About 18 months ago, Princess released details of their 2018 World Cruise on the Sea Princess. Within days (or so it seems) the cruise was booked out and there was a veritable flurry of communications between regulars, travel agents and Princess Cruises.
For the first time since Princess started these annual World Cruises kiwi residents could embark and disembark in Auckland, instead of having to fly to Sydney. We managed to book our favourite cabin (sorry, stateroom), and within hours, the Cruise Critic Roll Call/message-board was loaded with cruisers we’d known since 2011 and later, so we knew we were in for a great cruise with great people.
As the months passed, the Roll Call grew and grew and I was happy enough maintaining it, with an expectation that this was going to be the best cruise since our first in 2011. As it grew, we knew without any doubt, that our circle of friends would be even bigger by the end of the cruise.
If you flip through to my 2017 blog (on the right) you will know that we had a successful trip to the UK for Paula’s Pro Am dance competition, then 4 weeks on the Crown Princess, before heading back to a distinctly chilly Auckland.
Two weeks later, Paula was in hospital, as a blood test showed she’d had a heart attack and then she had a stent fitted.
This meant we had to cancel a planned dance competition in Hawaii but worst of all, we had to cancel the World Cruise, as within 12 months, Paula is still classed as high risk until such times as she get a clearance from the surgeon, which won’t be until late July.
So, all plans out of the window for a while.
All is not lost though, (for me anyway) as I’ll get to the UK for another trip to the Goodwood Revival race meeting, arguably the world’s best weekend for pre 1966 classic car racing.
I'll be back just in time for the Sea Princess's arrival September 16th.
Hopefully, after July, we can look to the future with more travel and at the moment, if all goes well, maybe a river cruise in 2019? Budapest to Amsterdam with Avalon anyone? We may even manage a hop to Queensland later in the year.
But, plans do change, so pop in here now and again, later in the year.
