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Around the World in 180 Days
  • Kadi Kaljuste
  • Brad Ciccarelli
  • Kadi Kaljuste
  • Brad Ciccarelli

Around the World in 180 Days

January 14 to July 13, 2023 from San Francisco to San Francisco aboard Oceania Insignia Leggi altro
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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    Down on the "ropeway"
    The shrine siteThe tomb in the fenced area2Back upWalking iin the pines2Where Mount Fuji should be1The beach

    Shimizu, Japan

    19 giugno 2023, Giappone ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    Arrived in Shimizu at noon and we’d booked a ship excursion to take us to Kuno-San Tushogo Shrine, Nihon Daira Lookout, and Miho No Matsubara. Our number one hope was to be able to see Mount Fuji. But given the overcast weather, we thought that would be unlikely. And it was🥲 Our guide explained that it’s visible about 40 per cent of the time this time of year. It’s most frequently visible in the winter months.

    Nonetheless, it was a great afternoon. We took a cable car or “Ropeway” down to the shrine which was built in 1617 and has the tomb of Ieyasu Tokugawa who was a beloved shogun. We then went to the lookout with our fingers crossed hoping to see Mount Fuji. ‘Twas not to be.

    Our next stop was a visit to Miho No Matsubara, a pine grove with an ancient sacred pine tree. The grove of 54,000 trees is along a seven-kilometre stretch of coastline. Legend says an angel hung her celestial kimono on one of the trees while she went for a swim. A local fisherman found the garment and held it for ransom. You can learn more about it here: http://www.travel-around-japan.com/k51-35-miho-… This beach is also a prime site for seeing Mount Fuji. But not today.    Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    Tokyo Tower
    The viewGinza areaLunch timeImperial Palace moatOriginal guard house from the 1600sGotokuji temple is overrun with cats1This wasn't all of them11Note the strap Brad's holding on the trainTrain floor

    Tokyo, Japan - Day 1 of 2, day

    20 giugno 2023, Giappone ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Tokyo! Brad and I have a really been looking forward to exploring this exciting city. When we got in this morning, we could see how interesting the city looked from the port. We had booked a ship excursion to take us on the highlights, including to the Tokyo Tower. The tower is Tokyo’s version of the Eiffel tower.

    Once the tour was over, we left the bus before it headed back to the pier to start exploring the city on our own. We had booked a hotel to stay the evening to be able to stay out late and start the day early. We explored the Ginza area which is like the Champs Élysées or 5th Avenue. Every designer you can imagine is in the neighbourhood. Had a lovely lunch and then headed to the Garden of the Imperial Palace. From there, we grabbed a cab to go to Gotokuji Temple, Tokyo's Maneki Neko 'Lucky Cat' Temple. You can read more about it here:
    https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/artic…

    We then took a train, and then a subway to the area of our hotel, Shibuya, famous for its Scramble Square.    Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    2Scramble Square1In the thick of itWe HAD to go find the statue1Found it...With the statue of Hachiko,Dinner time1Street style

    Tokyo, Japan - Day 1 of 2, evening

    20 giugno 2023, Giappone ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    We didn’t get to our hotel for check-in until around 7 pm and decided to take a bit of a break before we headed out for a late dinner and to experience the sights and sounds of Shibuya Scramble Square. Shibuya is known as a very hip neighbourhood with lots of young people shopping, dining and drinking. We were certainly among the oldest out there tonight.Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    Shibuya in the morning is nothing like at night
    Quiet Shibuya CrossingMacha scone and coffee at the Starbucks overlooking the CrossingSubway11Our friend Rose

    Tokyo, Japan - Day 2 of 2

    21 giugno 2023, Giappone ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Checked out of our hotel around 8:30 this morning and saw the city awaken. Compared to last night, streets were deserted. We wanted to have breakfast at the Shibuya Crossing area and realized that the best view of the action would be from the Starbucks on the square. Got ourselves our breakfast and parked ourselves on the second floor overlooking the square and finalized the plans for our day.

    We’d decided to forego visiting museums and temples and instead explore a few neighbourhoods by subway. The Tokyo subway is expansive and we found it simple to navigate. We managed to get to Shinjuku, Dengama and Akihanara. Akihabara is where Tokyo's geek culture and curious tourists come to shop for the latest gadgets, software, electronics, manga and toys. We felt we got a sampling of the city but didn’t do it justice. We’d welcome spending more time here.

    Once back on board, we got ready to celebrate our friend Rose’s 60th birthday.    Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days

    At sea

    22 giugno 2023, North Pacific Ocean ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

    We’re now on our final segment, Tokyo to San Francisco. 😭 We’re at sea today which means our final Captain’s Cocktail Party. We’ll visit a few more Japanese ports before we travel back to North America. Hard to believe we’ve been travelling for 160 days.Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    One of the lantern floats from the festival. They're huge.
    These types of musicians follow the floats in the paradeWalking among the floatsThere are rarely garbage cans at public spaces1The moat at Hirosaki Castle1A turret buildingThe castle in its temporary spotA weeping cherry tree, one of the hundreds on the property1❤️

    Aomori, Japan

    23 giugno 2023, Giappone ⋅ 🌧 21 °C

    We took a ship excursion today to Tsugaru Neputa Village and Hirosaki Castle, an hour’s drive from the port. We’re now in a region with cooler temperatures; the high today was 21 degrees Celsius. Aomori is best known for its spectacular summer festivals, a parade of enormous lantern floats flanked by large taiko drums, musicians and dancers. That’s what we learned about at the village. You can read more about it here: https://aomori-tourism.com/en/event/detail_26.html

    Hirosaki Castle, completed in 1611, was much like the other castles we’ve seen in Japan but for one huge difference. The castle was recently MOVED to allow for restoration of the walls and moats surrounding it. It will be moved back in 2026. It’s also considered one of the best places in Japan to to see cherry blossoms in the spring with its 2,600 trees.    Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    Former British consulate
    City of slopesThe community building had recently been paintedLooking down to the waterfrontOrthodox ChurchCatholic ChurchInteriorAt the Mount Hakodate ropeway station2The view🤣1Going downSteam bun at the Morning Market

    Hakodate, Japan

    24 giugno 2023, Giappone ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Had a morning ship excursion today to take us for a walk around the historic Motomachi area, visit Mount Hakodate by “ropeway” and explore Morning Market. Hakodate is interesting because it was one of the first ports in Japan to welcome foreign trade, bringing entrepreneurs from Russia, China, and the West. As a result, the Motomachi area of the city includes western architecture not typically seen in Japan. The city is hilly and built on “slopes” which adds to its charm.

    It was an overcast day so we were hopeful we’d see out from the top of Mount Hakodate 335 metres above the city. No such luck. A cloud sat on top of the mountain with us in it. From there we went to the Morning Market which is primarily a seafood market with a squid specialty. We had a snow crab steamed bun. Delicious! Our guide had said that there was squid ink ice cream sold at some ice cream shops but we didn’t find any.🥲    Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    2
    Staties along the bridgeOur ship in the distanceMuralCity museumLake Akan1Gorgeous irisesLovely send off

    Kushiro, Japan

    25 giugno 2023, Giappone ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Kushiro is our last Japanese port🥲 It’s a city of about 170,000 and no major attractions that interested us so we decided to freestyle and take a long walk around the city to the lake area. It was the perfect day for it - sunny and 20 degrees.

    We’ve very much enjoyed our time in Japan and would like to return one day to explore further.    Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days

    At sea - our 30th wedding anniversary

    26 giugno 2023, North Pacific Ocean ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    It’s our 30th wedding anniversary today and we’d planned to have champagne and dinner for two at the specially restaurant Polo but our plans were scuttled. Special dinners for Around the World passengers were scheduled in the specialty restaurants for last night and tonight so we celebrated there. We’ll celebrate with a dinner for two tomorrow night.Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    A bottle of Veuve🥂
    3Cheers to 30 years 🥂Lobster bisque for BradBeets for meLobster and veal for mePorterhouse for BradCheesecake for meKey lime pie for Brad

    At sea - anniversary dinner for two

    27 giugno 2023, North Pacific Ocean ⋅ 🌬 7 °C

    We had a relaxing day at sea and had a lovely anniversary dinner for two at the Polo specialty restaurant tonight. We’d originally planned to have dinner for two yesterday, on our actual anniversary, but the Around the World dinner last night required us to delay it a day. That meant we ended up celebrating twice😄Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    Mimosas or Bloody Marys?Carved watermelon11Sweets for the sweetJune 28 times two

    At sea

    28 giugno 2023, North Pacific Ocean ⋅ 🌬 7 °C

    A lazy sea day and a delicious brunch. Also, our first June 28. We cross the International Date Line today and have another June 28 tomorrow 🤯

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    Certified that we've crossed the International Date Line
    One set of dancersJokesterSinger/pianistDrummerCarol and Paul from BC🇨🇦The performers take a bow

    At sea - June 28 encore

    28 giugno 2023, Bering Sea ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

    We’ve now crossed the International Date Line and it’s June 28 again. In addition to our usual at sea day activities, there was a passenger talent show this afternoon. Performers included a singer, a guy who told a joke, a singer/pianist, a drummer and two pairs of ballroom dancers. The dancers from B.C., Carol and Paul, did Canada proud and stole the show.Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    Where the taxi dropped us off
    Fishing equipmentMuseum...waterproof jacket made of sea mammal gutCurrency2Prices at the supermarket were insaneSculptureSaloon time1Fish and chips1Gorgeous scenery. The lupines!Sea otters spotted on our tender ride1Couldn't resist picking some

    Dutch Harbor, Alaska

    30 giugno 2023, Stati Uniti ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

    After five days at sea we arrived at our first port in Alaska, Dutch Harbor. It’s our first North American port since sailing out of San Francisco on January 15!

    Dutch Harbor is the port; the town is Unalaska with about 5,000 residents. It’s a small place but the biggest fishing port in the U.S. If you’ve ever watched the television show Deadliest Catch, you’ve likely seen Dutch Harbor and Unalaska.

    There are no excursions needed here. There’s a museum, a few stores, a hotel and a few restaurants. We were tendered and set out mid morning on a tender boat to check out the town. It was rainy and cold, about 11 degrees, so we bundled up.

    When we reached the pier there were three taxi vans there offering to take us into town a mile and a bit away. We hopped in and we were dropped off at the parking lot of the Alaska Ship Supply store and wandered around town to the museum, the Safeway store and lunch at the Norvegian Rat Saloon where we met up with Geraldine and Thomas and then walked back to the tender together. Even in the rain, it was lovely to walk where lupins grow wild along the roadside.    Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    The cafe was christened Tim Hortons for the day
    Canafa Day cakePat Watt from Toronto cuts the cake

    At sea

    1 luglio 2023, Gulf of Alaska ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    We’re at sea again today and the Bering Sea is rough with swells of six to nine metres. Given the weather conditions, the Captain announced that we’ll be skipping Kodiak tomorrow and now heading directly to Seward arriving on Monday.

    It’s Canada Day on board and the cafe has a makeshift Tim Hortons sign, there’s a cocktail hour for Canadian passengers and a Canada Day Dance Party tonight.

    Happy Canada Day! 🥂🇨🇦    Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    Geraldine ar the ring toss
    Getaldine at the identify the scent challengeThe human slot machineLots of ticketsThe draw for prizes

    At sea

    2 luglio 2023, Gulf of Alaska ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    The seas are calmer today. Spent a relaxing day at sea with a fun diversion: the Oceania country fair. Each ship department set up a game for the passengers to play, like carnival games. For example, the bartenders set up a ring toss over wine bottles. The housekeeping department set up a “get a pillow into a pillowcase competition.” Our favourite was from the entertainment department. They were a live slot machine! Watch the video and you’ll see what I mean. Geraldine and I went and collected numerous tickets by playing the games as entries for the draw for prizes but didn’t win anything. 😭 Fun nonetheless.Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    1
    Love the benchFitting to spot an eagle on the eve of July 4thHouses were decoratedParty timeFire department participationVendorsLunch with our friends Doris and Louis2View from our balcony

    Seward, Alaska

    3 luglio 2023, Stati Uniti ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

    Arrived in Seward this morning to cloudy skies and light rain. We decided to freestyle today and walk into town from the port and take a look around. It’s a town of about 2,600 and has a tourist town feel to it - lots of RV camps and fishing excursion companies. The town was gearing up for its 4th of July festivities so there were lots of vendors set up selling everything from reindeer sausages, T-shirts and candles to jewelry and cotton candy. A quaint town.Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    Too foggy. Not gonna happen 🥲
    2

    At sea - Deception Bay/Hubbard Glacier

    4 luglio 2023, Gulf of Alaska ⋅ 🌬 12 °C

    Today was all about cruising to see the Hubbard Glacier. It’s one of the highlights of an Alaskan cruise because it’s the biggest glacier in North America. Hence, ships are scheduled to visit. We learned there were six scheduled today with our visit set for 5 pm. We arrived as planned as did thick fog. We saw nothing other than sea ice and fog hiding where the glacier was supposed to be. Deception Bay lived up to its name.Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    Hot glass fashion1Like a proRudolph on a bun132For the man who had everything

    Sitka, Alaska

    5 luglio 2023, North Pacific Ocean ⋅ 🌬 12 °C

    Arrived in Sitka late morning and grabbed a tender boat ashore to join an excursion to walk around Sitka, population about 8,000, and visit a glass-making studio.

    Sitka was originally inhabited by Tlingit Indians and was a Russian settlement for more than 100 years before Russia sold it to the US. It’s also the only Alaskan site that touches the Pacific Ocean. It’s a tourist town and artist community with cruise ships stopping there regularly.

    We walked to the glass studio and received a primer on glass pulling to make cane. We then put on our protective gear and tried it. Brad was a natural. Once the cane cooled, we asked for it to be cut in equal pieces to serve as swizzle sticks.

    We then headed to the Sitka National Historic Park to see the totem poles there. The sun had come out and the weather was glorious. With clear blue skies, we were able to fully appreciate Alaska’s beauty.    Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    2The white elephant sale
    1Feasting on crabCreek Street1On the boardwalk on stilts1Ketchikan CreekThe back way to Creek Street brothelsDowntown2Maria, John, Carol, Paul, Brad and me

    Ketchikan, Alaska

    6 luglio 2023, Coastal Waters Of Southeast Alaska And British Columbia ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    We were at sea this morning and it was the day of the white elephant sale- an auction of items Around the World passengers have brought or bought on the trip and decided not to take home. Oh my. There was everything from a can of baked beans, loads of packages of Dramamine, tchotchkes to shoes and a tripod. It was entertaining and proceeds go to the crew welfare fund.

    We arrived in Ketchikan midday, perfect time to head out to a crab feast excursion at a lodge. This town of about 8,000 is the southern most city in Alaska and a cruise ship favourite. There were six ships here today.

    As we drove through town to get to the lodge, it felt much like a Caribbean port with T-shirt shops side by side with jewelry stores and souvenir shops. And packs of tourists roaming around.

    But once we travelled further towards George Inlet Lodge, the scenery was majestic. The lodge itself was rustic and expert in serving Dungeness crab. It was fabulous.

    We, along with our friends Renate and Helmut, decided to take a taxi into town after our meal instead of returning directly to the ship. We were keen to visit historic Creek Street, a picturesque boardwalk path on stilts built over Ketchikan Creek. It was the town’s red light district until 1954. Charming. We wandered around a bit more before meeting up with other friends - Maria, John, Carol and Paul, for dinner. We went to the Cape Fox Lodge which is perched over Ketchikan on the side of a slope and you can climb a winding wooden staircase to get there, which we did. It offered a spectacular view.

    We were back on the ship well before the 9:30 pm all aboard and had a beautiful sail away as we said bye to Ketchikan and to Alaska.    Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    On the waterfront
    QuaintHaving a whale of a timeSailors' memorial1Another whale tail benchOur friends Sonia and Boris were leaving as we arrivedMuseum artifact1Totems in the museum1Our ship flying the Canadian flag 🇨🇦❤️

    Prince Rupert, British Columbia 🇨🇦

    7 luglio 2023, Canada ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Back to our native land but still far from home. Arrived in Prince Rupert this morning to sunshine and blue skies. Though we’ve never been here before we didn’t book an excursion since you can easily walk off the ship and explore on your own. We were especially thrilled to turn airplane mode off on our phones and not pay a nickel in roaming fees which was such a treat.

    Prince Rupert is located on an island on the northwest coast of B.C. The population of 13,000 people is about half First Nations, the Tsimshian Nation. While it holds the title of rainiest city in Canada, with about 2500 mm of precipitation annually, we didn’t see a drop. It was a glorious 21-degree sunny day.

    The port area is beautifully laid out and there were city volunteers greeting us as we disembarked and providing us with information and maps. The shops along the waterfront had lovely displays and their merchandise was a cut above the typical tourist T-shirt fare. The range of indigenous arts and crafts available was impressive.

    We explored the waterfront and then visited the Museum of Northern BC which is styled after an indigenous longhouse. The displays included a wealth of Haida, Gitksan and Tsimshian art and artifacts. It was terrific.

    It was now lunch time so we asked Google to show us the way to Tim Hortons ❤️ From there, we meandered and made our way back to the ship by late afternoon. This town was a delightful surprise.    Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    Damn N40
    The boats being judgedThey all floated1

    At sea

    8 luglio 2023, Coastal Waters Of Southeast Alaska And British Columbia ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    A beautiful at sea day with lots of scheduled activities including jackpot bingo. Bingo has been a regular feature over the course of the world cruise but I’ve never played. Until today. The jackpot was over $1,300 USD so why not? Missed it by one. Damn N40. 🤬

    There was also a ship-building competition on the pool deck. Passenger teams could build boats and test their seaworthiness in the pool. All the entries floated successfully.

    To cap off the day, we had a beautiful sunset.    Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    Fisherman's Wharf
    Homes at the wharfWater taxi ride"Welcome to Victoria"Downtown VictoriaPride ParadeBig Bad John's1The EmpressTea timeCarr House

    Victoria, British Columbia

    9 luglio 2023, Canada ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Another Canadian city that’s new to us but not one in which we felt we needed a formal excursion since the port is close to downtown.

    Our original plan was to Uber/taxi to Buchart Gardens in the morning and then go downtown from there, have tea at the Empress Hotel and walk back to the ship. Turned out the Pride Parade was on and driving anywhere would be a nightmare. We quickly changed plans and walked to the fisherman’s wharf and took a water taxi downtown and started exploring.

    Victoria is very touristy but still lovely. We watched the parade and then stopped for a drink at a legendary hillbilly bar our friends recommended called Big Bad John’s in the Strathcona Hotel. Oh my! The pictures tell the story.

    From there, we went to tea at the Empress and then walked over to Carr House, artist Emily Carr’s home growing up. Unfortunately, it had closed a few minutes before we arrived but we did get to visit its garden. We then walked back to the ship.

    We’re now done with Canadian ports and back to the U.S.    Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    Astoria port
    Public artThe trolley to downtown AstoriaSeasideStatue of Lewis and ClarkSeaside main dragCannon beach and Haystack RockCannon Beach main dragAdorablePublic art

    Astoria, Oregon

    10 luglio 2023, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Our final port before we return to San Francisco on Wednesday morning. 😩 Hard to believe our journey is ending and that we’ve been on board for 177 days!

    We’ve never been to Oregon before so decided to take a ship excursion as a last hurrah to visit two seaside towns: Seaside and Cannon Beach. The excursion wasn’t leaving until 1 p.m. so we had a bit of time to explore the port area of Astoria before joining the tour. It was a grey, drizzly day but not cold, about 19 degrees.

    The area near the port was relatively barren save for a trolley to downtown and a few pieces of public art. Seaside was much livelier. It’s a family resort town with lots of activities and souvenir shops. Its claim to fame is that it’s the spot Lewis and Clark ended their expedition before returning east.

    The town of Cannon Beach was far more quaint and scenic. The beach itself has a landmark called Haystack Rock, a 235-foot tall sea stack and the third-tallest such intertidal structure in the world. And the sun came out when we got to the town which made it all the lovelier.    Leggi altro

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  • Around the World in 180 Days
    The crew on deck
    Thomas and Geraldine dancingThe plungeSome passengers joined. Pas moi.

    Final sail away for the Around the World

    10 luglio 2023, Stati Uniti ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Sailing away from Astoria was our final sail away as we head back to San Francisco. To mark the occasion, we had a deck party with the crew. Crew and passengers were also invited to take a plunge in celebration.

    We’re now at sea until we arrive in San Francisco on Wednesday morning. Full circle.    Leggi altro

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