Today I had the pleasure of having lunch with NLM (full name excluded for privacy), a passenger on the Pacific Princess this year (2017) when it made a round-the-world cruise similar to the one I’ll be on starting in January. I learned about NLM through a casual discussion at a doctor’s office; pure chance. We live about 150 miles apart and met in the middle for lunch.
The Los Angeles freeways were good to me and I arrived early. Lunch at Spaghetti Eddies was very good. If you are in the Glendora, CA area think about stopping by.
We had a long discussion about the trip and some of the difficulties they encountered; good times too. Weather turned out to be one concern for the trip this year; they sat in port in Los Angeles for a couple of days before starting the trip and had to skip the Hawaii stop due to that. So, lesson one is that things change and often you don’t have any control over that. So go with the flow and enjoy whatever comes your way.
I won’t detail everything we talked about but there was one caution that came across quite clearly: get your visas as soon as you can; don’t wait. Some other people on the trip apparently were not able to get their visas for a portion of the trip and had to stay on the ship during that stop. They were lucky as the cruise line had every right to not even let them board according to the contract.
From the grand overview to the details (bring laundry soap tablets if using the laundromat on the ship) we covered many topics and I now have many notes to consider over and above all the FAQs I’ve been reading at travel sites.
The planning continues.