Embarkation Day… aka “The Commencing of Buffet Mania”

          We remember it well…..

                   It was a mere 704 days ago we decided that a World Cruise would be a good idea.

                   No…. make that a GREAT idea!

The countdown was started and tracked by Princess every time we logged onto the website dedicated to our booking and this Cruise. Initially the number was 340 days until departure.

                   We got down to 110 days to go and then it came.

The “Announcement”.

“Due to all of the ramifications of Covid 19 in several of the countries that we will be visiting, and since there are no assurances that any of the travel restrictions that are currently in place will be lifted, we regret to inform you that our 2022 World Cruise is being cancelled in its entirety.”

We had a hastily called meeting of the WWW (World-Wide Winnebago) Cruise Committee (us!) and it was unanimously decided to try and procure some berths on the next years cruise slated for January of 2023.

We quickly rang up Carol, our Princess Cruise Consultant who sprang into action in order to secure a stateroom for us (the bookings had already begun for the 2023 Cruise) and she assured us that they (Princess) would hold the prices for us so that we would not have an increase.

          Clock restart: 475 days to go.

          I could say that “It seems like only yesterday….” But that would be a lie!

475 is a long time!

With lots of other Winnebago-type Travel Plans staring at us!

But now we can say that it’s all in the past, and yes… today…. ‘God willing and the creek don’t rise…..’ we will climb the gangway of the Island Princess, make our way to the Central Elevators, punch the Aloha Deck button, and find our way to our stateroom, where hopefully the luggage that was shipped almost two weeks ago has found its way back to us……. like the three lost pets in the Incredible Journey, and we will have not only a joyful reunion, but fresh underwear as well!

We will then report to the Galley Master for our rowing assignments along with the other ‘passengers’. I hear that the views out of the rowing ports is quite nice if the weather is good!

After a few days at sea, our first ‘Port of Call’ will be Cartagena, Columbia.

          See you on board!

I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment and welcome a passel of new crewmembers to the blog! The Galley Master offered us a bounty for going out and beating the bushes to find new Rowers. It seems that a bunch jumped ship at the previous Port so…. the latest additions to our illustrious company are (in no particular order) Evan, Looper, Lindsey, Rick, Barb, Carol, Donald, Barbara, Cathleen, Dino, Nancy, Kim, Matt, Claire, Tommy, Nadia, Anne, and Aubrey.

          Please be nice and say Hi to these dupes, (oops! I mean fine examples of humanity!) when they sit down next to you and pick up their oars!