Cruizer Bill

Diana had her 75th Birthday on April 18!  I took her out to dinner and we had a fine time.

Our next cruise is July 27 to Aug 20th on the Volendam.  We leave Boston for a 24 day cruise up the East Coast of Canada, Greenland and a full trip around Iceland.  Then, we cruise back to Boston stopping different places in Greenland, Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Maine before flying home.  We will reach Five Star Mariners on this cruise!  

In November we are going all out with a 14 night cruise of the Caribbean on WINDSTAR!!!!!  We are sailing on the Star Pride - one of the motor yachts Windstar bought from Seabourn and had it stretched to add more people.  It now holds 312 passengers and 200 crew.  Check it out on YouTube, there are excellent videos of it there.  We will be visiting some rare places in the Caribe - Jost Van Dyke, Iles de Saintes, Monserrat (yes, the volcano place), and Bequila!  From Bequila we will take an excursion to see the ultra-rare island of Mustique!  This will be amazing'

In Jan/Feb of 2025 we are taking some friends on the Koningsdam for 18 day cruise round trip to Hawaii.  We have done this three times before but this time we will be playing tour guide for some friends.  

I have to get both of my knees replaced so I will do the first when we get back from the Hawaii cruise and then the other knee a year later.

In September 2025 we have a big cruise booked from Sept 7 to Oct 4th.  We are cruising on the Nieuw Statendam from Amsterdam to Athens Greece and will stop for 2 days in both Cairo, Egypt and Istanul, Turkey.  These are both big bucket-list places we want to see.  We have never been to the Pyramids or the amazing palaces, mosques, and grand bazaar in Istanbul.

I was shopping for a 2025 cruise yesterday and went away from my computer.  When I returned, I found the prices had gone up by more than 10%.  Is this true, HAL raised their prices on 3/31/24?

Thanks for taking us along!  DW and I are planning a river cruise for June 2025 and will enjoy your comments.  

December 1983 on the Carnival Festivale.

Amanda is our favorite Cruise Director EVER!  You guys are so lucky!

This is good info, thanks!

Please remove us from the Rotterdam cruise in September.  We cancelled this cruise and booked on the Volendam in July instead:

delete:  Rotterdam - 14-Sep-24 - 14 day Best of Norway
Cruizer Bill & Cruizer Diana

Thank you!  😀

On 3/15/2024 at 4:55 PM, aliaschief said:

One hundred thirty five folks have elected to stay on Onward’s World Voyage after Dubai and detour around Africa and finish the last segment in Venice. Folks have the option to go on their own after Dubai and rejoin in Venice. They can leave luggage onboard so not sure how many of us will actually be onboard.

Azamara is looking into offering an overland excursion with a three or four day Safari trip.

In the meantime we are enjoying this wonderful adventure on the Onward.

We have dined in Prime C the last two night’s and enjoyed the temporary Asian menu.

You are going to have a VERY quiet ship with only 135 passengers!  Probably only one show at night.  

We sent our US Passports in for renewal on March 2nd.  Not knowing how long it would take, we sent them "Expedited".  I am  happy to report we received new passports in only two weeks on March 16th.  If you have been waiting to renew your passports, now is a fine time to do it!

We sent our US Passports in for renewal on March 2nd.  Not knowing how long it would take, we sent them "Expedited".  I am  happy to report we received new passports in only two weeks on March 16th.  If you have been waiting to renew your passports, now is a fine time to do it!

Thanks to KirkNC for posting the letter with all the details!  It looks to me like they are being very generous under the circumstances.  If someone were to stay on board after Dubai, they would sail with about 150 passengers all the way to Venice.  
The people on board have a lot of choices.  

Any further world on the itinerary changes to the World Cruise?  Are you sailing the Red Sea?

we had a great time on the 4th Segment and enjoyed seeing so many of you.

We leave for Eden now.

There are 697 passengers and 400 crew on board.  Of the passengers, 195 are doing the 155-day World Cruise.  We are on for 15 days and fly home from Sydney. 
We have had a great time visiting Queenstown and Hobbitton - Lord of The Rings set.

We are in Hobart today.  Our sail from NZ had 21 foot waves!   The cruise has been great but as. Old as an Alaska cruise in May.

We  just finished a week here traveling in New Zealand, visiting Auckland and Queenstown and an hour ago we boarded the Azamara Onward.  We are taking a 15 night cruise from Auckland to Sydney with stops in Hobart, Tasmania and Eden, Australia.  This is Segment no. 4 of the Azamara World Cruise.  Will let you know how it goes and what is special about a World Cruise.

The itinerary you propose is a lot of fun.  However,  Diana and I cruise to Alaska and/or Hawaii every year and have an 18-night cruise to Hawaii booked in February on the Koningsdam.  We will monitor your progress.  We have not made plans yet for the end of August but may be able to meet up with you.

51 minutes ago, Roel94 said:

Loved Queenstown.Did you get good weather? I had mixed.

We arrived in the rain but it has been sunny sine then.  Temps around 20C and 12kph winds.  The gondola ride was wonderful!

We are having an amazing time in Queenstown.  I posted our experiences on the Feb 15th Roll Call.  We fly back to Auckland and then join you on Thursday.

1 hour ago, LoonBoarder said:

 

Are you a time traveler? 😉 Assume you meant you sailed in December 2023...

Yes, 2023!

Cabin Number. 4046

Ship.  Onward

Month/Year sailed. Dec 2024

Would you choose this room again Y

Is noise an issue N

Balcony size Normal/Larger/Smaller. Ocean View Cabin

Any other comments. Good central location, nice room!

Volendam - 27-Jul-24 - 24 day Canada, New England & Iceland

Cruizer Bill

Cruizer Diana

Koningsdam - 28-Jan-25 - 18 day Circle Hawaii

Cruizer Bill

Cruizer Diana

We are making final preparations for our upcoming New Zealand/Australia cruise/tour.  We fly to Auckland February 7th and then travel to Queenstown for 4 days before returning to Auckland.   We board the Azamara Onward for Stage 4 of their World Cruise and cruise 15 days to Sydney.  We have now booked our excursions and look forward to a fun time again on Azamara. 

Our next cruise after that is the Volendam for 24 days out of Boston on July 27, going to Iceland and Greenland with a return to Boston.  Come join us on this one!

35 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

Of course, almost anything can be “possible” - but anything before noon is somewhat risky, and thinking you can get off the ship and to the airport, and through check-in and TSA so you can be at the gate by 9:00 is a damn fool notion

Thank you, I will schedule an afternoon flight.

How about catching an 11 AM flight?  I see there is a nonstop flight back to Seattle at that time, just wondering..        Thanks!  

We just returned from a 12 day Azamara Onward cruise out for Fort Lauderdale.  We were so lucky to beat the tropical storms!  Our weather was excellent and we had so much fun.

In February, we will be rejoining the Azamara Onward on Segment 4 of their world cruise.  We will fly into Auckland and spend a week visiting Queenstown and some other places before boarding the ship February 15th for their 15 night cruise to Sydney.  

In July we board the HAL Volendam for a 24 day cruise from Boston to Canada, Greenland, Iceland and return.  This is a big "bucket list" one for us.  

We will be keeping our eyes open for bargains.  This past year we spend 41 days in our RV and will do so again this year.

Happy Holidays to everyone!  Stay safe and healthy!

Bill

Ros,

Your Asia cruise looks like f lot of fun!  Hope it went well for you.

Diana and I went on a 2-week Alaska cruise on the Noordam from Sept 17 to Oct 1st.  We visited Kodiak Island, Valdez and Prince Rupert.  There are only three cruises that get to dock in Downtown Anchorage each year (all three are Holland America), and we were the last one this year.  The food and service were very good, the entertainment was weird as very few shows in the main showroom.  Also, four large areas on the ship were closed for remodeling.  We still had a lot of fun.

Our next cruise is a 12 day Carib cruise out of Fort Lauderdale on the Azamara Onward from Nov 30 to Dec 12.  Then, we rejoin the Onward in Auckland, New Zealand on Feb 14 to 29th as we sail on the fourth World Cruise leg from Auckland to Sydney, Australia.  We will spend a week in Queenstown, New Zealand pre-cruise.  

Then, it is time to renew our Passports, so no cruising in March, April and May while we wait for our passports.  

Our next cruise is July 27 to August 20 sailing on the Volendam round-trip out of Boston.  We will be cruising 24 days to Canada, Greenland and Iceland - returning to Boston.  

So, we canceled our Norway trip out of Rotterdam and replaced it with the Greenland/Iceland cruise out of  Boston.

Last year we spent 41 days in our motorhome RVing the West.  We visited Montana, the Black Hills of South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado and Idaho for 27 days.  The other trips were going to square dance festivals.  We hope to do the same this year!  We keep busy square dancing, cruising and riding our bicycles!