richwmn

Activities for today

April 13 – at sea destination Portland (Weymouth) England Today is day 100 of the 2023 Grand World Cruise, and we have 28 days left before we return to Fort Lauderdale. When I set foot in Lisbon on the 10th I actually completed going around the world because several years ago I stayed in Lisbon for three days, followed by a flight to Montreal and a cruise from there to Fort Lauderdale. In October I sailed on Nieuw Statendam for 14 days and with the spending bonus I made Five Star. On April 5th I completed 500 actual sailing days on HAL. Prior to the World Cruise I had 420 actual days on board ships, with 21 of those days with a verandah and the rest in outside cabins, and 14 days with a cabin mate. I have sailed at least seven days on every current HAL ship. I boarded Zuiderdam on December 22nd for the Christmas and New Year cruises prior to the World Cruise. When I return to Fort Lauderdale on May 12th I will have been on the ship for 140 days. For the first twelve days I was in cabin 4058, an outside obstructed view cabin. During that time Zuiderdam was very crowded, with around 300 guests 18 years old or under. Despite the crowd, the ship functioned well. The entertainment was good, but maybe not great. One problem that I had was that the comic did pretty much the same routine twice, once on the Christmas portion and once on the New Year portion. I guess he didn’t realize the number of guests that would be doing both. Christmas and New Year were handled very well by the staff and were fun. On January 3rd the World Cruise officially started. My plan from the start was to stay aboard the ship and not deal with the cruise terminal. As is normal in Fort Lauderdale those staying aboard were gathered up and taken in a group thru the terminal then returned to the ship prior to any new guests boarding. Just after I returned to my cabin I got a call informing me that I should have moved to my new cabin for the World. I completed that with few problems so I started the World Cruise in a nice verandah cabin, 5048. So now I have been on the World Cruise for 100 days in a verandah cabin. I have been asked if having a verandah for this long would ‘spoil’ me and get me to purchase one in the future. In truth, the answer to that is no. As a solo I have plenty of space in a standard outside cabin and I haven’t really used the verandah enough for me to justify the additional cost. If I were sharing the cabin the answer might be different depending on who I was sharing the cabin with. I was asked “After sailing for this amount of time, how likely are you to recommend taking this cruise to others?” This is not an easy question to answer. If you have the time and resources to take the cruise the answer might be yes. To fully answer this question, I would need to ask several of you. What is the longest cruise you have taken so far? If the answer is under three weeks I would recommend that you take a 20 – 40 day cruise prior to booking a World Cruise. I had done several in that range and knew that I would be comfortable. Can you entertain yourself, ie reading, computer, tv etc. On a World Cruise there are several long stretches of sea days. While I enjoy most of the trivia sessions, not everyone does. I have also been involved in several of the ‘sporting’ activities such as corn hole, putting challenge, ring toss, and others. But again, these are not everyones ‘cup of tea’. Do you like sitting for around 45 minutes listening to someone give a talk about various subjects? If so, we have had a lot of this with some speakers being very good, and others being ok, you might disagree with my assessment of their abilities. The World Stage entertainment has been uneven. Some have been very good, and some have been ok. Like I said about the speakers your assessment may be different than mine. One thing that has been nice is that several entertainers have boarded the ship for just a few days and then were swapped out for another. Many of the entertainers were local to the areas we were visiting and several places we had a show by a group that boarded just long enough for the show. For the most part, I eat my meals in the Lido. My habit both at home and on the ships is to eat during ‘off’ hours, times when most people are not eating. As a result I have not had problems with very long lines for the most part. Now and then due to ships schedule or excursions there is more of a crowd but not often. The times I have taken meals in the MDR have been very nice. I have been invited to join two couples that have had the same table and servers for the last couple of months and have room for two others to join them, and this has been allowed. The menus have been varied and I don’t go away from either location hungry. To sum it up, I have really enjoyed the last few months on Zuiderdam. I am scheduled for the Grand Australia next year, with before and after cruises for a total of around 120 days. I have been happy and have met many people who I expect to stay in touch with. Hopefully I will continue to be able to take these long cruises.

I would second the suggestion about Palm Beach. I have used that airport several times and it is very easy and not really inconvenient.

When I saw the quote from this morning I thought it might be incomplete. I found this reference which attributes it to someone other than Twain In the earliest citation located by QI the humorous advice was credited to William Allen White who was a prominent newspaper editor based in Emporia, Kansas. Here is the tale as told in 1935 by a columnist in a Seattle, Washington newspaper:[2] William Allen White’s visit here, en route to the Philippines, recalled the story of the famous Kansas editor and publisher’s meeting several years ago with a group of fledgling newspaper men in Lawrence. Kas. The “cubs” listened eagerly to everything “the Sage of Emporia” had to say and besought him to give them some advice about news writing. “I never give advice,” said Mr. White, “but there is one thing I wish you would do when you sit down to write news stories, and that is: Never use the word, ‘very.’ It is the weakest word in the English language; doesn’t mean anything. If you feel the urge of ‘very’ coming on, just write the word, ‘damn,’ in the place of ‘very.’ The editor will strike out the word, ‘damn,’ and you will have a good sentence.”

Today in history: 1742 George Frideric Handel's oratorio "Messiah" performed for the 1st time at New Music Hall in Dublin

April 13 – at sea destination Portland (Weymouth) England Activities don't want to upload right now, I'll try again later

You are able to switch from fixed to open (or the other way) once. You also have the option of eating at the Lido or in Specialty Restaurants at any time.

A Coruña, Spain at night

I have been in a single cabin on all three Pinnacle ships. For me they are great since I am not bothered by the motion. They war very comfortable and convenient to the Music Walk and Crows Nest for entertainment. The walk to the Lido or MDR is not bad. I would be happy to be there again.

A Coruña, Spain

Today in history: 1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit Earth (Vostok 1) Zuiderdam will be staying in A Coruña, Spain until 11:00pm this evening. The weather does not permit our transit to Brest, France so we will leave late tonight and proceed to Waymouth, England and overnight there.

April 12 – A Coruña, Spain Position at 7:00am Position at dock. I had to deal with ‘work’ last night so nothing to report on ships activities, other than triva which was good. Entertainment was Zuiderdam Dancers. I did listen to the Ocean Bar Band for a few minutes, always a nice experience. This morning we arrived just a little bit late and weren’t cleared until about 8:15am. I walked off with a friend and walked around a cute little city for about an hour. The morning was pleasantly cool and it made for a nice walk. This is another easy city to walk around as the ship is moored pretty much in the city.

from Zuiderdam

Today in history: 1968 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs 1968 Civil Rights Act Zuiderdam is at sea, next port is back in Spain.

April 11 – at sea destination A Coruña, Spain Good morning, back to sea. Last night was uneventful. The Lido was completely turned into a Portuguese diner. It was nicely decorated and set up. Starting at 6:00pm until after sail away at 9:00pm the Ocean Bar Band played next to the mid ship pool. Today will be a leisurely day with nothing really planned except the normal sea day trivia sessions. The 6:30pm time will have a ‘Scribble the Scramble’ session, which is not a game that I enjoy. Last night’s session was more difficult than normal, but we did manage to get nine correct and the winner only got 11.

April 10 – Lisbon, Portugal at night

April 10 – Lisbon, Portugal Back to Lisbon after almost six years, and the city has changed. In September of 2017 I spent about two weeks in Spain and Portugal between cruises. In Lisbon I stayed in a hotel on Rossio Square, MyStory Rossio. Going out the front door of the hotel you are in the middle of a very busy area in Lisbon. While there I managed to walk to the river and then turn the right direction and come across three cruise ships, including Prinsendam. What passed for a cruise port then was ships against a dock, some land, a chain link fence, and a couple of security guards. In contrast, today we have a nice concrete dock with a jetway into a very nice building. The building is very well set up for transient, as well as embarking passengers. It is a cruise only port, with easy access to public transportation, HOHO buses, and other attractions. We got off the ship and turned left. This took us to Commerce Plaza, which I remembered but didn’t know the name of. It was a lot more crowded than I remembered, but possibly this was because today is a holiday in the EU. We crossed the plaza and headed up the pedestrian street to Rossio Square and it was as I remembered it. It was crowded, but since it was a bit early for European lunch it wasn’t bad. We walked a little further to the next stop for City Sightseeing Tours (HOHO bus) and got tickets and waited about five minutes for the next bus to arrive. It should be noted that Lisbon has two sightseeing bus companies. The red bus (City Sightseeing) and the yellow bus. In the past I had tried both on different days and found them to be very similar. Since then I have seen the red buses in more cities and tend to select them when given a choice. We did the red route (the red bus has at least three different routes), and went around the entire circuit. Everything looked familiar but most areas had been cleaned up and looked better. Another note here, in the town there is a large parking lot that is part of each route for the red (and possibly yellow) buses. The bus pulls in there and parks. Everyone must get off the bus and transfer to another. It might be to give the driver a break before starting the route again. In any case, we got on the replacement bus and took it back to where we started. We then found a sidewalk cafe and had lunch. By this time there was a crowd. After lunch we walked back thru Commerce Plaza, then back to the ship. It was a very good day and the weather again was beautiful. The hotel I stayed in while in Lisbon Zuiderdam at the new terminal

Today in history: 1858 "Big Ben", a 13.76 tonne bell, is recast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry Greetings from Lisbon. It is 10:00am here and all aboard isn't until 8:30pm. This is a day of memories for me. I stayed here for 3 days, not to far from the cruise port, in September 2017. I hope everyone has a good week!

April 10 – Lisbon, Portugal Menus and activities for today:

April 10 – Lisbon, Portugal Good morning from Lisbon! We are currently sailing up the Tagus River and should be docked and ready to disembark shortly.

April 9 – Cádiz, Spain

April 9 – Cádiz, Spain Happy Easter from Spain! Like yesterday it was a short leg from Málaga to Cádiz so there was no problem due to late departure. We arrived and the ship was cleared on time and the first guests made their shore excursions without a problem. Last night was pretty quiet, dinner was good, little entertainment. I got a good nights sleep to make up for losing two hours the night before. At breakfast we planned our meeting and went our separate ways. A little after 10:00am I headed to Billboard to meet, then leave the ship. As we left the terminal the HOHO bus was suggested so that was our plan. It was a great day to be on the open deck of the bus. The ride lasted a little over an hour and was very informative. We got off one stop before the ship and walked the rest of the way, stopping at a small bar for a beer. We returned to the ship for lunch, and now the next thing is lightning trivia, followed by Dinner in the MDR.

Today in history: 1768 John Hancock refuses to allow two British customs agents to go below deck of his ship, considered by some to be the first act of physical resistance to British authority in the colonies It has been a beautiful day in Cadiz!

Menus for tonight:

April 8 - Málaga, Spain Back on board a little while ago and had a lite lunch. We have been extremely lucky with weather since this cruise began. Today again was a reasonable temperature for walking around, and very little humidity. When we left the ship we missed our timing by about 5 minutes today. If we had been a bit earlier we wouldn’t have had to wait for a shuttle, but as it was we only waited about 10 minutes. The shuttle dropped us at an interesting area, that was easily walkable to many interesting places. One thing that was evident was that Málaga is preparing for an Easter celebration tomorrow. Along the streets they had viewing stands set up for a parade and many places seemed to be decorated. There were other cruise ships in town with us today and the area was crowded. We looked at the line to enter the Roman Colosseum, but they were longer than we wanted to wait in. The same was true for the Cathedral. We did find a small Cafe that we stopped at. It was another very nice day and a good walk.