Around Some of the World in 182 Days
Blog 5 – 06/24/2026 Our World Cruise
We love traveling. I spent a career overseas with the Foreign Service. We planned road trips as a family throughout the United States and Canada. We flew to other countries and rented cars. But we never considered a cruise vacation until 2018 when we ventured on our first grand voyage. We were hooked on cruising. We tell our son we’re spending his inheritance.
After a year of planning and preparing, we embarked on a world cruise in January 2026. It was an adventure that fulfilled our dreams and opened our eyes to lands and people that we only heard about before.
We prefer to sail with Viking for many reasons: adults only, included port visits, safety, and an experienced crew. But Viking also provides a carefully curated library on all its ocean itineraries. I spent many pleasurable sea day hours wandering through the bookshelves that are scattered throughout the decks. In addition to the formal library curated by Heywood Hill of London, Viking provides space for a Book Exchange where passengers swap books. It’s a fun way to sample books you might enjoy.
In Bora Bora, we saw black-tipped reef sharks swimming with stingrays in the crystal-clear waters of the lagoon while our longboat pilot strummed his ukelele and softly sang island tunes. We stepped away from wildlife in Auckland to grab a chance to meet my book cover design team at Damonza.com. It’s fun to put a face with a voice.
In Mooloolaba, Australia, we visited the animals at Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo, a well-designed legacy of the famous naturalist. That experience demonstrated what a zoo should look like. On Rinca Island in Indonesia, we braved the sultry weather to walk among Komodo dragons. On the unspoiled locale of Lombok, our crew welcomed guests home from their excursions with a Viking red-umbrella dance party right on the pier, hosted by our executive chef turned DJ.
Our return to the debilitating heat of Singapore was mitigated by our choice of excursions. The Night Safari took us into a moonlit world where nocturnal beasts roam freely within a managed compound. Safely aboard a tram, we felt as though the creatures of the night were watching us as the exhibit.
When we reached Africa, a huge grin covered my wife’s face. She had finally made it to this special continent of safaris, jungles, and sand. Four of the Big Five made appearances during three days of safari. Four lions hunted in pairs, chasing an impala through the tall grass. A huge bull elephant approached my wife’s side of the open-air game vehicle, ears flapping a warning to vacate the area. Our guide complied. Herds of aggressive Cape Buffalo roamed the savannah, and white rhinos peacefully grazed nearby. We returned to the ship, thrilled and exhausted.
In Walvis Bay, Namibia, we took to the air in a six-seater plane from the 1970s to view the famous Dune 7 among others, shipwrecks on the Pirate Coast, canyons grander than our own in Arizona, abandoned diamond camps, and the varied colors of the salt flats. The trip was over two hours of quiet isolation.
Casablanca, Morocco, disappointed us with its grit and squalor. The government should have invested more in the city and people than in the grand mosque. But Agadir sparkled in the sunshine. Its white buildings, blooming bougainvillea, and beautiful corniche were everything Morocco promised.
During a repeat visit to Cadiz, Spain, we toured white-washed Vejer de la Frontera, a hilltop town with views of the Strait of Gibraltar. During our free time, we sampled coffee and chocolate in a pleasant café. We chatted with a young man from Buenos Aires who knew Barrio Norte, the neighborhood where I used to live.
London is always a wonder, full of surprises as well as history. We awoke on our arrival day to find we were moored in the center of the Thames while uber boats busied themselves with tourists and locals alike. An evening cruise brought us close to famous landmarks, and the muddy Thames reflected the lights of London.
A cruise of many months can be both exhilarating and exhausting. We appreciated our sea days and even opted to forego touring for what we called ship days. Sitting on our balcony and watching the port activity is one of the pleasures of JOMO – the joy of missing out. My wife spent time with her cruise narrative and photo editing. I met with a group I joined during our first days on board.
Our writing group called itself Skywriters, a nod to the Viking Sky. Julie, writer, editor, and teacher, helmed the group as she had done during one of our earlier cruises. Julie gave us five minutes to write short stories, poems, as well as different views of the same excursion. When finished, we read to the others. Our common goal was to improve our writing skills.
Our committed group of nine Skywriters bonded over shared experiences on board. We were a retired USAF pilot, a retired university professor, and several published authors. Our varied backgrounds colored our narratives from scary to hilarious. Imagination ruled the sea days.
When Julie left the ship for a month, fellow member Bill stepped into the leadership role. He changed the five-minute prompts to one prompt for the next meeting. After a while, I decided not to respond to a new prompt each meeting but instead spin one prompt into a novel. I wrote a new chapter for each meeting to share with my fellow writers.
And so I began a novel that featured an unlikely quartet who are drawn into international intrigue. A female MI6 agent, a South African counterintelligence officer, a female Namibian police detective, and a retired British submariner travel to South Africa, Namibia, the uninhabited north Atlantic island of Jan Mayen, and Penzance in the United Kingdom to thwart Russian plots that would harm the NATO alliance.
Our cruise around the world provided us with so much more than travel. We saw animals, jungles, deserts, cultures, and people. We met fellow passengers from all over the world. And we lived our daily lives among room stewards, cooks, cleaners, and waiters. Young men and women from Peru, Hungary, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mexico, Switzerland, South Africa, Swaziland, the U.K. All of them shared their hopes and dreams, their lives and stories with us. They also kept our cabin clean, fed us, and kept us safe in our home on the oceans of the world.
So, spin the globe. Drop your finger on a location. Choose a cruise to take you there. Challenge your mind. Open your senses. Read, converse, learn, think. Plan a voyage. Make it happen.
Viking provides bookmarks in their library. Each bookmark challenges you with a quote. One of my favorites:
He is truly wise who has travelled far and knows the ways of the world.
He who has travelled can tell what spirit governs the men he meets.
-Hávamál, Sayings of the Vikings