Three years have passed since we embarked on our first Viking World Cruise, and we’re definitely ready to go again!

Last time, the world was just coming out of Covid, and the cruise itinerary changed daily as countries opened or closed their ports to cruise ships. As a result, we got to see much more of the Mediterranean and Aegean, as well as Gibraltar, Malta, and – most spectacularly – the Chilean fjords as we took a route rounding Cape Horn. Plus, our ship, the Viking Star, was only half full, but with a full crew complement, AND took on no additional passengers once we departed Los Angeles, which meant we really got to know our fellow passengers and crew travelling in the most luxurious “bubble” imaginable.

We missed Nicaragua, Colombia, Australia, New Zealand, French Polynesia, Hawaii, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Bali, Sri Lanka, and India. We booked this second world cruise hoping to see all of those places, but things have changed again. We will be catching up on a couple of those this time around, but much more importantly from our point of view is the fact that we just found out that we’ll be visiting Africa!

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While the reason for the newly announced change to the originally posted itinerary is a sad one (the conflict in Palestine and Israel which is impacting the safety of the entire region around the Suez Canal), Ted and I are thrilled with the new route. There will certainly be people who booked this cruise with their hearts set on Greece, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, India, Vietnam, or the Mediterranean, and who will likely now take Viking up on the option to cancel their bookings – but there will also be new passengers attracted by the chance to explore Africa.

Here’s our new itinerary for after we’ve completed our December 19th – January 4th Panama Canal transit from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles:

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So why am I blogging about this already, with the trip more than 6 months away?

First, because we’re just so excited about the itinerary.

Second, because now that we know where we’re going, there are preparations that need to begin, not the least of which is arranging our consultations for travel vaccinations.

We made a shared Travel Consultation appointment at our local pharmacy, filling out the prerequisite forms on line as best we could. Each form allowed for a maximum of 6 countries, so I put the first 6 on mine and another 6 on Ted’s, omitting the countries in Europe altogether, since we already know none of them will require extra vaccines. The remaining places we’ll simply need to discuss in person. Clearly the consultations don’t generally involve 29 countries in one trip!

Also clearly in evidence when we arrived was that the pharmacist was totally unprepared for our visit. They had not even looked at our electronically submitted forms and, when we explained that there were additional countries, informed us that the consultation would cost at least $65 per person (as opposed to the usual $30-50) and sent us away for 45 minutes while they prepared.

Upon our return, we were informed that our itinerary would require a second appointment, but they had the first half completed. It became immediately obvious that the pharmacist was only doing exactly what we had already done ourselves: gone onto the Canadian government’s travel website https://travel.gc.ca/destinations and checked each country’s entry requirements, travel advice and advisories, and health

For instance , the page for Angola looks like this:

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…and the Health section like this:

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By drilling down within that site we discovered that a typhoid immunization is only recommended for longterm stays or travellers going to rural areas with poor sanitation, that a malaria immunization is suggested, and that Angola requires proof of yellow fever vaccination for travellers from all countries – even if the area to which they are scheduled to travel is considered low risk.

Bottom line, after expressing my dismay that the pharmacist was only doing what I had done myself, they commented that “well, not everybody does” and agreed that our “consultation” would not incur a fee.

Anyway, we’ve double-checked that our hepatitis A & B, pneumonia, and DPT (diptheria, pertussis, tetanus) vaccinations are all up to date (done in 2019 and 2020 before our first long trip, and effective for 10 years), and double-checked all of the countries on our itinerary to determine that what we still need are immunizations against yellow fever, and a prescription for anti malarial drugs to start taking once our itinerary approaches Thailand, so that they’re effective by the time we reach Africa. Our next step setting up our appointments in August, after we’re safely back from our summer travels and have some planned downtime in case of rare but still possible post-immunization side effects.

It may seem as if December is a long way off, but we’re getting prepared!