Tues July 28, 2026
Hi Gang! OK, be honest, how many of you really thought after my last update in June that we wouldn’t travel again until Oct? Show of hands?? Yep, I didn’t believe it either!
So here we are again with a summer trip to Alaska! Crazy to think we’ve done this every summer for the last 5 years. (And my sweet co-pilot Kathy never complains about my Alaska obsession!) Not only is it breathtakingly beautiful but it’s a lot cooler than the Carolinas.
We’re trying a new ship called the Oceania Riviera. We’ve cruised on Oceania before but not this ship. They’re calling this voyage “Majestic Vistas and Wildlife” so hopefully it will be fun!
We’re on a 9 nite cruise (just a little less than our 154 nite world cruise!) and the nice part is it’s round trip Seattle. That made it so much easier for getting standby seats since there are 5 direct flights from CLT!
We’re stopping at a new port called Wrangell so it will be nice to explore that. (See attached itinerary). Otherwise we hope to see lots of whales, glaciers and bears (but not too up close and personal!).
Our flight over on Monday was uneventful and we boarded the ship on Tuesday. The ship is really beautiful. That’s all for now! I’ll do another update after dinner. Hope everyone is well!
PS: I finally joined the ranks of the social media mob and now have an Instagram account so feel free to check me out there. You can search for my handle as, what else, @thewanderingitalian
The Wandering Italian 