Finished going through the back mail!

I'm happy to report that I am finished going through the extra large plastic bin containing 3.5 months worth of mail!

Thanks for following!

Thanks to everyone for following along on my trip of a lifetime!

Gluten free dining on Princess

I have a special dining restriction which is no wheat, oats, barley or rye. I'm including this special post for those looking for information on gluten free dining on Princess.

Early in the cruise I was pleased with the efforts that Princess was making to accommodate the gluten free dining requirement. However, I have to conclude that it is not safe for a gluten free or celiac person to go on a Princess cruise. I stopped blogging about the gluten free dining experience as if I had included the number of times I got sick from the food I would have no readers of the blog since everyone would have gotten bored with it.

If I could have pinpointed all the problems and solved them then I would have a different conclusion. From my perspective the problems included:

• The staff change over during the cruise guaranteed that every time there were new kitchen staff (which was frequent as the crew continually changed out throughout the cruise) I got glutened for a few weeks while they learned how to prepare a safe meal.
• Princess does not have the methods or proceedures in place that can assure a gluten free experience. Their methodology includes assigning an assistant head waiter to take all your orders. This person is supposed to insure that the meal is gluten free. Unfortunately it appeared that this person just turns around and places the order with a server who would then get it executed. For a multitude of reasons this just didn't work.
  
• Convincing the staff I really could not eat any food off the buffet and that items must be freshly prepared in the kitchen was a challenge. I had this problem with both the room service staff and the kitchen staff.
  

I'm not sure if these were the real problems. As I said if I could have figured out a way to safely order food I would have done it. I did switch to ordering the same room service breakfast every day. I also ate all lunches and dinners in the dining room (or asked the dining room staff to have it brought to my room) so as to have the same waiter. I also took Gluten-Ease, a special digestive enzyme that will help smooth the bumps of accidental cross contamination. Despite this I was frequently glutened.

There were a few items I could get from the buffet. The fruit area was nicely isolated from gluten items so I could get both the whole fruit and the fresh cut fruit. In the afternoon I could get the ice cream if none of the flavors contained gluten as they used the same scoop for all the flavors. I could also get the tortilla corn chips and salsa in the afternoon. However the very last day I did there were no tongs available for the chips so I asked the buffet attendent to get some. He went to the desert bar, grabbed a pair that had been used by people to serve themselves cake and tried to hand them to me. This illustrates why buffets are unsafe. The tongs would have transfered the wheat flour containing cake crumbs to the tortilla chips. If he had done this for the person before me and I did not see it happen, then I came along after I would have been confused as to how I got sick.

For shore excursions I took along my own prepackaged snack bars, cookies and nuts. This worked for all single day excursions. I had more difficulty on the multi-day overlands. Breakfasts were OK as I could get hard boiled eggs, deli meat slices, cheese and fruit from the hotels. If it was a rice based cuisine I did OK with rice and grilled meat for lunch and dinner. If it was a wheat based cuisine then I was in trouble and had to fall back on prepackaged nuts and fruit for my other meals.

My favorite ports per segment

Although I enjoyed all the ports I have been keeping track of my favorite ones on each of the four segments.

I loved all the ports on segment one but Easter Island was the standout for me. I was in awe of the giant Moai and the culture that created them.

For segment two Rabaul in Papa New Guinea was the most amazing experience. Standing at the foot of a gurgling volcano with the water boiling at my feet and hearing the grumbling of the volcano took my breath away.

Angkor Wat and Cambodia were the best experience of the entire cruise. I almost missed it as I did not realize how special these places were and had not planned my own overland. However I was saved by Susie from cruise critic who did all the research and shared her results. The end result was it being ranked the number one experience on the world cruise.

Segment four had a three way tie for best experiences. Oman was fabulous. The Middle East is so different from the US that I didn't know what to expect. Oman intrigued me. Second in the three way tie was Italy. I love Italy and have always enjoyed exploring more of it. Third was Ireland. Blarney castle was an unexpected treasure.

An excellent experience!

I'm happy to say I got back home safe and sound. It is good to be home. It is time to close out the blog so I will list my summary thoughts here and then answer questions from time to time if any come up.

Overall the experience was excellent! I went on the cruise because I wanted to sail around the world. Mission accomplished. I made the ports my focus and have a golden bag of memories that I can open any time and relive the moments. The blog will help immensely with being able to remember everything.

107 days is a long time to be away from home. The stack of mail to be processed is enormous. There are many things to be done around the house that have built up.

I am tired, have gained some weight, and am in worse shape than when I began the cruise. Out of the 107 days we had something like 40 port days and 67 sea days. Staying fit on the ship was not easy and something I was ultimately unsuccessful at. The gym was excellent. However it was in the front of the ship. Our first captain seemed not to believe in using the stabilizers so there was alot of motion which made it hard to walk around the ship and use the gym. Our second captain used them continuously and it made a huge difference.

There was always something going around. When I first got on the ship many people quickly became sick with colds and norovirus. The air was constantly filled with the chemicals for combating the norovirus. I could feel the assaults on my immune system but managed to stay healthy. However, I felt like I was walking a fine line being around sick people all the time (at meals, on the elevator etc.) and dealing with the not very fresh air in my room.

Midway through the cruise, while in Beijing on an overland, my immune system gave up and I came down with the respiratory infection that was going around the ship. I had felt it attacking me before getting off the ship and then when I was subjected to the pollution in Beijing I came down with it fully. This took 30 days to go away. I took Dr. prescribed antibiotics to help combat it when I started gurgling with each breath.

I think for future cruises 60 days will be my limit. I kept track of what I was feeling about the cruise at different times. After 60 days I was ready to go home. However if your dream is to sail around the world then you have to do the longer cruise or do it in segments with alot of flying. I'm glad I did it but will now have a new focus for my adventures.

I have a secret, that maybe wasn't too secret. I was anxious to get off the ship. I couldn't sleep for the last two days of the cruise as I was so excited to be getting off the ship permanently. When I was approaching the overland shore excursions I was also very excited to be getting off the ship. In a smaller way I was excited to be getting off at each port. This does not reflect poorly on the Tahitian Princess, but rather my relationship with the Tahitian Princess. The ship was simply too small for my tastes and my needs. I knew that going in but wanted a ship with the largest number of ports for the best price and Princess was the cruise line that offered the best combination in 2009.

I had a room with a window. This likely also affected how I felt about the ship as I spent quite a bit of time there. I may have felt differently if I had a balcony and the fresh air and light that would come with it.

I'm sure my back problem greatly impacted my ability to enjoy the cruise portion of the experience vs. the port portion. I think the ports were excellent and I could not have been happier with my set of experiences. However I was able to cater to my back which means staying on my feet and walking alot.

My tips for future world cruisers:

• Bring your own medicine cabinet and pharmacy from home. The drugs on the ship are very expensive. Have your own antibiotics.
  
• Buy lightweight ExOfficio Buzz-Off clothing. It is useful in all warm weather ports and will protect you from the bugs and sun. Bring bug spray and use it in all warm weather ports.
• Invest in a good travel wardrobe that is lightweight, provides good sun protection and is made of fabrics designed to keep you cool. Cotton t-shirts and shorts will have you roasting in the warm weather ports.
• Bring waterproof walking shoes in addition to your regular walking shoes. Super comfortable sandals such as Tevas are a great investment also.
• Use an umbrella in the hot weather ports. I really does make a difference in being able to tolerate the sun.
  
• Buy a new camera, preferably water proof. I loved my Pentax W60. It went snorkeling with me and I didn't need to worry about it in the rain or the desert.
• Set up your computer with off-line email creation capability. I used Zimbra and found it worked well.
  
• Blog so you remember your cruise. The on-line tutorial for blogspot is easy to take and it is free to set one up. Learn how to e-mail in your posts so you don't blow your Internet budget. You can keep your blog private (only visible to a few family and friends) or go public with it like I did to share the experience.
  
• Dress like the locals. Be respectful of the local culture and cover up. If you find yourself asking 'can I wear shorts?'. Don't ask, just wear long pants and a higher coverage shirt. Besides it really is cooler to be covered if you have the right fabrics.
  
• Forget the jewelry in 3rd and 4th world country ports. Not only are you making yourself a target but you are endangering the people traveling with you. Also it is distasteful to show off your wealth to people who have so little.
• Do not buy trinkets from children. Buy from adults and people with stalls. Buying from children forces their parents to put them to work at young ages (think 3 and 4 yrs old) if they can pull in a higher income than an adult selling the same trinkets. It isn't fair to the kids.
• Don't take too much. Leave at least half a suitcase empty for all the souvenirs you will pick up.
• Bring your antiviral masks. I couldn't find them to buy while on the cruise and they would have been useful.
  

A world cruise truly is a trip of a lifetime. Try to go as early in life as you can so that you can see as much as possible in the fabulous ports.

Would I go again? Probably not but I'm happy I did go.

Please sign my guest book

I would love to hear from those who have read my blog so am creating this guest book post. Please sign it by sending me a comment.

About a week ago I put Google Analytics code into the blog so can see that for the last week there are about 80 people following each day. I can also see the countries and states everyone is from. I would love to hear your comments on the blog, where you are from and anything else you would like to say about yourself. I'm also happy to answer any questions.

I have the comments on 'moderate' mode which means I have to view them before they are published. As a result there will be a delay before they appear.

Cheers!
Michelle

Dover

We landed in Dover to the most spectacular spring weather.


Here are some pics of the famous white cliffs of Dover.

I had hoped to tour the Dover Castle (visible on the hill of the last picture) but lucked out and got a direct flight back to Denver. I was arriving 8 hours earlier than my original flight so had to forgo any sight seeing in England. One day I will get to see the sights but so far I have only transited through Heathrow and the cruise ports with no sight seeing.

Le Havre France

Many cruise ships dock in Le Havre as it is the port for Paris, Normandy, Mont St. Michel, Honfleur, Rouen, Giverny (Monet's home and gardens) etc. All popular destinations. I've been to them all except Normandy so decided to stay and tour Le Havre.

Pic. 1 is of our cruise ship.

Pic. 2 is of the tour options available from the pier. I'm hoping that those interested will be able to download it to see the tour options and prices.

Saint Joseph Church

St. Joseph Church is very impressive and unique. I don't think it comes across in pictures very well but it is well worth a look in town to see this church. It wasn't on our tour agenda (I'm not sure why not) but we stopped there first. I think this is the most impressive church that I've seen on this trip. The proportions, scale, color and shapes are similar in level of excellence to the design expertise that comes across at the Sydney Opera House.

1950s show flat

This was an interesting stop, not because I was impressed with the flat but because my tour mates were all amazed by it. It was a classic 1950s flat. We have many homes in Denver with this type of design style which I saw when I was looking to buy a house. In addition the furniture and decorations were standard 1950s garage sale fare. However everyone seemed to be curious about it and loved seeing it. So if you've never seen 1950s decor go for it.

The history behind these flats is that they were built for the town after WWII to house the homeless. They were very upscale because they had indoor plumbing and a large percentage (did the guide say 80%?) of the population did not have an indoor bathroom prior to the war.

Beautiful gardens!

We crossed a square to our next stop, a town tower to view the city. It contained beautiful gardens with lovely flowers and wonderful fountains.

There was some sort of protest going on. The guide indicated it was people demonstrating against the government in the handling of the economy.

Tower with views

We went up in a tower to view the city. Pic. 1 is of the entrance way. Pic. 2 is of the square where the gardens and fountains were. Pic. 3 is of the church we viewed first.

Ship owner's mansion

Our next stop was a reconstructed ship owners mansion (pic. 1). It was small for a mansion as it had a large interior atrium and thus very small rooms and hallways. Pic. 2 and 3 were of the two stairways in the mansion on the main floor.

Interior rooms

Pic. 1 is of the kitchen. It was made of stone so that it wouldn't catch fire and burn the house down. Pic. 2 is of a bedroom. Pic. 3 is of one of the living areas, I believe the dining room.

Back to the ship

On the way back to the ship we passed this old church (pic. 1). It was one of the few older buildings in the city which was mostly destroyed by bombing in WWII. The city was widely rebuilt in a 1950s style.

Pic. 2 is of boats at low tide.

The tour was only a half day and I intended to go back out after wards but it was cold and windy so I decided to take a nap in the afternoon instead.

Tomorrow I will be flying home. I will post a few times after I get back with some summary thoughts on the trip.