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EPIC ISLANDS & EMPIRES
as of 06 November 2011
Date Port Arrival Departure
Jan 18, Wednesday Los Angeles/San Pedro, California, USA » T1 5 pm
Jan 19-22, Thu-Sun Cruising the Pacific Ocean »
Jan 23, Monday Oahu/Honolulu, Hawaii, USA (overnight) » T2 4 pm
Jan 24, Tuesday Oahu/Honolulu, Hawaii, USA » 12 m
Jan 25, Wednesday Maui/Lahaina, Hawaii, USA » 8 am 5 pm
Jan 26-30, Thu-Mon Cruising the South Pacific Ocean »
Jan 31, Tuesday Crossing the International Dateline »
Feb 1-2, Wed-Thu Cruising the South Pacific Ocean »
Feb 3, Friday Nouméa, New Caledonia » 8 am 5 pm
Feb 4-5, Sat-Sun Cruising the South Pacific Ocean »
Feb 6, Monday Newcastle,Australia » 8 am 5 pm
Feb 7, Tuesday Sydney, Australia (overnight) » T3 8 am
Feb 8, Wednesday Sydney,Australia » 6 pm
Feb 9, Thursday Cruising the Tasman Sea »
Feb 10, Friday Melbourne, Australia » T4 8 am 11:30 pm
Feb 11, Saturday Cruising the Bass Strait »
Feb 12, Sunday Adelaide, Australia » T5 7 am 11 pm
Feb 13-14, Mon-Tue Cruising the Great Australian Bight »
Feb 15, Wednesday Cruising the Indian Ocean »
Feb 16, Thursday Fremantle/Perth, Australia (overnight) » 8 am
Feb 17, Friday Fremantle/Perth, Australia » T6 6 pm
Feb 18-20, Sat-Mon Cruising the Indian Ocean »
Feb 21, Tuesday Bali/Pedang Bay, Indonesia » 8 am 8 pm
Feb 22, Wednesday Cruising the Java Sea »
Feb 23, Thursday Semarang/Borobudur, Indonesia » 8 am 9 pm
Feb 24, Friday Cruising the Java Sea »
Feb 25, Saturday Singapore (overnight) » 8 am
Feb 26, Sunday Singapore » 6 pm
Feb 27, Monday Cruising the South China Sea »
Feb 28, Tuesday Cruising the Gulf of Thailand »
Feb 29, Wednesday Bangkok/LaemChabang, Thailand (overnight) » 8 am
Mar 1, Thursday Bangkok/Laem Chabang/Pattaya, Thailand » 6 pm
Mar 2, Friday Sihanoukville, Cambodia » 8 am 10 pm
Mar 3, Saturday Cruising the Gulf of Thailand »
Mar 4, Sunday Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (overnight) » 11 am
Mar 5, Monday Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (overnight) »
Mar 6, Tuesday Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam » 3 pm
Mar 7, Wednesday Cruising the South China Sea »
Mar 8, Thursday ChanMay, Vietnam » 8 am 6 pm
Mar 9, Friday Cruising Halong Bay »
Mar 10, Saturday Hanoi/Hongai, Vietnam » 7 am 8 pm
Mar 11, Sunday Cruising the South China Sea »
Mar 12, Monday Hong Kong, China (overnight) » 8 am
Mar 13, Tuesday Hong Kong, China (overnight) » T7
Mar 14, Wednesday HongKong, China » 10 pm
Mar 15, Thursday Cruising the South China Sea »
Mar 16, Friday Xiamen, China » 8 am 6 pm
Mar 17, Saturday Cruising the South China Sea »
Mar 18, Sunday Shanghai, China (overnight) » 8 am
Mar 19, Monday Shanghai, China » 6 pm
Mar 20, Tuesday Cruising the Yellow Sea »
Mar 21, Wednesday Dalian,China » 8 am 4 pm
Mar 22, Thursday Xingang/Beijing, China (overnight) » 6:30 am
Mar 23, Friday Beijing/Xingang, China (overnight) »
Mar 24, Saturday Beijing/Xingang,China » 6 pm
Mar 25, Sunday Cruising the Yellow Sea »
(Seoul & Incheon, South Korea are out)
Mar 26, Monday Busan,South Korea » 8 am 10 pm
Mar 27, Tuesday Jeju Island,South Korea » 8 am 6 pm
Mar 28, Wednesday Cruising the East China Sea »
Mar 29, Thursday Nagasaki,Japan » 8 am 5 pm
Mar 30, Friday Osaka, Japan (overnight) » 8 pm
Mar 31, Saturday Osaka, Japan (overnight) »
Apr 1, Sunday Osaka, Japan » 6 pm
Apr 2-5, Mon-Thu Cruising the North Pacific Ocean »
Apr 6, Friday Petropavlovsk, Russia » 8 am 5 pm
(Cancelled due to 35-45 ft waves.)
Apr 6, Friday Crossing the International Dateline »
Apr 7, Saturday Cruising the North Pacific Ocean »
Apr 8, Sunday Dutch Harbor, Alaska, USA » now 8 am arrival 6 pm
Apr 9, Monday Cruising the North Pacific Ocean »
Apr 10, Tuesday Kodiak, Alaska, USA » 8 am 5 pm
Apr 11, Wednesday Seward, Alaska, USA » 7 am 9 pm
Apr 12, Thursday Cruising the Gulf of Alaska »
Apr 13, Friday Cruising Glacier Bay »
Apr 14, Saturday Ketchikan, Alaska, USA » 10 am 6 pm
Apr 15, Sunday Cruising the Inside Passage »
Apr 16, Monday Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada » T9 7 am 12 m
Apr 17, Tuesday Victoria, British Columbia, Canada » 7 am 5 pm
Apr 18, Wednesday Cruising the Pacific Ocean »
Apr 19, Thursday San Francisco, California, USA » T10 8 am 6 pm
Apr 20, Friday Cruising the Pacific Ocean »
Apr 21, Saturday Los Angeles/San Pedro, California, USA » T1 8 am
[ T1-10 = Locations with a Temple]
Epic Islands & Empires: Crystal Cruises 2012 World Cruise
Goal: Secure a Guest Lecture position aboard Crystal Serenity for an entire world cruise. My wife and I, along with about 350 other world cruisers, set sail from San Pedro, California (Port of Los Angeles), on Wednesday, January 18, 2012, and returned to the same port on Saturday, April 21, 2012. While the 94 day cruise was certainly an epic adventure, the preparatory process was a much larger event.
Team Members: John P. Brown (self), Linda Christensen (spouse), and Debbie Skinner from Yamaha, USA. Debbie was in charge of scheduling the Guest Lecturers for Yamaha’s Passport to Music program aboard Crystal’s ships.
Plan / Schedule (Dates) / Budget: Upon first discussion the possibility of my wife being selected as a Music Teacher for a world cruise (2009), we were told that we must first take an ocean crossing cruise to determine if there would be any issues being at sea for an extended period. We agreed to and scheduled an Atlantic Crossing which departed on Saturday, May 23, 2009 from Miami, Florida, stopped in Hamilton, Bermuda on Tuesday, May 26, 2009, for 10 hours and continued to the Port of Lisbon, arriving in Lisbon, Portugal on Tuesday, June 2, 2009. We were lucky enough to have a second opportunity for an ocean crossing when we accepted and boarded a cruise departing in January, 2010 from San Pedro, California, stopping for a day each in Lahaina, Maui and Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, and arriving in Sydney, Australia, approximately two and one half weeks later. After the completion of the first trial cruise in 2009, we were able to request the spot for a world cruise in 2012.
I was a student at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, worked full time at Southwest Airlines in Omaha, Nebraska, and was in the middle of a major rebuild of our home in Wayne, Nebraska. My wife was a piano and music technology professor and department chair of the music department at Wayne State College, as well as staff pianist of the Sioux City, Iowa Symphony. All of these responsibilities, as well as care for our home in Omaha, Nebraska, must be addressed before embarking on this trip that would take us away from Nebraska for a total of about five months.
Southwest Airlines: I retired from my position effective December, 31, 2009 after 13 years of service.
UNL: I graduated with my bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln in December 2010 after 8 years of working full time, school part time, driving back and forth from Omaha to Lincoln for the last 4 years from work to school, and in my spare time, driving 2 hours north to Wayne, Nebraska to work on the house there. My graduation came a semester earlier that I had originally anticipated, leaving me extra time for the rebuild of our Wayne house.
Sioux City Symphony: My wife resigned her position at the end of the 2010-11 performance year.
Wayne State College: My wife was able to take a sabbatical from her teaching position and chair duties. This process began in January, 2011 with her application for sabbatical. She nursed the process along to insure that there was nothing to derail the process and our need for this time off.
Wayne House: I spent all of 2011 rebuilding our house. I was able to finish enough of the exterior to look complete and be ready for winter before the cold weather hit. I then gutted the interior, rebuilt the rooms, installed all new electrical, plumbing and HVAC. As I was beginning to run out of time, I hired out the drywall, painting, and floor covering installation. On Tuesday, January 3, 2012, within an hour of the completion of the bamboo flooring installation and the installation of carpet in the master bedroom, we had the basic furniture and dishes in place, and our renter (the gal who would be substituting for my wife at the college) arrived. I still had a few doors to install and completed that the next morning. Information on the complete scope of this project can be found by click on “706” at www.johnofarch.com.
Omaha House: We were able to find renters for this house, and so on Thursday, December 15, 2011, we moved everything into a storage bay, cleaned the house and had the new tenants move in on Saturday, the 17th.
In May of 2011, we were required to send our passports to have additional visa pages added to them for the journey. Then in July of 2011, we again had to send our passports to an agent in Washington D.C. to obtain all of the necessary visas. Being without our passports for about 6 months was a mental hardship that neither one of us had realized nor was prepared to handle.
With both houses rented we were homeless and very happy to be so. We stayed with our son and his wife in Omaha for a few days while we tried to organize and pack the stuff we had been setting aside for the trip. Because the voyage would include tropical climates, as well as Russia and Alaska in April, we packed everything from shorts and bathing suits to hats, gloves and winter weather gear. We also needed our formal and semi-formal attire for different ship activities. This much apparel, along with both of our computers, prescriptions and other medications, and toiletries for 5 months, filled 7 large pieces of checked luggage in addition to each having one carry-on bag and a personal item.
After leaving Nebraska, we spent a week with my parents in Salt Lake City, Utah, and another with friends in Calabasas, California, before boarding the ship. After the cruise we spent another week with our friends in California and a week with my parents in Salt Lake and a few more days with our son. We could not return home until the end of May as our Wayne house was occupied until then.
Budget: Income: We lost my income two years before we embarked on the world cruise. My wife lost the small amount she was being paid by her Symphony gig and gave up her Chair stipend while we were gone. We did secure rent from both of our houses, which more that covered the mortgages, taxes, insurance, and utilities.
Expenses: To finalize construction of the Wayne house, we incurred the expense of hiring drywallers, painters, and a flooring installer. We spent about $2,500.00 USD to secure visas, medications, toiletries, additional wardrobe and other sundry items needed for the cruise. As the cost of the cruise (about $100,000.00 per person), was considered compensation for my wife’s teaching and my assistance, we only needed our own transportation to and from Los Angeles (covered by my airline benefits), other travel expenses and spending money. While we did not constrain ourselves to a fixed budget for our “cruising” expenses, we estimated that we spent about $10,000 for our experiences, tours, food and souvenirs while on the trip.
Original Map (as of January 2011):
Revised Map (as of May 2011):
Original Itinerary (as of 06 January 2010)
Epic Islands & Empires Cruise V2302F
2012 Port Arrival Departure
Wed Jan 18 LAX/San Pedro, CA, USA T1 Embark 5 pm
Jan 19-22 - - - Cruise the Pacific Ocean - - -
Mon Jan 23-24 Oahu / Honolulu, HI, USA T2 4 pm midnight
Wed Jan 25 Maui / Lahaina, HI, USA 8 am 5 pm
Jan 26-30 - - - Cruise the Pacific Ocean - - -
Jan 31 - - - Cross the International Dateline - - -
Feb 1-2 - - - Cruise the Pacific Ocean - - -
Fri Feb 3 Nouméa, New Caledonia 8 am 5pm
Feb 4-5 - - - Cruise the South Pacific Ocean - - -
Mon Feb 6 Newcastle, Australia 8 am 5 pm
Tue Feb 7-8 Sydney, Australia T3 8 am 6 pm
Feb 9 - - - Cruise the Tasman sea - - -
Fri Feb 10 Melbourne, Australia T4 8 am 11:30 pm
Feb 11 - - - Cruise the Bass Strait - - -
Sun Feb 12 Adelaide, Australia T5 7 am 11 pm
Feb 13-15 - - - Cruise the Great Australian Bight - - -
Thu Feb 16-17 Fremantle / Perth, Australia T6 8 am 6 pm
Feb 18-20 - - - Cruise the Indian Ocean - - -
Tue Feb 21 Bali / Pedang Bay, Indonesia 8 am 8 pm
Feb 22 - - - Cruise the Java Sea - - -
Thu Feb 23 Semarang, Indonesia 8 am 9 pm
Feb 24 - - - Cruise the Java Sea - - -
S&S Feb 25-26 Singapore 8 am 6 pm
Feb 27-28 - - - Cruise the Gulf of Thailand - - -
W&H 2/29 - 3/1 Bangkok/ Laem Chabang, Thailand 8 am 6 pm
Fri Mar 2 Sihanoukville, Cambodia 8 am 10 pm
Mar 3 - - - Cruise the South China Sea - - -
SMT Mar 4-6 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 11 am 3 pm
Mar 7 - - - Cruise the South China Sea - - -
Thu Mar 8 Chan May, Vietnam 8 am 6 pm
Mar 9 - - - Cruise Halong Bay - - -
Sat Mar 10 Hanoi / Hongai, Vietnam 7 am 8 pm
Mar 11 - - - Cruise the Gulf of Tonkin - - -
MTW Mar 12-14 Hong Kong, China T7 8 am 10 pm
Mar 15 - - - Cruise the East China Sea - - -
Fri Mar 16 Xiamen, China 8 am 6 pm
Mar 17 - - - Cruise the East China Sea - - -
S&M Mar 18-19 Shanghai, China 8 am 6 pm
Mar 20 - - - Cruise the Yellow Sea - - -
Wed Mar 21 Dalian, China 8 am 4 pm
TFS Mar 22-24 Bejing, China 6:30 am 6 pm
(Forbidden City/Tian An Men Square/Great Wall/Temple of Heaven)
Mar 25 - - - Cruise the East China Sea - - -
Mon Mar 26 Pusan, South Korea 8 am 6 pm
Tue Mar 27 Hiroshima, Japan 8 am 5 pm
Mar 28 - - - Cruise the Inland Sea - - -
T&W Mar 28-29 Osaka, Japan 6 pm 6pm
Mar 30 - - - Cruise the Pacific Ocean - - -
S&S 3/31 – 4/1 Tokyo / Yokohama, Japan T8 7 am 5 pm
Apr 2 - - - Cruise the North Pacific Ocean - - -
Tue Apr 3 Otaru, Japan T9 8 am 5 pm
Apr 4-5 - - - Cruise the North Pacific Ocean - - -
Fri Apr 6 Petropavlovsk, Russia 8 am 5 pm
Apr 7 (x2) - - - Cruise the North Pacific Ocean - - -
Sun Apr 8 Dutch Harbor, AK, USA 1 pm 6pm
Apr 9 - - - Cruise the North Pacific Ocean - - -
Tue Apr 10 Kodiak, AK, USA 8 am 5 pm
Wed Apr 11 Seward, AK, USA 7 am 9 pm
Apr 12 - - - Cruise the Gulf of Alaska - - -
Apr 13 - - - Cruise Glacier Bay- - -
Sat Apr 14 Ketchikan, AK, USA 10 am 6 pm
Apr 15 - - - Cruise the Inside Passage - - -
Mon Apr 16 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada T10 7 am midnight
Tue Apr 17 Victoria, British Columbia, Canada 7 am 5 pm
Apr 18 - - - Cruise the North Pacific Ocean - - -
Thu Apr 19 San Francisco, CA, USA T11 8 am 6 pm
Apr 20 - - - Cruise the North Pacific Ocean - - -
Sat Apr 21 LAX / San Pedro, CA, USA 8 am Disembark
6
REVISED Itinerary as of 10 May 2011
Day Ports of Call Arrival Departure
1 San Pedro (Los Angeles), California --- 5:00 p.m.
2 At Sea --- ---
3 At Sea --- ---
4 At Sea --- ---
5 At Sea --- ---
6 Honolulu, Oahu 4:00 p.m. ---
7 Honolulu, Oahu --- 11:59 p.m.
8 Lahaina, Maui 8:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m.
9 At Sea --- ---
10 At Sea --- ---
11 At Sea --- ---
12 At Sea --- ---
13 At Sea --- ---
14 Cross International Dateline --- ---
15 At Sea --- ---
16 At Sea --- ---
17 Noumea, New Caledonia 8:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m.
18 At Sea --- ---
19 At Sea --- ---
20 Newcastle, Australia 8:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m.
21 Sydney, Australia 8:00 a.m. ---
22 Sydney, Australia --- 6:00 p.m.
23 At Sea --- ---
24 Melbourne, Australia 8:00 a.m. 11:30 p.m.
25 At Sea --- ---
26 Adelaide, Australia 7:00 a.m. 11:00 p.m.
27 At Sea --- ---
28 At Sea --- ---
29 At Sea --- ---
30 Fremantle (Perth), Australia 8:00 a.m. ---
31 Fremantle (Perth), Australia --- 6:00 p.m.
32 At Sea --- ---
33 At Sea --- ---
34 At Sea --- ---
35 Bali, Indonesia 8:00 a.m. 8:00 p.m.
36 At Sea --- ---
37 Semarang, Java, Indonesia 8:00 a.m. 9:00 p.m.
38 At Sea --- ---
39 Singapore 8:00 a.m. ---
40 Singapore --- 6:00 p.m.
41 At Sea --- ---
42 At Sea --- ---
43 Laem Chabang (Bangkok), Thailand 8:00 a.m. ---
44 Laem Chabang (Bangkok), Thailand --- 6:00 p.m.
45 Sihanoukville, Cambodia 8:00 a.m. 10:00 p.m.
46 At Sea --- ---
47 Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam 11:00 a.m. ---
48 Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam --- ---
49 Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam --- 3:00 p.m.
50 At Sea --- ---
51 Chan May (Hue), Vietnam 8:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m.
52 Cruise Halong Bay --- ---
53 Hong Gai (Hanoi), Vietnam 7:00 a.m. 8:00 p.m.
54 At Sea --- ---
55 Hong Kong 8:00 a.m. ---
56 Hong Kong --- ---
57 Hong Kong --- 10:00 p.m.
58 At Sea --- ---
59 Xiamen, China 8:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m.
60 At Sea --- ---
61 Shanghai, China 8:00 a.m. ---
62 Shanghai, China --- 6:00 p.m.
63 At Sea --- ---
64 Dalian, China 8:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m.
65 Motorcoach From Tianjin To Beijing 6:30 a.m. ---
65 Hotel In Beijing --- ---
66 Hotel In Beijing --- ---
67 Motorcoach From Beijing To Tianjin --- ---
67 Tianjin (Beijing), China --- 6:00 p.m.
68 At Sea --- ---
69 Inchon (Seoul). South Korea 8:00 a.m. ---
70 Inchon (Seoul). South Korea --- 7:00 p.m.
71 At Sea --- ---
72 Nagasaki, Japan 8:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m.
73 Osaka, Japan 8:00 p.m. ---
74 Osaka, Japan --- ---
75 Osaka, Japan --- 6:00 p.m.
76 At Sea --- ---
77 At Sea --- ---
78 At Sea --- ---
79 At Sea --- ---
80 Petropavlovsk, Russian Federation 8:00 a.m. 3:00 p.m.
80 Cross International Dateline --- ---
81 At Sea --- ---
82 Dutch Harbor, Alaska 1:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m.
83 At Sea --- ---
84 Kodiak, Alaska 8:00 a.m. 3:00 p.m.
85 Seward (Anchorage), Alaska 7:00 a.m. 9:00 p.m.
86 At Sea --- ---
87 Cruise Glacier Bay --- ---
88 Ketchikan, Alaska 10:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m.
89 At Sea --- ---
90 Vancouver (Canada Place), British Columbia 7:00 a.m. 11:59 p.m.
91 Victoria, British Columbia 7:00 a.m. 3:00 p.m.
92 At Sea --- ---
93 San Francisco, California 8:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m.
94 At Sea --- ---
95 San Pedro (Los Angeles), California 8:00 a.m. ---
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