50 Essential Experiences -- The Travel Bucket List

In the fall of 2010, Princess Cruises introduced a new blog, 50EssentialExperiences, a collection of travel stories from the companies own destination experts. Each week over the next year, a memorable destination was added to the list until the collection of 50 locations was completed.

I read most of the blogs when they were published, and was delighted to hear that Princess was doing a book of them. This 328-page coffee table book is a compilation of the blogs, which are accompanied by hundreds of photos designed to entice the reader.

Although most of us have way more than 50 places on our bucket list, I'd love to see all of these detailed in the book. (Note: I have been to 36 of the 50.)

The 50 Essential Experiences were written by 50 of Princess Cruises' destination experts, including Alan Buckelew (President and CEO of Princess) and Gavin MacLeod (Princess Cruises' Ambassador). The experts also include Princess cruise directors, hotel directors, corporate officers, and ship Captains--a wide range of Princess employees.

I especially enjoyed reading the destination experts backgrounds (number of years with Princess, number of countries visited, hometown, and job description) and their responses to the same five questions:

1. What item is in your suitcase that you couldn't travel without?
2. What's your most treasured travel souvenir?
3. What's the most memorable dish you've eaten during your travels?
4. What's your travel motto?
5. Where haven't you been that's on your travel bucket list?

Each of the 50 destinations in the book is described over 2-5 pages, accompanied by some terrific photos. The travel experts do a marvelous job of describing why they selected the destination. Many were moved by the look, sounds or general ambiance of a particular place. Some were searching for their ethnic roots, others were returning to places they visited years before or that their families or friends had visited and loved. All the travel stories are memorable and touching in their own way. I loved reading about the 39 I had visited, and the descriptions of the other 11 affirmed why they needed to be on a bucket list.

The 50 destinations cover all the continents except Antarctica. I was a little surprised that it wasn't included since visiting the White Continent was certainly one of my bucket list items. All 50 were familiar to me except Dingwall, Scotland in the Scottish Highlands. However, when I read expert Deanna Austin's story, I understood why this ancestral home ranked at the top of her list.

Since the book was published by a cruise line, I thought it very appropriate that the last bucket list item was "The Ocean". It's certainly a favorite destination for all of us who love cruising.