- 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 93, Walvis Bay, Namibia – April 7th
Namibia looked bleak from the ship as the first lines went across to start our mooring to the commercial wharf here in Walvis Bay. Off in the distance I could make out some of the sand dunes that are a feature of some of the available excursions. Closer to the ship were some warehouses, cranes and other items to help load and unload ships. A couple hundred yards away was the first gate where the ship’s shuttle buses were staged. Several hundred yards further down was the second gate which stopped most car traffic. A temporary craft market was set up along the roadside outside the second gate. There is some question as to whether we would be allowed to walk through the commercial port area at all. In some commercial ports we must take a shuttle bus directly from the bottom of the gangway. As it turned out passengers could walk completely out of the port here if they so choose.
Immigration
The first step today would be to clear Namibian immigration. They required a face-to-face review of our passports. We docked around 8 AM and the officials were late getting on board. Some people with early private excursions were starting to sweat since they hadn’t anticipated long delays getting off the ship, particularly in a non-tender port.
Yesterday we were given letters describing the immigration process along with a number to indicate the order in which we would see the immigration officials. As usual they start off with the letter S for the suite people and Present’s Club members. I also suspect that the people on Holland America tours were given a low number as well. We had number six but since we did not have a tour arranged and hadn’t really planned to get off the ship early our number didn’t really matter.
Progress was slower than expected as our number wasn’t called until 9:30 AM. Final call for everyone was 10:45 AM. For those planning to stay on the ship, there was no need to go through immigration. When we went to the Explorer’s Lounge when our number was called, there were several people super anxious to get off and were trying to get into the line before their number was called. Christel, the guest relations manager, was monitoring the line and turned several people away who had gotten in line before their number had been called. A few managed to sneak by or if they were especially insistent were able to get themselves cleared.
Future cruisers note, when in Walvis Bay plan your shore excursion meeting times accordingly, to accommodate potential delay in immigration. At a minimum I would set your expectations with your tour company that your arrival time may vary based on the speed of the immigration.
Shuttle Bus
We left the ship around 12:30 PM and walked out to the first gate where we would catch the shuttle-bus. There was probably a half-dozen people waiting in no particular line. But since it was such a small group it didn’t really matter as everyone got onto the next shuttle bus. We did learn later that earlier in the day there was a real mob scene for the first shuttle buses with no one from the ship providing any order, so it was a free-for-all. The shuttle buses were not on any schedule and they weren’t a standard size. Some of the buses had a capacity of 40 passengers while others had a capacity of 15 people. The daily When and Where advertised that the shuttlebus would go to the Dunes Mall and then to the Lagoon Waterfront. There was the usual caveat that the shuttlebus schedules, routes and destinations were subject to change without notice. Sure enough it appeared each driver would decide based on the passengers or some other criteria whether or not to go to the Lagoon or simply to the Dunes Mall.
As we were waiting for the next shuttle-bus, several passengers and crew members were walking back from the second or further gate and told us that there was a craft market right outside and was probably less than a quarter mile away. We learned later that it was about a mile walk to the Lagoon waterfront and several passengers did make the trip on foot.
Dunes Mall
One of the smaller shuttle buses arrived shortly, and we are soon on our way to the Dunes Mall, about 3 ½ miles away. On the way out, we passed the tourist information center which was about a 1 mile walk from the ship. I was surprised that we didn’t see any taxis or the usual group of people selling tours outside either gate. We learned later that the city has been cracking down on taxis and vendors to avoid unscrupulous people hassling the tourists. The good news is you won’t get hassled as you leave the gate unless you choose to wander down the side of the street where the temporary craft market is located. But the bad news is if you’re expecting to find a taxi or get a last-minute tour on the wharf, you’re probably not going to find anyone available.
With all the warnings about West African countries, we expected a situation closer to Maputo than the very nice and clean city we discovered. This isn’t much of a tourist city and there’s not a whole lot going on in Walvis Bay itself, but it appeared very safe and I wouldn’t hesitate to walk around by myself.
The Dunes Mall opened in October 2017 and is very modern. There were a few taxis in the parking lot of the Mall, but they were not actively soliciting rides. There wasn’t any taxi stand nor did we see many taxis driving around the city at all.
Here is a schematic of the Dunes Mall along with a link to their website and a list of the stores. Namibia has their own currency but the stores in the mall all readily accepted South African Rand, US dollars or Euros. Your change, however, will be in the local Namibian currency.
We walked from one end of the mall and back taking a quick spin through the grocery store which we always find interesting to see what types of products are for sale in various countries. We did notice a can of Coca-Cola labeled with the words “San Diego”. After about an hour of wandering through the mall we headed back to the shuttle-bus stop which left shortly after we arrived. Our next stop would be the Lagoon waterfront. We weren’t quite sure where the Lagoon waterfront was located, and my reviews of the available maps didn’t make its location clear. See the map above that shows the various points of interest in the immediate vicinity of the ship.
Lagoon Waterfront
The Lagoon waterfront has two souvenir shops, a couple of restaurants, and a few smaller huts that were selling various souvenir items. If you’re looking for T-shirts, keychains and other logo items this is where you’ll find them as we didn’t see tourist items In the Dunes Mall.
A small boat arrived at a nearby pier that was filled with ships passengers returning from one of the HAL shore excursions. We learned later that this was the Dolphin and Seal Safari – this was a $139.95 tour (4 hours) that cruised Walvis Bay Lagoon and advertised “you will observe seals and other wildlife.” Here is a photo of the boat that was used – looks crowded – but everyone we spoke with loved this excursion.
We spent about 45 minutes browsing the souvenir shops and grabbed the next shuttle heading back to the ship, arriving around 3 PM.
Back on the Ship
Once back on the ship, we had to clear immigration again. We headed down to the Explorers Lounge but when we saw how long the line was, stretching all way back through the casino, we decided to go to the MYO Choir’s performance in the Queen’s Lounge and go to immigration later.
The Mondesa Youth Opportunities (MYO) was the charity that the ship supported with the silent auction, raising over $9,000. More about the MYO HERE
The MYO choir consisted of about a dozen youngsters probably aged 10 through 16 and they put on a wonderful show. They played several different styles of xylophones, some looked like the planks were the size of a 1 x 6. Here is a short video of their performance.
On the way back to the cabin there wasn’t much of a line for immigration, so we breezed through and cleared our departure requirement.
Brazilian Navy
Up on deck I noticed the Brazilian Navy corvette “Amazonas”, a 300-foot-long, 2,000 ton offshore patrol vessel was moored at an adjacent berth. The Amazonas was built by BAE Systems in Portsmouth VA. Walvis Bay is the headquarters for the Namibian Navy which has 4 patrol craft, a corvette and a logistics support ship. The Brazil Navy has a long-standing military cooperation agreement with Namibia to enhance their shared interest in the security of the South Atlantic Ocean.
Evening onboard
During dinner we heard about two tours that got great reviews: One was the tour to Swakopmund, a town about 25 miles north of Walvis Bay. The other was the 4 x 4 excursion to the dunes, but the ride was very bumpy so bear that in mind. I would consider arranging for a taxi to take us to Swakopmund for a few hours the next time we are in Walvis Bay.
The food in the main dining room was the standard Holland America fare, but up in the Lido they had advertised an African Braai cook in. Braai is a South African term for what we would call a barbecue cookout in United States. Here is a picture of the menu:
There were no guest entertainers tonight in the Queens Lounge since we were leaving late, but they did have a local Namibian cultural show. The show consisted of rhythmic dancing, playing along with a variety of percussion instruments.
Here is a short video of their show.
This entry was posted in 2018 Grand World Voyage, Africa, Namibia, Walvis Bay
