- 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 95 – At Sea – April 9th
Coffee Chat
Grand Voyages, particularly the Grand World Voyage, have more onboard activities than your normal Holland America cruise. One of those is resident clergy. Today during Coffee Chat, all three of the clergy were guests: Rabbi Gan, Father Murphy, and Reverend Von Heyking. Hamish asked them one by one how they came to be on the cruise ships. They all had different but similar stories. The common theme was generally that their first contract was on relatively short notice. Someone had to back out, a replacement was needed quickly and one of their acquaintances gave them a call and ask if they were available to cruise on short notice. After their first contract they realized it was a good fit and the rest is history.
Art Auctions
Several activities that are common on shorter cruises are missing on the Grand World Voyage. The two most obvious are art auctions and Black Label Photography. The art auctions will not make an appearance until after the Amsterdam leaves drydock May 12, but the Black label photographer arrived in Cape Town and started to advertise that service. I don’t expect them to get much business, but it’s probably viewed as a way for a photographer to gain experience before the busy Alaska season.
Talent Show Signup
Toward the end of the cruise, there’ll be a guest Talent show. In the Where and When today they announced that they will be accepting sign-ups in the piano bar at 10 AM. Pretty much anything goes as long as it’s under three minutes. There isn’t any quality cut and there aren’t any auditions. Everyone who wants to perform is given an opportunity. Singers who require piano accompaniment are allowed a short time to collaborate with Connor who will be playing the piano during the talent show.
Drawing Class and Movies
One of the ongoing controversies all cruise was the conflict between the Drawing Class and the 3 o’clock movie which are both held in the Wajang Theater. The drawing class starts at 1:30 PM and ends at 2:15 PM while the movie starts at 3 PM. You would think that a 45 minute break between events would be enough to deconflict these two activities. But many people want to arrive an hour early for the movie and sit in empty seats but are disruptive to the drawing class which is still in progress. In some cases the movie people have even asked the drawing people to move so the movie people could sit in their preferred seats. That’s one of the problems made worse when everyone has a book read or an iPad to play games on. They don’t mind arriving extra early for events when it’s so easy to pass the time while waiting in any venue.
Gala Night
The dress code tonight was Gala. In addition to the normal Gala Night trappings, tonight’s theme was “Out of Africa” with the waitstaff wearing African safari garb. Large-screen TVs were near the entrance to the dining room playing scenes from the movie Out Of Africa. Adagio, the piano and violin duet, were playing background music from the station behind the entrance on Deck five. Here is a short video clip of their performance.
Gala night means that we have one of the small square menus, usually with some form of the lobster available and we usually have someone from the ship’s staff to host our table. Marco Arnout, one of the ships second officers, was our host this evening. It is quite unusual to get a deck officer, so we were quite pleased to have him hosting our table this evening. Marco has been with Holland America for 10 years. His contracts are three months on – three months off.
Bruce Parker
Bruce Parker, California Soul Man, was the featured guest entertainer in the Queens lounge this evening. He sang many of the classic Motown hits and put on a marvelous show. Bruce is an incredible entertainer with a great voice and a captivating stage presence. Some of the songs he performed included:
• How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You
• Stand by Me
• (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay
• Three Times a Lady
• Unchained Melody
• My Girl
Don’t miss Bruce Parker if you find him performing at a venue near you. Here is a short video of his performance.
