WriterOnDeck

Sorry I wasn't clear. I think the vast majority of world cruisers want to go to faraway places, and are adventurous. But there are those who don't go ashore sometimes because they have been in these ports so many times.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t go on world cruises for far away places. If you just want to stay onboard and bask in the sun, do months of Caribbean B2Bs.

Guam and Saipan are on this year’s world. I’m not sure I agree with your last statement. There are a lot of adventurous people on a world cruise. Many may not go ashore simply because they have been to these ports so many times.

We on the current world cruise will visit Japan and China. One issue is that the world cruise usually starts in early January. I assume for those who want to escape winter in the US and Canada. Staying in the northern hemisphere won’t be that warm. I’m expecting Japan in February to be cold this year. You can’t just head right there in January. (Hence the Amazon this year?)

My main response is why not more new ports. I guess one of the disadvantages of taking multiple grand cruises is that soon they repeat. If you start in January, you won't go north. Only so many ways to circle the globe. But still -- can't we have more new ports even on similar routes? Three head south to Antarctica and Santiago, Chili, before heading west. One goes south around Australia, two north. Two south around Africa, two through Suez to Med. One goes to northern Europe. And one is eastbound, ending in San Diego.

The latest blog! Fishing for Notorious Piranha Along the Amazon River Posted on January 19, 2024 by Jo Johnston Days 13 & 14, 2024 Grand World Voyage Monday and Tuesday, Jan. 15-16, 2024; Parintins and Santarém, Brazil I’ve always believed that success in fishing is mostly a matter of luck. After today I think experience must play a role. As we all were dropping lines with raw meat on a hook into a small tributary, it was mostly the boat’s crew who caught the piranhas. (Continued at https://www.writerondeck.com/2024/01/19/fishing-for-notorious-piranha-along-the-amazon-river/)

Over Christmas the only thing I got that my sister (3*) didn't was an invitation to the small medallion ceremony -- I think because they asked everyone with 5* or with a platinum medallion (700 real days) or sometime like that. She got invited to everything else.

I choose anytime dining and ask to be at a table sharing with others. That's how I meet lots of people. If you go at about the same time, over a longer cruise you sit with people more than once.

Last year it was one of my favorite -- on April Fools. Tiffany had a lot of fun making each course look like something else. Like first course looked like a dessert, but it was a savory starter. Introduced confusion between you sight and taste. No idea what it will be like this year.

I spent almost 2 months in Northern Europe/Iceand, etc., last summer (end of the world cruise and 10 more weeks afterward. We visited many many ports in Norway and twice around Iceland. You can't go wrong imho, but if you want to read in more detail about cruising to the various ports, check out my blog posts -- www.writerondeck.com, Mainly late April through early to mid July, 2023.

I'm not Pete :-), but I use an app called Compress Photos & Pictures. It is free, I believe, and works well. I put the photos I want to compress into a folder in Photos (I'm using an iPhone), and then open compress, select all the photos in that file, and compress in a few seconds. You can set the level of compression -- I aim for around 500 kb. I set the photo quality scale for "great - 90%" and photo dimensions for 35% and that is what I then put in my blog. Hope this helps!

Of course, it was hot and humid at Devil's Island, French Guiana. Retracing Steps of Prisoners on Notorious Devil’s Island https://www.writerondeck.com/2024/01/11/retracing-steps-of-prisoners-on-notorious-devils-island/

We just had a retreat cabana on the holiday 12-day Zuiderdam cruise. It was wonderful. The ship wasn't crazy with children, although there were a couple of hundred at least. All were well behaved for children imho. I didn't see any in the cabana area, which frequently was very quiet. The cabanas easily held 4 people -- 2 lounges and 2 chairs at a table (with a power plug!). We had 5 adults (incuding 2 adult "kids") in our group and figured we would just go up in pairs, but as the area was very quiet, no one seemed to care if we had one or two more, including our wonderful steward. We tipped him well, and I understand that my younger nephew went up with an additional generous tip, as he was that good. Not sure I would splurge in the future, especially given the price increase. But I'm used to long cruises where deck chairs are always available, and on the full holiday cruise that wasn't the case.

Just to add a small point here. If you are continuing, you also can leave the vessel early (with departing guests) and return much later. So you miss the "in-transit" drill. You receive an in-transit pass, and when you return you use it to bypass all lines except security scan and go directly onto the ship. We did that Jan. 3 in Fort Lauderdale, and I did it at the end of the 2023 world cruise, as I was continuing on. Rich, continue to have a grand trip!!!

We did get them on the Grand South America/Antarctica this fall. Just FYI.

Also depends on how long each cruise is. New credit card rules require the account to be paid about every 30 days. So on long cruises, if you owe a balance it is charged to your CC then. If you have a credit it carries over. The front desk can tell you the exact days.

I'm in an obstructed OV (4103) on the Zuiderdam right now. Your only drawers will be in the nightstands, and they are narrow nightstands. You will have one closet behind the entry door that is more shallow (regular hangers are too big unless you put everything at an angle), one regular closet and a third with fixed shelves on the top, including the safe, and a hanging area in the bottom. The other two closets have shelves you can drop or leave upright for hanging longer clothes. At the desk is the cooler and a small triangle-shaped cabinet (two shelves) that has glasses and the hairdryer and makeup mirror stored in it. You also have the two big drawers under the foot of the bed, but sometimes the stewards store sheets etc. there. If asked they will remove them. If you go to halfacts.com, pick zuiderdam, scroll down to 4104 Oosterdam FO, it is identical and nicely shows the closets. Let me know if you have questions.

What interesting questions! I'll save a few to answer in blogs. But regarding family, I come from a small one. No kids myself, just two nephews and a grand-nephew, whom I don't see much less than when I'm "at home." And two sisters, both of whom will be cruising with me for three cruises in 2024. Fortunately, I haven't had major medical issues while traveling. I did fracture my kneecap last spring, but was able to heal while on the ship. I'm sure my dentist wishes I came more often. I bought a waterpik to improve dental hygiene. And was fortunate to be on land last summer when I needed a root canal.

Today seemed like a good day to think about the 10 months I spent cruising on Holland America in 2023. I won't be posting every blog post here (you can follow them with all the photos at www.WriterOnDeck.com), but I'll be updating this thread and glad to answer any questions. Ending 2023 with Reflections on a Year Cruising the World Day 10, 2023 Holiday Panama Canal Sunfarer Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023; Caribbean Sea I greeted the last day of 2023 with an hour of precious solitude, sitting alone in the Lido Restaurant on a ship with 2,000 passengers. I accomplished this feat by getting up at 5:15 a.m. and watching the sun rise. As I reflect on my year of living for 10 months on two cruise ships, I know I am blessed. Yes, I have made sacrifices – giving up the stability of a long-term home, missing my friends and family, foregoing the opportunity to do my own laundry and make my bed. OK, not so much that, yet occasionally I do miss cooking. But oh, what a year it has been! It started with the 2023 Grand World Voyage, when we stressed over passing a covid test to board. It is ending with stress over getting a Brazilian visa for the 2024 Grand World Voyage, which starts on Wednesday. (I’m still waiting for final visa approval.) I’ve sailed to six continents; gone on safari in Africa; shivered in early spring snows in both Norway and Antarctica; basked in the sun and heat of the South Pacific, Africa and the Amazon; bumped into friends in Scotland and the Netherlands and sailed through stunning fjords in Chile, Greenland and Norway. I’ve explored cities from Sydney to Cape Town to Boston, from Amsterdam to Rio to Buenos Aires. I’ve written and published 149 blog posts, with about 111,000 words (enough for a full-size novel) and 2,348 photos. We missed a few ports Madagascar due to a typhoon, Dakar due to riots and tear gas, and the Falkland Islands, Guernsey and Punta del Este for rough seas. We gained a few new ports — Santos, Brazil; Corner Brook, Newfoundland; and Port Canaveral, Fla., giving me an opportunity for an overnight visit with friends I met earlier in the year. I’ve made many new friends on the ships (Zuiderdam and Zaandam), as well as through this blog, including one who took me to breakfast during a stop in Fort Lauderdale. If it weren’t for the friends I see repeatedly on cruises, I doubt I would choose this lifestyle. Many go back six years to my first grand cruise in 2017. Some even back to 2011 and a 45-day cruise to the Mediterranean with my mother. And others I’ve just met, but we quickly become fast friends. Meanwhile, since I last posted we have visited Willemstad, Curaçao; Cartagena, Colombia; Colon, Panama (following a partial Panama Canal transit to Gatun Lake) and Puerto Limón, Costa Rica. In Cartageña we took a city tour that included a visit to a small fishing village surrounded by high-rise apartments and condos. One fisherman demonstrated the technique of casting the nets. Then we walked through the old city that lies behind thick walls. It is full of vendors and emerald jewelry stores. I had a few minutes to listen to music coming from the church, which reminded me of a similar experience in Tonga in 2020. I thought I might stop for a Colombian coffee, but the only place I could find was Starbucks. Now, I do like Starbucks and frequent it often back in the states. But it just didn’t seem right this time. To return to the ship in Cartageña, you pass through the Port Oasis Eco Park and its up-close encounters with anteaters, monkeys and tropical birds. Our cruise director Kimberly provided an outstanding narration of our canal transit, not only giving us details about the canal and its history, but also about the ships we encountered – their sizes, purposes and planned itineraries. During the few hours we anchored in Gatun Lake, many passengers disembarked on tenders to take shore excursions, later joining us during our brief stop in Colón just outside the canal. After 60-something years without transiting the Panama Canal, I’ve made up for it this year with three visits — and I’ll be back in less than a month for a fourth. Passing through the whole canal is a great experience, but I would recommend the partial transit for anyone who can’t do the whole thing. It is amazing to see how big ships, with just a foot or two of clearance on each side, rise through the locks and back down. Willemstad is a fun port and easy to explore on your own. We docked next to the floating bridge that connects the two sides of the city. I lucked out with a front-row seat at a waterside cafe and returned to the ship with lots of photographs of street art and the colorful buildings.

The ship is looking great and lots of familiar crew and officers are aboard -- it will be a great cruise!

Yeah, but my MIZZOU Tigers won, so I loved it!

It will be GRAND! Henk joined a few days ago and officially took over as hotel manager yesterday. Others have been trickling back during the current holiday cruise. About 2 dozen of us world cruisers who already are on board the Zuiderdam met for an informal reception two days ago, where the party game was predicting which countries we actually would visit. Will Brazil get eliminated for having the world's worst visa application process? Will we make it through the Red Sea and Suez Canal, or will things change dramatically if we have to go around the Cape of Good Hope? What would 128 days in the Caribbean look like? Overnights in Galveston, NOLA, Mobile? We all agreed that wherever the ship goes, we will have a great time!

It could change by then.

Thanks for coming back with you experience! I'm on a 12-day holiday cruise on the Zuiderdam now and we are really enjoying our cabana. The area usually is not crowded so we get lots of attention. As it is a holiday cruise, I knew it would be full and with lots of kids. It is nice to know we have a quiet place to go.

My understanding is that HAL looks for musical theatre experience for new cruise and travel directors -- people who are good on stage, can memorize lines and seamlessly intergrate the canned presentations (Origin story and the various talks interspersed with video). Last fall ours had never been to the South Pacific, Australia or New Zealand, and she gave incorrect travel information. But this fall Jeremy on the grand South America put in hours on his port presentations, and also recorded a separate version to put on the cabin TVs. (Most presentations aren't broadcast because the graphics are under copyright control.) Obviously it varies.