Coming along? Here’s what you need to do first, not counting the obvious of reserving your space, flying to meet the ship, yadda yadda. This is necessarily slanted toward Americans since that’s what I know, but others can probably get some ideas here too.
Randy Cassingham
The Only One There (Video)
There are a lot of “activities” available onboard, but one thing was lacking: a speaker series of talks by the residents themselves. We have a lot of interesting people aboard from a wide variety of professions, either retired or still active.
BBC Documentary: The Never-Ending Cruise Story
“The round the world cruise that was stranded in Belfast. After months of delays, the ship finally set sail. Find out how the passengers stayed upbeat while their trip of a lifetime started with the stress of being stuck in Northern Ireland. We hear from those who are calling the cruise home for the next three years.” —BBC
The First Weeks as Residential Cruisers
I continue to get interview requests from the media. This one came in by email two days ago, but thankfully was told that my deadline was “in the next couple of days,” so hopefully this is good: I just hit Send on my reply, and now I’ll format it up into a post here. 🙂
Let Me Count the Ways
I won’t dissect every “wrong” article in the press about our journey, but one in particular is so bad I couldn’t help myself.
Home At Last
We are finally aboard our ship, after it finally passed all inspections (including the unfair ones, and the truly stupid ones), marking the true start of our Residential Cruising life.
Ireno Day 7: The Bridge
Kit and Ric arrived in Derry late this morning, and there was a bit of a surprise waiting.
Ireno Days 5 & 6: Winding Down
Day 5 brought a slight change of plans.
Ireno Day 4: Second Wind
After a build-up of fatigue, with some extra rest yesterday (Day 4, Monday), Kit seems to have built up a second wind. She sounds downright energized again today.
Ireno Day 3: Settling In
Kit and Ric got off to their usual early start — before breakfast — and stopped a little beyond the half-way point. The story of the journey, of course, is between those points.
Ireno Day 2: A Day of Stories
OK, so most days are really just a string of short stories. These seem to be a bit more interesting than usual.
Ireno Day 1: Getting Her Land Legs Back
Day 1 of Kit and Ric’s “Ireno” ended after 6 hours: “We walked 11 miles today and have stopped for the day,” she texted. “I’m exhausted. We’ve stopped at a sweet B&B and we’ll get dinner here too.”
Kit’s “Ireno”: Can’t Go Yet? Then Go on Walkabout
Kit has been getting cranky at the wait in Belfast, and we got the news that it would be another week before we could board Odyssey and get going on our trip. “I really want to walk,” she said.
We Are Not “Stranded”
Gee, thanks, BBC. They started it — how we’re “stranded” in Belfast.
NCL Stole My Most Important Bag
Two weeks ago in the This is True newsletter I mentioned that Norwegian Cruise Line lost my “technology bag” with my digital recorder, my iPad, my expensive keyboard that enables my fastest typing, an external monitor, cables, and a lot more.