Australia/NZ bucket list trip 2023

 Nov 30, 2023  Wow!  We're at the last day of November and our Australia/New Zealand adventure is now officially less than 2 weeks away!  I went to AAA this week to order some foreign (AU and NZ) currency for the trip.  The money came in yesterday so I went off to AAA today to pick it up.  I must say, the AU/NZ currency looks like monopoly money to this US citizen, used to humdrum green currency.  Here are some photos of the currency: New Zealand Currency   Australian Currency The pictures don't do justice to the vibrant colors and the money feels very 'plastic" with a plastic strip in each currency with holographic images. In any event, since I've outlined what the land portion of the tour will be like, I thought I'd use this post to outline the cruise portion of the trip. Cruise itinerary: Cruise Map Friday, Dec. 22, 2023 - Depart Sydney, AU onboard the Majestic Princess.  Our cabin is a mini-suite on the Riviera Deck, Room R338. Sat, ...

 Friday, November 24, 2023 We're less than 3 weeks out from the start of our epic journey, so I thought I'd use this post to provide a brief overview of the schedule for our Princess cruise/tour adventure.  Technically, that should be tour/cruise adventure, since we'll be doing the land tour portion of the trip first, but in any case, here goes with info on the land tour portion of our trip: Wed. Dec. 13 - we fly out of Harrisburg, PA at 12:39 p.m. on Delta airlines, with airport/airplane changes in Atlanta, GA and Los Angeles, CA (LAX) to arrive in Sydney, AU at 8:36 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 15 (we "lose a day" traveling across the dateline to Australia). Friday, Dec. 15 - upon arrival, we'll be taken to our hotel for 2 nights - the Amora Jamison in downtown Sydney.  Here's a link to info about the hotel:  Amora Hotel Jamison Sydney | 5-Star Hotel in Sydney (amorahotels.com) .  It's a 5-star hotel within walking distance of Sydney Harbor.  After 26 hours ...

November 20, 2023 - Well, here we are, just about 3 weeks away from the start of our bucket list trip to the other side of the world. As I noted in my last post (on Nov. 5, updated on Nov. 19th), we finally got our travel arrangements and flight schedules straightened out (I HOPE).   We are now scheduled to leave from Harrisburg on Wednesday, Dec. 13 around noon, fly to Atlanta, have a 2.5 - 3 hour layover and then fly to LAX, arriving around 7:30 p.m. with a 10:15 p.m. departure to Sydney, Australia, arriving about 8:30 a.m. on Friday, December 15 to begin our land portion of the trip in Australia.  We'll have the day to get settled in, adjust for jet lag (it's going to be a bear), and attend a welcome reception at the hotel.  The official land tour begins the morning of Dec. 16 with a city tour of Sydney. These last few weeks will be a lot of hurry up and wait, checking and rechecking to make sure all our paperwork is in order, packing and repacking suitcases, and...

 Sunday, November 5, 2023 - Well, things have gone from bad to weird yet again with Princess concerning our upcoming trip.  It's enough to make me want to tear my hair out! Me - very frustrated! On Friday (Nov. 3) I got a voice mail message from Roberta P. with Princess advising me that the land portion of our trip - the Australia portion has been changed .  The tour we signed up for (3H) has been cancelled due to lack of interest (not enough participants).  So Princess has put us on the 4H Ultimate Australia tour instead.  But - the tour is one day longer than our original tour (and misses one of the stops on the original tour but subs in two stops at a new location - Darwin).  That means that the day we arrive, after having traveled for 26 hours, we have to immediately join the group for the day tour of Sydney!  I about blew a gasket on that.  We are in the process of seeing if we can change flights to come in 2 days earlier on December 14 (mean...

Nov. 1, 2023 - Hey there, everyone!  Starting a blog here to record our epic adventure to Australia and New Zealand at the end of the year.  This trip has been a long time in the making.  It started as the glimmer of an idea about 4 years ago (after I retired) when I thought about booking us on a re-positioning cruise across the Pacific Ocean to get to Australia and be time-acclimated when we got there.  However, a couple of things worked to scotch that idea.  First, repositioning cruises (when cruise lines move their ships to Australia in time for cruising season in Australia) generally leave/arrive in Australia in their late Spring (e.g., in September) when Australia weather is quite cool.  In addition - and who would've thought - they are actually very popular cruises, meaning they book up months (try almost a year) in advance!  So, that idea went by the boards and in the meantime, our thoughts turned to a European River Cruise combined with a once ...