December 14, 2024
According to the website that the Cruise Specialists (they are the travel company we are working with) created, we are 21 days away from leaving. More than once I've been asked are you excited? In reality, my anxiety level continues to grow. I will not be excited until we are on the ship, in our room, and all of our luggage has arrived. Then I will say I'm excited. Until then, my anxiety level is going to continue to increase. I lay awake at night wondering what could go wrong and how to avoid it. Unfortunately, there are too many things that are beyond my control. I said that there are countless things that we need to get accomplished before we can even leave. Someone said I should take joy in that process. I'm not sure I agree. I'm not sure that Mary has the same level of anxiety. She seems to just plow forward.
It sounds like Mary has the drug situation figured out. This has not been easy. Without exaggeration she has talked to United Healthcare twenty times and spent several hours with Walgreens pharmacists to get all our drugs we need for the next six months. As of yesterday, I think she has done all that. I thank my lucky stars because Mary does not have an issue with spending time on the phone with insurance companies and Walgreens. I avoid making these phone calls at all cost. I knew there was a reason we married her.
Beyond the drug situation, she's been working to finish up her election committee stuff. She's also creating her last-minute Christmas gifts. She's been busy in her sewing room creating bags. Many of you who are reading this, assuming you're reading this at all, have received one of her creations. I have to say I'm impressed. She's turning out some high-quality stuff.
I continue to work on the excursions. I have been working with Sage Travel. We are working on twelve different tours that are primarily at the end of our cruise. There are two up front, one in Colombia and one in Costa Rica that happen in early January. So, for the most part I've got ten of those twelve pretty much booked. There are two tours that require a doctor's note that signify the percentage of my disability. Apparently, this is a European Union requirement. Mary has sent notes to the doctors in Tampa to see if they can help us. I've also sent a note back to the tour people to say can I just send you a picture or something. For example, one requires a 74% disability. What that means, I have no idea. I have to figure that out.
Beyond the 12 tours that I'm working on, there are about 40 more that I need to be working on. I need to put the finishing touches on Los Angeles. I need to verify Porto Vallarta but I think that one's complete now. I will need to follow up on Namibia. This guy will get a van cultured to the actual date which I think is in March sometime. I'm going to concentrate on the ports that are early in our cruise. Unfortunately, I don't think I will get all of them, but I’m going to do my best to get many of them. Of course, I've created a spreadsheet for this. What would the world do without Excel?
There are other things that need to be addressed. Apparently, we need visas in Australia in New Zealand. In Australia, it requires an app on your phone. I have not figured out New Zealand yet. I loaded the app for Princess on my phone and completed our initial setup. Doesn't get closer, things like luggage tags etcetera will be there. As mentioned, the crew specialists have created a website. They check that out. There's not much there now but there will be. We are using apple air tags to track our luggage and other things. We replaced the batteries in five of the old ones. We bought 4 new ones. They are all set up now. We will put a tag in each piece of luggage so we can keep track of where they are.
I finished up the Welti holiday letter. Many of you who are reading this also received a copy of that. In the holiday letter it mentions our website – www.immajry.com. I have been working on the website on and off for months. In the last week I've put some more finishing touches on it thinking that people will read the holiday letter and attempt to go to the site. After I'm done with this note, for example, it will go up on the website.
It is not directly related to our world cruise, but we are leaving for Wisconsin and Chicago Monday. This will be a nine-day trip which we need to accomplish before we go on our 116-day trip. This adds to my anxiety too. We need to make sure that everything is in place for this north trip. That will be the focus of tomorrow. We don't have much to do there.