Packing:
Is well underway, we started collecting everything in one room about 3 months ago and actually started filling cases last week. At the moment we’re hoping to keep it to 3 large cases, one garment bag and two carry-ons. The plan is to have enough clothes for a 3 to 4 week turn-around, using the ships laundry as required, unfortunately there’s no drycleaners on board so we’ll have to be creative (or carry a lot of deodorant:)
Private excursions:
We’ve arranged private excursions for Easter Island, Papua New Guinea, Osaka, Vietnam/Cambodia/Thailand, Mumbai and Istanbul. It’s much more work to arrange your own tours but the benefits are worth the extra effort.
Our Easter Island arrangements are with Haumaka Tours and were the first we arranged back in September. Unfortunately I recently noticed their website had disappeared so I emailed them last week to confirm everything was still in place. Stay tuned for an update when (if) I hear back from them.
Our Papaua New Guinea arrangement were thanks to the hard work of new found friends, Bob and Elaine from Leicester, England. They will join the ship in Sydney for the second quarter of the cruise and Bob arranged the entire PNG tour through the Rabaul Hotel, our itinerary will cover all the top sites, from the Volcanological Observatory to the Japanese Submarine Base.
In Osaka, we’re very happy to be meeting a volunteer guide with the SGGC, who will help and guide us while there. The Osaka Tenma Yomiuri SGG club provides guiding and translation services, free of charge, with the exception that you are expected to pay for their travel expenses, admission to tourist facilities and to pay for the guides meals if you eat with them. We’re very much looking forward to our visit for a closer experience of Japanese life (and we might even try some Takoyaki).
In Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) we have arranged to leave the ship and travel overland to Cambodia and Thailand. We will fly HCMC to Siem Reap, stay 2 nights, fly to Bangkok, stay 2 nights then rejoin the Royal Princess. Everything was booked online without problems with one exception. Initially we booked (and paid for) our Vietnam to Cambodia flight with Siem Reap Airways and about a month later, they were banned from flying due to safety concerns. After some anxious days, Bangkok Air assumed responsibility for the flight and re-booked us on a Vietnam Airlines flight at no additional cost. Arranging it ourselves meant that the cost for the 5 days is approximately one third of the cost quoted by Princess for the ships tour of 3 days.
In Mumbai, we had originally planned to take the ships tour to the Taj Mahal but upon reflection and some reading of others’ experiences with the tour, we considered it too long and gruelling with no options once the 15 hour trip had commenced. So we’re happy to have found an acceptable alternative with an excellent itinerary shared with a couple of fellow passengers and we are now looking forward to an interesting experience.
Our tour in Istanbul will take us to all the main cultural highlights of Istanbul's opulent past - the grandiose Topkapi Palace, the glittering Grand Bazaar, the magnificent Hagia Sophia Church, the elegant Blue Mosque and ancient Hippodrome, set among the cobbled streets of the old Imperial quarter and heart of ancient Byzantium & Constantinople...
Ships excursions:
We’ve booked excursions with the ship in 14 ports and we’ll wing it in the remaining (approximately 18) stops, but we’re especially looking forward to our four day overland in China.
Port problems:
On any vacation you run the risk of local events affecting your plans and our trip is no exception. Civil unrest in Bangkok, terrorist bombings in Mumbai, Gulf of Aden pirates, all out conflict in Israel and street riots in Athens, it certainly won’t be boring. I expect we may miss out on at least one of these ports but hopefully for the sake of those subjected to the violence, peace will return sooner rather than later. Either way, it won’t spoil our trip, I’ve got my ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Tshirt with me for the trip through the Gulf of Aden.
Visas:
We were required to provide our own visas for China and India while Princess will take care of visas for Australia, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Cambodia and Egypt (costs will be charged to our shipboard account)
Accordingly we sent our passports off to the Indian embassy in Toronto, mid November. The Indian embassy would not accept ‘in person’, only ‘mail in’ applications, so we carefully tracked their progress over a two week period ‘til they came back ($62.00 each).’’Then, since we were leaving the ship in Vietnam and needed individual visas, we sent off to the Vietnamese embassy in Ottawa. After an anxious two week period where Canada Post lost them, they eventually returned ($79.00 each). That left the Chinese visa, which had to be an ‘in person’ application, they wouldn’t accept ‘mail ins’, so we drove the hour and a half to Toronto first Monday in December and waited in line with at least a hundred other people to put in our papers. The following Thursday we drove back and collected them without too much delay ($75.00 each). Including postal services, the three visas cost $347.58, we could have used a private visa service who would have handled all the applications for about $500 extra.
We needed one other visa, Cambodia, since we would not be covered by the ships group visa. This was a very easy online process which took 12 hours to receive the completed visa ($25.00 each)
What’s your favourite disease:
Hepatitis A/B, Measles,Mumps,Rubella(MMR), Polio, Tetanus-Diphtheria --
We had the vaccine 6 years ago so no further vaccination planned.
Rabies, Typhoid, Yellow Fever -- no vaccination planned.
Malaria: Do we need to take Malaria pills and if so, when? According to the CDC Malaria is a significant threat in 5 of the ports we visit, they are: Rabaul, PNG – Inchon, S.Korea – Siem Reap, Cambodia - Port Blair, Andaman Islands – Mumbai, India. There are other ports where Malaria is a threat but the likelihood of getting the disease is very low and risking the side effects of the anti-malarial drugs is considered not worth it. Weighing the threat of contracting the disease against the side effects of the drug is a personal choice but after extensive reading, taking into account the time we were there, we opted for mosquito repellent (Off with 25% deet) and protective clothing in PNG and South Korea.
After discussing the options with our family doctor we decided to take the drug (Malarone) for 27 days to protect us in Cambodia, Andaman Islands and India where I considered the risk too great to rely on anything else.
