Amazon & Carnival Explorer Cruise - We're Back

We are almost home so I thought it was time to post my introduction to our trip.  I will begin posting the rest of the blog in the next couple of weeks.

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

We're back!  My Valley Fever is long gone and Val has a new knee and it's time to hit the road or in this case, the sea again.  In two days we will leave for our first long trip in over a year and we are ready to go.  

We are taking a 50 day cruise to the Caribbean and Brazil.  We will spend nearly a month in Brazil and be in Rio de Janeiro for Carnival before cruising up the Amazon hence the cruise name - The Amazon & Carnival Explorer.  The cruise line is Holland America and we will be on the Veendam, the same ship we did our Mediterranean cruise on.  

We're are really looking forward to this cruise, but we are also a bit wary.  We had to get yellow fever shots and a prescription for malaria pills to take while we are in Brazil.  There are also some warnings of political unrest and some areas being dangerous to visit, but we heard some of the same things on other trips so I'm sure everything will be fine.  The cruise line is very cautious and never goes to a port which puts the passengers in jeopardy.

As we have done for our last few cruises, we have shipped our main luggage a head of time and it will be delivered to our stateroom on the ship.  It left last week and there is always a bit of worry that it won't show up, but it always has in the past.  We still carry small bags, but the bulk of our clothing is being shipped.

This cruise leaves from Fort Lauderdale, Florida as our Mediterranean cruise did so we will be doing the same thing as then.  We will fly from Los Angeles two days early to give us a decompression day and then board the ship on February 4.

As usual I will be writing the blog every day as it happens, but I won't be publishing it until we get home.  I enjoy doing the blog, but doing it live just takes too much time.  So, it's time to do our final packing and be on our way.

Here is a map and our itinerary.

I couldn't upload a pdf file so had to export it to an image.  The quality isn't that greatest, but if you click on the picture, you'll see a larger version that should be legible.