Nathan's Insights

Today marks exactly 100 days until my niece and I catch our first flight out of Australia.  We will start in style flying in Business Class on Fiji Airways Melbourne to Nadi (Fiji) on an Airbus A330-200 that should take 4 hours 40 minutes.  Then after a short stop over we will change planes to an Airbus A350-900 for a 10 hour 10 minute flight to Los Angeles and the commencement of our trip. 

It is worth noting all flights after this award business class Melbourne to Nadi to Los Angeles will be in economy class.  I might be spoiling Erin with the first flights and then back to reality later LOL. 

On arrival to USA we will spend a few days in Los Angeles before moving onto Miami.  I have some ideas for activities in both which includes Universal Studios (LA) and Everglades Tour (Miami). 

After a few days in the USA we will move onto the main purpose of the trip exploring Ecuador which will cover cultural experiences, rain forests (with excursions into the Amazon), and hot springs and volcanos.

At the conclusion of that 8-day tour we will then move onto the Galapagos Islands boarding the Reina Silvia Voyager for adventure cruising on this a catamaran (16 passengers maximum) over 8 days and 7 nights. 

The Galapagos Island visit is something we first decided on 10 years ago when my niece was 8 years old, so this trip has been a long time in the planning.  I’ve avoid visiting Galapagos specifically to take Erin when she finished High School.

After 22 days together Erin will return home just in time for Christmas while I’ll stay on in Miami for a few days (and Christmas) before my first warm weather cruise on Royal Caribbean exploring the Southern Caribbean region with port stops in Haiti, Puerto Rico, St Maarten, Antigua, St Lucia, and St Kitts & Nevis. 

This cruise will be on the Explorer of the Seas which came into service on 28 October 2000, so it is an older cruise ship, but still massive and modern.  The ship is 311 metres in length and can carry approximately 3,286 passengers and 1,180 crew.  My carbon footprint won’t be good for this 10-day cruise. Will be interesting to see New Year’s Eve celebration on a cruise ship that has an unlimit alcohol drink package! I won’t be getitng the expensive package as the cost I feel would make you want to drink until you pass out.

All up this adventure will be 38 days long, with the first 22 days travelling with my niece.  This is a water heavy trip out on oceans on either a catamaran (Galapagos Islands) or a cruise ship (Caribbean), there will even be some canoeing in the Amazon.  Luckily, I don’t get sea sick.

So it is now time to really prepare mode for this trip and re-read tour and trip notes.  There are still some details to work out for Los Angeles and Miami stays and I still have some payments to make over the next two months.  Still the 100 days out mark really brings home the reality this trip is fast approaching and my excitement is rising.