Wed Jan 8, 2025
Hi All! First and foremost Happy New Year! I hope 2025 will be a great year for all of you! As you would expect, the Wandering Italian and his co-pilot Kathy are kicking off the year with a new adventure. And oh what a year of travel it will be. And don’t even get me started on our travel plans for 2026!
If the subject line didn’t give it away, or you hadn’t noticed my subtle hints in prior postings, we are contemplating taking a cruise in 2026 that literally goes around the world. Yep, totally circumnavigates the globe and stops at every bucket list location you can think of. But, before doing that, we thought it was best to do a “test drive” on the ship we would take on that world cruise.
So yesterday we flew to Miami and had a great evening with Kathy’s sister and extended family. They are all such great people and her sister was nice enough to drive us to the port this morning. Boarding the ship was a breeze and we spent the afternoon meeting some nice people some of which are doing the entire World Cruise!
Our cruise will be for 17 nights on the Regent Seven Seas Mariner cruise ship from Miami to Rio De Janeiro! That is actually the first leg of Regent’s 2025 world cruise.
While we’ve been on Regent before and love it (yes lobster every night!) we had never been on the Mariner. So we’ll “kick the tires” on her and see if she passes the test. We’ll also get a chance to meet other people doing a world cruise and pick their brains about what it’s like. If all goes well, 2026 world cruise here we come!
So feel free to follow along on our test drive and explore ports we’ve never been to before along eastern South America. Places like Devil’s Island, French Guiana, Belem, Brazil and of course everyone’s favorite place and the home of “The Girl from Ipanema”, Rio!
I’ve included pictures of our itinerary for this trip, the itinerary for the 2026 World Cruise, as well as a few from today around the ship and the port of Miami. I will send another update tonight after dinner.
Even with all the Wanderlust I have, that world cruise itinerary is daunting! It is truly the Wandering Italian’s dream trip. Bon voyage!
The Wandering Italian 