Sunny Seattle Kicks Off Week of Partying with Corporate Bigwigs

Days 116-120, 2026 Grand World Voyage

Wednesday to Sunday, April 29-May 3, 2026; Seattle, San Diego and at Sea.

While the days of truly grand special events during a Holland America world cruise are in the past (think a private evening at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam or at the foot of the Library of Celsus in Ephesus, Turkey), tradition still holds that at some point in the cruise Holland America’s top brass will come aboard for a few days and host a special event.

This year Holland America President Beth Bodensteiner and her senior team joined us in Seattle, the cruise line’s hometown, and stayed until we left the U.S. west coast in San Diego. They brought along an 11-piece band that kept us out of our seats and dancing during An Evening in Hollywood.

Phat Cat Swinger describes itself as a “little-big band,” but there was nothing little about its sound. Nonstop energy as they moved from swing to pop to rock to jazz. The bass player actually played while standing on top of his large string instrument. (I hear he also took his bass to the pickleball court and played while standing on it.)

The formal night capped a special evening for me that started with my formal induction into the President’s Club. It is the top loyalty tier for those with 1,400 actual sailing days on Holland America. When I went on my first cruise in 1993, I had no idea it would become a way of life.

In Seattle on Wednesday, we were lucky to dock at Pier 66 right in the middle of town instead of Pier 91, Holland America’s usual spot farther away. It was a stunningly sunny day with hardly a cloud in the sky, which made for a spectacular sail-away party on the aft deck. Because Holland America’s corporate office is in Seattle, its headquarters employees held a parallel party on a nearby rooftop.

A nearby elevator made it an easy walk earlier in the day from the ship to the iconic Pike Place Market, where tourists abound watching fishmongers toss fish over their heads, shopping for all kinds of produce, flowers and souvenirs and indulging in food and drinks.

We slowly made our way back down the hill to the waterfront, where we joined a couple of dozen friends at the Crab Pot on Miner’s Landing Pier 57. Many of us opted the seafood feast — a bucket of steamed Dungeness and snow crab, shrimp, mussels, clams, oysters, potatoes, corn on the cob, Andouille sausage, etc., chased down by local beer. Those not quite so hungry raved about the grilled halibut.

Another highlight of the annual visit by Holland America’s president is her announcement of itineraries for the world cruise and a concurrent shorter grand cruise two years hence – this time starting in early 2028. This year the audience seemed somewhat let down by the 2028 world cruise plans, because it essentially repeats the first three months of our current world cruise and ends with the same six-week segment from last year.

I’m sure the plan will please those who haven’t taken a world cruise before. It will include bucket-list cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aries, Sydney, Singapore and Cape Town, plus Antarctica, Easter and Pitcairn Islands, Tahiti, the Great Barrier Reef and Bali. And for 2028 this year’s two New Zealand ports are expanded to six.

But the world cruise passengers who go almost every year — visited all these places in the past 12 months — were hoping for some new ports, such as the Philippines or India. So instead many of us who already had placed a deposit on the 2028 world cruise are reluctantly switching to the shorter Grand Australia/New Zealand cruise instead.

We ended our Pacific Coast adventure in San Diego on Sunday, with a totally new cruise experience for me. As we have visited this city and seen the sights several times over the years, Elaine and I Ubered to a mall movie theater and watched the late-morning matinee of The Devil Wears Prada 2. I thought it was just about as funny as the first one and loved seeing all the characters back after 20 years.

San Diego also brought another sail-away party – this time with some friends who booked just the last two weeks back to Florida. Deb rejoined after leaving in February and brought her sister Jerri along. Jett and Kelly surprised everyone, having sworn even our travel agent to secrecy. The only sad thing is that some friends on since early January left.

I refuse to accept the fact that sometime in the next two weeks I will have to pack.