Preparation

First let me say thank you. After posting about this blog we have had some very supportive emails, messages and comments for which we are very grateful.

Alot of thought and planning has already gone into this upcoming trip... We considered flying around the world to Australia and back, but we decided that long flights were not the best way of travelling for our Family and that we would see more places cruising. We were not worried about travelling with MJ as he has already travelled by plane to Canada, Spain and the USA and by train to Paris, France and is, I am very happy to say, a very good traveller.

Having only ever sailed on a ferry and been royally sick too, we decided that we would do a couple of cruises before we even considered booking a long world cruise. So last year MJ, Mum and I, along with several other Family members, took a 16 night cruise through the Mediterranean. To say we loved it would be an understatement. MJ took to sailing like a duck to water and he especially loved the attention he received from all the crew, most of which were missing their own Families back home. We ate too much and visited some amazing places. We loved them all, Vatican City, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Naples, Nice, Monte Carlo, Monaco, Gibraltar, and Almeria.

Our second cruise was over the Easter holidays and went to Venice, Cephalonia, Corfu, Korcula, Dubrovnic, Cadiz and Gibraltar over 16 nights. Again the whole experience, sights and food were outstanding. MJ especially loved riding on a gondola in Venice and on the ship hated leaving the play areas, even to eat, and the crew were absolutely brilliant with him.

So now we are busy getting ready for our journey. We have started our vaccinations, applying for visas and making lists of items to take from home. Main job though (apart from work and raising MJ) is researching our 43 ports of call. We hope to see alot, but also make the trip very child friendly for MJ. Some places like San Francisco we already plan to DIY (Do It Yourself) and others like Beijing we are planning to do an organised tour with either the ship or a private company.

So there you have it we hope you enjoyed reading about our preparation work. Will post again next month on how things are going.

My First Blog

Hello and Welcome to my first blog on travelling the world with MJ. My name is Nicky and I am the very proud Mummy of a 19 month old boy we lovingly call MJ.

To be completely honest it was another blogger (Mary @ The world is a book. Thank you Mary) who gave me the idea to start this blog as she thought that our upcoming trip might be interesting to read about (more on this later). 

About MJ and I... I was born and grew up in Brighton, England, but have also lived in Belgium, the USA and the Middle East. I met and married an American and we lived in California and Ohio until his death afterwhich I returned home to the UK. My husband, Mike and I had always planned to travel the world when we retired and he had even requested that in the event of his death that his ashes be spread near Austrailia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR).

So I bet you are wondering where and how does MJ come in this story. Before he passed away Mike and I had tried for years to start a family even undergoing an In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) procedure. The IVF implantation was unsuccessful, but the doctors froze several embryos for future treatment. Six months after Mike died I returned to the USA and underwent a second implantation procedure, from which MJ was born.

So we come back to our upcoming trip in 2013 when MJ, my Mum and I are undertaking a world cruise in Mike's memory. We will be gone nearly four months and we are planning to spread the ashes at sea at the end of the trip and whilst they will not directy on the GBR, I think he would have been pleased to have travelled the world with his son.

This blog will be our record of our experiences whilst on this trip.

Hope you enjoy reading them...