TP1 wrapup

This 35-day journey was epic, made more epic because it directly followed a month in Massachusetts. I packed for 12 weeks on the road. I repacked a bit in the two days at home between those two journeys, but it certainly felt like 12 weeks of continuous travel.

Highlights:

• Marlene and I pretty much enjoyed each other the entire time. We had some rough patches but worked through them.
• We met some fun folks aboard the Carnival Luminosa.
• We both stayed relatively healthy throughout. I had a brief cold at the start and Marlene had a cold when it ended, but we were able to enjoy the ports completely.
• We got a complete tour of Japan, from Otaru in the north to Okinawa in the south. The highlight for me was Hiroshima where I felt immersed in one of the most dramatic events of the past century.
• The people of Betung, Indonesia. They made us feel like rock stars.
• The beautiful city of Brisbane and the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.
• The music on the ship. Both the Luminosa Rockband and Take Two were terrific.
• The Luminosa crew. Always pleasant, always helpful
• The dining room food. We had some terrific dinners – prime rib, filet mignon, lobster tail.
• My losses in the ship’s casino. I expect to lose and didn’t lose much, considering the length of time on board. But the last week was brutal – over $400 in losses with only one minor bonus in that span. Not fun. Casinos are supposed to be fun.

Lowlights:

• Skipping Alaska. This is the only state I have never set foot in and I have always been interested in an Alaska cruise. I expected to get the Alaska experience on this cruise and was very disappointed when bad weather forced the ship to skip it.
• Skipping the Philippines. This was less painful than the loss of Alaska, but also disappointing.
• The ship. The Carnival Luminosa is a mediocre vessel. Is is bland. The artwork is dreary and the facilities are barely adequate. It was built by Costa and purchased by Carnival and as a result feels more like a Costa ship than a Carnival ship.
• The sightseeing. This may have been partly our fault because we booked no excursions. But we did not hear any stories from other passengers who took the excursions that left is feeling like we missed something. We enjoyed both Japan and Indonesia but didn’t see anything that made us say “Wow!” The sightseeing was mostly in the “that’s nice” category.
• The buffet food on the Luminosa. The breakfast menu was always the same and the lunch and dinner menus were uninspired. The pizza was inferior to the Pride’s.
• The weather. Besides forcing us to skip both Alaska and the Philippines, the storms produced some very rough seas that made me queasy.

But, overall, a success. I would do in again, in a heartbeat.