Setting Off to Sail the World — If Not to Circle the Globe

Days 1-4, 2026 Grand World Voyage

Sunday to Wednesday, Jan. 4-7, 2026; Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and At Sea.

Describe Heaven: Starting a cruise with three sea days!

After months of almost non-stop port days, I’ve looked forward to the 133-day 2026 Grand World Voyage, with its stretches of lazy sea days between continents and more distant ports.

Well, lazy maybe isn’t the word, as Holland America seems determined to give us multiple activities for every hour of the day and evening. Already I’ve hearing some mild belly-aching from those who face the difficult choices between lectures, art classes and other activities scheduled at the same time. In essence, summer camp for old folks.

While other world cruises may not circle the globe, to my knowledge this is the first time Holland America won’t achieve that goal. Our original route for the 2026 world cruise did, by transiting the Red Sea and Suez Canal into the Mediterranean and Northern Europe before returning to Florida.

But with drone attacks having closed the Red Sea to cruise traffic, the only options were to go around Africa – again, for the fourth year – or not circle the globe. So, we will sail down the Atlantic Coast of South America to Antarctica, and then make a giant circle of the Pacific – in essence, a Grand Asia cruise (see 2017 and 2018) on steroids.

A grand world cruise starts with an air of excitement that I’ve not experienced on other cruises. First-time world cruisers arrive with a sense of anticipation of the unknown. Veterans seek familiar faces of passengers and crew.

As they all near the gangway to the ship, the captain, hotel general manager, senior officers and staff form a long receiving line. I missed all that, because having been on the previous cruise I was already on board. The 30-or-so of us who were continuing on gathered earlier to go ashore together, passing through U.S. Immigration in the terminal and returning to the ship.

When new passengers started arriving, my sister Elaine and I formed our own two-person receiving line on the ship side of the gangway to greet returning friends.

All day long we watched forklifts load luggage and provisions, while a dive team spent the day and evening working on an underwater bow thruster. We didn’t leave Fort Lauderdale until after 11 p.m., but before sunset we partied on the Sea View Deck while watching the other half-dozen ships in port leave for their week-long Caribbean runs.

Back in our new cabin (we moved from the holiday cruise), we had a plethora of gift cards and notes, along with some fresh flowers. We spent a couple of days settling in and finding places for everything we brought.

On our first dressy night, the captain introduced his senior team. Many of them are new to the Grand World Voyage, having been assigned to the grand pole-to-pole last year. They tend to stay with a ship, but after three years on the larger Zuiderdam, the world cruise has moved to the Volendam.

One very familiar face to me is Jonah, the front desk manager, who became a good friend during my summer and fall on the Nieuw Statendam. She knows I love to see the tally of passengers by passport and delivered it to me. The current tally for the 1,011 passengers is:

757 — United States

115 — Canada

36 — United Kingdom

32 — Australia

14 — Netherlands

9 – Poland

6 — Germany

5 – Mexico

4 – Brazil, China

3 – Spain, India, Italy, Jamaica

2 – Chile, Denmark, France, Ireland, Sweden, Slovakia

1 – Argentina, Colombia, Hong Kong, Croatia, Romania

We celebrated during a Caribbean Islands party on the Lido Deck. Our crazy captain, Rens van Eerten, and hotel manager, Glen Cowley, kicked things off by jumping into the pool on the flamingo pool floats. Meanwhile, the Dam Band provided music for dancing.

What ports most excite me? I have my fingers crossed that we will make the Falkland Islands, which I have missed twice due to rough seas. I booked a day with the penguins there. If our timing is right, we’ll be in Japan for the cherry blossoms, at least in some ports. And I’ll leave the ship in Singapore for a three-day overland tour to Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

We’ll meet up in Sydney with Holland America’s Zaandam and many friends on it. Originally, I had booked its Grand Australia and New Zealand cruise, but switched to the world cruise early in 2025. El Salvador will be my only new country.

Whatever happens, it promises to be an adventure!