On July 12th, we arrived into NYC and officially concluded our around-the-world adventure. Ryan and I woke up super early to see the Statue of Liberty and other NYC sights. We *just* missed Lady Liberty but saw the financial district and the glory of the bustling city, which appeared surprisingly quiet from the water.
Overall, our 196 days was unforgettable. The trip wasn’t exactly as we drew it up… Of course we hadn’t planned for Matthew and John to leave early, though it was for the best for Matthew’s sake. At least they got all the way to Singapore. I wish they could have experienced India and Dubai and Africa, etc. – but they’ll just have to go sometime in the future. I’m happy to join them anytime, anywhere.
I figured now that it’s over, it would b a good time to make some closing remarks. First – many have asked if we’d do it again. That’s a tricky question. If it is “would we do it over again” – as in, if we could go back in time, would it still be worth it – the answer is yes. It was an amazing trip. The places we saw were incredible and we learned so much. Ryan didn’t want it to end! I had many moments where I had my biases checked and where I had my eyes opened to other ways of life. It was truly remarkable and I wouldn’t trade it. Again, I wish Matthew and John had been able to stay the whole time and that Rook and Audrey could have joined for longer and that we could have all enjoyed it all together, but such is life. And what they did do was a good experience for them. All the kids loved Tokyo. Matthew commented on how he could live in Aukland and how he had a fantastic time on the catamaran in Bora Bora. And so forth. I think our choice to do the trip was the right one – at the right time for all of us – and so yes, I would do it again / over if we could go back in time, even knowing how it turned out.
Would we do it again in the future? That’s a different question – and I think it’s a maybe. Ryan loved it. I bet he would do another around-the-world cruise in a heartbeat. John would absolutely do another one – and finish it next time. It was simply too long for Matthew. For me, I’d say I would if it were a different enough itinerary. I’d love to go around South America. And it was a bummer to not be able to go through the Suez Canal and see Egypt, Petra, etc. I would return to many of the spots we went to and explore different areas. There are some places I don’t need to go back to though. And I’d prefer fewer at sea days. Then again, I would be better prepared for them – and for those spots where I have been that I wouldn’t need to explore again, we could always just find something non-touristy to do – golf, play games in a local café, go for a run on land. So I guess the answer is “maybe I would do it again.” You never know. Perhaps next sabbatical will find us on another around-the-world adventure…
If we do decide to do another around-the-world cruise, I would do some stuff differently. Lest I forget, I figured I’d write them here… First and foremost – if Matthew were to join, we would make 100% sure everything was always checked for peanuts. Always. Those scares about killed us both. In terms of less stressful stuff – I overpacked clothing. Laundry services were far more convenient on the ship than I had anticipated, so I could have gotten away with fewer outfits. Who cares if you rewear things the whole time? Even with more outfits, you wind up choosing some of the same tops and bottoms because they’re comfortable or whatever. And then you buy a souvenir shirt here and a souvenir dress there and all of a sudden you’ve got an overabundance of clothes. I’d lighten my packing for sure. I way overpacked lotion and deodorant and contact solution. I either need to track usage better or just plan to buy in different locations when I run low. Not everywhere we went was a third world country so those items were available without that much trouble. No need to pack any books… the library had plenty! The ceiling was magnetic, and having magnetic hooks allowed us to have more space for storage…. Next time having storage containers that could hang from the ceiling might be good. I rarely wear hats – so packing several was dumb of me. I wore sunscreen and bug spray but still WAY overpacked those as well.
I did do some things well though, thankfully. I was glad I packed many small games for us to play. There weren’t many options in the game room and we play a ton of games so having a nice variety for us was a good move. I was glad we brought our own snorkel masks. Ours are just better than what excursions provided and the Great Barrier Reef wouldn’t have been nearly as enjoyable if we hadn’t brought ours. Packing a few of our own blankets definitely took up space but Ryan used his a lot and I appreciated having something to curl up with on the couch or as an additional blanket instead of the thicker comforter. Having several pairs of sunglasses was good since they’re easy to misplace or lose. Oh, and using packing cubes. That was a definite good thing and allowed me the space to bring home so many souvenirs. We needed one additional bag to bring everything home! (That’s another learning… under-pack to have room or automatically plan to buy an extra bag for stuff…)
Another thing I might do differently next time would be to start off being a tad more sociable on the ship. Maybe. We were so busy early on with school work with the boys and with work for ourselves that we stuck to ourselves a lot and had dinner by ourselves. And we had some not-great experiences when we would do the shared tables and they (the ship) would match us with people for dinner. They people were duds and so we just started to avoid doing that. In the end, it meant we didn’t connect as quickly with others. But by the end we did connect with people – started meeting people at cocktail hours and receptions, having some dinners together, and playing trivia with others. We made some real friends on the trip – and perhaps it just might have been nice to meet them even sooner. Next time maybe I’d join in for bridge lessons / playing. Or mahjong. I still probably wouldn’t do the casino or bingo and I did tea time enough for my taste. And I might do the shows more next time. John was better at going to the evening entertainment compared to me. I enjoyed my level of sleep I got on the trip – some early nights with fantastic sleep. It helped me sort out my head a bit. But perhaps next time I’d do a little more entertainment with John and just sleep in a little more. And next time I’d make sure I keep up on my workouts. I started out doing well – going to the gym, hitting the treadmill, etc. And then I got bored with it and/or sometimes the rocking of the ship made the treadmill too weird. In hindsight, I should have made walking the track a daily priority to help keep me honest. And maybe dessert isn’t important for both lunch AND dinner. Haha.
In the end, it really was an incredible trip. The most difficult question we get is “what was your favorite place?” and that’s impossible to answer. We loved New Zealand. Tokyo was easily one of the kids’ favorite spots of all time. Africa was unbelievable. I remember a moment in Bora Bora where Matthew said he was lucky because he was there while all of his friends were in stuck in school back home. There was another moment in Mumbai where Ryan was looking out the window of our shuttle bus and remarked how lucky he was to be born when and where he was and to me because not everybody has the same opportunities and he was fortunate. Getting to see everybody’s wishes written down on lanterns in Taiwan or screaming in excitement on a ride at Universal Studies in Osaka – all amazing. We just had such a great trip, all around.
And with that, we end our around-the-world adventure. Thanks for joining us on it!