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RTW Redux ... 2023

December 2022 - July 2023
Second around the world voyage on Oceania's Insignia. This time, we're taking a little more time to circumnavigate the world by choosing the 198-day itinerary over the 180-day itinerary. And we are adding an 11-day Caribbean cruise as a precursor. Read more
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  • RTW Redux ... 2023

    Itinerary Change #1

    September 21, 2021 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 86 °F

    We’re currently in Güvercinlik, a village between Milas and Bodrum … in the Turkish province of Muğla. More specifically, we’re at the beach house Mui’s sister has in a subdivision overlooking the village. This little getaway is part of this year’s 4-month long trip to Türkiye to spend time with family. We’re making up for last year’s hurried departure within a week of arriving in İzmir … due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    I had an email from Oceania this morning … advising us of an itinerary change. Nothing major. And since the changes pertain to ports we will be visiting in July 2023, we are being given plenty of notice.

    Basically, Juneau, Alaska has been eliminated due to a berthing conflict. Sitka, Alaska has been moved up by a day to replace Juneau on 5 July. Ketchikan, Alaska has been inserted where Sitka was on 6 July. Since we’ll be closer to Prince Rupert, Canada, the arrival time there has been adjusted to 8:00a … giving us three additional hours in this new-to-us port.

    No quibbles about the new plans.    Read more

  • RTW Redux ... 2023

    RTW2022 Disrupted!

    January 22, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 39 °F

    No, RTW2022 has not been canceled. In fact, it is underway even as I write this footprint.

    By disrupted, I mean that the voyage has undergone a serious revision due to so many countries on the itinerary remaining closed to cruise ships.

    Having already left Los Angeles, Insignia will visit French Polynesia as originally planned. Then, it will flip a U-ey and head east via the Panama Canal to explore the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Europe.

    I guess we did a good thing by jumping to RTW 2023.

    But wait … we’re going to join RTW2022 anyway … for a segment.

    When reservations open on 24 January, we’ll be booking the “European Crossing” … essentially an eastbound TransAtlantic from Miami to Athens. As a bonus, we will designate the cruise as our O Club platinum perk “free cruise.” As a double bonus, we will get to spend time with family and friends again this year ... not just when Insignia calls on several ports in Türkiye, but also after we disembark in Athens.

    Joining RTW2022 will essentially jiggle our existing fall travel plans. But that’s not a bad thing. We can actually use the freed-up time to work on visas and such for RTW2023.

    I am really sorry that the RTW2022 passengers are experiencing such a disruption to their special voyage. The new itinerary is definitely not the one for which they signed up. I can’t help but be happy, however, that the change of itinerary will see us on Insignia this March.    Read more

  • RTW Redux ... 2023

    RTW Precursor: Festive Caribbean

    January 28, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 43 °F

    “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!    Read more

  • RTW Redux ... 2023

    Port Planning Commences

    February 26, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 32 °F

    With planning for 2022 trips well in hand, today I began researching the ports of call for RTW2023.

    I'm skipping the Festive Caribbean precursor cruise as we'll be "beaching it" on that cruise ... less research is required to do so.

    Funny thing, though ... our first port of call on RTW2023 is Grand Cayman, so I did start my research with a "beaching it" type of day anyway 🏖

    Two ports down ... another 100 or so to go!    Read more

  • RTW Redux ... 2023

    PreCruise Miami

    March 22, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 75 °F

    When we had to make last minute changes to our pre-cruise plans for the European Crossing on Insignia, which we will embark tomorrow, it cost us a bundle. Both in cash and in miles. The culprit was the weather … snow in the forecast for the days leading up to our departure from Denver to Miami.

    I realize that December tends to be more stable in Colorado in terms of snowstorms. But we've decided not to chance it for our pre-RTW plans.

    As things stand now, we will fly to Miami on 13 December. That will give us a buffer of four days to get to Miami prior to our Festive Caribbean precursor cruise should the weather decide not to cooperate.    Read more

  • RTW Redux ... 2023

    Airfare to MIA Booked

    April 5, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    Welcome to Cagliari, Sardinia.

    But no ... I am not going to write about our day here since the story belongs to the European Crossing and Türkiye trip.

    What I am going to write about, however, is yesterday's airfare purchase for our RTW2023 precursor cruise in December. I didn't write about this yesterday because we were still at sea and the internet on Insignia was acting up (to put it politely).

    Anyway ...

    I wasn’t looking to book airfare to get us from Colorado Springs to Miami just yet, but non-stop award tickets on United Airlines for 12,500 miles per person were just too good to pass up. We have since upgraded those economy cabin tickets to Economy+ … poor man’s business class, if you will.

    25,000 miles to fly in economy might not seem like such a deal. But ever since the airlines moved to dynamic pricing of award tickets, the required miles have gone sky-high. In fact, earlier this year, these same tickets were twice as expensive. I'll keep monitoring flights, of course, and should the fare go down, I will cancel and rebook.

    Our United Airlines branded credit card gives us two checked bags each ... free. I’m actually hoping we won’t need to use our full allotment, but it’s good to know we won’t have to pay extra if we do.

    The flight from DEN to MIA will be a duplicate of the one we did in March this year to get ourselves to Miami for the European Crossing. Same time … same place. Different seats, however.

    Airfare to return us home from San Francisco at the end of RTW2023 is pending. Those flights won't be available for booking until August.    Read more

  • RTW Redux ... 2023

    Itinerary Change #2

    April 12, 2022 in Israel ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

    We are currently in Haifa, Israel, which is a port of call on Insignia's eastbound TransAtlantic.

    Got an email from Oceania today advising us of our second itinerary change to RTW2023. The call on Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia is no more.

    Frankly, we were expecting this from the moment Russia invaded Ukraine. The question was whether we'd get just another day at sea or another port of call. We got our answer today.

    Oceania has jiggled the itinerary to add Kushiro, Japan before we begin the run of sea days that will take us to the Aleutian Islands. So, while P-K has technically been replaced with a day at sea, we did get a new-to-us port before we leave Japanese waters. We're good with the change.

    I'm sure there will be more changes. We just hope they aren't as drastic as the ones RTW2022 saw this year.    Read more

  • RTW Redux ... 2023

    Back from Our EuroCrossing

    May 13, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F

    We traveled for some 50+ days without getting bit by the COVID-19 virus, masking up in crowds and in places where we could not social distance ... only to get caught in its trap after we got home earlier this month.

    No worries, though. We both have a very mild case of this pandemic-inducing bug ... thanks mostly to being vaccinated and boosted. The funny thing is that we are just days away from our next booster. I guess we'll postpone the shots for now since being sick gives us natural immunity for a period of time.

    We are following the CDC quarantine recommendations, which means that I've had time on my hands to edit the FindPenguins footprints for the EuroCrossing segment of Oceania's RTW2022 voyage. Yeah ... that's the world cruise we canceled when we jumped ship to RTW2023.

    I thought I'd share a link here for those interested in reading about our experience.

    https://findpenguins.com/8pccjefaitoru/trip/620…

    P.S. For those concerned about being a segmenter on a world cruise, I can tell you that the vast majority of the RTW passengers were very welcoming and friendly. As for those few who seemed to think we were beneath their notice ... well, the way we see it, it wasn't our loss ;-)    Read more

  • RTW Redux ... 2023

    Residence in Brickell ... ✔︎

    May 15, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

    Since neither the YVE Miami nor the Brickell Arch residence at the AKA Hotel turned out to be an option for December’s pre-cruise stay, today we sat down to figure out where we would be staying before we embark Insignia for the Festive Caribbean precursor cruise.

    [The backstory of our YVE Miami and Brickell Arch woes is in the European Crossing & Türkiye trip.]

    Regardless of our issues with the Brickell Arch residence in March, we still wanted to be in that neighborhood as it’s away from all the construction work in the Bayfront area. After perusing offerings on both AirBNB and VRBO, we booked a condo at the Brickell Icon W Residences.

    The place looks really nice … bright and airy … with views of the river, the bay, and the city. It’s an exterior residence … no “noise funnel” atrium like the one at the Brickell Arch to be worried about. Reviews are very complimentary. The only downside is that parking is not in the building. But the host offers discounted parking in the open lot adjacent to the property, so we've reserved a spot.

    The cancelation deadline for the property is 29 November to get a full refund. If something better pops up before then, we can reconsider. But we're happy with what we booked, so I doubt we'll be looking for an alternative.    Read more

  • RTW Redux ... 2023

    Festive Carib ... $s Saved

    May 26, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 63 °F

    Oceania began a Memorial Day Sale yesterday. Reviewing the list of cruises to which the sale applies, I noted that our RTW2023 precursor cruise to the Caribbean was included.

    The sale is for a 4-category upgrade ... for new bookings. Darn! Not that we wanted to upgrade our cabin, really. That would mean moving cabins on turnaround day in Miami when the 198-day version of RTW2023 begins. I just wanted to take advantage of the lower pricing for our current cabin category.

    Hmmm! Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Right? So, I sent off an email to see if we could reprice the cruise under the sale fare and keep the same cabin. Turns out that we could.

    The revised invoice was in my inbox this morning. We've repriced cruises before, but this time the new fare is saving us a really nice chunk of change.

    Any savings is a good savings I say.    Read more

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