RTW Precursor: Festive Caribbean

“Sunny Holidays.” That was the fancy name of the Caribbean cruise Insignia sailed prior to embarking us RTW2017 passengers in Miami on 6 January. In my journal for that RTW voyage, I wrote the following words on 17 December 2016 …

*** … It occurred to me today that we could have booked this sailing as a precursor to our RTW voyage ... get the same cabin as we have for our grand adventure, work with O to have our LF [Luggage Free] shipment delivered to the ship early … and get settled in the cabin in a leisurely fashion. The bonus — the itinerary is actually quite nice and we would have had a relaxing 12-day cruise before the hubbub of the RTW. ***

This thought, unfortunately, came to me too late in the game then. “Sunny Holidays” was just 8 days from sailing and all of our logistics arrangements for the RTW were already in the can, so to speak. I wrapped up that journal entry with the following words …

*** … Darn! Had this idea occurred to me when we were discussing plans for a pre-RTW stay in Miami, you can be sure I would have acted on it immediately. Maybe for the next RTW ... if we ever do another one 😎. ***

So, here we are. Booked on RTW2023. And this time I remembered to act on the thought of doing a precursor cruise around the Caribbean. Who says I don’t learn from my mistakes?

In fact, I’ve had the “Festive Caribbean” cruise on my radar for a while now. I just didn’t think we’d be able to squeeze it in, however. After all, our original plans for 2022 had us in Türkiye in September-October and returning to the US on Oceania's Sirena in November. The month and a half until embarking on RTW2023 in late December would be needed to work on visas and prep for the voyage.

Well, all that changed when we canceled Bazaars to Beaches on Sirena and replaced it with Insignia’s European Crossing in March. Suddenly we had plenty of time on our hands.

Mui and I talked briefly and now we are booked on the Festive Caribbean … sailing roundtrip out of Miami … in the same cabin that we’ll be in for RTW2023. I’ve not had any interest in the Caribbean for a while now. I am looking forward to this cruise, however. Four of the seven ports will be brand new to us. And since we have not been to the other ports in quite sometime, they’ll be almost new-to-us as well.

For all intents and purposes, we’ve added an additional 11 days to our time on Insignia … for a total of 209 days. The disembarkation day for this cruise is the same as the embarkation day for RTW2023. Which is why I’ve decided to include the precursor cruise as part of this trip journal on FindPenguins.

Fingers crossed and COVID-willing, we’ll begin our longest sea voyage ever on 17 December 2022 … with a few days in Miami prior to embarkation.

I guess, for the second year in a row, we won’t be putting up any Christmas decorations at home!もっと詳しく