WELCOME

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG

Our last Blog entry was in late May after arriving home from an amazing five-month adventure.  This included 134 days on Crystal Serenity followed by a European River Cruise on Crystal Mozart.  

Trip Highlights included:

Stops along the California Coast, Hawaii, Australia, Africa and several areas throughout the Mediterranean.

Sailing the World Cruise for the first time since 2015.

Spending time with friends we have known for years and making new friends.

Hosting friends and family on board Serenity in San Francisco and in Sydney respectively.

Spending time with the family in Sydney, Australia.

Celebrating our 100th Crystal Society Milestone on-board Serenity.  

Taking our first River Cruise and visiting several European cities and villages for the first time.

Enjoying time with the amazing crew of Serenity and Mozart.

There is a saying all good things must come to an end, and this was the case when this amazing adventure concluded.  

​We love travel and we love our home & community where we reside.

We have not traveled since May.  This was intentional with major surgery for Anne Marie in July followed by months of recovery.  Many thanks to those of you who reached out to us.

We are excited to begin this new adventure.  

The trip starts with a stay at Walt Disney World in Florida with our family.  

MEET OUR FAMILY

This photo was taken in February when we had the family on board Serenity and celebrated daughter Jennifer's birthday over dinner.

From Left to Right:

Son-in Law Gui, Daughter Jennifer, Grandson Andre and Granddaughter Emma who live in Sydney, Australia.

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This is a photo of our son Eric and his family.  

From Left to Right:

Grandson Jackson, Son Eric, Daughter-In-Law Kara, and Grandson Preston.

We are thrilled to have the family together for this trip.  

​Our last trip with the entire family was May 2017.  This was shortly before our daughter's  family moved to Sydney, Australia and five months before Kara gave birth to Grandson Preston.  Similarly, Kara and Eric are expecting their third child who is due in February 2020.

As part of the  trip we took the family to Disneyland followed by a seven-day California Coastal cruise on-board Crystal Serenity.  
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We arrive to Disney World December 29 for a six-night stay.

Our first visit to Disney World was in the late 1970s before our children were born.  We stayed at the Contemporary Resort.  We returned once more before our children accompanied us in 1992.  

The 1992 trip was a combination cruise & land trip on the Big Red Boat.  The Big Red Boat was part of Premier Cruise Lines and the ship was the Oceanic.  This was before Disney established its own cruise line.  Disney didn't own the Big Red Boat.  Rather, they had a joint business relationship.  Ironically, Oceanic used to be part of Home Lines.  Keith went on Home Lines as a twelve-year-old with his family sailing on cruise ship Homeric.  This was his first cruise.  He loved it so much he wanted to return to cruising after we married.  He had to wait fifteen years after we married.

We visited Oceanic when it was part of Home Lines to help Anne Marie's Mom settle on the ship in the mid-1970's for a cruise she was on.  Fast forward to 1992 and Keith got his wish taking Anne Marie, Jennifer and Eric on their first cruise.   We enjoyed the cruise so much two years later we began cruising yearly with the children.  As they say the rest is history.

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The land portion of the 1992 trip included a stay at the Grand Floridian.  Resort.
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This will be our first stay at Disney World since March of 1997.

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After departing Disney World on January 4 the two of us travel to Southern Florida for a pre-cruise stay.

We board Crystal Serenity on January 7 for the first half of World Cruise 2020 sailing from Miami, Florida to Sydney, Australia.  At the conclusion of this cruise we will have sailed the equivalent of four+ years at sea and visited 302 unique ports of call.

After disembarking Serenity we spend one week with the family in Sydney and make one additional stop before arriving home in March.

Look for the next post on December 24 with daily posts starting December 26.

Cheers,

Anne Marie & Keith

Following is a video trailer.  We hope you enjoy it. The trip itinerary along with a map follows.

TRIP ITINERARY

                     


DATE                       LOCATION

Dec.29, Sun            DISNEY WORLD
Dec 30, Mon           DISNEY WORLD
Dec 31, Tue            DISNEY WORLD
Jan. 01, Wed          DISNEY WORLD
Jan. 02, Thu           DISNEY WORLD
Jan. 03, Fri             DISNEY WORLD
Jan. 04, Sat            DISNEY WORLD/MIAMI FLORIDA
Jan. 05, Sun           MIAMI, FLORIDA, USA 
Jan. 06, Mon          MIAMI, FLORIDA, USA 
Jan. 07, Tue           MIAMI, FLORIDA, USA 
Jan. 08, Wed          CRUISING THE CARIBBEAN SEA
Jan. 09, Thu           CRUISING THE CARIBBEAN SEA 
Jan. 10, Fri             CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA    
Jan. 11, Sat            PANAMA CANAL TRANSIT 
Jan. 11, Sat            PANAMA CITY, PANAMA
Jan. 12, Sun           PANAMA CITY, PANAMA 
Jan. 13, Mon          CRUISING CENTRAL AMERICA 
Jan. 14, Tue            SAN JUAN DEL SUR, NICARAGUA    
Jan. 15, Wed          CRUISING CENTRAL AMERICA 
Jan. 16, Thu           HUATULCO, MEXICO    
Jan. 17, Fri             CRUISING COAST OF MEXICO 
Jan. 18, Sat            CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO    
Jan. 19, Sun           CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO    
Jan. 20, Mon          CRUISING COAST OF MEXICO 
Jan. 21, Tue            CRUISING WEST COAST OF USA
Jan. 22, Wed          LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA    
Jan. 23, The           CRUISING THE PACIFIC OCEAN 
Jan. 24, Fri            CRUISING THE PACIFIC OCEAN 
Jan. 25, Sat            CRUISING THE PACIFIC OCEAN 
Jan. 26, Sun           CRUISING THE PACIFIC OCEAN 
Jan. 27, Mon          CRUISING THE PACIFIC OCEAN 
Jan. 28, Tue            CRUISING THE PACIFIC OCEAN 
Jan. 29, Wed           NUKU HIVA/MARQUESAS 
Jan. 30, Thu            CRUISING THE PACIFIC OCEAN 
Jan. 31, Fri              RANGIROA, FRENCH POLYNESIA 
Feb. 01, Sat             BORA BORA, FRENCH POLYNESIA    
Feb. 02, Sun            BORA BORA, FRENCH POLYNESIA    
Feb. 03, Mon           MO'OREA, SOCIETY ISLANDS    
Feb. 03, Mon           PAPEETE, TAHITI
Feb. 04, Tue            PAPEETE, TAHITI  
Feb. 05, Wed           PAPEETE, TAHITI
Feb. 06, Thu            RAIATEA, SOCIETY ISLANDS
Feb. 07, Fri             CRUISING THE SOUTH PACIFIC 
Feb. 08, Sat             RAROTONGA, COOK ISLANDS    
Feb. 09, Sun            CRUISING THE SOUTH PACIFIC 
Feb. 11, Tue            CROSS INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE 
Feb. 12, Wed           NUKU'ALOFA, TONGA 
Feb. 13, Thu            CRUISING THE SOUTH PACIFIC 
Feb. 14, Fri              LAUTOKA, FIJI    
Feb. 15, Sat             CRUISING THE SOUTH PACIFIC 
Feb. 16, Sun            CRUISING THE SOUTH PACIFIC 
Feb. 17, Mon           WAITANGI, BAY OF ISLANDS, NZ 
Feb. 18, Tue            AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND    
Feb. 19, Wed           AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND    
Feb, 20, Thu            ROTORUA (TAURANGA),NZ
Feb. 21, Fri              NAPIER, NEW ZEALAND    
Feb. 22, Sat             NAPIER, NEW ZEALAND    
Feb. 23, Sun            WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND 
Feb. 24, Mon           PICTON, NEW ZEALAND    
Feb. 25, Tue            AKAROA, NEW ZEALAND 
Feb. 26, Wed           DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND 
Feb. 27, Thu            CRUISING DOUBTFUL FJORD 
Feb. 27, Thu            DUSKY SOUND/MILFORD SOUND
Feb. 28, Fri             CRUISING THE TASMAN SEA 
Feb. 29, Sat             HOBART, TASMANIA, AUSTRALIA 
Mar. 01, Sun            HOBART, TASMANIA, AUSTRALIA 
Mar. 02, Mon           CRUISING THE TASMAN SEA           
Mar. 03, Tue             SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA    
Mar. 04, Wed           SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA    
Mar. 05, Thu            SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA    
Mar. 06, Fri              SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA    
Mar. 07, Sat              SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA    
Mar. 08, Sun             SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA    
Mar. 09, Mon            SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA    
Mar. 10, Tue             SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA    ​