- Happy Days Are Here Again!
- Day 1, Bon Voyage!
- Day 2, The Endless Cruise
- Day 3, Black and Gold
- Day 4, Earthquake at Sea
- Day 5, Roseau, Dominica
- Day 6, Cook like a Lucian
- Day 7, Grand Gala Party
- Day 8, Devil’s Island
- Day 9, Sunday Brunch Sampler
- Day 10, Belém
- Day 11, Samba Sizzle
- Day 12, Tenor Terrific
- Day 13, Recife, Brazil
- Day 14, Gold, Glitz and Gleam
- Day 15, Selfies at Sea
- Day 16, Rio!
- Day 17 – A Carnaval Experience! (sorta)
- Day 18, Iguazu Falls
- Day 19, Iguazu Falls – Argentina
- Day 20, Walking to Buenos Aires?
- Day 21, Back Home
- Day 22, Montevideo
- Day 23, Black and White
- Day 24, Rock and Roll!
- Day 25, Falkland Islands -Almost
- Day 26, Drake Lake & Penguins!
- Day 27, Admiralty Bay and Deception Island
- Day 28, Neumayer Channel
- Day 29, Charlotte Bay
- Day 30, Super Fog on Super Sunday
- Day 31, Drake Lake – Redux
- Day 32, Cape Horn
- Day 33,Ushuaia
- Day 34, Punta Arenas
- Day 35, Sarmiento Channel
- Day 36, Paparazzi Night
- Day 37, Puerto Montt
- Day 38, At Sea, En-route San Antonio, Chile
- 2022 Grand World Voyage Survey
- Day 39, Valparaiso Artist Studios (San Antonio/Santiago)
- Day 40, Polynesian Cultural Ambassadors
- Day 41, Abba Fabulous!
- Day 42, My Sweet Valentine
- Day 43 – THE MAN THAT DOESN’T TALK
- Day 44 – Easter Island
- Day 45 – Cabin Crawl!
- Day 46 – 7 Billion Meditators
- Day 47 – Mutiny on the Bounty
- Day 48, Joie de Vivre
- Day 49, En Route Papeete
- Day 50, Papeete, Tahiti
- Day 51, Tropical Paradise
- Schedule Change Take #2
- Day 52, Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
- Day 53, Mardi Gras at sea!
- Day 54, Advance Clocks 23 Hours
- Day 55, Nukuʻalofa, Tonga
- MAJOR SCHEDULE CHANGE
- Day 56, Bowlers and Bumbershoots
- Day 57, Super Tuesday at Sea
- Day 58, Wine on Waiheke
- Day 59, Auckland Yarn Crawl
- Day 60, Parasailing in Paradise
- Day 61, Captain’s Gala Dinner
- Day 62, Straight Flush on the Flop!
- Day 63, Sydney Australia, Walkabout Park
- 2020 World Cruise will end in Fremantle due to Corona Virus
- Amsterdam Grand World Voyage Ends Early – Heading Home
- Day 77, Keep Smiling!
- Emilio Valle Rocks the Amsterdam Main Stage
- Day 78, The Long Road Home
- The Final Leg Home
- Alana Conway – Superstar!
COFFEE CHAT
On most sea days, the cruise director, Hamish, hosts a member of the crew or a guest entertainer in the Explorer’s Lounge at 9:30 AM. People start to arrive about 30 minutes early to get their favorite seats, but there is always room in the back regardless of when you arrive. These interviews are not taped or broadcast live. Hamish does a great job and the interviews are always interesting. I try to attend them all.
Today’s guest was the Shore Excursion Manager, Deimante. She is from Lithuanian where she lives today with her Australian husband.
GUEST LECTURER
Guest Lecturer, Charles McClelland, gave a wonderful presentation on the history and culture on the Caribbean. It was well attended, probably 80% full, and very good.
CASINO UPDATE
We had our first Texas Hold’em tournament of the cruise today with 5 players. The buy in is $60 but you start with $5000 in tournament chips instead of $1500 and the blinds start at $25/50, increase every 15 minutes. The games will last almost 2 hours with these rules and so far once the game got down to 2 remaining players, they chopped the pot. Otherwise the game could last much longer.
No one has shown any interest in the $100 tournament scheduled for 1 PM. The automatic poker table is much improved over earlier versions, and is working fine.
CAPTAIN’S RECEPTION
Tonight was the Captain’s Welcome Reception in the Main Stage, and our first Gala evening. They held one reception at 4:30 for early seating and a second reception at 6:30. Complimentary beverages and snacks were served by waiters circulating with trays of food and others with Champagne, red or white wine and Martini’s. The Martini’s had an olive in the glass, but they no longer use toothpicks in the olives. I will have to check if they still use toothpicks for some of the tropical drinks.
There was a short receiving line at the entrance to the Main Stage on Deck 4 Starboard. Then we were directed to empty seats to wait for the Captain’s remarks and his introduction of the ship’s senior officers.
BLACK AND GOLD GALA NIGHT
The theme for the Gala Night was the “Black and Gold” Ball. Everyone was dressed nicely with far less tuxedos than earlier years, but were still worn by many. We have observed that the main seating crowd tends to dress up more than earlier, but this is very unscientific and based on a very small sample.
Dinner was wonderful (surf and turf offered among many other entrees) and the waiters were dressed in Black and Gold. All the menus are posted on the blog.
John Bressler was the featured entertainer on the Main Stage. He sings and plays piano and put on a wonderful, highly entertaining show. We spoke with him after the show and he accepted our dinner invitation for tomorrow evening.