A Return to Adventures, at last

Phillip and I are ready to restart our adventures! We leave tomorrow, Friday, April 15, flying to Fort Lauderdale and cruising out Saturday on a 23-night Princess transatlantic cruise. We stay on the ship when it docks in Southampton, England, finishing our 23 days with a spin around the British Isles. This is basically, minus the British Isles segment, the cruise that we were scheduled to take in April 2020 until Covid scuttled everyone's travel plans. Unlike our 2020 plan, we won't be flying into Europe to visit Berlin, Poland, and Ukraine. I think we missed our window of opportunity for Ukraine. Even if the fighting stopped there today, it will take years to rebuild the infrastructure they had before the invasion. Instead of Europe, after our cruise we fly to Newark, New Jersey, to visit Robin and Tom in South Orange.  

We are looking forward to this cruise. Because of the cancellation of the 2020 cruise, Princess refunded us in future cruise credit 150% of what we had paid for that first cruise. We used that extra 50% to add the British Isles and upgrade to the "Princess Plus" fare. The Plus fare includes prepaid gratuities, wifi for two devices, the drink package, and one evening of specialty dining. I read another blogger's post who calculated that a person only needs to drink two alcoholic drinks a day for the Plus package to save  money. The package also includes specialty coffees, which is actually where the cruise ship makes money from Phillip, as he loves his mocha frappes. I will enjoy my glass of wine, or two, with dinner! All cruise lines limit the drink package to 15 drinks a day. Of my family, I am the only one who met that cap, one day only on a Carnival cruise during an unspoken competition with my son-in-law. I haven't done it again, nor do I ever plan to as I have more sense than that these days. Phillip and I will use the specialty dining only because it is in the package. We have been very pleased with the quality and selection of food in the main dining rooms of all our past cruises.

This cruise will be our 7th one since the Covid cruising restrictions were lifted last year. In September, we flew to Miami and did back-to-back cruises, one on Carnival (Horizon) and another on Royal Caribbean (Symphony of the Sea). We were very happy with the care, concern, and adherence to the rules at the time on the Royal Caribbean ship, not so much on the Carnival ship as rules were posted but there was no enforcement by the ship's officers. We did learn from that experience that it is a $50 taxi ride each way from the cruise terminal to the nearest Minute Clinic for Covid testing!

On January 2, we did another back-to-back (same ship this time!) on the Carnival Dream out of Galveston. This ship had good enforcement of the Covid rules. Our learning lesson, however, was that Covid testing is impossible to find on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. Fortunately, I had ordered some of the at-home, e-med verified test kits so we were able to have test results for boarding. At the end of February and into March, we did another back-to-back cruise, again out of Galveston, on Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Sea. We have been quite pleased with the activities and entertainment on those past three RCL cruises, so we plan to cruise more on that line. 

Phillip and I have several reasons for all this cruising and travel planning now, independent of the (hopefully) waning of Covid concerns. We both turn 65 this year and have always had a nebulous plan that we would seriously travel beginning at 65 while we still are physically able. When our beloved Zelda died of bone cancer in October 2021, Phillip's father died in January of this year, and we had an unexpected offer from an acquaintance to buy our ranch, we decided to go forward with the next chapter of our lives. 

Zelda in her favorite spot, her "bunker" at the ranch

Phillip's dad, on a good day before he died

My 2021 garden at the ranch (over 2000 pounds
of tomatoes harvested)

Cruises are the easiest travel for us right now. Other than hiccups regarding the pre-cruise testing, once booked, I don't have to worry much about logistics with cruising. One round trip flight or drive and one or two hotel nights, and we have a plan. It would be a nightmare to worry about country-specific Covid rules and expensive to get testing arranged as we move between countries. We will return to on-the-ground travel once the world normalizes, travel via train and bus to locations that Phillip and I select and I book. 

Phillip and I have two more cruises booked with more under consideration, a half-planned driving trip to Yellowstone National Park, and the general goal of visiting all continents (we still need to see Australia, Africa, and Antartica) as well as all 50 states together (we have visited 21 together already). Some aspects of traveling have changed (Covid issues, greater reliance on my cell phone) and some have not (I still will not pack blue jeans for him). We are excited about this new chapter of our lives and eager to return to our adventures!