Sailing to Belem, Brazil, and the Mouth the Mighty Amazon

After departing Barbados, we had two days at sea to take part in the many ship activities, look over our Caribbean pictures, and to prepare for Brazil.  By now we are settling into the routine of life at sea as well as meeting our new neighbors on the Amsterdam.

We are all finding our things we enjoy doing individually as well as those we enjoy doing together.  I tend to get up early and go out do laps around the deck, usually walking at least three miles before breakfast while Barb prefers to do her laps in the early afternoon.  We’re all enjoying attending the cultural and scientific lectures whenever we can.  They enrich our visits to the ports of call, giving us a better understanding of the cultures, history, geography, and weather conditions.  Barb has gotten involved with the HAL (Holland America Line) Chorale, directed by our cruise director, Bruce Scudder.  They will put on at least a couple and maybe more, concerts for the ship later in the cruise.  Pam is finding the light exercise program, Qi Gong, to be refreshing.  She is trying her hand at watercolor, plans to attend Digital Workshops to help her download and sort her pictures on the computer, and occasionally attends team trivia events as well.   Al, an avid golfer at home, is enjoying playing bridge in the afternoon and poker after the evening performances.   And of course, both Barb and I are spending time working on our blog and applying a sampling of pictures to be included in them.

Barb, Pam, and I attend the Good Morning Amsterdam sessions each morning.  It’s a light audience participation interview program that goes off in different directions.  On Wednesday, they asked how many were teachers.  Of course, the three of us raised our hands.  When Pam said she had taught freshman English in high school, Bruce wanted to talk to her about what it was like teaching freshmen.  That gave her a chance to acknowledge Lincoln-Way High Schools, by name and to indicate her enjoyment of that age group of students.  Barb and I liked how she credited the students at Lincoln-Way in such a positive light.  For those that don’t know, Barb and I do a lot of subbing at Lincoln-Way as well. 

Thursday, the 12^th was Pam’s birthday, so she found some balloons and a greeting posted on our door from the Neptune Lounge staff and our cabin stewards and she has been received birthday wishes throughout the day.  To celebrate Pam’s birthday on the ship, the four of us enjoyed dinner in the Pinnacle Grill.  It has been quite a different birthday for her, needless to say. 

We continue to enjoy the lectures on various topics and found the meteorological expert’s lecture on tropical cyclones to be quite fascinating.  Our friends who teach meteorology, (long time high school classmate) Dr. Merlin Lawson (University of Nebraska) and Steve Miller (Lincoln-Way East HS), will be interested to know that these lectures have been well attended and given in sufficient laymen’s language that many guests are attending.  As two examples, I never realized that where we are now sailing off the coast of Brazil, cyclones are rare to non-existent but we are hoping to avoid one of the potentially two-week cyclones that can occur off the east coast of Australia when we are in those waters. 

Belem, Brazil, a city of 1.9 million people is near the mouth of the Amazon River.  A lecture by Dr. Tommie Sue Montgomery introduced us to the ecology and importance to South America of the Amazon.  While the Nile is longer, the water outflow into the Atlantic Ocean is greater and in some places, the Amazon is actually so wide that one can’t see either shore!  Unfortunately we were required to anchor near Icoaracy which is a half hour tender ride from the ship followed by an hour’s drive by shuttle into Belem. That’s the longest transfer ever for us. 

 Pam had a different shore excursion, but Barb, Al, and I had chosen to do The Amazon River System Adventure by Riverboat excursion in the afternoon.  Because the logistics were complicated, we were to meet on shore after tendering from the ship.  The port used large tenders rather than the ship’s smaller ones, so we went down to get on a tender at about 11 AM.  As we stepped from the elevator, the area in front of the elevator was mobbed with people waiting to get on the tender.  As more and more elevators arrived, it became a crush of people.  I felt a lady behind me pushing against my back.  It made me wonder why this lady was in such a hurry and really so rude as to be pushing me. As I tried to move forward a bit, she still pushed against me almost making me fall on top of the person ahead of me.  Barb was nearby when I noticed the woman almost unresponsive, so I asked if she was OK, to which she shook her head “no”.  Barb commented that she had a cane and I could feel her falling toward me, so I yelled in my best schoolteacher voice that we needed help back here and hoped someone from the staff would respond.  Quickly someone came from one direction while someone brought a chair from the crew’s quarters.  We could feel the lady sinking before the chair arrived and we eased her to the floor and left it to the staff to help. Our assumption was that she was overcome by the oppressive heat and was passing out.  At that point, the tender arrived and we could leave her with the staff in a much less confined area.

            We boarded a tour bus with spacious seat and legroom (close to the best tour bus I have ever been on for the comfortable ride to Belem. The area we rode through was filled with people on the streets.  What was noticeable to someone (me) who has never been in Brazil before was that there were homes and side streets with homes that belonged to very poor people, yet the people themselves seem to be quite well dressed. 

When we arrived in Belem, we immediately transferred to a riverboat for our ride on the delta of the Amazon River.  As the channel narrowed, we observed houses built on stilts over the water, clothes drying on porch rails of the houses, lots of boats, a few satellite dishes near the homes, and lots of small kids out on their porches waving at us.  As we looked out from the back of the boat, we could see skyline of Belem with its tall buildings in the distance.  Quite a contrast between the parts of a modern city and the still fairly primitive homes along the creek!  We disembarked the riverboat at Combu Island (Palm Tree Island) for an approximate hour long rainforest walk.  We saw lots of foliage and large leafy plants.  We saw everything from Brazil nut trees, cacao beans, mango trees, kapok trees, mahogany trees, palms, etc.  A few people complained about the insects and some insect bites but they were foolishly wearing shorts and thin short sleeve shirts.  Wonder if they expected anything different in a tropical rainforest!  Some complained that they had to walk for about an hour, saying the description was misleading.  Yet the description clearly had said there would be a walk of 45 minutes.  Our excellent Brazilian tour guide, Edison, whose English enunciation was excellent, paused frequently to explain some of the foliage we observed. Along the trail, two young boys were waiting to provide us with a demonstration of how they could quickly climb a tall tree to retrieve fruit from the treetops.  At one point along the trail, a “helpful” tourist grabbed a nearly dead palm frond that was hitting everyone as they brushed by it.  What he didn’t realize was that it was much bigger than expected and the other end was a branch that came down and hit Barb in the head, raising a bump and giving her a headache.  Following our walk, we boarded the bus for the tender back to the ship.

As a basis for comparison, the Fiji rainforest walk was much more difficult; at least our Brazilian walk was much more level ground.  Having done a Peruvian rainforest ride and walk when the Lincoln-Way travel group took that trip nearly four years ago, Pam asked how they compared.  The Peruvian one was in a much more desolate area of a tributary of the Amazon, views along the shore weren’t as close as the one in Brazil, and the Peruvian rainforest walk was through an area much denser.  The one we did in Brazil was clearly easier.

After departing Belem (Portuguese for “Bethlehem” by the way), we continue along the coast of Brazil toward Recife three days from now.

Now we are three hour ahead of Chicago and two ahead of New York.  We hear Chicago is having its first significant snow of the season!  It has been in the 80’s and humid here but Belem is one degree south of the equator so we are pleased that it isn’t even hotter or more humid! 

CT

Caribbean Splendor: Dominica and Barbados

 After two busy days at sea, where we oriented ourselves to shipboard life, we arrived in our first of two ports in the Caribbean Sea.  For Chuck and me, this was our first ever Caribbean port. 

Roseau is the capital and largest city of the small island of Dominica, which is part of the Lesser Antilles.  The island was originally inhabited by natives called Amerindians.  It was first colonized by the French in the 16^th and 17^th Centuries, but the British gained control of it toward the end of the 18^th Century.  The people speak English but they also use a Creole/French that has words that are identifiable as French, but the pronunciation is a real challenge! 

The three of us (Chuck, Pam, and I) had opted for a shore excursion called Rainforest Aerial Tram, which would carry us on a 90-minute journey through the tropical rainforest.  The tour information advised us to bring raincoats.  That was when I realized that in my attempt to avoid over-packing, I had brought a jacket that would work well in Antarctica, but it would not work for a nice light-weight rain jacket!  Thank goodness we were scheduled to dock at noon, which allowed me time to make a purchase in the shop!  (And thank goodness those jackets were 50% off!)

We were loaded into a small van with nine people plus the driver/guide.  As we introduced ourselves to others, we discovered that the lady sitting next to me was from Arlington Heights.  But the real surprise came when the ship’s videographer added, “I’m from Buffalo.”  So immediately Chuck and I reported that we had grown up there and he had taught in Hamburg.  The videographer, Erich, replied that he was from Clarence.  Small world!  We haven’t yet made any other connections (common friends or acquaintances), but the trip has just begun…

The drive to the tram was over very narrow roads with hairpin turns up a steep mountainside to the Morne Trois Pitons National Park.  There we boarded an aerial tram that held eight people along with a naturalist who gave a running commentary during our 90-minute journey through the tropical rain forest.  Being a rainforest, we did encounter rain, but nothing that deterred us from enjoying the serene beauty of the landscape.  While we didn’t have much opportunity to see wildlife, we did enjoy the lush greenery: enormous umbrella ferns, towering king trees and queen trees (that reminded us of the drum trees we encountered in Peru), and many others.  As we neared the top, we witnessed a fellow tourist zipping past us on a zip line.  At the summit, we were offered the opportunity to join this person and zip down the mountainside.  We considered it for perhaps a fraction of a minute.  I decided that if my age were reversed, I might consider it, but as it is, I’d be prudent.  Everyone else in our tram felt the same way so we took the slow but safe way back down. 

The descent took us even higher above the forest floor, up into the canopy for even more amazing views of the countryside.  At one point, we stopped, and Chuck and I noticed a blue-headed hummingbird (one of four indigenous species of hummingbirds) perched on a nearby branch.  He cooperated quite nicely and allowed us to take his picture – that is, if we could locate him in our viewfinders! 

Back at the bottom of the tram, we visited a bird area, where we were able to spot several more species: the brown trembler, doing his nervous little dance, the honey creeper with his brilliant yellow breast, and the purple-throated Carib, the largest of the hummingbird species on the island.  (No, I was not carrying a bird book in my backpack – I asked our tour guide to write the names down for me.)   The tour was an absolutely magnificent introduction to the Caribbean islands.

As we were about to set sail, Capt. Mercer came over the PA and explained that we would depart late.  One of the passengers had met with an accident on the pier and had to be taken to the hospital.  The ship’s nurse accompanied her and her husband, and we were waiting for the nurse to return before setting sail for our next port, Bridgetown, Barbados. 

Later this evening, we heard from a fellow passenger, who had been on the elevator with the lady’s husband, that the lady had been hit by a van driven by a man who was using a cell phone.  He didn’t realize it and ran over her leg before he could stop.  It happened right at the pier, so we figure it must have been someone returning from a tour.  It just shows how quickly things can happen that change the course of someone’s well-laid plans!  I think everyone on the ship can empathize with this unfortunate passenger! 

Tuesday found us arriving in the port city of Bridgetown, Barbados.  While considered part of the Caribbean Islands, Barbados is actually geographically located in the Atlantic Ocean.  An island of about 270 square miles, most of its 270,000 people are of African descent.  The island has been owned by several different European countries, but the longest and most influential possession was Great Britain.  Barbados gained its independence from Britain in 1961.   In contrast to the island of Dominica, Barbados is a much flatter island.

We had opted for an afternoon shore excursion so in the morning we went ashore and took advantage of free wi-fi available in the terminal.   We appreciated Yohat advising us of the availability as it gave us a chance to do a little online without the high prices of shipboard Internet.  As we worked, Herfan came by and sat down to talk for awhile.  He hadn’t been aware of the free wi-fi, so we have a feeling that he went back to the ship to get his computer so he also could use it.

That afternoon we (Chuck, Pam, Al, and I) were booked for the Green Monkey Eco Tour.   Our tour guide gave us a running commentary during the entire tour as we traveled across the island.  It was amazing how many villages had Saint in their names:  Saint Joseph, Saint Andrew, Saint Thomas, Saint George, to name a few.  We made a photo stop in Bathsheba, where there were very picturesque seascapes of the surf along the Atlantic coast.

The highlight was a visit to Barbados Wildlife Reserve, where we wandered in and out among a variety of animals.  There were so many slow-moving tortoises along the paths that we had t o make a conscious effort not to step on them or walk into them!  The gentle little deer blended in amazingly with the woodland background, and the colorful peacocks strolled among the deer.  It was feeding time, so the green monkeys were especially active.  They swung from tree to tree and ran along the roofs that arched over the fences.  We were told not to approach them too closely, especially if they had babies.  At one point there was a monkey sitting on the “roof” right near me, and I attracted its attention by clicking my teeth.  It turned around looked down at me, and bared its teeth as if to say, “Get away from me!”  Needless to say I backed away very quickly and took my picture from a distance.  We also saw a few caimans and what looked like a large kingfisher in the water.  It was a delightful wildlife encounter!

We greatly enjoyed our first two Caribbean ports, finding the people warm and friendly and the scenery lovely. 

Now we have two days at sea before arriving in our first South American port of Belem, right near the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil.


BT

Off We Go on Our World Cruise ….

January 6, 2012, the day has finally arrived.  A full year and a half after booking our World Cruise, the day of sailing arrived.  Months of planning and packing, purchasing items, visas, studying the countries, purchasing shore excursions were over and we were ready to sail.

After a wonderful week touring south Florida for the first time with cruise friends, Sally and Ange DiTomaso, we packed away our last few items and packed Sally and Ange’s car for the hour and a half ride to the pier.  Arriving at the pier was much less complicated than anticipated, and because of our stateroom location, we had expedited boarding which whisked us right to the check in desk. We were among the first to board and went straight to our stateroom.  Our friend, Al had beat us by about 20 minutes and we were pleased he was just 5 doors from us. Because we wanted to book a few special events that had limited seating in the Pinnacle, we made those reservations immediately. Likewise, I had purchased a special haircut package for haircuts on port days, I wanted to get my reservations in immediately as well.  Soon afterwards, Al and we headed for the LaFontaine Dining Room for the Mariners’ Lunch.   Pam had flown in from Chicago the previous day and stayed in a hotel, so we anticipated she might get there even before we did, but we saw her just arriving when we returned from lunch.

Slowly, one by one, our luggage began to arrive.  Because both of us had packed our clothes in all suitcases, it was a matter of separating them as we unpacked. By evening, “stuff” and suitcases were all over the room in no logical order.  We found that the cabin steward we had requested was not serving our area. He was on our ship, but somehow, through a mixup, other stewards had been assigned.  Since the assignment had been made, it wasn’t possible for Say to be our steward. However we found Evan and DJ to be most accommodating to our considerable needs given the fact that three were sharing our room.

We looked forward to dinner and to seeing Yohat, our dining steward for the first time since our South Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand cruise in 2009.  We immediately spotted both Yohat and his partner, Herfan from that previous trip and greeted both.  Only the four of us were at our table for six on the first night.  I attended the first brief, evening performance as Barb and Pam decided it had been a busy enough day.

Saturday, our first full day found us enjoying a leisurely sitdown breakfast in the special section of the LaFontaine Dining Room reserved for Navigation Deck guests.  We enjoyed meeting the Pinnacle Manager Kim deKlerck who held the same position on our South Pacific cruise as well as one of the best Pinnacle servers, Tina, who we also knew from that cruise.  Following a AAA reception for those who booked through them, we attended a lecture given by Tommie Sue Montgomery who described the colonization of the Caribbean Islands by European powers and the US.  She will give a series of lectures about the areas we visit as we travel south along the Atlantic coast of South America.  In the evening, we enjoyed the musical talents of Mark Donoghue who performed on the violin, guitar, piano and sang as well.

The second day at sea was quite busy in the morning.  Most sea days, the Social Hostess, Adele, joined Bruce, our Cruise Director for “Good Morning Amsterdam”, a light conversation with various members of the crew and sometimes guest performers on the ship.  On this day, they interviewed Darin Leonardson, a guest chef on the ship. That was followed by our first gathering with members of Cruise Critic who had been corresponding for over a year online before the trip.  In the late morning another lecturer, and retired Navy Captain, Dr. Denny Woodson, lectured on ocean waves along the Atlantic coast.  From the scientific, geographic, and meteorological point of view, this series of lectures should be fascinating.  We always enjoy the cultural and scientific lectures that Holland America includes on its long voyages. The lecture was followed by a half hour of team trivia and finally, lunch before a more relaxed afternoon.  At a nearby table, we happened to notice a woman with a young girl and another young woman.  As one can imagine on a cruise of this length, young guests are quite noticeable!  We had read on Cruise Critic that there would be a young girl traveling with her family and her tutor.  We had taken special note that they were from Springfield, IL and that they had traveled to the South Pacific and China on the Grand South Pacific and Asia voyage in the fall as well.  What a wonderful experience for both the young girl to explore the world and for the recent college graduate whose first teaching experience was to travel around the world as she taught the 8 year old.

The first formal night dinner was capped off with the featured performance by Grammy Award winning singer and songwriter, Melissa Manchester.

We are now two hours ahead of Chicago, one hour ahead of New York.

CT

Florida

We spent several delightful days in Florida before our cruise with our friends Sally & Ange DiTomaso.  We had met them on a previous cruise and discovered that we had quite a bit in common.  They were originally from Western New York (near Rochester), where Ange had worked for Kodak and Sally had taught school.  We had also both taken the Grand Voyage in 2009, and we had met on the 2010 cruise to the UK and Norway. Since we were both taking the Voyage of the Vikings in the summer of 2011, we arranged to dine together each evening.  After the 2010 cruise, they generously invited us to spend time with them before the World Voyage.  

So we decided to fly out on New Year’s Day.  Despite threats of high winds, the flight went off without a hitch, and we took off and landed right on time, enjoying a very smooth flight all the way to West Palm Beach.  We aren’t sure if this is SOP for the captain, but he shook hands with every passenger as we left the plane, wishing us a Happy New Year.

We were kept busy the entire five days we were in Florida.  Sally had planned a variety of visits to nearby sites, giving us a great overview of the area.  On Monday we enjoyed a picnic at Jupiter Beach and where we walked along the water and took pictures of the Jupiter Lighthouse.  Our visit was dampened slightly with a quick-passing rainstorm, but it didn’t deter us from finishing what we’d set out to do.  A scenic drive past million-dollar mansions with beautiful vistas of the waterfront completed the outing.

The next day was spent visiting several wildlife centers that were reminiscent of my excursions to Wisconsin each year with my fifth grade students.  We took a nature walk right near their home in Hobe Sound and got a good idea of the local flora before exploring the indoor displays of indigenous animals, including a spotted skunk, a red-tailed hawk, and a barred owl.  After a brief stop at a newly-opened river center, we continued on to the Loggerhead Turtle Center, where we had the opportunity to learn a lot about the turtles who nest along Florida’s coast.  We watched the intravenous feeding of an injured turtle, and then saw the feeding of new addition to the center, Eggnog, the green turtle.  Our final stop was at the Busch Wildlife Center, where we saw a wide variety of Florida animals, ranging from a Florida panther to pelicans and roseate spoonbills.  It was great fun watching the feeding of the birds and seeing how the pelicans positioned the fish in their “pouches” before swallowing them.  We took the opportunity to attend a program that introduced us to a king snake, a barn owl, a skunk, an armadillo, and an alligator.  The day was full of natural wonders of Florida!

Wednesday found us traveling inland to Lake Placid, which is known for its outstanding murals.  Lake Placid’s first mural was painted in 1993, and each year more and more were added, creating a very picturesque and quaint town.  Each mural depicts some aspect of life in Lake Placid, either honoring people, historical events, and industries important to the area.  Most of the murals have items hidden in them that the viewer has to locate.  One that drew our particular attention was that of three early physicians.  One of the physicians, originally from Morris, IL, was Dr. Alfred Eide, who was of Norwegian descent!  It definitely had us wondering if he might be related in some way!   

Not only were the buildings decorated, but even the trash cans were colorfully and artfully decorated.  It was amazing to see something that basic being transformed into a work of art!  Our time spent in Lake Placid, wandering among the beautiful works of art on the buildings was really delightful!

Our last day was spent visiting two different locations.  The Florida Oceanographic Center in Stuart gave us a chance to feed the stingrays – an experience that was quite different from our stingray feeding in Moorea back in 2009.  The stingrays swam right up to us and with small sucking motions, took the fish right from our hands.  What beautiful little animals they were!  We had the chance also to visit two of the three major turtle species in Florida – green and loggerhead turtles who were being rehabbed in the center.  We also did a short nature walk and strolled through the swamp on a walkway, seeing the mangroves up close. 

One of the highlights was a visit to the Manatee Observation and Education Center.  Although one never knows if any manatees will make an appearance, our patience paid off as we were able to see a couple of manatees surfacing time after time to catch a quick breath at the surface.  In this case, the cooler weather worked to our benefit as the manatees came into the warmer inlet rather than staying out in the colder waters.  What a pleasure it was to observe these gentle giants!  

We have truly enjoyed our stay with Sally and Ange, who were wonderful hosts! Now we are looking forward to setting sail on the Amsterdam.  If you are interested and want to watch us sail away, you can check out this link and look for the ms Amsterdam (Holland America Line) on the map. Hover your mouse over the diamonds for ship names - cruise ships will be dark blue. We’ll give a wave from the ship in case you’re watching!
http://www.portevergladeswebcam.com/

Because we are working from Sally’s computer, we are unable to post pictures yet. Hopefully once we are established on the ship and hooked up to the Internet there, we’ll be able to put some pictures in.

BT

"Cast of Characters"

 As our World Cruise approaches, we have been telling friends and family about the blog we will be writing. Initially the blogs we have done on previous trips have had limited readership and were written largely to help us recall details of our own experiences at a later time as well as to help a relatively small number of people stay in touch while we travel.

This blog has grown much larger and we thought it might be helpful for us to provide a “cast of characters” so to speak since many who read this will not know many of those we write about. This page will introduce readers to those we are citing. Undoubtedly, as we board the ship and meet new people, more “characters” will be added.

So here I go….

First, Barb and I will share the writing of the blog. Most blogs tend to be written by one person, but we will pretty much alternate postings. Barb, my sister, developed the framework for the blog and started it. While we grew up in Western New York State, I taught high school US History in Hamburg, NY near Buffalo and Niagara Falls and Barb taught 5th grade in Mokena, IL, southwest of Chicago. We’ve always enjoyed travel; I have visited 49 states (Louisiana to go). Both of us traveled to Europe numerous times; in fact, Barb studied at Grenoble, France during her junior year in college.

We enjoy the UK, especially Northern Wales which is somewhat off the beaten path for most American tourists. Maybe that’s part of our attraction to that area. In 2004, we were introduced to cruising … and then it really began. Barb had always said she wasn’t going to take a cruise with her brother. But we had never been to Alaska and we heard from a friend from church here in New Lenox, Pam Floyd, that there was an adult group of mostly teachers from the local Lincoln-Way High Schools, and that their group was taking a cruise to Alaska in June 2004. Pam was an English teacher at Lincoln-Way Central High School who worked with Dale Sandoval, an Art teacher at Lincoln-Way East to organize annual student tours to Europe and adult trips every two years. Figuring this was a good way to see Alaska, we booked the cruise with the Lincoln-Way group.

Two years later, we joined the same group for a 10 day Baltic cruise that made us cruising addicts. Then we did a 12, 24, and 67 day cruise and found we loved the longer cruises. After several shorter cruises including a short 35 day adventure across the North Atlantic last summer, we were ready to take on the world. Experienced world cruisers warned us it’s addicting. I blame Dale for getting me to spend all that money! Thanks a lot!

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I want to identify others who will play a part in this blog so as you follow our world voyage, you can identify some that we will talk about. There are unnamed players that we haven’t met yet since we will meet them on the ship. No one but us knows all the players and even some of the followers of the blog we haven’t met and some we will never meet.

Our Travel Agent

Marcia Marsett with the Joliet AAA Travel has been a friend for several years. Barb met her first through church before I moved to Illinois. They had been in the choir together before Marcia and her husband moved to eastern Indiana for a few years. After moving back to this area, Marcia had an independent travel agency briefly but later got a job with AAA Travel. We have worked with Maria for over a decade now and she has arranged many details for us on our cruises. She has solved more complicated travel issues for us than we care to remember. She’s the best in her field! We appreciate her efforts.

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Our fellow cruisers – it’s a short list now but sure to grow.

Al Vence from Arizona. We were fortunate enough to meet Al and his wife, Carol, on a Mediterranean Cruise in 2008. He and Carol were seated at the same dinner table as we, so we had a chance to become well acquainted during those 24 days. We stayed in touch and almost did a cruise together last summer (our Voyage of the Vikings cruise of the North Atlantic). However, Carol became seriously ill in 2010 and passed away on a few months later on Labor Day. Al promptly cancelled the Voyage of the Vikings cruise for 2011. But in January 2011, we approached Al about joining us on the World Cruise 2012. We could be seated at the same table for dinner and do some of the activities together. Not nearly the same as doing it with his wife, but he decided he could either get on with his life or stay home. We’ve enjoyed doing a lot of planning together.

Pam Floyd from New Lenox. Pam retired from teaching at Lincoln-Way Central this past spring. She had kept saying to us that we couldn’t go to Antarctica until she retired. When we booked, we told Pam, “OK, we waited until you retired and we are going to Antarctica. So come along.” She searched and searched. Her friends said the timing wasn’t convenient or told her she was out of her mind to do such a long cruise. She dropped the notion of going for a few months. After we returned from our cruise last summer, we mentioned it again so Pam began her search for a roommate again, particularly since in the near future cruising Antarctica is expected to be more difficult and more expensive for environmental reasons. Her husband, Paul, is still working and can’t take long trips. Besides, he’s not as anxious to take what could be a rocky voyage between South America and Antarctica. Once again, Pam’s roommate search came up empty. Barb and I talked it over and invited Pam to share our large stateroom. She accepted and will join us as far as Sydney, a 50 day cruise. Pam is fortunate to have a husband willing to encourage his wife to go.

Ros and Gary from Sydney, Australia. We met Gary and Ros on the 35 day Voyage of the Vikings across the North Atlantic last summer. They told us they were doing the 2012 World Cruise from Sydney to Ft. Lauderdale. We’re looking forward to seeing them again when they board.

Amsterdam crew – this list will surely grow too.

Bruce Scudder – Cruise Director. Bruce was Cruise Director on our 2009 South Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand Grand Voyage. He’s outstanding and is an experienced world cruiser. This will be his 17th trip around the world! Bruce also was cruise director on the Maasdam last summer for the Voyage of the Vikings. We had a chance to visit with him several times last summer and were pleased to learn he would be doing the World Cruise 2012.

Barbara Haenni – Port Lecturer. Barbara held the same position on the 2009 Voyage and the 2011 Voyage of the Vikings. Barb invited Barbara to join us for dinner several times on the recent Voyage of the Vikings. This gave us the opportunity to meet her. She is a vast store of knowledge about the ports we visit and gives amazingly interesting lectures on the ports we visit.

Yohat – our dining steward. We met Yohat on our 2009 Grand Voyage as an assistant steward. Holland America dining and stateroom stewards are Indonesian and we have met several wonderful Indonesian crew on our trips. Yohat has the right combination of complete professionalism and a sparkling, friendly personality. On the 2009 cruise, Yohat actually had Barb drinking tea, something she always said she hated! Peach tea was Barb’s favorite and Yohat tried as much as he could to find it for her. We requested Yohat as our dining steward for the world cruise and it was confirmed. We look forward to seeing him again.

Herfan – not our dining steward this year, but he was our lead dining steward in 2009, working with Yohat. Herfan has been on the Amsterdam for the last several months but is being married this month in Indonesia. We assumed he would be taking some time off, but we just found out that someone requested him for the World Cruise this year, so after a month off to be married he will be back on the ship. He won’t be our dining steward but we are pleased we will see him again.

Say – Sayuto was our stateroom steward in 2009 and we met him again the Voyage of the Vikings last summer. We requested him as our steward for the 2012 World Cruise and were pleased to learn that he will be with us on this voyage too.

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Some who may be following our blog

We are writing this blog in part to help us recall details of our voyage that would be lost in our memories over time. But we are sharing our experiences with a variety of people who might enjoy hearing of our experiences. Some of these people may include:

Our family, mostly in Illinois but others spread throughout the country.

Local friends including friends from our church, some of Barb’s DAR friends, some of her former colleagues from Mokena, a few neighbors, maybe some friends of friends, and some faculty and even students in the Lincoln-Way High Schools where we sub frequently.

Friends in Western New York, including some former colleagues of mine from Hamburg High School near Buffalo, friends from other Western New York communities and churches, and a few friends that Barb and I grew up with there.

Some friends and families of our two travel companions, Al from Arizona and Pam from New Lenox.

Friends of ours throughout the country and beyond that we have met through our travel. Taking longer cruises has afforded us the opportunity to get to know people better than the much shorter trips and cruises we had taken. People we have become acquainted with through online travel contacts like the Cruise Critic website.

And others who may have found our blog online.

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We don’t expect all parts to our blog to appeal to everyone. The nice thing is that people are free to decide which of any posts they wish to read. We know that most will not have time or inclination to read everything. We are writing this always with those at home in mind. We’re happy to share our experiences and to inform others of what we are seeing and learning. We will be sending very few personal emails, but this will be a way to keep in touch with us. And who knows? If something reminds us of you at home, we may just refer to you or speak to you through our blog. We will, however, be at the mercy of the internet at sea and far from home (and of course dependent on the functioning of the computer). We have found that internet connections are notoriously unreliable at sea and the loading of pages is sometimes excruciatingly slow. On top of that, it is exceptionally expensive. That’s why we are putting sending and reading forwards on hold during this voyage. We appreciate your understanding. But should you have any comments or questions regarding what we are doing or seeing, feel free to write them in the form of questions in the comment section of the blog.

Please note that Barb has a link along the right hand column of the blog that will allow you to submit your email address and you will receive an email notification of each post with a link to the blog itself which hopefully will include some pictures. We often don’t know who is following the blog until we return home. You can also find a link to our location in the world but unfortunately it merely gives latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates. The third link at the top will allow you to identify what time it is where we are in relationship to the time back home. We frequently think of what time it is back home. So you can click on the clock link to find 25 places we will be visiting. By checking those, you can identify what time it is there and what time it is back home. In addition you can even check out our weather!

It is our intent to sign our posts with the initials of the writers in case it hasn’t become evident as the blog is written. But for the most part we will try to alternate our posts.

We know this is an experience we will never forget and are happy to share it with you.

CT

2012 Seven Continent Discovery Preparations

We've been very busy since getting off the Maasdam on August 27th.  Just a few days after arriving home, we took the Rock Island into Chicago where we met with the ABriggs manager John and delivered our passports to him.  His task was to get pages added to the passports as well as obtaining visas for Brazil and India.  After my bad experience with the post office losing my passport in 2007, I was very happy not to have to use the postal service at all this time!  ABriggs told us that they would be hand-delivering the passports to the embassies and would also be picking them up in person.  

The paperwork for the two visas was easier than we'd expected, though we found that we had filled the India application out wrong.  It was a quick fix, and we were able to mail our new applications in just a couple days after meeting with John.   Then it was time to sit back and wait.  

He had told us that everything should be done by early October.  He was right.  Our last visa, India, was completed on October 4th.  Since we were taking the train into Chicago on Columbus Day to pick up some foreign currency, we arranged to pick up the passports at the same time.  We were very pleased that we were able to get 10-year visas for both Brazil and India, so we're set for those two countries for a few years.  

After our Voyage of the Vikings, we got together with our friends Pam & Paul Floyd. Whenever either of us does an overseas trip, we get together and share our pictures and experiences.  Pam had asked us years ago to hold off on our trip to Antarctica until she retired.  Knowing she was retiring in June of this year, we signed up for the world cruise, which includes Antarctica in the itinerary.  Pam has known about it for ages, and tried over and over to find a roommate who would be interested in going with her.  After getting together in September, she tried again, virtually going through her entire address book looking for someone.  The reaction always seemed to be the same:  “50 days?”  So after a little discussion, and since we had booked a large stateroom, we invited her to share our room with us.  After a few days of deliberation, Pam decided that she would join us, giving us the amount that she would have spent on her half of a double room in the stateroom she’d intended to get.  Then it was time for Marcia (our outstanding travel agent) to wave her magic wand and work with HAL to iron out the details of a third person in the stateroom for a partial cruise.  A few days later all was good to go.

We then arranged for the shipment of luggage on December 27^th.  With this particular itinerary comes the issue of needing several kinds of clothing – for Antarctica as well as for the tropics, not to mention for casual, smart casual and formal dress.  And that’s just the clothing!   We’ve been to the travel doctor to make sure we have the proper inoculations and medicines that a trip of this sort entails.  It's a challenge to work out the logistics of packing so many suitcases (between us), and cross-packing so that if one piece of luggage goes astray, we still have what we need.     

Recently we made a trip to Joliet to meet with Marcia and discuss some AAA-related details.  We’d already booked the complimentary shore excursion available to us through Holland America (a perk for booking early), and we discovered that we were also going to receive some complimentary shore excursions from AAA.  We selected two of those to take, one in Nha Trang, Vietnam, and the other in Cadiz, Spain.

Our final document came right before Thanksgiving, with all the information about what to expect on the cruise – various packages that we could purchase at a discount before boarding, names of the ship staff (we were delighted to see that our favorite Cruise Director Bruce and Travel Guide Barbara were still slated to be on board), and themed activities.  Now all we need to do is get through the holidays, go through our "last minute" checklist to make sure that we are ready to be away for a long stretch of time, and we’ll be on our way.    The time will fly, I’m sure.  

In the meantime we've continued to work on setting up the blog to be more user-friendly.

At the top of the page we've added some tabs that will be quick links:

• Home page - takes you to first page of blog
• ms Amsterdam Tracker - links you to the exact location of the ship and the current weather conditions at that location
• Picasa Photo Album - takes you to our Picasa web album (moved from a side gadget)

At the side we've added a few new gadgets:

• Most recently added pictures (Picasa Photostream)
• Slideshow of current trip
• Subscribe by email

In addition we've included shore excursion names in our itinerary so you can see in advance what we plan to do on port days.

We discovered a web cam that shows the ships sailing out of Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades).  So if you’re interested in seeing us sail away on the 6^th of January at about 5:00 PM EST, check out this link and look for the ms Amsterdam (Holland America Line) on the map. Hover your mouse over the diamonds for ship names - cruise ships will be dark blue.  We’ll give a wave from the ship in case you’re watching!

http://www.portevergladeswebcam.com/ 


We're really looking forward to our trip and hope you enjoy traveling vicariously through us!  If there's anything else you would like to see on this blog, please let us know and we'll see what we can do.

Barb

Blog Updates by Email

Our Blog now has a new title: Snapshots from Around the World. It's a little more "interesting" than "Travel Blog".

We've also added a gadget to the blog that will give readers an update whenever we add a post. This will save us having to email people to let them know that we've updated, and it will also give those who are interested in following our blog a chance to subscribe. Just enter your email in the box at the right. You will get a verification sent to that address to confirm.

When a new blog is posted, the text of the blog will be emailed to you.

This will give people a chance to read the blog in their email inbox rather than going to the blog itself. There is a link in the email that will take you directly to the blog if you prefer to read it online.

Barb