- The Journey Begins – The 2018 Grand World Voyage
- Leaving San Diego for Fort Lauderdale
- Arriving in Fort Lauderdale and our first day
- Fort Lauderdale – Day 2
- Day 1 – The Adventure Begins
- Day 2 – Our First Sea Day – Abba Fabulous!
- Day 3, Georgetown, Grand Cayman
- Day 4, At Sea En Route Puerto Limon (San Jose), Costa Rica
- Day 5, Puerto Limon, Costa Rica
- Day 6, Transit the Panama Canal
- Day 7, Fuerte Amador, Panama
- Day 8, At Sea
- Day 9, At Sea
- Day 10, At Sea
- Day 11, At Sea
- Day 12, At Sea
- Day 13, At Sea – Enroute to Nuku Hiva
- Day 14, At Sea, Enroute to Nuku Hiva
- Day 15, At Sea – Enroute to Nuku Hiva
- Day 16, Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia
- Day 17, At Sea
- Day 18, Avatoru, Rangiroa, French Polynesia
- Day 19, Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia
- Day 20, Mooera, French Polynesia
- Day 21, Bora Bora, French Polynesia
- Day 22 – At Sea
- Day 23, Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
- Day 24, At Sea
- Day 25 – Alofi, Niue
- Day 26 – At Sea – Crossed Dateline – Jan 29th GONE!
- Day 27 – At Sea
- Day 28 – At Sea
- Day 29 – Auckland, NZ
- Day 30 – Tauranga – 3 Feb 2018
- Day 31 – Napier
- Day 32, At Sea – Super Bowl Monday
- Day 33, Port Chalmers, Dunedin
- Day 34, Fjordlands National Park – Milford Sound
- Day 35 – At Sea – Enroute Sydney
- Day 36 – At Sea
- Day 37 – Sydney, Australia
- Day 38 – Sydney, Australia
- Day 39 – At Sea
- 2020 World Cruise Possibilities
- Day 40, Hobart, Tasmania
- Day 41, At Sea
- Day 42, At Sea
- Day 43 – Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
- Day 44 – Adelaide, South Australia
- Day 45 – At Sea
- Day 46 – At Sea
- Day 47 – Albany, Western Australia
- Day 48 – 21 Feb Perth
- Day 49 – Perth Yarn Crawl
- Day 50 – At Sea
- Day 51 – At Sea
- Day 52 – At Sea
- Day 53 – Benoa, Bali
- Day 54 – Benoa – Bali
- Day 55 – At Sea
- Day 56 – At Sea
- Day 57 – At Sea
- Day 58, Puerto Princesa
- Day 59, – At Sea
- Day 60, Manila, Philippines
- Day 61, Manila, Philippines
- Day 62 – At Sea
- Day 63 – Hong Kong
- Day 64, Hong Kong
- Day 65 – At Sea
- Day 66 – At Sea
- Day 67 – Phu My, Vietnam
- Day 68 – Siem Reap (ms Amsterdam at Sea)
- Day 69 – Siem Reap
- 2020 World Cruise – w/detailed dates
- Day 70 – Singapore
- Day 71 – At Sea
- Day 72 – Phuket
- Day 73 – At Sea
- Day 74 – At Sea – Enroute to Sri Lanka
- Day 75 – Columbo, Sri Lanka
- Day 76 – At Sea – Enroute to the Seychelles
- Day 77 – At Sea
- Day 78 – At Sea
- Day 79 – Victoria, Seychelles
- Day 80 – At Sea
- Day 81 – At Sea
- Day 82 – St Denis – Reunion Island
- Day 83 – At Sea
- Day 84 – At Sea
- Day 85 – At Sea
- Day 86 – Maputo – Safari Day 1
- Day 87 – Kambaku River Sands – Safari Day 2
- Day 88 – Kambaku River Sands – Safari Day 3
- Day 89 – Kambaku River Sands – Safari Day 4
- Day 90 – Cape Town, South Africa
- Day 91, Cape Town, South Africa
- Day 92 – At Sea
- Day 93, Walvis Bay, Namibia
- Day 94 – At Sea
- Day 95 – At Sea
- Day 96 -Luanda, Angola
- Day 97 – At Sea
- Day 98 – At Sea
- Day 99 – Crossing the Equator
- Day 100 – At Sea
- Day 101 – At Sea
- Day 102 – Banjul, Gambia
- Day 103 – Dakar, Senegal
- Day 104 – At Sea
- Day 105, Praia – Cape Verde
- Day 106 – At Sea
- Day 107 – At Sea
- Day 108 – At Sea
- Day 109 – At Sea – April 23, 2018
- Day 110 – At Sea
- Day 111 – San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Day 112 – At Sea
- Day 113 – At Sea
- Day 114 – Fort Lauderdale
- 2018 World Cruise Entertainers
Day 106 – April 20 – At Sea
Today is the first of five sea days before we arrive in San Juan Puerto Rico. We will clear Immigration in San Juan, but we won’t clear Customs until we arrive at Fort Lauderdale. Clearing Immigration will make our Fort Lauderdale arrival faster as the longest lines are typically the queue for the Immigration officers.
The Amsterdam was moving quite a bit today, nothing that would knock things off tables but enough where we certainly were aware we were on a ship.
Fedex Shipping
With about a week to go in our Grand World Voyage, it’s time to start thinking about packing. The surest sign of the approaching end of our cruise is the announcement about when the FedEx representative, Sarah Coles, is available for consultation on Deck Three in the Atrium. A schedule was set up for each Deck to avoid people waiting around like we remember happened in 2016.
Our concern was that we are going on another cruise after we arrive in Fort Lauderdale and would not return to San Diego until May 17. We wanted to delay our shipment en route so we would be home before it arrived. Sarah advised us to use the phrase ‘Hold at Station’ which meant that the local FedEx office would hold our baggage until we arrived at home and requested delivery. As it turned out, we learned that FedEx will only hold items for seven days before they return them to the sender. FedEx did try to call us before they shipped our bags back but we were at sea and couldn’t receive a phone call. Then I got an email from the FedEx tracker saying our bags were now heading back to Fort Lauderdale. I was able to contact Sarah and she turned our shipment around. We ended up getting our bags without a problem. If you contact the station where your bags will be held as soon as they arrive I suspect they’ll be allowed to hold them longer than seven days, but this is something to be aware of for future travelers who may not arrive home immediately after the cruise.
Ask the Captain
Capt. Johnathan Mercer hosted an “Ask the Captain” session this morning at 11 AM in the Queens Lounge. Capt. Mercer opened his presentation with a very interesting slideshow showing the bridge and other behind the scenes areas of the ship. After his remarks, about 20 minutes worth, he spent another 20 minutes answering questions. The questions were all good, on point, and no one was crabby or asking questions about issues that would best be directed to the hotel director one on one. I always go to these events on every ship when offered, and even though about 80% of it is the same, I learn something new every time.
Artist in Residence
Ben Sack, our artist in residence, opened his exhibition today where he displayed his original drawing commemorating the 2018 Grand World Voyage. He is offering six different sizes from 14 x 12” up through 60 x 72” and ranging in price from $100-$2000. He was also offering the original drawing for $24,000. Judy and I purchased one of the middle size reproductions. It was shipped to our home about a month after we returned home.
Whole Chicken Challenge
You may recall that back on Day 80, the ship sponsored a Silent Auction to raise money for the Mondesa Youth Opportunities Organization located in Namibia. We successfully bid on an auction offered by Grahame, the Holland America Orchestra drummer, for a Whole Chicken Challenge. It was never exactly clear what this consisted of. We later learned that Grahame would quite often eat half of a rotisserie chicken in the Lido during lunch. He and I decided that we would both try to eat an entire roasted chicken in one sitting at some point in the future. Well tonight was the night. Judy made arrangements with Presty, the Assistant Dining Room Manager, to reserve the table next to Table 303. She also asked for two whole roasted chickens, stressing that they needed to be whole and not cut up. (Presty decided to provide three whole roasted chickens, just in case.)
We invited the other members of the HAL Orchestra to join us at the Competition Table. Grahame and I decided that we would approach this like a Championship Prize Fight. We entered the ‘Competition Area’ wearing a fighter’s robe, the terrycloth robe from our stateroom, with towels draped over our heads trying to capture the atmosphere of heavyweights entering the arena prior to a prize fight.
Here is a video of the Whole Chicken Challenge and as you will discover after watching, Grahame was victorious in overtime.
Tango Cervilla
Tonight’s show was a tango dance team from Buenos Aires called Tango Cervilla, featuring
Victor and Denisa. Unfortunately, due to the excessive ship motion, they had to cancel their tango show and reschedule that for later. They presented a different show tonight that was easier to perform when the deck was moving. Their dancing was marvelous and we enjoyed their show very much.
