2024 Grand World Voyage with The Inside Cabin

[highland cruiser]

Thank you for all your posts.  Really enjoying reading all about the cruise.

Someday we may try a world cruise...or at least part of one!

[oakridger]

On 1/7/2024 at 6:30 AM, The-Inside-Cabin said:

Chris joked that he wished fans would storm the stage – a few complied!

 

I sure hope no one was throwing panties at him à la Tom Jones!!

 

Loving your blog as usual Pete!

 

~Nancy

[sandiego1]

I see a few familiar faces in the photo of the singers and dancers. Nice to see that some returned this year.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

22 minutes ago, sandiego1 said:

I see a few familiar faces in the photo of the singers and dancers. Nice to see that some returned this year.

Here is a short video of the call - curtain nice to see a live band on stage!

 

[ORTravelGal]

You are an amazing ambassador for this trip and you are successful in making me hope this is something we’ll be able to do in the future. 
 

Your tux is especially snazzy! Now I understand why you needed 12 bags for this trip. 

[REOVA]

2 hours ago, The-Inside-Cabin said:

 nice to see a live band on stage!

YEAH! Greatly miss the stage band. 

[The-Inside-Cabin]

2 hours ago, REOVA said:

YEAH! Greatly miss the stage band. 

We will see if they perform for all the production shows....

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Arrived at Devils Island a few minutes ago - nice day - not too hot yet—our first tender port.   

 

Here is some info and a flashback post from our visit in 2020  HERE

 

 

9 Jan DP331.pdf Devils Island332.pdf

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Here is our location.   Blue dot is the ship.   Red star is the tender pier.   Unlike previous World cruises,  no tender priority for anyone except Neptune's and Presidents club.   80 pct of ship is probably 4 star and up so it doesn't really matter.   
 

 

 

 

 

 

[REOVA]

 Unlike previous World cruises,  no tender priority for anyone except Neptune's and Presidents club.

 

2 hours ago, The-Inside-Cabin said:

Unlike previous World cruises,  no tender priority for anyone except Neptune's and Presidents club.   80 pct of ship is probably 4 star and up so it doesn't really matter.  

 

 

If memory serves me, no priority was on 2018 and 2020 tender. I remember getting up before dawn to stand in line to get a tender ticket as 5 star (and a line already formed when I got there which was longer than non priority group.). Also remember some passengers being a bit aggressive in the stairwell and line to get off. 🤪

 

Glad it wasn't too hot this time as camera lens fog was bad in 2020. At least people could get in the Bain des Bagnards to cool off (but rocks are slippery). 

[The-Inside-Cabin]

10 minutes ago, REOVA said:

 Unlike previous World cruises,  no tender priority for anyone except Neptune's and Presidents club.

 

 

If memory serves me, no priority was on 2018 and 2020 tender. I remember getting up before dawn to stand in line to get a tender ticket as 5 star (and a line already formed when I got there which was longer than non priority group.). Also remember some passengers being a bit aggressive in the stairwell and line to get off. 🤪

 

Glad it wasn't too hot this time as camera lens fog was bad in 2020. At least people could get in the Bain des Bagnards to cool off (but rocks are slippery). 

There was a priority line on 2020 - you can see my earlier post on Devils island, where I explained how it worked.   I'll have to look back at some 2018 posts to see about the situation then.

[REOVA]

1 minute ago, The-Inside-Cabin said:

There was a priority line on 2020 - you can see my earlier post on Devils island, where I explained how it worked.   I'll have to look back at some 2018 posts to see about the situation then.

I just remember getting up early to stand in a long (4/5 star) line for a tender ticket in 2020. 2018 we were in Neptune so didn't notice due to priority then. Even so Henk had difficulty with a few passengers (only time I've seen him angry). 😳

[The-Inside-Cabin]

2 minutes ago, REOVA said:

I just remember getting up early to stand in a long (4/5 star) line for a tender ticket in 2020. 2018 we were in Neptune so didn't notice due to priority then. Even so Henk had difficulty with a few passengers (only time I've seen him angry). 😳

There wasn't much difference in the line - I think it was mainly to appease some folks who demanded a priority line as you noted.   I checked my 2018 reports - there wasn't any separate 4 star line then.

[jimdee3636]

@The-Inside-Cabin

I've been on a lot of cruises, but none longer than thirty days (and most in the 12 to 17 day range). I've always wondered whether on a World Cruise you have to spend a lot of time and energy avoiding certain people. I mean, even on a short cruise my wife and I have to avoid certain venues at certain times because of loud, obnoxious fellow-guests, particularly ones who tend to "hold court" in the Ocean Bar or the Crow's Nest for hours on end. Does that kind of thing happen often on a World Cruise? If so, it would be a l-o-n-g 128 days.

 

Jim

[WriterOnDeck]

On 1/7/2024 at 9:49 AM, The-Inside-Cabin said:

They made it sound like these may be rolled out fleet-wide - based on our feedback.  We'll see...

For now, I think we are the only folks getting these

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

[The-Inside-Cabin]

GOAT RACING IN TOBAGO (POST #10) 7 JAN 2024

Click "Show More Posts" to show all the links to the other posts for the 2024 World Cruise

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We visit a Goat racing track in Buccoo, Tobago

This is the Scarborough cruise terminal. There are vendors selling souvenirs under the white tents

The Zuiderdam moored in Scarborough at 7:30 am and was cleared to go ashore at 8:10 am.

After relaxing in our cabin in the morning, we headed ashore around 12:30 pm.

The weather was a little warm but pleasant.

This sign is at the end of the pier and leads to the cruise terminal

There are a few vendors on the dock selling souvenirs and some tour operators selling excursions inside the small terminal.  It will be easy to book something last minute if you don’t have any plans.

Outside the terminal, we booked a taxi for $40 for a 1 hour sightseeing tour.  Akini was our driver.

I didn’t negotiate very much – you may be able to do better than $40 an hour if you invest more time. This is the route we took to Buccoo This sign is on the Buccoo boardwalk

We drove to Buccoo, about 15 minutes away, and watched a goat race demonstration. And we got to hold the leashes for the crabs, which seemed to head off on their own.  The goats and their jockeys start about 100 yards away at the far end of the course.  When the gates open, the jockeys chase after their goats, who run independently without prodding.

I got to hold one of the “racing” crabs The goats running hard at the start. The jockeys will be disqualified if they drop the rope On the home stretch Photo finish!

When there is a full race, there may be up to 10 goats and jockeys running the track.

After about 30 minutes of watching the goats and crabs plus a little time on the boardwalk, we headed back to Scarborough where Akini dropped us off by the “I Heart Tobago” sign.

Our driver, Akini This sign is an easy 1/4 mile walk from the cruise terminal

It was about 1/4 mile back to the ship.  On the way we stopped at Sue’s Snack Bar where we bought some of the special “Doubles.”  Doubles are made with two pieces of fried dough and filled with curried chickpeas and various chutneys.  More HERE

The Doubles were $2 USD each – we probably paid the “tourist” price You can get them spicy hot or not spicy hot – the spicy wasn’t very hot Good eating! We were there on a Sunday – so most everything was closed

We were back on the ship around 3 pm –

There was a movie on the World Stage tonight instead of a live show.

HERE was my brief on this port for our pre-cruise ZOOM calls

[The-Inside-Cabin]

26 minutes ago, jimdee3636 said:

@The-Inside-Cabin

I've been on a lot of cruises, but none longer than thirty days (and most in the 12 to 17 day range). I've always wondered whether on a World Cruise you have to spend a lot of time and energy avoiding certain people. I mean, even on a short cruise my wife and I have to avoid certain venues at certain times because of loud, obnoxious fellow-guests, particularly ones who tend to "hold court" in the Ocean Bar or the Crow's Nest for hours on end. Does that kind of thing happen often on a World Cruise? If so, it would be a l-o-n-g 128 days.

 

Jim

I have not had that situation.     I am sure it happens to some folks, but I haven't seen much of it if at all.

[0106]

1 hour ago, The-Inside-Cabin said:

The Doubles were $2 USD each

I absolutely love doubles.  The are $2.50 at my local Caribbean carry out.

 

Thank you for your very informative posts and for sharing your journey with us.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Devils island sailaway. 
 

 

 

[sandiego1]

10 hours ago, jimdee3636 said:

@The-Inside-Cabin

I've been on a lot of cruises, but none longer than thirty days (and most in the 12 to 17 day range). I've always wondered whether on a World Cruise you have to spend a lot of time and energy avoiding certain people. I mean, even on a short cruise my wife and I have to avoid certain venues at certain times because of loud, obnoxious fellow-guests, particularly ones who tend to "hold court" in the Ocean Bar or the Crow's Nest for hours on end. Does that kind of thing happen often on a World Cruise? If so, it would be a l-o-n-g 128 days.

 

Jim

We’ve been on 2 WC so far. We had open seating on both cruises. There was 1 couple that we found to be a quite dumb. We asked the MDR hostess to not seat us with them again (didn’t tell her why). There were other boorish couples but they seemed to have fixed seating so we didn’t interact with them.

 

The majority of people were interesting and well rounded and we enjoyed chatting with them during dinner. We made some really good friends that we traveled with on the 2nd WC and have plans to visit in their hometowns.

 

And yeah, there were a handful of loud and obnoxious people that we would just laugh at.
 

 

[The-Inside-Cabin]

8 hours ago, sandiego1 said:

We’ve been on 2 WC so far. We had open seating on both cruises. There was 1 couple that we found to be a quite dumb. We asked the MDR hostess to not seat us with them again (didn’t tell her why). There were other boorish couples but they seemed to have fixed seating so we didn’t interact with them.

 

The majority of people were interesting and well rounded and we enjoyed chatting with them during dinner. We made some really good friends that we traveled with on the 2nd WC and have plans to visit in their hometowns.

 

And yeah, there were a handful of loud and obnoxious people that we would just laugh at.
 

 

Open seating exposes you to more passengers than fixed seating, where you are limited to the same folks in your area.   Since we had fixed seating, our exposure was limited to probably 30 people in our immediate area, which rarely changed as more of the open diners were on deck two.

[secfan1]

Regarding open seating, we observed an interesting pattern on the WC. In the early days of the voyage, there were many people doing open seating and we had an interesting variety of table mates. As time went on, many of the open seaters made arrangements to a fixed table. This reduced the number of diners that were really available to sit wherever. So you tended to sit with a smaller selection of other open seaters. 

[sandiego1]

Pete - do you condense your photos before posting them? What tool do you use? 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

On 1/9/2024 at 11:11 AM, jimdee3636 said:

@The-Inside-Cabin

I've been on a lot of cruises, but none longer than thirty days (and most in the 12 to 17 day range). I've always wondered whether on a World Cruise you have to spend a lot of time and energy avoiding certain people. I mean, even on a short cruise my wife and I have to avoid certain venues at certain times because of loud, obnoxious fellow-guests, particularly ones who tend to "hold court" in the Ocean Bar or the Crow's Nest for hours on end. Does that kind of thing happen often on a World Cruise? If so, it would be a l-o-n-g 128 days.

 

Jim

Any time you get 1200 people together there is going to be a few crazy ones. Say hello and just keep going.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

2 hours ago, sandiego1 said:

Pete - do you condense your photos before posting them? What tool do you use? 

Yes - I use Adobe Lightroom Classic, which requires a subscription of $120 a year for just Lightroom.  There are many free alternatives. HERE is a link to an article describing many options.   I resize them to 770 pixels or about 300 KB.    The app built into Windows can also resize photos and is pretty good and already on any Windows machine.   If you use a Mac, I am sure they have something similar.  

 

Lightroom has the capability to enhance photos easily and provides a lot of options that free programs don't do as easily.   

Edited January 10 by The-Inside-Cabin