Sea Princess world cruise 2016

The Sea Princess left Sydney last week on the start of the 2016 world tour. The cruise is 104 nights returning to Sydney on 28th August 2016.
From then it will only be about 221 sleeps until our cruise in April (but who's counting?).

Apparently the ship has had to take shelter from rough weather near Esperance, and is due into Fremantle Tuesday to pick up the last  of the cruisers. From there it's heading directly to Dubai missing the Colombo port, so a fair stretch of sea days ahead. Hopefully they'll leave the bad weather behind and have a fabulous trip.

I'm following a couple of bloggers on the cruise as it's always interesting to see ports further afield that aren't easily accessible during a couple of weeks annual leave.
Anyone else wanting to follow can click on the links below or check my reading list on the right (PC version of blog). If anyone knows of any other, let me know so I can add to my reading list.

Angie and Paul world cruise 2016

Dave and Lyn's world cruise 2016

Jo at Lifestyle Fifty

Current webcam image from the Sea Princess 

GBR cruise itinerary

So, the details about our cruise next year.
Firstly, it's on the Sea Princess. We haven't cruised on this ship before, but we have been on the Sun Princess back in 2012. Apparently they are similar ships of the same class, Sun class.
Back in 2012 we booked an obstructed view cabin on the 8th floor. The main disadvantage was that to access the laundromat you had to carry your dirty clothes though the casino to the other end. Also, on tender boat ports, the winches from the tenders woke you up. This isn't really a disadvantage as we were organised for shore at a decent time.
This time we have booked a 5th floor ocean view cabin. There weren't too many cabins left for 3 people unless we paid extra for a balcony.
The cruise leaves from Brisbane, with stops at Airlie Beach, Cairns, Port Douglas and Sydney, before returning to Brisbane. The Princess map omits the Brisbane return but I'll post the details below.

 Note the dates are in American format. I'll update the itinerary at a late date.

A couple of weeks ago Princess announced that they are commencing using the Cairns cruise terminal instead of tendering from Yorkey's Knob. This will ensure we can make the most of our time in Cairns. There are a number of tender ports on this cruise, so one less is fantastic news. 
For anyone wanting more info on the north Queensland ports check out their website at Ports North. The cruise schedule can be viewed, subjected to change. Sadly, there are no webcams of the wharf.

Sea Princess in Sydney, April 2016

Great Barrier Reef and Sydney Cruise

Well, after pouring over itineraries for months, we came across this 10 night cruise from Brisbane with Princess cruises and it ticks all the boxes...

• Queensland school holidays
• Can use our future cruise deposit before it expires
• Leaves from Brisbane.
• Nearly outside cyclone season
• Longer than 7 nights

We don't ask for much, but getting those boxes ticked is really a feat. I wish I could workout the itineraries for the cruise lines.

We're not really fussy on where we travel, it's just the timing that is the drama and will consider flying to Sydney but for 3 of us it adds a minimum of $1000 to the holiday.

So it's booked, travel insurance bought, now just to hope nothing pops up to change the plans.