Baldwin Travel Adventures

Just a quick update today - Maggie blew through coastal France last week, porting in Brest. There are a few pictures, though she did report that the mud flats were not as bad as she had thought (no photos of those unfortunately). They did not make it to Paris because they were not able to buy return train tickets, so alas, Disneyland France will have to wait. She and her friends did celebrate pedicures and fancy dinner on the ship together, though, which she said was tons of fun and one of the best times she's had on the ship. A few pictures from that in this post. And I added several photos from Portugal, so backup to that previous post and be sure to check out the Paiva walkways images - they will make your ... read more

So, Spain did not pan out quite the way we had hoped. Her second day there, Maggie and four of her friends went to a restaurant to grab dinner. One of them stayed at the table with all their things while the others went up to order food. A Spanish man came to the table, speaking broken English, and yelled at Maggie's friend to hurry up and go up and get her food. Startled and confused, her friend came to join the group. By the time they got back to the table, everyone's things were gone. Clearly, it had been a scam. Thankfully, Maggie had her wallet and phone with her, but her passport (as well as 2 other girls') had been in her bag. They called the police and filed a report at the scene, ... read more

We're a little behind with this post, and Maggie has yet to send us the photos to accompany it, but we wanted to get the Croatia port experience recorded as the MV World Odyssey arrived in Malta today already. (Bonus: Thanks to Maggie's Uncle Brian, you can track the ship's travels on the website www.cruisin.meif you'd like to follow their route!) Maggie spent a few days last week in Croatia, putting into port in Dubrovnik. After her experience in Cyprus, she was bound and determined to make the most of her time by getting out into the country. Soooooo....she decided to take a road trip! She arranged to rent a car in Dubrovnik to drive 5 hours to the Plitvice Lakes National Park in central Croatia. It would be a long driving day (10 hours round ... read more

The road to Cyprus was not a smooth one, but ultimately worth the effort! As part of the COVID protocols on ship, all voyagers are tested prior to arriving in any port. Each port's requirements for testing and quarantining if positive are slightly different, and in some cases changing what seems like almost daily. For Cyprus, voyagers were tested upon docking, and anyone testing positive had to quarantine on the ship for 5 days, which would mean they would miss the entire port as well as be isolated for their quarantine in a designated "COVID jail cell", aka quarantine cabin. Unfortunately, Maggie was informed upon arrival that she had tested positive and was immediately escorted to an isolation cabin after picking up a few belongings. To compound the situation, her roommate Caroline had made plans to ... read more

We got our first ship-to-shore call from Maggie today. If we need to call her, it will be $4 a minute! But thankfully, she can purchase calling cards on board for a much more reasonable price (about $5 per hour). It was great to hear her voice, though we do miss FaceTime and seeing her. She's started classes, and says Global Studies is going to be great because it's totally geared toward Semester at Sea and she loves SAS! She will also be taking World Music, Oceanography, and Introduction to Global Theatre. Her biggest news is that everyone on board is experiencing seasickness....except her! Not sure where she got her sea legs, but she's very grateful she is currently being spared the symptoms her shipmates are enduring right now. She did say that the constant rocking ... read more