Off to Get Acquainted with “O” and Check out Insignia’s Sister

Sunday, 30 August 2015
George Bush Intercontinental Airport — Houston, Texas

Haven’t written in a while.  That’s because I had to set the RTW aside to finish planning this year’s trip to Europe.

We have family in Turkey, so crossing ‘The Pond’ to visit them is an annual event for us.  While at it, we usually add on a segment or two to make the most of the airfare, and explore a bit of other European countries as well.

Three weeks in Rome … 12 days on Nautica … nearly a month in Turkey … 16 days on NCL Jade back to Houston.  That summarizes our 2015 Europe trip quite nicely I would say.

This year is no exception.  We are excited to visit Rome for three weeks — with my family joining us for one of those weeks.  But what makes our 2015 Europe adventure especially exciting is that the segment of our trip after Rome will see us sailing from Italy to Turkey … and we will be doing that aboard Oceania’s Nautica.

Like Insignia, Nautica is an “R” ship … once a vessel in the fleet operated by the now-defunct Renaissance Cruises.  Since we have not cruised with Oceania before, we figured it would be smart to do so before we commit ourselves irrevocably to 180 days with them.  We will get to see what the “O experience is like on this cruise … and perhaps best of all, we will do so in the twin of the deck 6 aft cabin we booked for the RTW.

So, here we are today.  Our ‘condo on wheels’ is in storage, and we’ve checked out of the hotel where we spent the night.  We’re at the gate at IAH waiting for the Turkish Airlines flight that will be whisking us to Rome via İstanbul to be called.  Yes, that is a roundabout way of getting to the “Eternal City.”  What can I say?  We are cruising back home on the final leg of our 2015 Europe trip, so we only needed one-way airfare to cross the Atlantic.  THY offered the best deal … they got our business.

Mui is waiting on me to finish this post to put our Verizon service on vacation hold.  Ciao for now.

© 2015-2017 — All rights reserved by Erin Erkun.

A Six Month Voyage!!! Are We Nuts?

Monday, 17 August 2015
McKinney Falls State Park  — Austin, Texas

So, no one has said anything to us yet about being nuts … but at this stage only a few people know of our plans to travel aboard a ship for six months.  The statement — likely in the form of a question — is bound to come … and it will probably be accompanied by a look of incredulity.  We’re used to it :-)

I realize a voyage of this length is not everyone’s cup of tea.  That’s perfectly OK.  We, on the other hand, love the idea … really, we do.

It’s not that I didn’t consider a DIY trip around the world.  I did — but it didn’t take me long to scrap that idea as being too planning-intensive.

There is something to be said for not having to figure out the logistics of getting from point A to point B to point C … for not having to book a multitude of accommodations along the way … for not having to pack and unpack for each interim move within an extended trip.  And just think — no long flights in airline seats with minimal legroom … no long security checkpoints snaking through an airport … no long delays or missed connections to deal with en route!

Cabin 6090 … home-away-from-home for six months.  Our accommodations won’t be overly spacious … shouldn’t be a problem, though … we’re used to living in a compact space.

Six months at sea may sound like a long time.  But the itinerary is fairly port-intensive, and if past experience is anything to go by, the time is going to pass in the blink-of-an-eye.

By my count, 118 of the 180 days will see us exploring mostly new-to-us places on land.  That’s 2/3^rds of the itinerary … and it compares quite favorably to some of the shorter RTW itineraries out there where ports and days at sea are split nearly 50/50.  The 62 sea days on our itinerary mostly follow long strings of port calls, and are necessary to get us around a globe that is covered 70% by water.  Could there have been even more ports on our itinerary?  Possibly!  But believe me, the days at sea will be much appreciated … not just to rest our bodies, but also to give our brains some time to digest our new experiences.

Perhaps Mui and I have some gypsy blood in us and that’s why we enjoy long periods of travel away from home!  Or maybe it’s that we’ve been traveling in some form since we packed our bags to move to the US 33 years ago … and it has just become second nature to us.  Whatever the reason … we love the idea of this six-month voyage we will be embarking upon.  And I hope to use some of the 62 days at sea to catch up on posts for this blog to bring readers along with us virtually — fingers crossed!

© 2015-2017 — All rights reserved by Erin Erkun.

A Peek at Our RTW Itinerary

Saturday, 8 August 2015
Deer Crossing RV Park — San Patricio, New Mexico

How does one visually depict an itinerary that goes around a sphere on a flat map?  Not very easily.  But I snipped the map from the RTW 2017 brochure anyway.

We will be going from the western hemisphere to the eastern hemisphere … gaining time with each time zone, but losing an entire day when we hit the International Date Line.  To track along on the map, follow the faint line west from Miami through the Panama Canal … sail across the Pacific and come back around on the right edge of the map … visit Down Under … cross the Equator into the Northern Hemisphere …. continue along South and Southeast Asia … through the Suez Canal … across the Mediterranean … through the Strait of Gibraltar… down along the Atlantic Seaboard of North America (with a bump out to Bermuda) … and end up back in Miami.

6 continents; 36 countries; 98 ports with 21 overnight stays; 24 time zones … 
and the stats continue.  All told — nearly 45,500 nautical miles.

[If you are looking at the map on a computer, you can click it for a larger version.]

Will the itinerary remain as published?  Highly doubtful — especially considering the current world situation.  All we can do is hope that there aren’t any significant changes.  And if there are … well, we plan to enjoy the voyage regardless of where Insignia takes us.

At some point, I will have a page that details our ports.  And I’ll eventually link to each port on the list when I post about it during the voyage.  For the moment, however, that page is still a work in progress.

© 2015-2017 — All rights reserved by Erin Erkun.