Cruise control: Navigating Sea Events

Tomorrow, we are expected to arrive at the Hawaiian Islands. In the meantime, we are navigating some events at sea. Unfortunately, a fellow passenger is experiencing a medical emergency. The medical team has requested a donation of Type A+ blood so it seems serious. We are encountering 15-foot waves, but the captain has decided not to deploy the stabilizers in order to maintain our increased speed. We need our sea-legs today!

The other big event of the day was the "Town Meeting" where we learned of the potential changes to our itinerary due to the unrest in the Red Sea.

The original plan for Segment Three of the global journey was to depart from Dubai, UAE, and proceed to Petra in Jordan after an African Safari. However, due to safety concerns, Royal Caribbean has decided not to travel through the Red Sea. Therefore, they are suggesting two options to adjust the itinerary for that segment of the trip. Each option obviously has its pro and cons.

• Option one: the Immersive African Experience is to go around Africa and include such unique destinations as Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, Angola, Ghana, and Senegal, as well as more popular ports in South Africa and the Canary Islands.

• The other option: Africa and Greece Itinerary has fewer ports of call, more than 25 days at sea, but includes Alexandria, Egypt, which would allow a visit to the Pyramids and the Sphinx.

Royal Caribbean is letting passengers vote on the itinerary change, and all travelers will receive a pro-rated refund for the altered segment of the cruise based on their cruise fare. I can't even begin to imagine the logistics entailed in making this major change to the previous plans for Segment three. Our choice will be the immersive African experience, in the spirit of why we embarked on this amazing global adventure. Unfortunately, it looks like we will miss the countries of Jordon, Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Romania. Looks like those will have to be added back onto the bucket list!