Cruising the WorldDay 6

The seas are getting rougher as we move along the coast of South American towards Devil’s Island. Walking from one side of the hallway to the next is now common practice for all passengers and crew. It almost feels normal.

Our balcony on the back of the ship was a great idea. This part of the ship receives the least amount of wind and we will have the best seats in the house as we move up the Amazon river over the next week.

We went to the gym after breakfast and hit the treadmill. Pure concentration is needed to stay on the belt as the ship rocks back and forth. It’s a built in extra workout.

Terri went to team trivia after lunch and then to watercolor painting. I went to the port presentation given by the cruise director Kimberley. Tomorrow will be our first tender port on this cruise and we have been warned of rough seas. If this is the case, the ship’s tenders may be cancelled and we will skip Devil’s Island. If we do proceed, tendering may be vey slow as some of the passengers will struggle to get on the tender as the swells move the ship up and down. 

The experience down the Amazon will take us to four stops in Brazil. We have been warned about heat/humidity and insects. Keep the balcony doors closed.

I spent time on the balcony after the port talk spraying clothes with insecticide and letting them dry. I am using a potent mixture that was recommended by the nurse who administered all of our vaccines on the 2019 cruise. Yellow Fever is the concern on Devils Island and Malaria in the Amazon. We have already been taking hydroxychloroquine to prepare.

Terri reported that the team did very well and that she knew Juliets last name in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Who knew? I would have guessed Smith.

I brought many books to read on this trip but have barely had a chance to read. I am almost finished with Henry Winkler’s “Being Henry”. An easy and very good read. He is very funny and talks about his struggle with dyslexia and not being diagnosed until age 34. I highly recommend it. Very entertaining!

Dinner in the main dining room is slow but our seats offer a great view. The Lido offers most of the same food at a cafeteria style setting. I prefer the more formal dining room and having the chef decide on the balanced portion of items that are presented with your entree. The Lido reminds me more of an all you can eat style restaurant with folks lining up at the food troughs. Over eating is very easy to do.

The evening entertainment was percussionist David Meyer. It took most of his performance for me to remember that we saw his act back in March of 2019. A very exciting show where he played an instrument called the xylosynth. It was a 3 octave keyboard instrument where he used 4 mallets. 2 in each hand. The show was exactly the same as it was 5 years ago but was still great. Baba O’Riley was the opening number and the closer was the March from Carmen. I gave his show a 10. Very impressive!…

Trinidad and Tobago

Today we arrived in Scarborough, Tobago. Tobago is one island in the Country of Trinidad and Tobago. According to our cruise director Kimberley, Trinidad is the much larger and more industrial island. Trinidad is one of the largest exporter’s of oil and natural gas. Tobago remains closer to it’s natural state. Trinidad and Tobago are off the northern coast of Venezuela.

We decided back in our days of planning that Tobago was so similar to the many Caribbean Islands that we have been to that sight seeing was out and golf was in.

The ship was docked and ready for passengers to debark at 8 am. Our tee time was 10 am at the Magdalena Resort (formerly the Tobago Plantations Golf Course).

Uber was out in Tobago but TT Ride Share was available. I downloaded the app, created an account, was verified by the company and was ready to go when we hit the dock.

We grabbed our clubs which I had stored on our balcony and were off the ship by 8:15. Luckily our T mobile account was good here and we had cellular service. Service was good but the availability of drivers was not. Not one driver appeared on the app. Probably works better in Trinidad.

This left us at the mercy of regular cab drivers. Most of the folks getting off the ship were boarding busses for tours they booked through HAL or other organizations. Cruise Critic is a popular 3rd party platform that many also use.

We went up to the Taxi stand and were told that it was $50 USD to get to the course. When I used the ride share app to get an idea of costs a few days back I got a price of about $5 USD. The $50 quoted was round trip. I haggled as best I could and managed to get it down to $45. 

It was a 20 minute drive down the coast to the course and the sights along the way reinforced our decision to play golf. The ocean was beautiful but the surrounding town was poor and run down. 

We arrived in time to hit a bucket of balls to warm up and get on the course an hour early. I gave our driver instructions to pick us up at 2:30 pm. All aboard was 4:30.

The course was in good shape and very challenging. The wind was a factor as the ocean was in view for many of the holes. The course was lined with many beautiful homes.

We finished our round at about 1:15 and sat outside and had a drink. Other folks from the ship were there as this was the end of one of the HAL bus tours.

Our driver arrived on time and we were back at the port at about 3 pm. Ship security approached us as we boarded and said that we cannot store the clubs in our room. They would store them for us (probably next to the smuggled steamer). Less hassle for a us.

No evening entertainment tonight. We finished with a game of cards. We are now tied.…

We have settled on a location on the Lido for breakfast. Doing this, the staff quickly learn your names and habits. Often times, coffee, juice, water, or whatever you have in your morning routine will be delivered to your table without you even asking. Jose is taking care of us.

The food is incredible. There is so much variety and everything tastes great. The executive chef came out to greet passengers at dinner last night. He is a tall and muscular Scot with a heavy accent. I asked if he was responsible for all of the great food. He said that when passengers praise the food his assistant is responsible. When passengers complain, he is responsible. I haven’t seen anyone complain yet but that will be just a matter of time. He would not be someone that I would like to complain to but the age group we are traveling with has reached the point of entitlement and tends to complain freely as a source of human interaction.

It is tempting to want to try the local food when the ship is in port but then the question becomes why? There is so much variety on board. Local dishes are always presented on days in port. It also becomes a question of safety. Can we drink the water in this port? Is it clean? It is easy to see why the all aboard time on these days is usually 4:30 pm. Everyone wants to get to dinner on the ship. No reason to have a later time. There will be no passengers to wait for. They will all be in the dining room.

We often will try a local dish for lunch. If the food is very hot, we feel safe. Getting ill on a cruise would be no fun. We carry ship water with us are quite careful.

The gym has been crowded with yoga and class stretching. Often times these classes will be held at a different location on the ship because they tend to get large. We shall see if they get moved. The tread mills on this ship thankfully don’t have the tv screen that is right in your face. I don’t like these. I’d much rather watch the ocean. The gym is above the bridge. We see what the captain can see.

Team trivia was a first. We answered every question correctly! We are the only team that has an official Canadian team member. Susie answered the question about the name of the first Canadian prime minister correctly. The winning group gets a free drink from the bar! Team trivia is getting better!   I sent an email to Jose from our African cruise as he is not aboard. Jose was a professor at MSU while I was a student. He is really an expert in languages and was a key member of our team. He had just finished an Asian cruise and said that he played trivia faithfully with two other folks that were on the African cruise with us.

While we enjoyed our winning drink, the conversation turned political. I asked Susie about a term I had heard others use. Canada is now known as Chinada as it is becoming more like the communist country. She shook her head yes. She is from British Columbia and said that Vancouver is run by the Chinese. She talked about those formerly known as Eskimos, now referred to as Inuits. You can’t call them Eskimos anymore as Inuit is the correct political term. It reminded me of things back home. She had no idea what the DEI office is. My explanation just produced familiar head shaking.

Tonight was a formal night although I left the tux at home as the definition of formal has been softened quite a bit. A suit works fine. Terri looks spectacular here standing next to my Dad!

The evening entertainment was proceeded by the Captain introducing his executive staff. Decades of experience here. Most of the staff works behind the scenes but our cruise director, Kimberley, had a successful broadway career and is doing a great job in her role on the ship. She has the most interaction with the passengers on the ship.

The ship is like a tiny country operating in international waters. The difference between it and a real country is that there is someone to take responsibility for everything that happens on the ship and the people responsible own it. I have many complaints back home but reaching out to Joe Biden doesn’t seem to do anything. Maybe I should try Kamala.

The evening entertainment was the Zuiderdam singers and dancers. They performed a show called “In the Mood” that featured music from the 30s and 40s. Canned music was used but the house band backed up the rhythm section. I’m not sure why but I guess they were part of the show. The vocals were spot on and the dancing was excellent. I’m guessing that all in the group are in their 20s but most carried some extra baggage that I was surprised to see. They will be doing 18 different shows on this cruise.

Tomorrow we arrive in Tobago at 8am.…

Today we learned that Brazil has paused the Visa requirement until April. All of the work, stress, and money for nothing. I’m sure our money will be refunded since we don’t need the Visa. That’s what any good government agency would do. Later in the day we received a notice that  there will be no refund but the Visa is good for 10 years! Exciting news!

The Chinese Visa was another experience. Many of the countries that require a Visa also have a timeline that must be followed. An application can only be submitted so many days or months  in advance. For China, 6 months in advance for a 10 year Visa.

The Chinese Visa application is available online. It must be filled out online and submitted. Then an appointment must be made. The the applicant must print the application and hand it to a Chinese Consulate at the scheduled  appointment time. Where is the consulate? Chicago handles the midwestern states. We drove to Chicago in early October and showed up at our appointment time of 1 pm. Unfortunately, 40 others had the same 1 pm appointment time. We were given a number and a place to sit. The 3 consulate workers behind the glass windows behaved like typical government workers. There is really no one that they report to so they make up the rules as they go.

Out turn came at about 2:30. Efficient. I handed the consulate our application along with 2 copies of each of our passports and a signed agreement that everything is correct, by penalty of law. We also need two copies of our drivers license. This we didn’t have. There was a copy machine in the room but we had no change. Terri scrambled to find quarters. Someone in the room generously gave us some change. Back to the counter. Everything submitted. The consulate took our passports and application, wrapped it in a rubber band and put them both in a pile. “Ready next week.”

Huh?

Can’t you mail them to us?

“No”, said the consulate. 

We live near Detroit, I said.

“Have a friend pick them up”, said the consulate.

“Huh? What friend?”

 We nervously left our passports and I made plans to return the next week. Each Visa was $180. There are companies that will secure the Visa for you. $1000.00 plus the cost of the Visa. The train ride out to Chicago the next week went well. I felt better when I had the passports back in my hand.

Government at it’s finest.

After breakfast I went to the MainStage to listen to the presentation of the upcoming HAL excursions. Our first Port of Call is Tobago. We have a tee time at 10 am but I wanted to be sure we weren’t going to miss some great excursion.

Terri did some laps around the promenade.

Team trivia went well again. I think this is a winning combination. We missed 3 answers this time. We missed the nautical term RMS but did get the woman who moved in with Don Johnson when she was only 15 and the country that invented the suits on a standard deck of cards. Who knew? 

2nd place for our team.

We booked a regular table in the dining room that we will have for the rest of the cruise. Near the window. Great for sunsets.

We ran into Janet and her husband from the 2019 cruise. Janet was a regular on team trivia. Her husband was just an occasional player and it may take a few more days to remember his name.

The evening entertainment was Chris Ritchie promoted as one of the UK’s most sought after entertainers. Chris did impressions of some major male vocalists. Elvis, Neil Diamond, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck and Tony Bennett. He also sang “Old Man River” from Showboat. Good voice, great range. Nailed most of the vocalist styles. I thought his Tony Bennet was the weakest of all. While he sang he had photos of the musicians behind him. Nice touch but more were needed as they got old during the tune. The house band rocked. They are solid!

We finished the evening on the rear of the Lido with a deck of cards. Terri let me win. I’m up by one!…

Breakfast and then the gym. We did meet a couple that was on the African trip with us at breakfast. Mark and Marcia. We didn’t really know them well but we remembered that they were often on the winning team at team trivia.

It is very easy to over do it in the Lido. Everything you can imagine is offered and it is very fresh and very good. Lots of discipline required here.

The gym was adequate and very similar to the other HAL ships we have been on. It is common to see many members of the HAL dance team keeping in shape and they were there. Nothing like a 22 year old to remind you what you used to look like. The first few days we expected to see folks that will work out one day and never return. The ice cream station calls quite loudly in here.

We had lunch out by the pool. Beautiful day and nice to be in warm weather again. I happened to see Clare walk by and called him over. He was on the African cruise and was a part of our group trivia team. Terri asked if he was still homeless and he said that he now lived in near Reno. He almost appeared to be embarrassed that he was back with the “non-homeless” folks. He said he would join us for group trivia and that Kathy and LJ were on this cruise also. That leaves only Jose missing from the Africa team trivia group.

Team trivia went well and we scored 15 out of 17. We knew the element symbol for Mercury and the Ph of water but missed the author of the book Picture of Dorian Grey and the number of Lords a Leaping from the song the 12 days of Christmas. Number 12 is the only important one in my opinion. We did answer the Ostrich question correct after missing it numerous times in past trivia games. How many toes does an ostrich have on each foot? The winning team scored a perfect 17. 

After trivia we went to a Brush Stroke art class. I thought it may be similar to calligraphy but it was very different. I learned to use an ink calligraphy pen in my orchestra class at MSU. Our compositions had to written by hand, in ink. The computer program Finale was still decades away. I sat next to a young lady that appeared to be about 25. I asked here if she was one of the ship’s dancers. “No, I’m a guest”. I’m really not sure why she is on this cruise and what 25 year old has 4 months to spare to go on a world cruise. I did learn that she never learned cursive writing in school and she was surprised to learn that the computer I learned on in college took up the whole floor of a building, yet had less computing power than my cell phone. Terri did nice work here in this class. My art was as illegible as my handwriting.

The Starlink Internet is working fantastic. Finally an internet connection that is fast and stable. Hope this lasts for the rest of the trip. I think this is really going to change things as far as the clientele that is able to do the longer cruises. Maybe it is now possible to work remotely on the ship?

We had dinner in the main dining room and the food was outstanding. We did recognize and said hello to more folks that we have cruised with in the past. It’s really quite amazing that we are saying hello to folks that we haven’t seen in five years.

The evening entertainment was Brazilian Vocalist Camila Andrade. Wow. She performed classics from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Her cover of Girl from Ipanema was outstanding. Of course she sang the Original Portuguese version. What a difference. The house band accompanied her and they were outstanding. It appears that the entertainment is back to where it was pre-pandemic. I’m looking forward to rating all of the entertainment for the rest of the cruise. 10 here!…

Wednesday January 3, 2024

Thanks for joining us on another world cruise. 

Today we flew out of Detroit at 10:05. Our neighbor, Courtney, was kind enough to drop us off. 

It does take some thought to prepare for being away from home for 4 months. Mail (post office only holds for 30 days now), bills, taxes, yard. What do we shut off? What do we turn down? What stays on?

These are really the easy items. The real challenge is planning what we will do at each stop. About a year of planning is what we spend on doing this. Each stop has a HAL or third party excursion already booked or other plans such as hiking or snorkeling already made.

What to bring? The tendency is to over pack. This is especially true with clothing. A good portion of the trip will be in the southern hemisphere where summer has just started. Most of the day on the ship is in T shirt and shorts. Dinner is different. Nice attire is expected. The laundry turnover is fast so one could really get by with minimal casual and formal clothing. The days in port can be different. I expect it to be rather cold when we get to Japan and China as winter will be close to ending. I think we are prepared because it was 31 degrees when we left Detroit and the attire we wore will work on the coldest days of the trip.

Medication? Good luck getting your insurance company to cover 4 months of medicine up front. 

Visas? Which countries require them. It is the responsibility of each passenger to obtain all Visas that are necessary. The Brazil Visa proved to be the most challenging. Brazil made the decision to require those from the USA, Canada and Australia to obtain a Visa. This new requirement goes into effect on January 11, 2024. We arrive on January 10 so a Visa is definitely required. We knew about this requirement sometime in June. An e-visa will be required and the website that  handle this will open on December 2. On December 2, I applied for both of our Visas. Four items were required. A copy of the passport picture page, a photo that is 2” x 2”, a bank statement that is current and showed a balance of at least $2000.00, and prove of transportation to and from Brazil. Each item had to be in the correct format, jpg for photo, pdf for the other items and less than 1 mb each. The photo had to have a neutral background with no shadows on the face. It took many tries at uploading. If the file was too big, it would not upload. There were also other reasons the files wouldn’t up load but the reasons remained a mystery. The website was extremely buggy. I had more luck uploading from my phone than I did my computer. After many, many hours, all files were uploaded for both of us. As I later learned, this was no reason to believe that all requirements were met. I received an email from the visa service that Brazil hired that they needed a bank statement uploaded. Unfortunately, there is no one to argue with. I uploaded the same bank statement and then tried to call the visa company. No one answers the phone. I sent an email and received an automated response. “Someone would get with me in no more than 48 hrs”. I’m still waiting for them to do that. I even went on X and sent notes to whomever monitors. Lots of responses. Nothing helpful. No need to worry. The website states that the visa turnaround time is 5 days. Five days came and went. Nothing. There a website to check on the status. “Under Review” is what was next to our names for almost all of December. HAL was still insisting that if a passenger does not have a Brazilian Visa, the passenger cannot board the ship. A Facebook group for the HAL World Cruise showed that many, many, others were in the same situation. Many began to cancel the cruise or Brazilian Shore excursions. Our Visas finally did arrive a week before we left. HAL then decided that they would let all board and those who do not have a Visa for Brazil must stay on the ship. It’s nice when governments get involved in these kinds of things. Everyone is always happier.

Most of the passengers on these longer trips are very cautious. Those that live in the northern states tend to leave for Ft. Lauderdale days before the cruise starts. They are petrified that the ship will leave without them if they are late. There is the chance of a snow storm or bad weather that may delay the flight but just the same we left the day of the trip. All aboard is 4:30 pm and we land at 1:20.

The airport is close to Port Everglades. Planes fly right over the port. As we expected, we were virtually alone at the HAL desk in the airport. The clerk called for a bus and we were on the bus to the Zuiderdam with one other couple. They were sailing on the Eurodam. The cruise ship terminal was empty and it only took a few minutes to check in.

When we arrived at our room, one bag that we had shipped on December 14 was waiting for us. Golf Clubs. 2 more bags arrived in a few hours. The 4th bag required a visit to security. Someone tried to smuggle in a garment steamer. This item is clearly not allowed and was taken for the duration of the cruise. Shame.

The sail away party was on the Lido deck at 4:30 pm. We met Joe and Ann from the Grand Africa Cruise and also Nancy and Stan from the 2019 World Cruise and the Grand Africa Cruise. Later we bumped into Richard from the Grand Africa Cruise. Richard is good at team trivia and we already made plans to join him in the Crow’s Nest on Thursday.

The ship didn’t leave at 4:30 as planned. Some of the HAL personnel said they were waiting for 2 truckloads …

If you enjoy reading our blogs we are happy to take you on board again. If you are somehow receiving this and do not wish to, you can delete your name from the registry. If you want to comment on anything, you need to make one comment and wait for it to be approved. If I don’t operate this way you will see constant spam postings selling everything imaginable. Once approved, comment at will.

I began blogging our trips during our first world cruise in 2019. I am so surprised on how often I refer back to the blogs because I don’t remember if we have actually been somewhere. This is why I do this. The memory just does not operate like it used to.

This 127 day cruise is very different from 2019. It leaves from Ft. Lauderdale on January 3, 2024. We head South toward Devil’s Island and then around the eastern coast of South America to the Amazon. We will travel into the Amazon and make 6 stops in Brazil and turn around and sail back out toward the Atlantic. Back up the coast to the Gulf of Mexico we make stops in Granada and Curacao before heading to the Panama Canal.

Once through the canal, we make a stop in Costa Rica and two stops in Mexico. From Puerto Villarta, Mexico we head north for a 6 day trip to Hawaii. 3 stops in Hawaii and then 7 more days up to Guam and Saipan. 3 more days of travel up to Japan where we make 6 stops over 12 days.

China is relatively close and after a day of sailing we make 4 stops over 11 days. Next is Southeast Asia. Two stops in Viet Nam, then Singapore for two days. Sri Lanka is next followed by India and then to the Middle East. 3 stops in the United Arab Emirates and 2 stops in Oman. 1 stop in Egypt and then to Jordan. Up the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean. 3 stops in Israel have been eliminated. Maybe another time.

Greece is next and then 4 stops in Turkey. 2 more stops in Greece and then off to Italy, Spain and then Portugal. From Portugal we head across the Atlantic and back to Ft. Lauderdale.

22 countries, 127 days

Luggage is sent from our house right to our room on the ship. Luggage was picked up today. 3 very full bags and both sets of clubs in one golf bag. Terri is bringing a Sunday Bag and it fit nicely next to mine.

We are again on the Holland America Line (HAL) and the ship is the Zuiderdam. Our room is at the back of the ship facing the rear and we have a balcony. We are on the Upper Verandah Deck which is deck 6. Close to the dining room and far from the gym. The gym is right above the bridge and the views from the treadmills are spectacular.

A very long time was taken planning each day in port. All days are covered. Most are 3rd party excursions booked through Trip Advisor, Viator, or Tours with Locals. We do have some HAL excursions but we try our best to avoid those. The HAL excursions are rated easy to strenuous but you would never guess that with the people that are on them. Too slow for us.

We are planning to play golf. Jordan for sure. Maybe Hawaii, Guam, and India. Can’t book a tee time this far out.

Internet is fascinating out at sea and the speed limits the amount of photos I can upload. The ship is supposed to have Star Link. Let’s see if that makes a difference.

…

At Sea

December 18 and 19, 2022

The final two days involved the logistics of packing and organizing for our final day. There is not much time on Tuesday as we arrive at 7 am and are to exit at 8:15 am.

We had dinner with Joe and Anne on Saturday night. They have the World Cruise booked in 2024. On Sunday night we had dinner with Bill and Nancy, Jim and Lois. They traveled together on this trip. The men are ready to do it again but the women are not sold. Nancy said she would do another long cruise if she could fly home once a month, spend time with family, then return. I got the feeling that Jim and Lois could easily sign up for another long one. Everyone agreed that independent shore excursions would have been a better idea and would have made the trip more fun.

We had are final team trivia and brought a bottle of champagne to celebrate.

Richard will be going back to Missouri and then he has a long cruise on the Cunard line. Clare is booked on the 90 or so day Australian Cruise in early January and will only have a few weeks back in Salt Lake City. Kathy and LJ will be doing the same cruise and will return to Oregon and Washington just long enough to pack again. Jose will be heading back to Top of the World in Florida. My guess is that he will book another cruise very soon. We had lots of laughs with these folks and enjoyed the company.

We are looking forward to seeing our family and friends again. Time for home!

…

San Juan, Puerto Rico

December 17, 2022

We arrived to the San Juan port at 8 am. It had been raining since we finished breakfast but the weather report only called for a small chance of rain and it was beginning to let up.

We left the ship shortly after clearance was granted and we went into customs. Completely hassle free. Why was I surprised?

We took the shuttle into the old town area. Our plan was to do a walking tour and then grab an Uber out to the golf course.

The rain started up again and we stayed dry under the roof of the nearby theater. Since we were carrying our cleats and other golf items, Who has room for umbrellas? We waited for the rain to let up a bit and started our walk. After snapping some photos we went into a drug store and bought some umbrellas. The rain wasn’t going to stop for quite a while. We called the course and cancelled. It would be miserable to try and play.

One of the first stops on the walking tour was an open market area where vendors were just beginning to set up shop. I did speak with a gentlemen who rolled cigars right at his table. He said he would continue when the rain stopped. I told him I was visit him later. We walked though the shop are and the rain made it rather difficult.

San Juan is very clean and very friendly. There were other ships in port and the streets were crowded. As the day wore on, they became even more crowded. The rain eventually stopped. We stopped in a little restaurant for lunch and then continued our walking tour. Somehow, we ended up in the Don Collins Cigar shop. We sat inside and I sampled a cigar and we tasted different infused rum. The passion fruit was our favorite. I bought a box of rum infused cigars and we left.

Puerto Rico is rather fascinating. We took control in 1898 after the Spanish American War. I’m not sure why it isn’t a state but if Hawaii is then Puerto Rico should be.

We spent all day wandering the streets. The rain made it more difficult but we still had a great time. We did stop back at the market and I went back to the cigar maker. I talked with the worker at the stall about a deal on a box. I would buy a box but wanted to try them first. He gave me a price but it wasn’t the same as the owner quoted me in the morning. He pointed to the owner who was out of the market area puffing on one of his hand rolled cigars. “Go talk to him”, the worker said. I purchased one cigar and went to talk to the owner. I asked for a light and he offered his lighter. We had a few laughs and we bartered a bit. He ended up giving me a good price. I went back to the table and bought a box.

We boarded the shuttle back to the ship about 4 pm. The city was just starting to wake up and many areas had stages for live musicians. We decided that this is another area that we would return to and spend more time.

Everyone aboard is preparing for Ft. Lauderdale on Tuesday morning. We will pack the 4 bags that we will ship home on Monday and leave them outside our door. The crew will place them out on the dock and we will grab them as we pass through customs. We will each have a bag to check on the plane and a backpack. The 4 large bags we will drop off at the fedex truck on the dock. It is really such a simple operation. The service HAL uses is called Luggage Forward and we already have the tags to go on our bags. A HAL bus will then take us to the Miami airport. Our flight is about 1 pm.

I’m glad I continue to write this blog. We really have a difficult time remember all that we have done, even on this trip. We can look at pictures and say “oh yeah” but where was it taken and what did we do? The blog makes it much easier. This kind of travel takes a lot of planning but is really a great way to see the world. Your “home” comes with you and you look forward to seeing the ship after every day of sightseeing.

Sunday and Monday at sea. One more time change and we are back on EST.…

at Sea

December 16, 2022

Another day at sea and we have started to pack. Final laundry drop off is today.

Last stop tomorrow in San Juan. Forecast calls for rain. Not sure about golf.

We need to have a zero count on the ship tomorrow so that means everyone has to get off and go through immigration before anyone can get back on. That shouldn’t be a problem for us. We are leaving early.

We were invited to the Mariners Society appreciation lunch today at 1. We already feel appreciated so we had lunch in the Lido and then group trivia at 1.

We laugh harder than any group at trivia because we can come up with the most creative responses to questions that no one has a clue on. The phobia questions are the best. I didn’t realize there were so many fears.

My date in the dining room.

The evening entertainment was musician Craig Richard. He played tenor sax, piano and guitar. He also sang and the house band backed him up. He was an adequate instrumentalist and his vocals were ok. Terri flashed a 2 again. I gave him a 5.…

at Sea

December 15, 2022

Another nice day through the Atlantic. Ship is rolling consistently through the voyage across. Temperature near 80 each day.

The Captain made an announcement at about 10 am. Maritime officials said there was a reported capsize of a yacht. There was some debris that we had passed about 30 minutes ago and we were turning around to investigate. Once we arrived at the site the Captain and crew realized the debris had been in the water for sometime as there was growth of algae. We were turning around again.

4 to 5 hours had passed and the Captain announced that the people on the capsized yacht, now swimming in the ocean, had all been rescued by another craft.

We talked today about the number of countries we have visited. For some reason I thought it would be more than 63. Looks like we have some work to do

visited 63 countries (28%) 

I started a new book called Cabin Fever. It is all about this ship, the Zaandam and it’s Captain and what happened as the ship sailed during the beginning of the pandemic. The Captain said that he has not read it as he doesn’t want to relive it. The ship was on a South America voyage and was turned away from port after port as the virus broke out on the ship.

We have a tee time at noon on Saturday at the Bayamon Golf Course in San Juan. We arrive at 8 am and this should give us plenty of time to grab an Uber to get there. It is about 20 mins from the port.

I hope US customs goes smoothly here. Something tells me that it may not.…

at Sea

December 14, 2022

Ship still rocking makes for an interesting gym day. As the ship rises the impact of the weight seems to double. Free weights are a little dangerous, machines no problem. Treadmill becomes fascinating.

We sat next to two musicians from the BB King Allstar band. I asked the trumpet player where he learned to play. “Middle school” was his response. I laughed and I said that you are obviously classically trained and he did mention school back in Dallas. He does have a music education degree. I gave them both loads of compliments and they thanked me and we left for trivia.

Our trivia group now just shows up for laughs because most of the answers we give are just gag answers as we have no knowledge of the subject.

I started to pack one bag with the things that we brought that we will no longer use. Fins, snorkel, fins, insecticide, waterproof phone cases. One of the large bags completely packed.

Last day for laundry drop off is Friday. We are trying to organize what we will be shipping home and what goes in the bags we take to the airport. Not really a big deal but we don’t want to ship something we know we will need right away when we get home. Backs may take up to 2 weeks to be shipped home.

The evening entertainment was comedian John Joseph. He really connected with the audience because he was a similar age. He talked a lot about what happens when you age. A great show. 10…

at Sea

December 13, 2022

The great thing about traveling west are the time changes. 4 time changes across the Atlantic. That means four 25 hour days. Those are easy to handle.

The Captain had a question and answer session today on the world stage. Surprisingly he was asked some very good questions. One was the fee for getting through the Suez Canal. $400,000. Is cash used to pay for any of the port fees. Not usually he said but Africa was very different. Everyone was asking for money or “gifts”. One even asked for “American Cigarettes”. Did he get them? No. Everything about Africa was very different according to the Captain. A passenger asked why we had to miss a port because of the tide as tide tables are published years in advance. He acknowledged that and said because of the pandemic, ship schedules were cancelled and added back at different times and the tides did not match. The Captain said he knew that he could not get into that port before we even left Ft. Lauderdale.

Team trivia was a bit different today. Erica had asked for questions from all players. 2 maximum per room. She put them in a box and pulled them at random. They were harder than hers. My wasn’t pulled. Which musical instrument consistently reads the also clef. I doubt that there were any violists in the room but one can never tell. We did very poorly but so did everyone else. Some teams had two member questions pulled. We had none.

The evening entertainment. The BB King All Stars. They just came aboard back in Cape Verde. Wow. Fantastic. Male and Female lead singers, tpt and tenor sax, rhythm and bass guitar pianist and drummer. The drummer was exceptional.The female lead did covers of Midnight Train to Georgia, I Will Survive and Proud Mary. The male lead looked like a young Sammy Davis Jr and covered September, Soul Man, and some Stevie Wonder. Best band we have heard on the trip. 10

After the show, we sat and listened to the ocean bar band. Pianist/vocalist can sing but needs some major mic intervention. The bassist/vocalist is very good. The rhythm guitarist only knows one kind of style in solos Every solo is a rock solo with bent notes.He plays in the “how many notes can I play in a 32 bar solo” style. Its kind of a turn off when you are dancing to Spanish Eyes and he breaks into a note bender solo.

…

at Sea

December 12, 2022

We are heading due west across the Atlantic. Our final stop, San Juan, Puerto Rico seems to be in a direct line from our final port, Cabo Verde. I can’t help but think that this was the route the slaves ships took to get to the West Indies.

The Atlantic is so much rougher than the Pacific, or any other ocean we have been in. The Captain said the huge rolling waves come from opposite directions here causing all of the motion we experience on the ship.

We received a warning about low internet band width in this area. We have even lost some television but it only seems to be Fox News that disappears.

The ship came to what appeared to be a dead stop today. The Captain said there was a scheduled “part swap out” that was planned for the port side engine. We were running on the starboard side engine only. It took a bit longer than planned but he assured passengers that there was no need to worry.

We tied for first in team trivia today scoring an unbelievable 20. “What was the original name of the game twister?” No one had an answer and I saw that Terri wrote down “limb pretzel”. Hilarious answer I thought. The answer? “Pretzel”. Terri is now quite famous amongst trivia players.

The ship sommelier, Rod, had planned a 5 course Italian dinner in the Canaletto Restaurant. It comes with 5 paired wines. The dinner was at 6:30 and we were already hungry when we sat down. We both thought the dinner was fair compared to what we get in the main dining room. Stuff I don’t normally eat. Egg plant, lobster, and scallops. Terris just touched on these. I passed. The wine didn’t help me but Terri said it was good. The main course of beef was very good. Rod kept checking to make sure I was finishing my wine. Some went into Terri’s glass. The dessert was good but I was so full of wine I didn’t enjoy it as much as I normally do.

We decided to play golf in San Juan. No tee time yet. Very difficult to make a wifi call when the internet is so unstable.…

Móndelo, Ilha De Sao Vicente, Cabo Verde

December 11, 2022

Our scheduled tour today was cancelled by Green Line Tours and we had no replacement. We decide we would hike up Monte Verde. Only 5.6 miles but the terrain was unknown.

We pulled into the port at 8 am and were cleared to go ashore shortly after. Our room safe would not open and there were items that we needed. We waited about 30 minutes for security to open it and off we went.

We took the HAL shuttle into town. Maybe a mile ride and we realized that passengers could walk in this port. We will do that when we return.

After exiting the bus, we went to find an ATM to get some local currency. USD are not widely accepted here and I was out of the more commonly accepted euros. We found a bank and withdrew $20,000 escudos or about $20.

I felt we needed this money in case we didn’t want to walk back down or the hike was too difficult.

The first part of the trip was a winding road through neighborhoods. The farther up the mountain we went, the more trash and dilapidated buildings we passed.

These photos were taken in town before the hike. There was really nothing else to take a photo of until we got to the top.

About 30 or more minutes into the hike up, the road ended. I expected this but I didn’t expect it to end in the midst of more buildings. The path went around and between buildings were people lived. I saw many carrying jugs of water up to their homes. It became quite dangerous because of the condition of the path we were on. We decide to backtrack a bit to a main road and hail a cab. The ride up was worth the view.

We took our photos and had the driver take us to town. It was lunch time and we would go to a market to buy more Pontxe and wine and coffee and then head to a restaurant.

Cape Verde or Cabo Verde to locals produces a coffee bean that is grown on Fogo Island which has a very active volcano. The supply is limited and it is expensive back home. $30 a pound. Fortunately, you can buy it here for $5 a pound.

We found a restaurant and decided we would try the local dish, Cachupa. A mixture of beans, sausage, tomatoes, egg and chicken. Delicious!

We finished lunch and headed back to the ship. We were able to get a bottle of wine and a bottle of Pontxe through security yesterday. We are going to try again. Usually it will be taken and stored or a corkage fee is charged. No problem yesterday and today was no issue either.

Back on the ship was a sail away party on the sea view deck. The ocean bar band played and free wine and cheese was served.

The Indonesian staff interrupted the band to play some pop number where they all danced. They all seemed to know it and they all joined in.

Jeremy Hales, our cruise director, came and spoke with us for a few minutes about the trip. He is really nice and does a nice job but he needs to relax a bit on stage.

The evening entertainment was comedian Gabe Abelson. Not stop laughs for me. He did some impressions. Carson, Dangerfield, Seinfeld. All very good. He is from LA and just came aboard yesterday. I gave him a 9. Terri flashed me a 2. …

Praia, Cape Verde

December 10, 2022

Today we pulled into port at 7 am. The tour company I was working with sent a message late last night. They were willing to do an afternoon tour for us starting at 1:30 pm. This would work well for us as most of the tours left early and we would have less tourist traffic.

We decided to visit Praia after the ship docked. This city impressed us with cleanliness. More so then most of the stops along the African coast. The city was first settled by the Portuguese in the 15 century. It did not have enough vegetation to begin a colony but it did have a valley that had running fresh water. Soon, plants were brought from Portugal to see what would survive in this area. This was the beginning of the colonization. Slaves were brought over from the African continent to provide the labor needed. Independence was won in 1975.

Tourism provides much to the economy. Most tourists are from Europe and specifically Germany. Weather is very stable year round and the island is beautiful.

We walked to the main market of the city. Partially covered. We passed the head of a recently butchered cow on the sidewalk and its body was in the back of a pickup truck. Interesting stuff but nothing said “buy me”.

We toured the downtown on our own and then took the shuttle bus back to the ship to enjoy lunch. After lunch we walked to the port gate where we met our guide.

Damaris took us to the neighboring Cidade Velha. This is where the valley with the water is and where civilization on this island began.

We did pass a University on the way. Compliments of China.

Great tour of this city. We met some of the family of our guide and did see some boys do a dance for us.

We stopped in a cafe for some local drinks.

at Sea

December 9, 2022

We left the continent of Africa last night and are on our way to the Cape Verde Islands. Too far to make it in one day so we are traveling very slowly, 10 knots, as to get there on Friday.

We had an independent tour booked but when I pressed the tour operator about it being a private tour, she cancelled and said the minimum number of people was not met. I’ll do some research and we will figure something out.

The gym was interesting with the large swells we were experiencing at such a slow speed.

I missed Jeremy’s talk about Cape Verde. I will watch it on tv to get ideas on what to see in Cape Verde.

The ship has a safety protocol it must follow every 30 days. Just means that you have to report to your muster station and check in. Very easy to do.

We picked up passports again. Not sure where we will need them. Maybe the USA?

Our group is the loudest at team trivia because of all of the laughing. Richard can’t hear anything but is full of great answers. People who can’t hear always speak very loudly. The team next to us can hear him quite well.

We played a round of scategories at 7 since we had already seen the act on the World Stage. There were only two teams and we won by a large margin. Why just answer ring when you can say royal red ring and get 3 points?

My last message with tour provider was at 9 pm. We will see what happens in the morning.…

Dakar, Senegal

December 8, 2022

Today we are to meet our guide at 9:30 am. I sent him a note and told him we were in port at 9 am and were awaiting immigration. His response was that he was already here and would have a sign with my name on it. When we got off of the ship I saw no such sign. I asked if he was inside or outside the port. No response. We walked the short distance to the port gate and found no one with a sign with my name. I called three times and he finally answered. He was back by the ship. Time wasted.

Our tour for today was Goree, an island off of the coast. This is where most of the slaves that came to the Americas were forced on to ships. The island was first controlled by the Portuguese and then by Dutch, English and French. Those countries fought over control of this island.

Goree had 28 slave houses. In the houses, the slave masters lived upstairs and the slaves were kept in cells on the first floor. The slaves were brought here by different warring tribes in Africa. One tribe would conquer another and then bring the most difficult ones to the slave market and sell them. Slave masters prized big and strong men, children with good teeth and women with large breasts. If a man was considered underweight he would be put in a different cell and fed until he gained weight. In this way, the slave masters maximized profits. Very few, if any slaves were from Senegal. Most slaves came from Nigeria and Angola.

The red structures were built by the Portuguese, the yellow by the Dutch and the white by the French.

The cannons in the pictures below were put there by the French and used in WWII. The only documented instance of usage was mistakenly sinking a British ship. Our guide said these were the guns used in the movie the Guns of Navarrone. I couldn’t find anything to support this.

We toured the island and then took the ferry back to Dakar. Once there we walked over to the market area.

Very crowded and reminiscent of other markets we have seen. The Pullman Hotel seemed like a nice way to finish the tour. We stopped for some refreshments and then walked back to the ship.

We watched the ship leave the port as we enjoyed dinner. Team trivia and discussions of our activities with our other team members. Entertainment was a film on the main stage. We opted to skip.…

At Sea

December 7, 2022

Another day at Sea. Since we missed a previously planned stopped, we are moving faster than normal to reach Port of Dakar at the right time. We had breakfast with Jim and Bill. I think thee wives have had it with the ship people on the tours. Thankfully we are able to avoid most of the HAL tours.

Team trivia has been going better than ever. Maybe Erica is making it easier. She created “trivia for elementary schoolers”, just to see if we could keep up. She had questions from first grade, second grade and so on. An elementary question she gave was a music question. Is an oboe a brass or wind instrument. A brass instrument is a wind instrument and so is an oboe. I think she meant to say brass or woodwind. I did mention that to her but I just got a blank stare. LJ argued with me quite a bit. She was a trumpet player, don’t ya know. “Brass is not a wind instrument”, she said. I laughed and tried to explain winds, percussion, strings. Winds can be broken down into brass, woodwinds, upper woodwinds, double reeds. It’s hard to argue with a trumpet player. Of course we said oboe and got it right but I would have argued for brass also.

We had dinner in the Pinnacle with Anne and Joe. They are brother and sister and have been traveling together for a few years. Joe lost his wife some years ago and Anne her husband. They grew up in Cleveland and also went to Bowling Green University. We had a lot to share and had a lot of laughs. I had a few calls during dinner about a tour we were trying to set up for tomorrow. I finally did reach him and we set up a tour for 9:30 am.

It was PJ’s birthday so we did a FaceTime call before going to bed. The grandkids are growing up too fast. PJ did a demonstration on his new violin. Good for him!…

At Sea

December 6, 2022

The internet is very unstable in this part of the world. The satellite television and internet were down all morning. It’s nice to get the current news but this morning it was next to impossible.

Breakfast behind Miss Muffins again today. She seems to have a consistent following but still insults all of them. This morning she listened to a woman talk about her grandson. Judging from the appearance of this woman, her grandson would probably be in his 20s. Like any grandparent, this woman began to brag about all of what her grandson has accomplished in his home city of London. Miss Muffins couldn’t tolerate that kind of talk and proceeded to ask about the women in his life. “So he is a momma’s boy”, Muffins said. The woman began to defend her grandson but Muffins stood up and said, “He’s a momma’s boy”, and then left.

It was fun to get back to team trivia. Jose told me that he is really going to miss being on the ship and was making plans to book another cruise. Kathy and LJ have already booked others. Clare keeps commenting how liberating the homeless life was and I think he will get back to that life after this cruise. 6 plastic totes and an SUV was all he owned for 7 years prior to his knee surgery.

Who recorded the tune Red, Red, Wine? I was sure it was Bob Marley but it turned out to be Neil Diamond. The UB40 version sounds just like Bob Marley and it is often attributed to him. It was a good round for us and we have more laughs than any group regardless of our score. I made up for my musical failure with my knowledge of Ar on the periodic table. My answer to the question of “What is it called when a therapist use art to help someone”? Art therapy. Over ruled. The answer? Art therapy.

Dinner was a “dressy night”. It used to be that cruise ships would require this kind of dress at dinner. Now even the special nights like this have no requirement. I think the way someone dresses really says a lot about them. Mom taught me this one. I’ve heard all of the excuses. Uncomfortable, too much trouble, don’t want to get them dirty. We have been to some of the poorest countries on the planet and the majority of the people are better dressed when they are walking down the street than in most places in the USA. Men in suits walking to work in 90 degree heat and very humid weather. Women in nice dresses and heels doing the same. At dinner, there is a mixture of dressy and sloppy. We’ve lost something.

The evening entertainment was vocalist Rebecca Kelly. She was part comedian and vocalist. The vocals were very strong. Worthy of a 10. She covered Adele and even Frank Sinatra. The humor could have been left out. More of physical comedian and that added nothing. She came out in what look like an over sized man’s suit. It appeared to be 4 times her size. I kept thinking she was going to take off the suit to show that it was just a joke. We saw here later when we were playing cards on the Lido. She had a nice dress on. I don’t get it. I would drop the attempt at comedy and stick with the vocals.

Another sea day tomorrow and then a stop in Senegal. We are doing a walking tour on our own. We have two more ports, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, and then we start to head back across the Atlantic. …