T minus 1 Week

The grand adventure gets underway one week from this morning!

Between now and then

• Tomorrow I will drive to New Orleans to tour the NCL Escape. It’s about 12 hours’ drive to my hotel in Baton Rouge, then a couple more hours to the ship Saturday morning. I’m looking forward to seeing Escape again — we had an excellent time onboard two years ago.
• From there I go back in time, making the several hour drive to Jackson, MS where we lived in the mid-1990’s. Last time I was in Jackson was 2005, so I imagine there will be parts of the city I don’t recognize at all! I’ll be visiting a friend from our time there (he was a Field Supervisor at AMR at the time), who is now the drummer for an 80’s band, seeing them perform at a local venue.
• The 10-hour drive home on Sunday will bring me from temperate to COLD! The first real blast of Arctic air filters into the plains Saturday night, and by the time I arrive home temperatures should be around 30 degrees, on the way to a low near 20.

No Packing Jenga this time

Since we are driving to San Diego rather than flying, we won’t have the Packing Jenga game…where we throw everything into the suitcases to get out of the house, then re-pack in the hotel to make sure things are split up in case a suitcase is lost by the airline. This time we’ll be packing once and not completely unpacking until we’re onboard. We’ll likely put our clothes, etc. for the drive in a tote of some sort and leave the suitcase untouched. This is only a week sailing, so we only need the one suitcase.

Last-Minute Upgrade

We did not get visited by the Upgrade Fairy, and that’s fine because I was able to score an upgrade to the last Club Balcony Suite on the ship for less than we’d bid to do an upgrade. Just as I do for my travelers, I watched prices closely. When I saw the opportunity to upgrade to an aft balcony for no additional money, I called to make that change. I literally watched that room get sold out from under me while I was on hold at NCL…but was able to make a 5-class upgrade (Family Oceanview to Club Balcony Suite) rather than getting a Future Cruise Credit.

And we go from under restaurants and kitchen spaces, low in the ship, to near the elevators/stairs with staterooms above and below us…and, of course, the balcony. All in all, I think it was a good $177 investment.

Driving vs Flying

With the shutdown impact on air travel starting tomorrow, I’m very glad I chose the driving trip vs the flying trip. You may wonder why that choice in the first place. I have a preference to drive or take the train vs. flying, any time it makes sense. When I book a cruise or travel for another reason, one of the first things I do is compare the total price of flying with the total price of driving. Then I factor in the time lost to security theater and layovers. I often find I come out even or ahead by driving. That was the case this time:

• Two round-trip flights + rental car (one night) + 1 hour of security theater impact on each end + 2 hours layover going each direction -vs-
• One extra hotel night on the trip out + two night on the way back + meals for 3 extra days + about $350 in fuel.
• I gain the opportunity to show Roxan a couple of things I saw last year on my way to LA: the Titan Missile Museum outside Tucson and the Very Large Array about 2 hours outside Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Now, with the cutback in flights due to the Air Traffic Controller shortage (working without pay for a month, in a job already suffering from understaffing…I get why we’re starting to see this happen), the decision has proved to be prescient. For all the people worried about getting to the ship for our sailing, if we were flying, I’d actually be more worried about the flight situation going home. I expect even more flights to be grounded due to system capacity/safety issues as we head into the busiest air travel week of the year as we’re getting home from the cruise.

Our Final Itinerary for this Trip

Thursday, November 13: Drive Wichita to Albuquerque (10 hours), stay overnight

Friday, November 14: Drive Albuquerque to San Diego (11 hours), stay overnight

Saturday, November 15: I tour the ship with other travel advisors, Roxan boards as a passenger. I board as a passengers a couple hours after her. SAILAWAY!!

Sunday and Monday, November 16 & 17: At Sea. Planning to spend lots of time in the Thermal Suite, on our balcony, and in Spinnaker Lounge. Meet and Greet Event is 11am Sunday in Le Bistro.

Tuesday, November 18: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We’ll be taking a private transfer to a “Remote Paradise Beach” about an hour south of the port, near Boca de Tomatlan. This resort is accessible only by water.

Wednesday, November 19: Mazatlan, Mexico. We’re taking a small-group Mazatlan Sightseeing and Golden Zone excursion. We plan to buy several large bottles of Mexican vanilla while at the Golden Zone.

Thursday, November 20: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We’re taking a private transfer to meet our boat to go out to the arch, the boat will drop us off on the beach at The Sand Bar, where we’ll have a quick lunch and get massages. This was a highlight of our last trip to the Mexican Riviera. Then another private transfer back to the tender point.

Friday, November 21: At Sea

Saturday, November 22: All good things must come to an end…. After the long goodbye from the Jade, We’ll drive to Tucson (6 hours), may tour the Titan Missile Museum that afternoon or Sunday morning.

Sunday, November 23: Drive to Albuquerque (6.5 hours), stopping at the VLA on the way.

Monday, November 24: Drive the rest of the way home (10 hours).