THE VOTE - "Bigger than Brexit!"

As you may have seen in my blog post "Cruise Control: Navigating Events at Sea" dated February 16th, or as you may have heard in the news, the itinerary for Segment 3 of our ship is being altered due to unrest in the Red Sea. One of the fantastic aspects of traveling with Royal Caribbean is their unwavering commitment to our safety which is greatly appreciated. This has led to 3 "firsts" for Royal Caribbean:

• 1st Ultimate World Cruise by RCCL - to go to all 7 continents and to travel around the world in 274 days,

• 1st time RCCL offers an Immersive Cruise around Africa, and

• 1st time RCCL guests will Vote to choose their itinerary.

Joff, our cruise director from U.K. stated "This Vote is even Bigger than Brexit." [As you may recall, the United Kingdom held a referendum in 2016 to determine whether to leave or remain in the European Union.)

Allegedly, the Miami corporate office of RCCL is reportedly wagering on our selection between option 1 and option 2. The deadline for voting is set for Monday, February 26th. This is attributed to the extensive preparations required for the ship's provisions, port reservations, shore excursion plans, and numerous other particulars. I'm relieved that I don't have to grapple with the countless factors involved.

We've learned that RCCL will cover the cost of any required VISAs, as well as vaccinations - but we're in luck, we already have the Yellow Fever innoculation that is required in many of the African ports on both options. They are also giving us a pro-rated refund for the 40+ days in the itinerary that are changing from the original plan!

We have our fingers crossed for Option 1 which includes unique destinations such as Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, Angola, Ghana, and Senegal, as well as more popular ports in South Africa and the Canary Islands. Results of The Vote will be announced on February 27th. In the meantime, we are heading to French Polynesia ...

As Jeff likes to quote: "We may not be in the middle of nowhere ... but you can see it from here!"