- 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 41 – 14 Feb At Sea
We were supposed to be in Port Arthur today, but it was canceled due to the expected heavy swells at our anchorage. Skipping Port Arthur would also allow us to get a head start on our way to Kangaroo Island and give us time to transit via the more protected Bass Strait between the mainland and Tasmania.
Heavy Weather
Heavy seas and high winds are here. Throughout the day the relative wind shown on the ship’s TV exceeded 70 knots and a few people reported seeing gusts of over 90 knots. There was significant motion and from time to time there was a touch of roll as the waves exceeded the capability of the stabilizers that can handle most rolling motion. Green apples and crackers appeared on the counter of the Front Desk.
Valentine’s Day Ball Cancelled
Today was Valentine’s Day and was scheduled to be a Gala night with a Valentine’s Day Ball in the Queen’s Lounge complete with another Chocolate Surprise. Early in the day, Hamish came over the public-address system and announced that due to the heavy weather causing significant deck motion, the Valentine’s Day Ball was postponed and the Gala night dress code was cancelled. All the evening shows were returned to their original times as they had been moved to 5:00 PM and 7:15 to accommodate the Ball in the Queens Lounge.
Coffee Chat
Assistant cruise directors Amanda and Mario were the guests at Coffee Chat. Amanda is from Washington State and went to Morehead State in Kentucky on a cheer-leading scholarship. She started in Club HAL before getting her current position as an assistant cruise director. We learned that she has a black belt in Taekwondo, a “Korean martial art characterized by its emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping and spinning kicks, and fast kicking techniques”. Wow!
A guest asked Amanda, half joking, if she would demonstrate a cheerleading routine and much to the amazement of all, she put down her coffee and the microphone and performed a “forward handspring step out” in the very limited space in front of her chair. Amazing!
Mario is from Columbia and started working in shops before moving over to the entertainment side.
Crafts
Crafts has been very popular, and many times Judy has returned empty handed since all the allocated kits were already distributed by the 2:30 scheduled starting time. Once they started passing out kits early people started coming to class even earlier and many people were going to the Lido for lunch and sitting in the craft area and then staying there for 2 hours until the class starts. Henk distributed a memo asking people to respect the fact the many venues serve multiple purposes and arriving way ahead of time impacts the people in the previous activity. He stopped by before class started today and reminded everyone to avoid coming to events too early. They have now stopped passing out craft kits early and the situation is now much more reasonable with people no longer arriving so early. Read Henk’s memo HERE
A list of all the craft projects for the entire cruise is HERE
We Love Chocolate
Abby, the America’s Test Kitchen host, scheduled a special cooking class “We Love Chocolate” In the Wajang Theatre aka America’s Test Kitchen on Deck 4. I arrived 30 minutes early and was surprised to find that I was the first person in the room. The room eventually filled up, but there were a few seats empty even when the class started. Before class started, Abby’s cart came rolling across the front of the room, heading straight for me, when the ship took a big roll. Fortunately, someone alerted me, and the cart was moving slow enough and was light enough that I was able to easily stop it with one hand.
Abby opened the class with an overview about chocolate and various useful techniques helpful when using chocolate in recipes. She followed with a demonstration of two recipes: Pots de Creme and the chewiest brownies on the planet. You can find the recipes HERE.
I played 2 Texas Hold’em tournaments and didn’t win either time.
Evening events
With the announcement that the Gala dress code was relaxed, many people reverted to their normal smart casual attire, but there were a significant number of people who wore their special Valentine’s Day attire. The Main Dining Room was all decked out with the Valentine’s Day decorations and there was a special menu for the event. Dinner featured a “Surf and Turf” with Filet and a Grilled Shrimp. I always enjoy their pot pies, so I selected the Lobster Pot Pie which was very good. You can see the complete menu on the blog.
Louie Shelton, a session musician who played his electric guitar with a wide variety of famous artists, was the headliner in the Queen’s Lounge. He put on a marvelous show as he played many familiar song’s including the theme songs from “The Monkees”, the Beverly Hillbillys” and a wonderful rendition of the Santana Hit – “Black Magic Woman”.
