It wasn’t easy getting off the ship…Currently in Boca Raton, Florida now…

When we arrive in Belize on January 29th and get situated in our little beach house,  we’ll be very relieved.  Tom is having angst about the “tender” coming to pick us up in Belize and the maneuvering of our luggage.

Most passengers will be disembarking for an excursion, not like us with the intent of staying off the ship, not to return for the remaining two-night journey back to Florida. As a result, we’ll most likely be the only passengers loading luggage onto the tender.

The reason the Celebrity Equinox (or other cruise ships) cannot dock at the pier in Belize is its size, too big. It’s too shallow at the pier for huge ships. 

As much as I try to reassure Tom that the ship’s staff will assist us as well as the tender’s staff, hired by Celebrity to assist passengers on and off, he remains steadfast in his concern. 

Determined to allay his fear, I will prepare for this scenario with guest services aboard ship days in advance to ensure staff is on hand and ready to take over. Yes, it will cost us in tips, as it did yesterday disembarking the Celebrity Century.

Oh.  Disembarking in Fort Lauderdale yesterday was a little challenging. Yes, we know we have too many bags.  Yes, we know as time marches on we’ll end up reducing the amount of our luggage.  But if we’d only had two large bags, two carry on bags, and two computer bags, it still was challenging.  We stayed calm.

A kind older man, a porter of small stature, seeing our abundant orange luggage as we fumbled grabbing it among the piles of black bags, approached asking if we’d use his services. We looked at each other, wildly shaking our heads, “YES!”  This porter was strong as a horse immediately loading our copious bags onto his large cart. The line to go through customs was several hundred deep.

Our friend, with whom we are staying until Monday was standing by for our text with instructions as to where to pick us up.  At this point, there was no way to determine how long it would take.  The kind porter waited in line with us for the 20 or so minutes it took to get through customs.  How much to tip him

Getting through customs was a breeze in itself. When we saw how fast the line was moving I contacted our friend who was 35 minutes away in Boca Raton giving her our exact location. We were asked if we purchased anything, which we had not, asked to show our passports, and scooted on through without opening a single bag.  That took less than two minutes.

Then, the fun began.  We were escorted to the massive parking lots with fast-moving cars and trucks were dropping off and picking up passengers and dropping off supplies for the ships, several of which surrounded us.  Traffic cops in orange vests were directing traffic, annoyed by our need to find a spot to unload our luggage and wait for our friend. 

Actually, standing in a curved lane of traffic with our bags neatly lined up next to us, the porter on his way with our $50 tip  (he’d been with us for over a half-hour), we watched every white SUV whizzing by, hoping it was our friend.  Dressed in short sleeves, I was cold.  Who knew it would be only 60 degrees when weather reports indicated high 70’s?  I should have worn a jacket or sweater.  Tom, as usual, was comfortable. My guy, so sturdy. Me, a wimp.

Twenty-five minutes later our friend arrived to see our smiling faces, anxious to get on the road. The kind porter suddenly reappeared to assist once again. Apparently, the $50 tip had been adequate and we were pleased to let him help Tom.

Forty minutes later, we unloaded the bags, leaving most of the bags in her garage, bringing in only our two duffel bags filled with dirty clothes, our laptop bags, my handbag, and a doctor bag of toiletries.  Surely, this would suffice for the weekend with us leaving to sail away again on Monday, January 21st on the Celebrity Expedition for our trip to Belize.

Walking into our friend’s gorgeous Boca Raton home was comforting, our accommodations ideal.  Unpacking our six loads of dirty clothes from 15 days aboard the Celebrity Century, the washer is still going non-stop today.  Paying special attention to drying cycles, hoping to avoid wrinkles has kept me running back and forth.

It’s raining today. We’d hoped to sit by her inviting pool, soaking up our 45 minutes of sun, swimming in the pool, relaxing. Instead, we’ll busy ourselves indoors today, calling family, completing the laundry, and helping to cook a big meal for more company coming tonight.  We’re good.  We’re content.

We’re living our new life

Never been cruising?…What????…

Many have laughed when we say that we have never been on a cruise and now, we’ve booked eight cruises.  How risky, they say.  We ask, “What’s the risk?”

When we’ve dared to ask what they perceive as the risk, here are the answers:

1.  Seasickness:  Unlikely, since both of us are avid boaters.  If we could avoid seasickness bouncing around in a small fishing boat on a very windy day on Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota with nary a thought about seasickness, it’s highly unlikely we’ll get sick on a giant ship with built-in stabilizers.  Backup plan: we have several prescribed packets of Transderm Scop.

2.  Boredom:  Nope, not likely.  Tom and I are easily entertained. We will participate in many activities, meet people, play cards, attend classes, and relax in a chaise lounge by the pool reading downloaded books on our phones.  The options to be entertained are endless.

3.  The food will be a problem with our limited diet:  Why would the food be a problem?  We eat.  They have food.  Will we be tempted on occasion to try something we don’t normally eat? Sure.  But we’ll remind ourselves every day that our ability to travel the world is predicated upon our good health. Why jeopardize feeling well for even one day for a French pastry?  To me, it’s not worth it. For Tom, he may occasionally try a few items.  Neither of us will judge the other for their personal decisions, although we’ll continue to offer loving support on staying the course. 

4.  Tiny, cramped cabin: We booked a balcony cabin for each cruise and managed a few upgrades to mini-suites. We’ll spend little time in our cabin. Our world-travel bags currently are all in our bedroom here in Scottsdale, only slightly larger than a cabin (we measured).  We’ll stack them neatly in one area.  We’re tidy.  We’ll be fine.

5.  Extra charges aboard cruise:  As discussed in a post from earlier in the week, we’ve made decisions in advance, based on our budget as to what extras we will choose:  purchase Internet time, purchase cocktails when desired (not the overpriced beverage package unfitting a lightweight drinker) and experience one or two excursions.  (The exception to that will be the upcoming cruise to Dubai in May to see Giza, the Sphinx, and the Great Pyramids.  We’ll do all of these!)  Neither of us cares for professional massages, spa treatments, gambling, or spending money in the expensive shops. We have no room for trinkets in our bags.  We may incur a laundry charge aboard ship most likely upwards of $100 a load.  We’ve budgeted for the expenses that we anticipate and, leaving a margin for the unknowns.

I guess it all boils down to this: self-control.  We need only to remind ourselves of our next adventure, our next juicy steak topped with mushrooms and onions, our next refreshing glass of iced tea with a slice of lemon, and of course, the person we love sitting beside us who makes us laugh warms our heart and holds our hand through it all. 

Yesterday, while checking in online with Celebrity Cruise Line for our first upcoming cruise on January 3, 2013, we perused information for our later cruise leaving Miami on January 21, 2013 sailing to Belize where we’ll live for two and a half months on each of the peninsulas of Placencia and Ambergris Caye. 

We’ll be disembarking in Belize City, three days prior to the end of the cruise.  (We have written approval from the cruise line to disembark early).  We’ve discovered that the pier in Belize City is too shallow for cruise ships to dock and thus, we’ll be “tendered” to shore via a smaller boat. 

For a moment we both panicked envisioning the process of maneuvering our eight pieces of luggage, our computer and digital equipment bags, my handbag, and ourselves into a small boat.  This morning, after a fitful night we promptly called the cruise line to discover that the boat picking us up will be boarded via a large stable ramp to awaiting boats holding anywhere from 100 to 200 passengers at a time.  We’ll not only have assistance from the ship’s employees but also the staff on the smaller boats since they also assist passengers as they are boarding.  No fear!  Whew!

There’s no doubt that the simplicity of our “old” life avoided such decisions, avoided such challenges, avoided such risks.  In the perpetual search for familiarity, comfort, and ease, we found ourselves, happy but stuck in a groove we could have blissfully stayed as we lived out our lives in retirement. 

We’ve chosen “the road less traveled” to challenge ourselves, to expand our knowledge, to enhance our personal histories, and to celebrate and appreciate the amazing world and the people in it.  We’ll make some bad decisions, we’ll make some wrong turns, and at times we may wonder, “why are we doing this?”  But we’ll do this together, we’ll learn together and we’ll marvel together, always grateful and always in love.

A Belize Solution…

We originally booked the cozy beach house in Belize from February 1 to March 31, 2013.  Based on our cruise from Miami arriving in Belize City on January 29th we felt confident we could easily find a hotel for a few days until the first of February which proved not to be so easy.

At the end of our Belize trip, our cruise departs from Belize City on April 9, 2013 presenting us with another eight nights for which to find housing, as mentioned in previous posts.  

We’d hoped the owner of the cozy beach house could accommodate all eleven nights, prorating the rent accordingly.  At the time, she suggested we wait and see if the beach house would be available.

We’d been waiting to hear from her when I made the request this past weekend.  Fortunately, she was able to accommodate us for the earlier dates for which we are thrilled and appreciative but, the later dates in April were booked.

These eight days put my fingers to work online searching for a hotel.  The options were few.  Apparently, we had waited too long to solve this dilemma. Of all the available hotels in Belize, most were booked or were running about $300 per night plus the requirement of dining out for all meals, adding substantially to the overall cost.  

Although we only needed a hotel for eight nights, this cost would be comparable to the cost of the two months rent for the cozy beach house!  This would not only throw our budget out of whack but result in frustration that we hadn’t planned this leg of our travels more carefully.  Live and learn.

With this reality, I became all the more determined to find an affordable alternative that would fulfill our objectives of the following: a full service kitchen, a location near the ocean, conveniently located to avoid the necessity of full time auto rental, plus…be attractive, clean and if possible, charming.   

Unable to find a hotel befitting our objectives and available for these dates, I wandered back to one of the sources of our worldwide home rentals: HomeAway.com, to execute a search for a short term rental. Success!  

This is the property we locked up for the eight nights, for half the cost of a hotel room and with a well equipped kitchen, allowing us to eat in, located on the island of San Pedro in Ambergris Caye, a highly desirable location.  The owner was fabulous to work with as are most of the owners of vacation rentals.

A year ago, if all we were planning was this eight day trip to Ambergris Caye, San Pedro, Belize to stay in this lovely casita we would have been delighted. Who knew that this would be but one small part of the so far 949 days booked to experience the world.

Transportation will be our next challenge. Placencia is a three hour drive from the port in Belize City. The above property is located on the island of San Pedro in Ambergris Caye, requiring a water taxi ride from Placencia. We could fly in little airplanes to get around, hauling those bags.  No thank you!

Next, we’ll get to work figuring our modes of transportation for this part of our adventure.  But then again, that’s part of the fun; overcoming challenges, finding solutions and of course, planning well in advance, when possible. Doing so, saves time, effort and money, all of which is done in preparation for those unknown events, that are certain to occur along the way.

We don’t like flying…

It’s not that we’re fearful of flying. We’re not. We both say a prayer upon take-off and landing, asking God to take us to our destination safely and praising God for the minds and skills of those individuals instrumental in creating and flying these beasts of the sky.

In our earlier discussions of the possibility of world travel upon retirement, we had this brilliant idea (so we thought) that we could avoid flying and cruise from location to location. In the planning of our first year, we are able to avoid stepping foot in an airport from October 31, 2012 (retirement/departure date) to September 1, 2013, when we will depart from Rome to arrive in Diani Beach in Mombasa, Kenya for our upcoming three-month stay.

In looking at a world map, it’s easy to ascertain that cruising from Italy to Kenya is challenging, if not impossible. The trip through the Suez Canal is wrought with dangers of political strife and rampant piracy, which prevent many cruise lines from sailing through these areas.  

Also, the seaports in Kenya are shallow as described in this link about the difficulty China has in importing goods to African seaports, not only due to its shallow ports, but also due to a lack of an adequate river system to transport the goods throughout the continent. As a result, smaller ships travel to Kenya, vulnerable to piracy.  Not an ideal scenario for cruising.

There are a number of cruises that travel through the Mediterranean to Egypt, but only a rare few that continue on into the Red Sea to Kenya. The cruise we have booked for June 4, 2013, doesn’t sail to Egypt. In the future, we will experience a cruise to Egypt. After all, we will have all the time in the world provided good health prevails.  

We selected this cruise which departs from Barcelona, Spain, after our one-month stay in Majorca, Spain, to fill a two-week lag we had to fill prior to the availability of our rental in Tuscany on June 16, 2013.  The cruise ends in Venice where we’ll either take a train to Florence or rent a car and drive to the Tuscany Region to our rental.  

When analyzing the cost of this cruise to the costs of two weeks of transportation through Italy, car rental, hotels, and meals, it proved to be slightly more economical. We’ll have plenty of time to tour Italy while staying in Tuscany for almost three months. 

12 nights departing June 4, 2013, on
Norwegian’s Norwegian Spirit
Brochure Inside $2,399
Our Inside $1,249
You Save 48%
Brochure Oceanview $2,599
Our Oceanview $1,499
You Save 42%
Brochure Balcony $3,299
Our Balcony $1,929
You Save 42%
Brochure Suite $6,399
Our Suite $3,929
You Save 39%
$$$ Early booking bonus! Book now and receive a FREE $100 per cabin onboard credit and a FREE bottle of wine on select categories. Book select penthouse suite or villa categories and receive a FREE $300 per cabin onboard credit (call for pricing).
Promotions may not be combinable with all fares.
The prices shown are US dollars per person, based on double occupancy, and subject to availability. They include port charges but do not include airfare or (where applicable) airport or government taxes or fees.
Important Note: Visas are required for this itinerary.
ITINERARY
DAY DATE PORT ARRIVE   DEPART
Tue Jun 4 Barcelona, Spain 7:00 pm
Wed Jun 5 Toulon, France 8:00 am 6:00 pm
Thu Jun 6 Florence / Pisa (Livorno), Italy 8:00 am 7:00 pm
Fri Jun 7 Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy 8:00 am 7:00 pm
Sat Jun 8 Naples (Capri), Italy 8:00 am 7:00 am
Sun Jun 9 At Sea
Mon Jun 10 Mykonos, Greece 7:00 am 3:00 pm
Tue Jun 11 Istanbul, Turkey 9:00 am 6:00 pm
Wed Jun 12 Izmir, Turkey 11:30 am 7:00 pm
Thu Jun 13 Athens (Piraeus), Greece 8:00 am 6:00 pm
Fri Jun 14 At Sea
Sat Jun 15 Venice, Italy 2:00pm
Sun Jun 16 Venice, Italy Disembark

As always, we have booked a Balcony cabin.

And thus, we are limited by our transportation to Kenya. Train travel through Africa appears interesting and varied, but the uncertainty of train schedules and creature comforts didn’t quite fit our goal of “wafting through our worldwide travels with ease, joy, and simplicity.”  

Simplicity and ease would not include dragging our bags through various train stations, often waiting overnight while sitting on a bench awaiting the next train. That, definitely would not be “joyful.” After all, we aren’t in our 20’s any longer. 

We’ve discovered that careful planning, well in advance, better prepares us to handle the “unknowns” we will encounter along the way.  

Flying to Kenya and three months later to South Africa could result in sleeping on the floor in an airport with our heads on our carry-on luggage due to a delayed or canceled flight.  It could also result in delays at custom checks or as a result of overweight checked baggage. It may result in our being unable to sit together on the flight. We’ll take these risks, albeit hesitantly, and book the flights as the time nears.

Once we arrive in Diani Beach, unpacked our bags, and get situated on the veranda, we’ll be quite content.