The short answer is, it was fabulous. One of the best trips we've taken in our lives. While not everything on the trip was perfect, the incredible scope of what we saw and experienced was mind-blowing.

An unexpected bonus for us was how fascinating our fellow passengers were. The people on board may have been old in their bodies, but they were young in their spirits. We went scuba diving with an 81-year-old woman yesterday (photo left; 2nd from right at table), for example. There were amazing life stories—a woman who was in a Japanese concentration camp in China during WWII (above left; right-most); the man who invented artistic wrapping paper; a former member of the European Parliament (above right, 2nd from left); a woman who, as a young nurse, lived into the jungles of Uganda (above left, 2nd from left); former residents of Pitcairn Island (descendents of the Bounty mutineers); a fellow who wrote the definitive history of the Rocky Horror Picture Show play; you get the idea.

Home-Sweet-Home

We were worried that we would get bored being gone that long, especially with so many sea days. Our cabin was a very small 125 square feet, would we kill each other? In actuality, we found plenty to entertain us. It takes a lot of our time to create the website and to post-process our pictures after we take them. We became volunteer Internet Center helpers and lecturers. We took afternoon naps. We went to as many as three lectures a day. Kathy read about 40 books. We used the workout room, though not nearly as much as we should have.

We were worried we that we wouldn't like the food or that it would be repetitive. In actuality, the food was fine. Not five-star, maybe more like 3.5 star. A bit too heavy on the cream sauces and salt for our tastes, but tasty enough. We called the food “resistable”, which is good if you're going to be eating it for 100 days in a row. I'd rather have them spend their money on great ports of call then lobster main courses.

The mindset for a 100 day cruise is different than a 10 day cruise. It really becomes your home, you get into the routine, you make good friends with the crew, the officers (Scott with Captain Derrick, left), and the other passengers (TravlTips Hostess Robin, photo left). You establish new routines.

It's quite pleasant living somewhere that they feed you three meals a day (five if you like) without delivering a bill; a cabin that gets cleaned daily; someone to do the laundry; lectures in the afternoon, floor shows in the evening. The ports are interesting, but there's still lots to do onboard on sea days. It would be hard to go on a cruise that lasted less than a month now.

The lure of the sea is quite addictive. The waves rock you gently to sleep. There are always beautiful vistas, be it land or endless waters. Seabirds fly in the wake of the ship day and night, no matter our distance from land. The sunsets are often fabulous

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Top 10 (ok, seven)

Amazing Site...	Sight	What we've written
Antarctica is the hands-down winner—such an otherworldly place yet teeming with life in the “summer”.		Intro Penguins Landscape Logistics Wildlife
Second place goes to a super pod of thousands of dolphins that were feeding on baitfish as we cruised by. They all immediately stopped feeding, and headed in towards the ship from all directions, launching themselves into the sky in synchronized groups of three, five, eight and more. This went on for miles.
We saw probably the best sunset of our lives from Tahiti, looking over Moorea. It went on and on – 15 minutes or more.		Polynesia1 Polynesia2
The paradise-quality remote islands of Dravuni and Yasawa – we found the Blue Lagoon.		Dravuni Yasawa
The lagoon (though not the island) of Bora Bora belongs here too.		Bora Bora
New Zealand is an awesome place—both the amazing scenery and the culture. We'll go back and spend a winter (their summer) sometime soon.		New Zealand Crossing Bay of Islands North Island + Napier South Island + Wellington Leaving NZ
Galapagos (top) and Easter Island (center) were fascinating to see in person – though they are so frequently portrayed via TV and magazines, it almost felt as though we'd been there before. Pitcairn Island (bottom), home of the Bounty mutineer descendants, was actually more intriguing. For Easter Island and Pitcairn, we visited in both directions!		Galapagos 1 Galapagos 2 Easter Is 1 Easter Is + Pitcairn 2
Even though it wasn't part of the cruise, we must include the time we spent in Buenos Aires – a fabulous city, on sale at 2/3 off, visiting excellent friends in a wonderful house, eating red meat and drinking top notch wine every evening. It doesn't get much better than this.		Buenos Aires

Another surprise was how much we valued the days at sea. Spending a day in port is intensive – especially if you tend to go on death marches in the tropics, like we do. For us, having about half our days as sea days seemed about right. Five port days in a row, we were exhausted.

Cruises are an embarrassingly easy way to see the world. Unpack once, the world comes to your door each morning. Spend the day exploring the most desolate or remote port; come back home in the late afternoon to air conditioned comfort, then phone room service for ice, mix up a gin & tonic, review your digital pictures and check email on the ship's internet. Compared to backpacking through India, we felt like we were cheating.

When we look back over the range of things we experienced on this trip—Antarctica, Easter Island, Galapagos, New Zealand, Bora Bora—it is hard to believe that we did it all, especially all in just one winter. Equally amazing were the incredible people we met and became friends with.

So, where do we sign up for the next one?

Back Home Again

It had to happen sometime. Kathy recommended that she do the re-packing and spent the entire last day at sea doing it — for both of us; the cabin is too small for two people to pack at once. We went around, saying goodbye and thanking the staff.

We left Nassau mid-morning Saturday, heading to the not-to-be-recommended Nassau airport, where we shuffled our six big suitcases through endless lines – check-in, Customs, security, etc. After three hours standing in line, we boarded a flight that was crammed full; connected in Charlotte to another flight equally crammed; returned home to Boston to find a cold pelting rain – part of the biggest extended rainstorm/flooding since the 1930s. We didn't see sun till Tuesday. It gave us time to go through our three and a half months of mail that had piled up.

It's nice to have the extra room, though it's disappointing to wake up in the same place day after day. It's getting a little boring. And... nobody comes to clean up after us, or bring us a bucket of ice!

We're home for a month, then drive(!) out to our condo in Vancouver. Stay tuned!