January 8, 2016 – Luggage Pickup

For us, today was a big milestone for the 2016 world cruise, as UPS came and picked up our suitcases for shipment to Luggage Concierge in the port of San Francisco. The UPS man (Robert) arrived at about 4:30 pm and departed again after only about 10 minutes.  We expect to see the four bags again on January 24 in our stateroom on board Crystal Serenity.

Over the past 15 years we’ve done a lot of cruising (on many different cruise lines), and deciding what to bring on a long trip such as this one involves big decisions. It’s always good to get that piece of vacation planning finished. The good part is that, once we’re on the ship, we only need to unpack once while we visit so many interesting world ports for 3½ months. Both of us will bring a small roll-on bag on the airplane ride to San Francisco that will contain important things that we absolutely must have with us (tickets, medicines, passports, cameras, etc.) in the unlikely event that some of our luggage gets lost.

Now that we’re not worried as much about packing, we can concentrate on other things that must be done at home before departure. Examples include making sure bills are paid while we’re gone (they should all be paid automatically), filing an extension to the IRS for 2015 tax returns, updating car registrations (which expire in March), arranging with a neighbor to collect and save our mail, setting up transportation to the airport, and so forth. We have two weeks to handle all these details, along with other last-minute necessities that might arise.

We’ve scheduled two days in San Francisco before boarding the ship – as assurance that any flight delays getting there won’t cause us to miss the ship’s departure, as well as give us an opportunity to look around the city. That means we’re also checking one bag on the flight, to live out of in the hotel. Not only that, we can pack anything in that bag that we might have missed in the four bags we gave to UPS today.

We’ve had some questions about Crystal Serenity. Here’s a picture and a few facts:

Guest Capacity: 1,070 passengers

Crew Size: 655

Number of Decks: 13

Staterooms: Nine guest decks with 535 staterooms on five decks

Dimensions: 68,870 gross tons, 820 ft. length, 106 ft. width, 25 ft. draft

Dining Options: One main dining room, three specialty restaurants, Lido Deck buffet, Trident pool grill, Bistro (European-style coffee bar), Vintage Room (private dinners with custom-designed menu and fine wine education) and, of course, room service

Entertainment and Education Options: Too many to list

We’re ready to go but must wait another two weeks before departing Fort Myers for San Francisco on our grand adventure. We met someone living near us who will also be on our world cruise. He boarded the Serenity in Miami three days ago (Jan 5) for a 19-day cruise, via the Panama Canal, to San Francisco. By doing this, he avoided flying across the country. We’re a little envious but decided that a 102-day cruise on the ship, plus three extra days in San Francisco, was enough for this year.

Jim & Ginny