understand if you've had enough so feel free to unsubscribe if you'd prefer not to get more updates .... you won't hurt my feelings!