Random thoughts from the sea
Days 128-132, 2026 Grand World Voyage Monday to Friday, May 11-15, 2026; Panama Canal and Cartagena, Colombia. Just as we seem to be racing across the Caribbean at 18 knots toward Fort Lauderdale, the time is racing by as we come to the end of this 133-day cruise (plus the
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Days 123-126, 2026 Grand World Voyage Wednesday to Saturday, May 6-9, 2026; Manzanillo and Puerto Chiapas, Mexico, and Acajutla, El Salvador. Tiny El Salvador isn’t even a blip when it comes to cruise visitors in Central America. El Salvador accounted for just 0.1 percent of total cruise ship arrivals in
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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
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Days 111-114, 2026 Grand World Voyage Friday to Monday, April 24-27, 2026; Kodiak, Sitka and Ketchikan, Alaska. Alaska is a special place to cruise. Majestic mountains with snow-covered caps, dense evergreen forests, dozens of rocky islands and if you’re lucky, plenty of sea life, wildlife and even bald eagles. It
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Days 5-9, 2026 Grand World Voyage Thursday to Monday, Jan. 8-12, 2026; Barbados and Belem, Brazil. Despite being distinctly (at least to my eyes) not on the Amazon River, Belém, Brazil, is considered by many to be the gateway to the Amazon. I’m guessing it achieves that distinction because the
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Days 9-14, 2025 Caribbean Holiday Monday to Saturday, Dec. 29, 2025-Jan. 3, 2026; Saint Lucia, Sint Maartin, Antigua, Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. This week proves I’m the party pooper on this cruise. While we’ve celebrated Christmas, New Year’s and just the fun of the Caribbean, I’ve tended
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Days 1-8, 2025 Caribbean Holiday Sunday to Sunday, Dec. 21-28, 2025; U.S. Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and Martinique. At 6:38 a.m. on Christmas morning, I was the only person in the Crow’s Nest on the MS Volendam. It’s a new cruise on a different ship, and even after
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Days 116-122, 2025 Grand World Voyage Wednesday to Tuesday, April 20-May 6, 2025; At Sea and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our last port sunset of the cruise was a stunner, adding to the awe, beauty and even nostalgia of this 124-day cruise. As we leave San Juan, Puerto Rico, we
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Day 5, 2025 Grand World Voyage Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025; Puerto Limón, Costa Rica. Five days in and we’re settling into a routine on the world cruise. To be honest, my routine doesn’t change greatly from cruise to cruise, but – like a new year – there’s something about the
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Day 14, 2024 Holiday Tropical Caribbean Friday, Jan. 3, 2025; Half Moon Cay, Bahamas My social media is full of excited posts from friends who will be joining the MS Zuiderdam tomorrow for Holland America’s 2025 Grand World Voyage. Part of me misses being at the Fort Lauderdale hotel where
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