Scott Barronton (00:00)
There's something about standing at the end of a long road and realizing it's not the finish line at all. It's the start of something new. And for us, that next beginning starts in Hobart, Tasmania. It's a city framed by mountains and sea, where every morning the air rolls in crisp from the Southern Ocean. And soon it'll be the starting point for one of the most unique journeys we've ever undertaken.
A cruise that will carry us all the way from Tasmania to Singapore. Along the way we'll cross climates and continents, we'll trade cool southern skies for tropical sunsets, and each stop will bring a new story, a new reminder of just how big and how connected our world really is.
But before the first suitcase is zipped or the boarding pass printed, there's a part of every trip that's just as meaningful, the planning, the dreaming, the anticipation. And that's what today's episode is all about. Because sometimes the journey doesn't start when you set sail, it starts when you decide to go.
Speaker 2 (01:07)
We're Scott and Melissa, The Sunshine Travelers.
Speaker 1 (01:10)
We're all about exploring the world and sharing the journey with you. Whether you're a seasoned traveler, dreaming of your next adventure, or just here for the stories.
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No matter where you are on your travel journey, we've got first-hand experiences, tips, and plenty of inspiration from some of the most amazing places on Earth.
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So buckle up and get ready to travel with us.
Scott Barronton (01:38)
Before we start today's episode, I wanted to take a moment to share something personal that's been happening in our family over the past few weeks.
My stepfather, Herbert Gene Bright, was recently diagnosed with lung cancer. It all happened very quickly,
and Melissa and I knew the most important thing that we could do was to spend time with him and be there to support my mom. They live just outside of Atlanta, the same town where we both grew up,
and those days together were filled with a lot of conversations, memories, and moments I'll always be grateful for.
In those final days, Gene shared stories about his life, including his dream right after high school to see the world. It was something that stayed with him through his years of service in Vietnam and his long career in the Air Force.
He passed away on Friday and today we want to dedicate this episode to his memory. To the life he lived, the places he saw, and the curiosity he carried for the world. So this one's for Gene, for his service, his spirit, and the reminder that exploring the world isn't just about travel. It's about seeing life through a wider lens.
Today we're sharing the story behind our next big adventure, a cruise that starts in Hobart, Tasmania and sails all the way north to Singapore. It's a trip that's been months in the making, warm tropical nights.
And along the way, we'll share what goes into planning a journey like this, what we're most excited to see in Hobart and how this trip connects to something deeper for us.
When we first booked this itinerary, Hobart honestly wasn't the We were looking at this repositioning cruise and had originally thought we would embark from Brisbane. And as we did more research, we saw that we could actually start our journey in Hobart, Tasmania.
Our goal for this journey is to visit both the continent of Australia and for me, the continent of Asia before our journey to Antarctica next February. once we started researching, we realized that Hobart might be one of the most underappreciated little capitals in the world. It's this amazing mix of mountain and sea framed by Mount Wellington with a harbor full of fishing boats, art galleries, and cafes.
Everything we're seeing is so picturesque. And what I've read, it's a city that really invites you to slow down. You can walk along the waterfront, stop in for a coffee and battery point. And it still feels like you're part of something historic, but also real. It's also a perfect opportunity for us to catch our breath after a really long flight and before what's going to be a really long cruise. We're going to be flying from Jacksonville to Atlanta.
Atlanta to Los Angeles, and then Los Angeles to Brisbane, and Brisbane to Hobart. And this is going to be an incredibly long journey, and we've already ordered our flight kit to help us battle the jet lag. Yeah, Scott, for me, it's going to be the longest flight in kind of around the world. I know you've been to the Philippines and Hong Kong and India, so you've done that a little bit more.
But this will be my record for me. I think this will probably be the longest journey that I've ever taken
So Scott, let's talk about how we plan for a trip like this. So this cruise actually starts in a cool Southern Tasmania and it ends in tropical Singapore. And so that kind of means that we're going to be packing for two totally different seasons, especially right there at the beginning. Yeah. When I first thought about it, I said, ⁓ it's going to be summer in Australia while we're there. And so that's going to mean warmer temperatures. But as we started doing more research,
like the highs in Hobart are going to be like 50 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
So we're talking jackets, sweaters, rain shelves for Hobart. And then we're going to have swimsuits and sandals by the time we hit Indonesia. So layering is going to be the name of the game on this trip. And thankfully this time we don't have to worry about small planes and weight limitations for our luggage. We normally try to travel with a carry-on only, but we're going to need clothes for multiple climates and almost for a month. So this
probably gonna change a little bit about our packing, but I wouldn't say that we're just gonna totally change everything. Yeah, because I think we've learned, especially some of our trips this year, is a few of the tricks is really lightweight fabrics and merino wool layers, which keep you warm and also kind of cool sometimes without being super bulky. And then also...
There's not going be any problem for us to get some laundry done. Probably not even just mid cruise, but like multiple times along the way So we definitely will be able to pack lighter. So when you start seeing pictures come and you see us in the same clothes all the time, this is a no judgment zone. That's right. I really just don't think that you even notice it as much,
And because it's a long repositioning cruise, there's a really different rhythm to it. We're going to have fewer days in port. We're going to have a lot more sea days. And this one's also going to be interesting because I'm going to try to take advantage of the many sea days to continue working while we're on the ship. We've researched what others have said about the Starlink internet on the ship, which
is so far, everybody says that it works great and that it's really fast speed. So we're going to test that and see how it works. But that should help make it easy for me to work on the days that we aren't in port. But it has created a very interesting scheduling challenge as there's close to a 12 hour difference in the East Coast times. So I went to my friend ChatGPT to help me create a schedule that can incorporate both
the US workday and European workdays, and then also give us some flexibility to do things like go to dinner, take in a show and things like that. So Scott, real quickly, let's give a rundown of this very unique itinerary. So we set sail from Hobart, as Scott mentioned. After a day at sea, we will visit Eden, Australia,
And then we'll be on to Sydney, then Brisbane. And actually, very interestingly, in Brisbane, we're going to meet up with my sister and her nephew. Now they live in Georgia, but they're actually going to be vacationing there at the same time. So we plan to spend the day with them. Then we will port in Carnes and hope to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. Scott, we still have our shore excursions to finish researching and...
We actually need to book those. Lombok, Indonesia. And then we will proceed on to both Port Klang and Penang, Malaysia before concluding our cruise in Singapore. Then we're going to spend a couple of days in Singapore and a couple of days in Hong Kong before we return home, including at least part of a day at Disneyland Hong Kong.
And so if you lost track somewhere along the way, as I did, just know that we have seven ports that we're going to stop at on the cruise. However, it's a 21 day cruise, so lots of time at sea. But we're going to see these amazing ports along the way. And obviously we will recap a lot of these things on the podcast.
on the blog, on social media, as things that we've learned, because I do think this is very unique and a different type of thing from, I mean, people do this, obviously, the cruise is actually completely sold out. It is interesting because it is not like everybody that's gonna be on that ship is getting on and staying the whole 21 days, which I was gonna talk about in a minute.
and give more details about that. But so it will be a very different kind of experience, which I think that you see or think of in terms of cruising. Well, let's talk a little bit about our first stop, where we're going to start from, which is Hobart and kind of what are the things that because we don't have a lot of time in Hobart, what are the kind of the things that we don't want to miss?
Yeah. So we have about 24 hours in Hobart before we board the ship. We do have a short list, so we will see what we can actually do. One of the top attractions on our list is a chance to be out in the sun in the fresh air when we first arrive before it gets dark and hopefully see Mount Wellington. We want to be able to try to get up there and see the city from the summit so we can look out across the river, look out across the ocean beyond.
If you're ever in Hobart over a weekend, which we had an interesting conversation because, dates kind of float around in my head sometimes, but it seems like we might be there on a Saturday. I still am not sure, but you have to check out Salamanca Place. And locals say it's one of the best in Australia. It's full of food stalls, art, live music.
right along the waterfront. And so maybe we'll have a little while to check it out before we board the ship. And one thing I want to add to that is I think a lot of people know, okay, it takes you 14 hours from Los Angeles to fly to Australia, that kind of thing. so we will actually leave on Wednesday. So, but it's not like you're going to get there on Thursday because it's 14 hours, right? It is then
Friday in Australia by the time we arrive. So we will basically the whole of Thursday is consumed between being on the plane and crossing those time zones. So it can be a little bit confusing. So the flight path then goes to Brisbane. It was a lot less expensive when we booked it to do that. And then we also felt like there was more of a chance of upgrade
because Sydney is a much more popular place for people to fly to and probably business travelers to fly to. So we will see. And so we don't even arrive until Friday morning. And so then we booked another flight Virgin Australia to get us from Brisbane down to Tasmania. So it's not like I can just search a flight right to Tasmania. And so that just ended up being the best way for us to do that.
And Scott, I hope that we're going to be there on Saturday because that's the day the ship leaves. So that's the plan. I meant that we would have time on Saturday to do it. So hopefully that would be. Yeah. So we will plan to, get up and then say, OK, well, we can sleep a lot when we're on the cruise and we don't have things that we want to go and see and do. So what I think is the best thing about doing this cruise as that Tasmania is not a place that I thought, OK, like that's necessarily on my bucket list, although it sounds really cool. Right.
Australia is on our list. Of course, New Zealand will still be on our list. We don't have time for that. But still Tasmania is something that I find is very cool to visit. And like we always have said about our cruise in the Mediterranean, it was so cool to get to go to Gibraltar, right? It's kind of out of the way. you would make a special trip. So that is how I feel about getting to visit Hobart.
Tasmania, Australia.
Scott Barronton (12:27)
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Scott Barronton (13:29)
Well, let's now look a little bit ahead because we're going to leave Hobart and our trip is going to take us all the way across and up to Singapore.
And like Melissa mentioned earlier, From there, we will have several stretches of at sea days. And we plan to use those for things like working, relaxing, working out, because as you all know, there's lots of decks where you can walk circles around the boat. And I imagine that...
We're going to spend some time doing that great gems and classes on the boat such as yoga and and stretch which is included in our package
And then we're possibly going to have a chance to see some whales in Eden. We'll get to see the Sydney Opera House and the, Harbor and getting to do a little sightseeing with Melissa's sister and our nephew in Brisbane. And then finally, hopefully be able to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Cairns. So.
a lot of things that are going to be happening between Hobart in the time that we leave Australia. And so then from Cairns, we're going to set sail north through Australia's top end, past Darwin, past Bali. And again, like we mentioned, stopping in Indonesia, the two ports in Malaysia and
We also are super excited because very soon we're going to have a repeat guest on the show who is going to share with us some of the things that we should do and not miss in those ports in Malaysia because he actually is actually from Malaysia. So we have that coming soon and we're super excited to do that. So then we can then book those things that we're going to do. And we'll probably talk about some other things around Malaysia. This whole area of those Asian countries.
is somewhere that I think we want to spend some time exploring deeper and spending time in. So we'll go ahead and talk to him about Malaysia in general. then we will end our cruise in Singapore. It's really one of the itineraries. It really is going to let us follow the sun, watching the days grow warmer, the scenery change along the way as we go. And also it's very interesting because the currency
will change and cost of things are going to change dramatically as well.
And what I love about trips like this is they remind you how connected everything really is. You start in one world down in this cool, rugged Tasmania, and we're going to end in another world, which is a really bustling Singapore. But it's all part of the same journey that we're on.
And as we get ready to go, it's impossible not to think about the people who've shaped how we see the world. And Scott, also, I think how we experience the world as well, like Gene and how travel keeps reminding us to stay curious and grateful for every day that we have.
And so then before we close, I want to highlight one key reason that makes this cruise journey so unique. So going back, when we booked our Mediterranean cruise a few years ago, and a little side note about that, we cannot stress to you enough how much that needs to be on your bucket list. It is such an amazing way to see the Mediterranean. And so if you have not heard that episode where we kind of go into detail about that,
It's episode 28 and I'm going to link it in the show notes. so basically for a Mediterranean cruise in the summer, you can choose any week in the summer and find similar itineraries on several different cruise lines and then just pick the one that works best for you. We had a wedding in the UK that year. We worked backwards for the places that we wanted to go.
And then we chose a departure date and found a cruise line and that kind of worked out with what we wanted to do. But this one is completely different. We kind of had this idea in our head, hey, this would be a great way for us to kind of check the boxes, see as many places as we can, but then like Scott mentioned, still be able to work and that kind of thing.
But this was the only cruise that hit places in Australia and then left to go through some places in Asia. Because it's basically repositioning itself after its season in Australia to get to Singapore. So this was like the only one. We looked at some other ones that were a little bit different, but it just really didn't kind of check the boxes for the length and the places that we want to go. And then of just...
of course, comparing like the price of different things as well. As I alluded to earlier, people will be getting on and off throughout this journey. You can actually board in Hobart and disembark three days later or five days later. Then this same ship, when you search, like it shows, okay, you can take this many day cruise from Brisbane and this many days cruise from Sydney, but it's this ship. So this is gonna be a unique situation different from
go into the Bahamas and everybody pretty much stays on. We had a little bit more of that, I think, in the Mediterranean. We noticed a few people getting on and off. And I know in Alaska, most people, of course, would stay on those first seven days, because like, are you going to get off, right? But then people were then making the return journey back, right? They would have a day in port. But this one makes it very unique because there are a lot of moving pieces. It's not going to be
probably until we get to Singapore where it's like, okay, like most people are going to get off. So that's just going to make it very, very unique. So this was really our only option that made sense with our timeframe, the places that we wanted to see. So it's not like we could pick and choose like in some of those other cruises. And so we're going to spend just a little bit of time in Singapore and exploring that destination. But the interesting piece is we're actually going to leave from Singapore.
and fly to Hong Kong. And while we're in Hong Kong, we'll do the all the transportation tour. So I did this when I was last in Hong Kong. There's so many different forms of transportation and ways to see the city. And so we'll make sure to do that. But then one of the things that Melissa is really excited about is that we have booked tickets to go to Hong Kong Disney.
Doing all six parks in the world is on my bucket list. ⁓ And this will be number four for me. And so, yeah. And actually, I didn't even realize it. was like, well, if we do a couple of days there, then we can do that. And really the reason that we're going to do that is because Hong Kong actually is part of a flight path to then get back home.
As I mentioned earlier, was basically we did a one way to Australia. And then we did a one way going home with a few little ones that we booked our own in Singapore to Hong Kong is one of those. That way we can have our own stopover and then continue to make the journey home. So yeah, we're super excited about visiting both of those cities. And, it's probably a place that we would end up returning to because of a limited amount of time.
as a part of a different trip, but this will give us a taste of that. Yeah, and much like our trip to Berlin, where the last time I was there, there was a wall in place before our most recent trip. Same thing with Hong Kong. Last time I was there, was a British colony, but since then it has been returned to Chinese rule. And so it'll be interesting to see.
what if anything is different about Hong Kong and so looking forward to it.
Every journey reminds us that life is constantly unfolding. One horizon leading to another, from Tasmania's cool mountain air to Singapore's tropical nights, this trip is more than just a voyage. It's a celebration of the moments, the people, and stories that shape our perspective on the world. As we set out on this new adventure, I am reminded of Gene, of his strength, his curiosity, his wish to see more of the world.
This episode is for him and everyone who carries that same spark. The desire to keep discovering, to keep saying yes to what is next. So wherever your travels take you, near or far, remember that the world is full of sunshine and surprises. Make 2025 the year that you explore beyond the familiar.
Speaker 1 (22:47)
That's a wrap on this episode. We hope it gave you some inspiration for your next adventure.
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