- 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
Endless Summer
“Every day’s a holiday and every meal’s a feast.” That’s what life is like on a World Cruise on the Amsterdam. Long cruises like these remind me of the movie Endless Summer.
Sunday Brunch
Today is Sunday which means no Tai Chi in the Queens Lounge, but there will be the special Sunday Brunch in the main dining room. We have to make a point to go to a Sunday Buffet sooner than later because the days on a world cruise have a way of slipping by and activities you plan to do later (because it’s such a long cruise) may be put off forever. We don’t want to be three days from Fort Lauderdale and realize that we never went to the Sunday buffet or we never did this or never did that. My advice to all is to sample everything early in the cruise so you can find out what you like or don’t like while you still have time to adjust your routine.
Coffee Chat
I stopped by the Explorer’s Lounge to catch the Coffee Chat with Cruise Director Hamish. The guest today was Abby from America’s Test Kitchen. She gave a wonderful interview and it was great to learn more about her background and what activities she was planning for this cruise.
Knitting
If it’s 10 AM it must be knitting in the Crow’s Nest. I am continuing to go every day and I am making slow but steady progress. I emphasize the word slow but I am making progress. My knitting instructor, Judy, is encouraging me to start purling but I don’t feel I’m ready for that yet, maybe tomorrow. I did learn how to cast on some extra stitches today so now my project is a little bit wider. Meanwhile the other two new knitters, Dawn and Margaret, are racing ahead with their projects and they are already purling. I am, however, far ahead in the men’s knitting division.
Judy gave a brief demonstration of weaving in ends. She will give a more in-depth lesson tomorrow.
Texas Hold’em
After knitting I headed down to the casino for the first of the day’s two games of Texas Hold ’em. I lost the first game, but won the second game with amazing hand where I caught a third king on the river. I probably should have folded earlier when my opponent raised after the flop when a pair of eights appeared. I felt lucky because I continued to bet my pocket pair of Kings and was rewarded on the river. It’s always risky to bet feelings rather that facts, but today it worked out.
One of the nice benefits of playing Texas Hold ’em on a world cruise is that the stakes are low enough and the games frequent enough that you can afford to experiment with certain plays you may not make otherwise. It’s all in good fun, and the regular players are coming together in a nice social atmosphere and we are all having a great time.
Crossing the Equator
At 10:21 AM we crossed the equator. Captain Mercer mentioned that we will cross the equator a total of four times this cruise with traditional ceremony delayed until the last crossing off the coast of Africa.
Pod of Dolphins
We are in our cabin this morning when the bridge announced that there was a pod of dolphins off the starboard side. When we went to look we couldn’t see any and we later heard from other passengers that by the time they made the announcement the dolphins were already behind the ship and not visible to people looking immediately off to the side.
Lunch
For lunch we sat by the Lido pool. I enjoyed a grilled tuna steak while Judy had another Turkey & Swiss Cheese Panini. All our food continues to be exceptional and the sandwich maker is a nice touch because Judy can get her sandwiches exactly the way she prefers them.
Drawing Class
While I was playing cards in the afternoon, Judy was at the drawing class in the Wajang theater. Today they had a live model: Connor – who plays keyboards with the Amsterdam orchestra. Although he was fully clothed, several of the ladies were offering tips consisting of Grand Activity Vouchers (worth 10 cents) if he would remove his shirt. His shirt remained on.
Judy is enjoying the drawing class and while the room is mostly full, it is one of the activities that doesn’t require you to get there early to get a seat.
Crafts Continues to Sell Out
The drawing class goes from 1:30 PM until about 2:15 PM, but by the time Judy gets to the Lido Market (where crafts starts at 2:30 PM) she is often too late to get one of the 100 craft kits allocated per day.
Pub Trivia
Most of our tablemates assembled this afternoon for the 5 o’clock pub trivia held at the piano bar. We had a great time but probably finished in the bottom half of the groups. No one was able to correctly identify the name of Capt. Hook’s ship of Peter Pan fame. The correct answer is the Jolly Roger.
Dinner
Dinner continues to be one of the highlights of the day. Our waiters, Deden and Billy, continue to exceed all expectations. A few days ago I received a comment on my blog from the previous occupants of table 303. I passed on their best wishes to Billy and Deden who were pleased to that their previous guests had such fond memories of their wonderful experience.
We always say that you must be careful what you ask for on a cruise ship, especially on the Amsterdam, and especially in the dining room. If you have any special requests, or if something is not quite right, all you need to do is let someone know and 99% of the time the crew will do whatever it takes to exceed your expectations. On our previous World Cruise in 2016 we enjoyed a dessert called the Cappuccino Bomb. While we are sure that it will appear on the dessert rotation eventually, yesterday we asked if we could get the Cappuccino Bomb this evening as the dessert does take a little lead time. As soon as we started to ponder our desert menus, we were pleasantly surprised as Deden and Billy appeared with Cappuccino Bombs for everyone at the table. It was as delicious as we remember and I’m sure the rest of the dining room will enjoy it when it appears as an option during the regular rotation. A special shout out to our good friend Linda for introducing us to this special treat in 2016.
Queens Lounge
Robbie Howard was the headliner in the Queens lounge this evening. He is a veteran of Las Vegas who had a show there for 11 years. He’s a wonderful singer who puts on a one-man rat pack show where he sings hits imitating Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jim Morrison, Wayne Newton, Johnny Carson, Joe Cocker, Andy Williams, Elvis and more. The late show crowd always makes up with enthusiasm what it may lack in numbers. Everyone loved Robbie’s show and we hope we will have a chance to see him again before he leaves the ship.
Tomorrow will be another great day at sea and will be our first Gala Ball with a black and silver theme and masks. Masks will be provided if you don’t have one.
Community Bulletin Board
There is a community bulletin board maintained behind the librarians desk in the library. Here is a picture showing the location along with another that zooms in on the current bulletin board.
Towel Animal
I laughed so hard at your comment about being far ahead in the men’s knitting division. Too funny. My husband and I contacted you last year about the sandcastle company in San Diego. We wanted to do it during our 2017 World Cruise and you were most helpful. The logistics of it were too tricky, in the end. We ended up doing the aircraft carrier tour instead and we were blown away by it. Just. Fantastic tour.
We will be doing the 2019 World Cruise. The itinerary was just too tempting to pass up. In the meantime we are enjoying your blog very much. It is bringing the whole experience back to us. We are vowing to,change some things next time and arrange our sea days to be more relaxing. We will try the drawing lessons for sure. I was a bit intimidated by them last year. Thanks to your description of them this year, I think I would really enjoy them.
I understand Courtney is still the librarian. She was such a nice person on the cruise. Would you mind terribly saying hello to her from Cathy and Barry, the Canadians from the 2017 World Cruise. Do you happen to know if she will be on the 2019 cruise?
Anyway, thanks for all of your time in keeping up with this blog. It is thoroughly enjoyable and we are very appreciative. Happy Sailing!
Cathy Cosgrove and Barry Walker
Windy56
Thanks for reading and the comment. I will touch base with the librarian tomorrow. Glad to hear you enjoyed the Midway tour!