Blue Planet Journey

  People cruise (or choose to avoid cruses) for a variety of reasons. Caroline started cruising a lot because she started working on the ships! In 2018, before she retired due to the impacts of Covid-19 on the industry, she wrote  about her experience for a local newspaper: In 2017, I had the opportunity to check off a bucket list item by living and working on a luxury cruise liner for 14 weeks. This experience was thrilling, amazing and inspiring. In late July, I boarded the Celebrity Eclipse , a 2,800-passenger vessel sailing out of Southampton, England. I took care of dialysis patients, people who had lost kidney function and needed a machine to clean their blood and take off excess fluid. Dialysis at Sea, a company based in Florida, provided the equipment allowing dialysis patients to travel the world just like everyone else. I sailed on seven separate cruises, with itineraries that included Russia, Estonia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Can...

Our day in Melbourne didn't go as planned.  We had scheduled a bike tour of the city, and in the morning we were each doing our own thing, with plans to meet up at 9 and disembark.  About 8:45, I was in our stateroom when the phone rang.  Not my cell phone, mind you.  We have our cell phones turned on "airplane mode" to prevent racking up roaming charges when at sea or nearshore.  The room phone rang... it must be Caroline, I thought.  Wrong.  "Hello?  Is this Mr. Robert?"  It was a member of the ship's staff. The rest of the message was perplexing.  "There is somebody at the pier waiting for you.  You need to check in with the port authorities." Where's Waldo? WTF?  Nobody is waiting for me in Melbourne.  And where is Caroline?  She was going to do yoga then walk on the track on deck 14.  Wait... could she have left the ship to walk on the pier, without her passport, and can't get back through...

I’m finding that I have some photos that don’t fit any thematic blog, but do help document what I am experiencing on this trip (well, not the photo of the sign above!).  I thought I would add them here! Katelin in the Blue Mountains. I didn't know they were lost! Love the cappuccino designs! Dialysis at Sea, at work! Yoga on Lifou. Just finished our 2nd dive on the GBR. Staying in touch with Wesley in Peru. Don't feed the birds! Every time Caroline finds an open table tennis table... she's there for the next hour plus. Dialysis at Sea book club, with Doc Martin. Quiet morning on the stern of the Solstice . Islands in New Caledonia. Boats in Noumea, New Caledonia. Safe work reminder on the Solstice crew deck.

Looking over the outdoor pools on Deck 12 at night. Caroline and I have struggled with how to capture the experience on a cruise ship in pictures and words.  There are so many grand spaces like the theater and the main dining area/ballroom, plus many smaller rooms and activities, including a library, an interactive XBox game room, casino, and a basketball court. Quiet time on Deck 5 This is a “sea day” as we sail toward Brisbane.  Caroline is working, and I’m in a quiet lounge on Deck 5 overlooking the stern and having a breakfast of a variety of cheeses, fresh fruit, mini bagels, and smoked salmon.  I’m really here because I can get a cappuccino in this lounge!  In Logan, I tend to walk around with a coffee mug glued to my hand, so you know my affinity for the coffee bean!  An added luxury is that this lounge is QUIET!  WIth 2800 plus guests on board, the background (and foreground) noise is constant.  In the dining room, it is diffi...