TWICE AROUND THE WORLD

I was reading the March issue of Travel Leisure, and saw two items of interest: a different sort of tour through the island of Oahu and an announcement of Oceania Insignia's 218-day circumnavigation, hitting 44 countries and territories in 109 port stops. You have time to save some money for this trip, as it leaves Miami on 28 December 2022, starting at $55,400/person. At $254/day, a good price for that ship.

So that inspired me to dream about an absolutely fantastic back to back global adventure. We're presently pondering over a possible Fall 2021 journey that includes a 16-day Celebrity cruise from Tokyo to Singapore, using the Star Alliance Around the World ticket for the rest of the way. The primary reason is to participate in the Dubai World Expo, scheduled to run from 1 October 2021 to the end of March 2022. The more sensible and safer option is to take the Island Princess from Los Angeles to Dubai on a 52-day cruise on 19 January 2022, then select ideal stops going west back to Honolulu. One additional highlight would be a Crystal Christmas River Cruise in Europe.

So it occurred to me, what about doing both, that is, going twice around the world. Here are my first thoughts about such an itinerary:

Leave Honolulu in mid-October on a Star Alliance World ticket for Tokyo. That's only seven months away!
Spend one week on Japan Rail Pass to track the change in Fall colors.
Board the Celebrity Solstice in Yokohama on 5 November 2021 to Singapore. We currently have a reservation in Aqua Class.
Fly from Singapore (after staying a couple of nights at their amazing airport) to Dubai. Spend a few days in that fascinating city-country, and, of course, the Expo.

After a few days, fly to Munich, then to Basel to catch a Crystal Christmas Cruise to Amsterdam.
Add an additional city in Europe.
A couple of stops in the USA, ending up in Los Angeles.

Board the Island Princess in Los Angeles on 19 January 2021 for a 112-day world cruise. We currently have placed a deposit only from Los Angeles to Dubai. The ship arrives in Dubai on March 13 so the World Fair is still on.

March 14 can be spent at the Expo. One day is enough for a second visit.
Ship leaves on March 15.

Among the interesting stops are:

Day 63: Suez Canal
Day 70: Athens, Greece
Day 74: Naples, Italy
Day 78; Monte Carlo, Monaco
Day 79: Marseille, France

Day 80: Barcelona, Spain
Day 84: Lisbon, Portugal
Day 89: Madeira, Portugal
Day 98: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Day 102: Panama Canal

Day 104: Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Day 109: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Day 112: Los Angeles

To complete the Star Alliance Around the World ticket, fly back to Honolulu to complete two global adventures.
As things develop, this duo-circuit will no doubt be adjusted as input is received.

Here is RollingStone's 30 Greatest Rock & Roll Movie Moments. Not close to what my list would be, but noteworthy, nevertheless. #30 is Elvis' C'mon Everybody from Viva Las Vegas in 1964 and #1 is the Ronettes' Be My Baby from Mean Streets in 1973. A real fantasy: one of my close friends at Stanford from Illinois said he dated Ann-Margret when they were in high school. She's in the #30 video.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicio...

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for...

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

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