Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

Norfolk, VA

Posted on July 11, 2015 by patmathews

July 11

Arrived in Norfolk, you can see the Harry S. Truman as you pull into the harbor and the Wisconsin berthed right next to our ship. This is the largest navy base in the world and one of two NATO strategic command headquarters. In another earlier time of life, I lived here for a year, but don’t remember any of it. Passed over the Chesapeake Bay bridge-tunnel on the way in to port, this is part of the extensive bridge-tunnel network in this area, three bridge-tunnels. These are the only bridge-tunnels in the U.S.

the Insignia docked near the waterfront park.

Insignia

Our plan.. Sail the Hampton Roads harbor in a schooner, have lunch and explore on foot in the afternoon.

Our sailing boat!

We had a lot of storms in the afternoon, so I went to Starbucks to get fast wifi!

On our way to NY at 5.

Hoisting the sails

They had a poker powerboat event today for cancer research, the Poker Run. How it works:

Many powerboats leave the marina. I took a picture before they left. They all go to a variety of different marinas, collect a playing card at each one and whichever boat has the best poker hand at the end wins! Might be a fundraising idea for LBIF?

Poker power Boating!

Posted in July, North America, World Cruise 1 | Tagged World Cruises | 2 Comments

At sea

Posted on July 11, 2015 by patmathews

Fresh pasta

July 10

When we first told our sons that we were planning a World Cruise, Mark said “Nothing says World Cruise like Norfolk, Virginia!” 😬. So here we are at sea on our way there.

A few ship facts:

There are 684 passengers on the ship from 26 countries and we heard that 88 are on the whole world cruise. At the Cruise Critic get together today, we heard from people who post on that site and are on this trip. Some are doing the whole trip, others on the segment to Montreal, some to Southampton, some to Barcelona, some to Dubai. There are also 4 people who got on in Singapore and will be doing 203 days. This is because the ship had a fire in December that delayed the start of the cruise that was to begin in January until late March. iIt began in Singapore instead of Miami, so some passengers opted to join then and stay till it reached Singapore again.

There are 402 crew members from all around the world, 42 nationalities. All are wonderful and cannot do enough for you.

The spa and fitness center are run by Canyon Ranch. They are state of the art with trainers, massage therapists, etc. I am counting on them to do a great job with my hair in 3 weeks time. Watch for pictures!

A day at sea found Norm taking bridge lessons, Pat in a zen doodle art class, Norm in the gym, Pat doing the 4 mile around the fitness track. There are many things to do including photography classes, fitness and spa seminars, line dance classes, and much more. Nice for the sea days, the rest of the time we will be out touring.

The food is really wonderful. Today they were making fresh pasta and made to order porcini risotto at lunch. I had the usual wonderful salad, but did sample the risotto. I can tell I will be well spoiled by the time we come home.

We are loving the string quartet after dinner.

Posted in At Sea, July, North America, World Cruise 1 | Tagged World Cruises | 1 Comment

Port Canaveral

Posted on July 10, 2015 by patmathews

July 9. We are in Port Canaveral, Florida. Some 2.8 million cruise visitors come here each year. We have been here several times before so for us it is a relaxing day on the ship. Saw the sunrise, had breakfast and found out that 13 times around the track on deck 10 is one mile. So I will be doing a lot of rotations to get my 4 miles in! Oh, wait, I found out that it is a nautical mile measurement, so maybe 12.5!

Lots of fishing boats and the ever present police boats. enjoyed watching sea turtles!

I do have pictures of the sunrise and of the nautical mile marker, but wifi speed on the ship stopped those uploads, will add them later or check with my webmaster, Adam, on alternatives when we are in Boston.

Enjoying the string quartet each evening.

Posted in July, North America, World Cruise 1 | Tagged Florida, Port Canaveral | 1 Comment

Sailaway

Posted on July 9, 2015 by patmathews

The executive chef for Oceania is Jacques Pepin. Later I will post some menus, but tonight’s sea bass was one of the best I have ever tasted. The menus are creative and just right, lots of healthy options. I interrupted our dinner to take a video of our sail away out of Miami. Unfortunately the wifi on the ship seems too slow to upload it! Will try that later.

Update from Adam: here’s the sail away video—I’m sure she means July 8 instead of January 8!

Posted in At Sea, July, North America, World Cruise 1 | 5 Comments

Our home for the next 6 months

Posted on July 9, 2015 by patmathews

They say that when you first walk into your cabin on a cruise, it is a religious experience.. You see how small it is and you say “oh my god”..
We fit all of our belongings in the closets and cabinets, and took some tips from cruise critic posts- we brought hooks, a shoe holder to hang over the door, etc. So we are now settled in.

Welcomed with a bottle of champagne and this sign hanging from the ship:

Posted in At Sea, July, North America, World Cruise 1 | 4 Comments

Miami! We sail tomorrow

Posted on July 7, 2015 by patmathews

Arrived in Miami, the Oceania representative took our picture with the luggage. The limo took us to the Hyatt Coral Gables for the night. Lovely dinner in Coral Gables and then in for a good night’s sleep. The rep and our server at the restaurant took our website info.

Posted in July, North America, Preparation, World Cruise 1 | 14 Comments

One week to go!

Posted on July 1, 2015 by patmathews

We sail next Wednesday. Travel advice is to put all the clothes and all the money you want to take on the bed. Then take half the clothes and twice the money. I think we have failed at that one. Three bags already sent to the ship with two to bring with us on the plane. Here is the beginning of those last two.

Posted in July, Preparation, World Cruise 1 | 3 Comments

The packing has begun!

Posted on June 18, 2015 by patmathews

The most common question we get is ” how do you pack for 6 months?” Well, the good news is that the ship does our laundry. So our answer is typically “you pack for 2 weeks”.

Here’s a shot of the beginning of the packing-we are sending three bags directly to the ship and will bring the rest when we fly to Miami.

Our sons are meeting us in Boston with our liquid supplies and snorkel equipment so we don’t have to pack those.

Posted in Preparation, World Cruise 1 | 7 Comments

It all started in Philadelphia

Posted on April 26, 2015 by patmathews

We walk on the Schuylkill River Banks and one day in November 2013 (before we had even officially moved to Philadelphia), we found out that we had both gotten an email from Oceania Cruise lines (one of our favorites) about a 6 month world cruise. Each of us got very excited about it and when we talked about it, we decided it was something we would plan! So almost 18 months after making the initial reservation, we are almost ready to say “bon voyage”!

We live in the Murano building (the rounded glass building to the right of center)

Posted in North America, Preparation, World Cruise 1 | 2 Comments