- 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
Panama Canal
Today we will transit through the Panama Canal. It’s always exciting to watch this engineering marvel in action. The new, wider locks are open and in service, but we will be using the original locks.
We arrived at the Gatun locks at 7 am and would spend the next 90 minutes going thru the various locks until we sailed into Gatun Lake where we would spend most of the day.
One advantage of transiting the Panama Canal on the World Cruise is that all the viewing spots around the ship, normally packed on a normal Panama Canal Cruise, are virtually empty. I wandered up to the Crows Nest around 8 am and there were still prime window seats available and all the extra chairs set up on the dance floor were unused.
I wanted to check out the other prime viewing spots to check on the crowds (or lack thereof). On the way to the bow, I passed thru the Lido which had a normal breakfast crowd and there were still plenty of window seats available. Walking out onto the bow, there were about 20 people there and about 20-30 or so up on the 6th level observation deck.
Panama Canal Rolls!
The famous Panama Canal Rolls – Recipe HERE – were available at most viewing venues until 9 AM. If anyone missed the Panama Canal Rolls, they will reappear as Sydney Opera House Rolls, Hong Kong Rolls and probably a few other harbor rolls before this cruise is over. I sampled one on the bow and they were as tasty as always.
Texas Hold’em
Good game for me today as I finished in the money (second) for the first time this cruise.
Pinnacle Grill Lunch
The Pinnacle Grill is open for lunch – $10 is the normal charge before any mariner discounts. The service is always fantastic, and the menu has a lot of nice choices. Highly recommended for a nice change of pace.
We hosted Abba Fab for lunch today in the Pinnacle Grill along with our friends from Table 52 on the 2016 cruise. The same people who perform Abba Fab will also be performing their show called “The Piano Men” this evening, which features the music of Billy Joel and Elton John.
Miraflores Locks
The Miraflores locks would be our final set of locks today before we entered the Pacific Ocean. I always enjoy these locks the most because they occur later in the day (no early morning wakeup) and the Canal’s main visitor center is here so you always have a crowd of people cheering and waving as you pass buy. As we were waiting to clear these locks we could see other ships using the new locks to our west, but there was small rise between our location and the other ships so all we could see from our vantage point was the upper parts of the other ships and the control tower that operates the new locks.
Anchoring
The Amsterdam dropped her anchor around 6pm or so and started to run tenders around 7pm. Based on the crowds and the shows and in the dining room, I don’t think that many people chose to go ashore this evening. Tenders will run until 1 am and start again at 6 AM tomorrow morning.
Dinner
The food on the cruise continues to be exceptional with every meal to date being wonderful. Tonight Judy and I had the Grilled Kingfish with Roasted Corn Salsa. Our service is exceptional and even though we are at a table for 10, we are usually finished in about 90 minutes.
The Piano Men
Terry Davies performs in Abba Fab but he takes center stage for the groups presentation of “The Piano Men”, a tribute to the music of Elton John and Billy Joel. They play all the favorites including a very nice rendition of “Circle of Life”. A special treat was a performance by Nick of a Billy Joel favorite – We Didn’t Start the Fire” where he updated the lyrics to include more recent historical references. You will find Abba Fab and The Piano Man performing on a variety of different cruise lines and land venues. If you ever have a chance to catch their show live – don’t miss it.
We were on the 2017 Grand World, so we are enjoying your daily observations and comments. And, although we have sailed 400 nights with HAL, we find we can always learn something new through the experiences of others. For instance, it has never occurred to us to invite performers to lunch in the Pinnacle. We have invited various officers and staff to our regular dinner table but not the Pinnacle . . . Great idea!
We also enjoyed seeing Presty in your first post. He took such good care of us last year. We miss him.
Yes, inviting folks to lunch in the Pinnacle had proven to be a winner. A more casual vibe than dinner. Plus some performers are booked for dinner on all nights as soon as they appear on the ship.
Presty is a superstar. The entire dining room experience is exceeding our high expectations…