RBB

I don't know about the other world cruises, but Holland America's isn't scheduled to reach the Red Sea until the middle of April. A lot can change in 4 months.

Thanks for the answers & clarifications.

But you get both of those with just one FCD; is there any additional advantage to using two or three of them on a single cruise?

If you lose the OBC on extra OBC's used on a single cruise, what is the advantage of buying them in the first place? Any other benefits involved?

Sometimes it is 3 points (has been that for a few months this year). The best return is to redeem points for an account credit, but you can only redeem up to the amount of your largest HAL charge in the last 6 (I think) months. So the best time to do it if you have a lot of points is within 6 months of paying off a long HAL cruise. We register our HAL card with the ship on a cruise to get the double or triple card points, then use a different card in port. That way if there is a problem with our land credit card it won't cause trouble with our shipboard account.

Probably because the Vancouver to San Diego segment is more in the nature of a repositioning cruise than just a part of the South Pacific legendary cruise. Most of the passengers for that cruise are boarding in San Diego, just a few dozen of them coming from Vancouver.

Actually, this is not a "Grand Voyage," it is a "Legendary Voyage," which is a new category of longer cruises that are a level below Grand Voyages (although the cruise you are on predates the new category, it is part of that category of cruises now). Its good to know, though, that HAL is elevating the food and service on these voyages as well.

Grand Voyages have special amenities packages but they are tied to paying in full for the cruise early, usually about 4 to 6 months before departure. The amount of the amenities depends on your cabin level, but at least in ocean view cabins you get prepaid crew gratuities (a sizable amount on a cruise that long), luggage transfer services between your home and the ship at both ends of the cruise, two pieces for each passenger, and some other smaller things. There is more in higher level cabins, including free shore excursions and some free wifi. We have always found this well worth paying up early. And if you pay a little earlier than that there is a 3% discount on the cruise fare. You can get the required payment dates and full list of amenities from your TA or PCC.

I understand Westerdam had a drydock in January, so I am wondering what had changed and what shape the ship is in after the drydock. In particular: 1. Do all the veranda cabins on deck 4 have interactive TV's now? 2. Do all the veranda cabins on deck 4 have the new glass door walk in showers? If not, which ones do? Anything else that is new and/or different from other HAL ships would be of interest too. Thanks.

Sorry you can't go on, we have really been enjoying your postings. But we will be on board the ship with you next year, so I hope you get your computer in tip-top shape for that! Rick

Both Henk and Nyron are veterans of many world cruises so they have to be fully aware of how these things go on such cruises. I'm not sure why they would still be in need of a "lesson learned" for this one. This ought to be standard procedure for grand voyages by now.

This has been discussed on the Inside Cabin's cruise critic blog. It seems that Gambia is simply charging US visitors the same amount the US charges Gambian visitors. Apparently some countries, such as Canada, don't charge for visas for Gambian visitors so Canadians on board are getting their visas for free. So I guess the people to complain to are the US government, not the Gambians.

I hope you have a good tour. We did this excursion last Fall on the Grand Africa and it was not ready for prime time. Way too much time sitting and waiting on the bus, they had failed to arrange in advance for us to see the inside of the cathedral, the visit to the costume museum was not guided and there were no English signs, and we didn't see a number of the places listed on the tour description (which was the same as yours). The shore excursion folks agreed and (after some negotiation) gave us half our money back. I am hoping they learned something from the experience and have fixed this tour, which sure would have been interesting if conducted competently.

Since it was your next stop you probably know by now that the largest producer of cocoa beans is Cote d'Ivoire. Very controversial, though, because there are allegations that forced child labor is used on the plantations. Rick

For those of us without Facebook, what have they posted? Are they OK? Did they leave the ship?

Thanks Pete. That's the answer I was hoping for.

What about extra tips you give to individuals without removing the Hotel Service Charges. Or, on the world cruise, when prepaid service charges are included as an amenity for paying early. Do those tips go into the pool, or does the person tipped get to keep them (as the tipper intends)? Rick

Hi Bill & Mary Ann, enjoying your trip blog, as always. I was surprised to read the statements above about your visit to Nosy Be. We were just there in November on the Grand Africa and we were able to see lemurs in the wild at Lokobe National Park on the island of Nosy Be. This was a HAL excursion (and they did still have another trip to the island of lemurs), so I guess that is an improvement. I think it would have been fairly easy to schedule a private trip there as well, especially since we were there overnight. I hope you make it to Madagascar (you may recall that the 2018 World Cruise cancelled Nosy Be because of an outbreak of plague): definitely third world with a lot of poverty, but that was true of much of sub-sahara Africa, at least on our trip. Rick

Just as an additional aside: if you are interested in a Grand Mediterranean cruise you should pick up a copy of Mark Twain's "Innocents Abroad" (free ebook download available from Gutenberg). The first pleasure cruise to the Mediterranean round trip from the US was in 1867 and Mark Twain was on it (paid for by a few newspapers in exchange for dispatches). It was billed as a trip to the Holy Land and sailed round trip from New York on a sailing ship and took, if memory serves, about 6 months. It was something of a sensation in the US and many people followed its progress in the press. When it was over Twain adapted his dispatches into this full length book which was his first best seller. It is both fascinating and hilarious; sometimes it is hard to tell what was real and what was fictional embellishment, but it is great preparation for setting out on a similar voyage.

We sailed on the Grand Med in 2013 and I think there might have been one more after that which did not actually return to Ft Lauderdale. The Grand Med was about 3 months long and went all the way to Istanbul, Israel & Egypt in the eastern part of the Med. It was a fabulous trip and we would love to do that again. It is a little exhausting, though, because the ports come up fast and furious with few multi-day sea portions other than the crossings of the Atlantic, and pretty much all of the ports are A-list so you don't want to skip going ashore at any of them. We have been hoping it might come back with the change in HAL leadership and the advent of a new Grand Voyage itinerary to Australia next year. Here is our 2013 itinerary: Rick

The Wikipedia page says: "The depth of the seabed beneath the Soul buoy is around 4,940 metres (16,210 ft). So be sure not to fall in leaning out for a better view.

Hi Pete. It looks like I gave you bad information about the 0/0 point where the equator crosses the prime meridian, sometimes called "Null Island." Using an advanced tool called "Google" I just found out that there is, in fact, a marker at the spot (although we sure didn't see it and our captain apparently didn't know about it either, judging from his remarks at the time). According to Wikipedia(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_Island) : "The exact point, using the WGS84 datum, is marked by the Soul buoy (named after the musical genre), a permanently-moored weather buoy." Seems to me the name should be Soul Man, but regardless here is a picture of it: Maybe if your captain knows to look for it you folks will be able to spot it. It would be great to see a new picture, if its still there. By the way, someone who was on the Grand Africa has actually designed a baseball cap for "Null Island," a place we have been to twice but never seen. Rick

Yes, we did. And we did it again about 7 weeks ago on the Grand Africa voyage. Almost 5 years later and there is still no sign or monument there! Rick

I should have known you would be a likely source for this information, even for Capt Mercer! But I didn't remember him crediting you for it (although I have no doubt he did). Senior moment, I guess.

"For a World Cruise to be considered a circumnavigation of the earth, many people have established the following criteria. Start and finish at the same point, traveling in one general direction Reach two antipodes (Two diametrically opposite places on Earth) Cross the Equator Cross all longitudes Cover a minimum of 40,000km or 21,600NM (a great circle)" We learned this on the 2016 World Cruise (which I believe you were on) when Capt. Mercer informed us we had made a true circumnavigation because we had hit antipodes near New Zealand and near Gibraltar. I agree that a "World Cruise" should at least go around the world and end where it started, even if it doesn't quite meet this criterion for a true circumnavigation. Labeling any long cruise as a "World Cruise" is deceptive advertising in my view. Rick