Marlene and I have done a lot of traveling together in the two years since we met – a transatlantic cruise, a transpacific cruise, several Caribbean cruises and road trips to GA and New England. We just booked another Caribbean cruise for January 2025, for my birthday, and have a 25-night cruise through the Panama Canal booked for April 2025. What can we do to top that?
How about a trip around the world?
It is looking increasingly likely that we will actually travel around the world over a period of about 10 weeks from September 15 to November 22, 2025. And before you start thinking “they must be rich” let me tell you that it is being done quite economically.
There will be three distinct segments to the trip, which I will designate ATW (for “around the world”):
- ATW-1: This will be a 23-night cruise on the Carnival Luminosa – the same ship that took us to Australia last year (TP1). This one also leaves from Seattle but terminates in Sydney rather than Brisbane. It departs September 18 but we will spend a few days in Seattle first. We will also spend a few days in Sydney.
- ATW-2: This segment is mostly by rail in Europe but also includes the flights that get us from Sydney to London. My current plan is to spend a few days in Mumbai, India, on our way to London where we will also spend a few days. The rail portion will take us to Paris, France, Vienna, Austria, and Venice, Florence and Rome, Italy. We will spend at least two days in each city.
- ATW-3: The final segment will be a 14-night cruise on the Carnival Miracle, from Civitavecchia, Italy, (the port for Rome) to Tampa FL.
This will be epic. We have already booked the cruises and I have plans for the rail and air travel, which I have not yet booked. Nor have I booked any hotels. But I have checked out the prices for hotels in all of the cities we will visit and it is all affordable. Meals? We know how to eat cheaply. The trip to Rome was a “bucket list” item for both Marlene and me and I wanted to get to Venice ever since it was denied to me when Jett fell ill on the TC1. By linking the two cruises together we will be able to knock all of those items off of our bucket lists while saving money – the flight from Sydney to London is less than the flight from Sydney to FL and the rail cost is less than the cost of a flight from FL to Rome. Yes, there will be significant hotel expense – about 30 days – but I think we can average under $80 per night (total cost about $2,500 for both of us). I think the total cost for 10 weeks of travel will be about $8,000 or about $800 per week for both of us. And we save on many of the expenses we have at home in FL – gas, entertainment, etc. It is very feasible.
These plans will change. The trip is a year away. But I think it will happen.