What an end to our wonderful five week holiday we have had. Travelling out of New York we were on a winning streak and everything went so smoothly. I even managed to stay awake on that red eye flight and snap a photo as we were flying into Los Angeles. Believe it or not, coming out of LAX ran smoothly and we made it to our hotel in record time. No frustration or looking for the red sign like last time.
Fast forward 24 hours and our run of good luck abruptly came to an end. Thinking we had two days to relax and prepare for our trip home, we chose to hang around the hotel rather than travel into central LA. After such a busy five weeks, the thought of doing nothing sounded like heaven.
Laying on our hotel bed resting my worn out feet, you can imagine my response when a notification popped up on my phone advising that our flight the following evening had been cancelled. Believe it or not, I managed to maintain a calmness that I didn’t realise I had. We had survived two hurricanes and an earthquake this trip, surely a cancelled flight could also be overcome.
So here I sit at LAX, another 24 hours later and the resolution of the cancelled flight wasn’t quite what I hoped for. Instead of our 13.5 hour direct flight home, we now have a 15 hour flight to Sydney, an 8.5 hour wait, then another 1.5 hour flight to Brisbane. So essentially, we now have a 25 hour trip home. We can fly to the UK in less than that time! And just to sweeten me up a little more, our business class upgrade request was unsuccessful.
What can one say or do. These are the joys of travelling!
It’s hard to believe that after three cancelled cruises and a long thirty months since my last cruise, I am only seven days short of setting sail again. Every bodily feature is crossed, praying to the powers above, that I can escape that dreaded COVID for just a tad longer. Hey, I’m even willing to pray to the powers below, beside and in. Working in a school, it has been quite a challenge to escape the germs but so far so good!
It’s an understatement to say that I was a tad excited when Australia finally announced that cruising would restart this month. The restart just so happened to coincide with the school holidays so it was like Mr Claus had prematurely provided the gift that kept on giving. Unfortunately for the other half in the Sutton marriage, he was unable to take holidays, so a girl’s trip was required.
With much anticipation, this time next week I will be boarding the Coral Princess with a great friend who I will refer to as Hornbag Thelma. Those who know me well know that I am generally a two drink drunk. Stick a double nip in and I am a one drink screamer! Needless to say, it was a bit of a concern when a certain Hornbag Thelma insisted that this Lightweight Louise sign up for the drinks package. With a bit of arm twisting (honest), I conceded and ticked the box for an all inclusive 15 drinks a day package. Being a little bit of a tight arse, okay a rather big tight arse, the challenge is there to make the most of the drink package and drink more than the $40 a day it is costing. I will put it in writing right now, I’m not too sure if I will be capable of writing any blogs after number 3, but I will do my best to share our adventures.
Having Hornbag Thelma in tow will definitely provide ample content for not only an update on returning to cruising, but also some crazy situations. Hornbag Thelma seems to have an uncanny ability to attract the outright bizarre and least expected interactions. Roll on the next seven days!
The last fortnight has taught me a valuable lesson about travel. Nothing is guaranteed and no amount of organisation, anal retentive planning or crossing of extremities will ensure a much wanted getaway pans out. It has also taught me that tight arse ways can come back to bite you on the arse……….with a vengeance (explanation to come)! With a pandemic announced this week, travel plans have been thrown into disarray for millions of people across the globe. That much looked forward to holiday, that we take for granted as a given, may, for the short term (crossing those fingers) be a dream of the past.
Anyone who knows me well, knows that travel is my mode of balancing my mental health. Working in a highly demanding profession, the prospect of an exciting adventure around the corner, keeps my energy levels high and my mind and soul healthy. I have to admit that my mental health has really struggled this week with the uncertainty of what lays ahead.
Having spent the last 12 months planning our May European trip to the minutest detail, the spread of the virus, strangely named after a beer (what idiot came up with that?) has put a question mark on moving forward. A fortnight ago we made the difficult decision to cancel our Baltic cruise and come up with a ‘Plan B’ of staying in the UK. Sheer disappointment was balanced knowing that any holiday is better than no holiday. With having disembarked the ‘Diamond Princess’ just weeks before the much publicised quarantine, we weren’t too concerned with catching COVID-19, but more the prospect of being stuck on the other side of the world with our travel insurance being essentially meaningless.
Last weekend was spent formulating a ‘Plan B’ and trying to put aside the disappointment. Back to the research and penciling out what could be. Given the situation is completely out of our control, what other choice does one have? All hope was not lost and that mental health was holding on by a thin string.
Flash forward a week and today I sit here with a sense of dread and disappointment. In the course of a week, the recommendation of staying away from certain countries has increased to reconsidering all overseas travel regardless of the destination. On top of that, the Australian cruise I was due to embark in three weeks was cancelled by the cruise line yesterday with the shut down of cruising across the globe. Strangely enough I only said to hubby last week “knowing my luck my cruise will be cancelled”. Perhaps I should rethink my profession and become a clairvoyant! Yes that string holding me together is getting even thinner.
You may ask why I am writing a travel blog when I’m not actually traveling? I guess I wanted to share two personal realisations and I don’t know when I will be sharing my traveling ramblings again.
Number one, my tight arse ways (generally worth celebrating) of booking accommodation at the discount ‘pay up front non-refundable price’ may not save me money in the long run. With traveling for six weeks accommodation adds up to just a few $. Who am I kidding, it’s a crap load (cue toilet paper shortage….yes pun intended). I have always had the confidence that travel insurance would cover cancellations should the unexpected happen. Throw in a pandemic and you may as well use the insurance policy certificate to replace the much coveted toilet paper that is so hard to come by these days. Don’t even get me started on the toilet paper stupidity.
Realisation number two, the fantastic priced airline tickets that I was so proud of scoring, may essentially be a donation to the airline. Another non-refundable purchase (yes celebrated at the time) that I thought would be covered by the insurance…a.k.a. back up toilet paper. It will be interesting to see how the next 63 days pan out before we are due to fly.
Several months ago the better half and I decided that we would avoid a freezing winter and postpone our Xmas family visit to the UK until summer in 2020. It just so happened that May also coincided with a wedding invite so it was definitely a win win decision.
Experiencing post cruise blues (a dead set disease that is never cured), I hoped that a cruise over Xmas might just tide us over until our big trip next year (also including a Baltic cruise). Being on a mission to persuade the hubby (sometimes forgetting the ‘happy wife happy life’ motto), I scanned the Princess website and listed all the cruises that we could possibly do during our 4 weeks of leave. Scribbled notes of pros, cons, previous visited ports and new ports was ready and waiting for unsuspecting hubby on his arrival home. Hubby had no idea what he was walking in to. Reflecting on my slightly covert mission, a Power Point presentation and palm cards might have been more effective than my scribbled notes and semi convincing ramblings. Long story short, I need not have prepared so retentively as hubby was quick to say “book the 22 night one”. Who would have thought after 26 years of wedded bliss, we were on the same wavelength? Or perhaps my preferences were just obvious and the ‘happy wife happy life’ motto was clear. Here I was convinced I would have to go hard sale, calling on all of my experience of haggling with used car salesmen. Just like that our Xmas and new Year was booked no pressure tactics required! Fast forward a few months and our cruise just happened to drop a $1000 each and our amazing travel agent (Kylie Stokes Travel & Cruise) was able to get Princess to reduce our price and match the new sale. If you are in Australia and after a great TA, Kylie is amazing. Definitely a win win for a tight arse like me!
So now we are 12 days out and it is time to start getting organised. What one didn’t consider was not being home for Xmas with the golden child (be him an adult) and mum (be her slightly ancient). So today we sat and exchanged gifts and tucked into a traditional Aussie Xmas lunch. Not quite Christmasy (is that even a word?) and I am 100% confident that our cruise celebrations will trump my slightly lazy efforts.
Gone are my days of packing 6 weeks in advance (I kid you not) and a new caution to the wind attitude has been adopted. Who am I kidding? Actually, after several cruises I have developed an anally retentive packing list nicely stored as a reusable list on an iPad app called ”Packing List’. Never again will I leave my underwear at home and be forced to go commando. Yes that has occurred more than once. So the packing has commenced with the important stuff……champagne, sunscreen and Xmas chocolates for the cabin steward. Two busy weeks of work left, two suitcases to pack and 12 days and counting!
The holiday drought is just about over, and in five short days we are off again on our next adventure. The word ‘drought’ might be a slight exaggeration, but it feels like a lifetime since our last trip.
Sticking to the ‘we’re getting old’ type of holiday, we are back on the Golden Princess for a bit of cruising relaxation. Not quite the epic 23 nights like last year, but nonetheless, something is better than nothing.
No port stops, no new cities, just relaxation, entertainment, food, food and a little (understatement) more food. Did I mention that I love the food? Given I still haven’t got rid of the 7kg from our visit on the lovely Golden last year, I guess we should be grateful that it is only a three day cruise.
There will be no destination blogs, but I am sure that I will be able to find something other than food to blog about (who am I kidding?). Let’s just hope that we get the opportunity to meet amazing people who can entertain my blogging tendencies. Stay tuned!
Five years ago Simon and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary by renewing our vows in Vegas. It was an all class event, Elvis, a $9 gift shop veil, cheesy vows, a giant pizza and frozen margaritas. Oh the memories!
We promised to love each other tender and never stand on each other’s blue suede shoes. As you would have it, neither of us own blue suede shoes but we have lasted another 5 years.
How does one celebrate achieving the equivalent to nearly 4 murder sentences? A holiday of course and a bloody long one! 25 years is a really long time. With long service leave approved, we decided that we would travel for 10 weeks and had grand plans of Asia, Alaska, Canada, USA and Britain. Unfortunately with the impulse purchase of a unit last year and not having sold the house as yet, we have had to reevaluate our original plans and cut back on the itinerary. Over a year ago (pre unit days) we booked our dream cruise around Japan to Alaska and Vancouver (roll on 27th April). To make it even more exciting we convinced our friends Jon (Where’s Wally in Japan) and Angela (patience of a saint being married to Wally) to come along. As fate would have it they will be also be celebrating their wedding anniversary during the cruise!
With just over 100 days left before we head off, we have been very busy planning (how does one outdo a classy Vegas wedding?). Yes I am throwing the ‘we’ around quite loosely as one of us is the anally retentive planner who is best friends with google maps, Trip Advisor and Cruise Critic.
With our cruise booked, time in Vancouver and Las Vegas planned, we were preparing to shorten the long service leave and return to work (insert sad face). As luck would have it, an offer too good to be true fell into our laps (thank you Princess Cruises) just at the right time and our plans to return to work were aborted. What better way to finish off an epic holiday, a two week Caribbean cruise.
The prospect of cruising the Caribbean after 8 weeks of already traveling (remember travelling for Tanya = eating and lots of eating) is somewhat scary. I’m really hoping that I don’t get mistaken for a beached whale as I soak up the sun on those gorgeous beaches. Note to self – no snorkelling!
Keeping the run of good luck, tight arse Tanya managed to score some business class flights home using Frequent Flyer points. Who said hoarding points was stupid? I did however select seats on opposite sides of the plane. After 10 weeks of traveling together I think it might be time for some alone time, anniversary or not!
Five years ago Simon and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary by renewing our vows in Vegas. It was an all class event, Elvis, a $9 gift shop veil, cheesy vows, a giant pizza and frozen margaritas. Oh the memories!
Tanya'stravelblog 