Here We Go Again!
Yes, it’s true—Bill and Pat are
taking another Grand World Voyage!
Most of you will know that in 2012, we
took an “around the world” cruise which started January 6th and
ended April 28th—almost 4 months later! Our “excuse” for taking that
trip was to give each other a retirement gift—since we both retired in December 2011 after many years of teaching. And we created a blog for that trip which
is still available on the web for those that are interested: http://billpatbond.blogspot.com/
But that trip didn’t really
end on April 28th. After a few weeks aboard our beloved “ms Amsterdam”,
we realized that upon our return to Ft. Lauderdale the ship would leave on a
“repositioning cruise” on the same day—April 28th. (A “repositioning
cruise” is a cruise that will reposition the ship in a new desired location. In
this case, Holland America wanted the Amsterdam in Seattle for Alaska cruises
during the summertime.) This repositioning cruise would leave Ft. Lauderdale,
FL, on April 28th, travel through the Panama Canal, and end in
Seattle on May 17th. So we decided to extend our world cruise and
let the ship take us home to Seattle! By the time we returned to Seattle, we
had been aboard the Amsterdam 132 days. We created a blog for that trip as
well: http://billandpatbondpanama.blogspot.com/
Unfortunately, we never finished that
blog—but we will! We still have all of the documents and photos and really want
to have a complete record of our 132 day journey. So if you are interested in
the Panama Canal leg of our 2012 journey, please check the website a little
later. We hope to have it finished before or shortly after we begin our 2014
trip.
Our motivation for taking another
world cruise was remembering how much we enjoyed the 2012 trip. Shortly after
the beginning of the 2012 trip, Pat remarked: “Oh, this is so much fun! This
can’t be the only time we ever do this!” So we promised each other that one day
we would take another World Cruise with Holland America on the Amsterdam.
Over the last year, everything seemed
to come together. Three of our closest couple friends from the 2012 cruise were
again taking the world cruise in 2014--Jacob and Margaret George, Don and Lili
Tremblay, and Dick and Cynthia Callaway, and we knew others who would be going
as well. So it seemed that if we were going to follow through on our promise to
go on another world cruise, sooner would be better than later. We have already
organized our dining table with our friends and even our trivia team!
So, we will fly from Seattle to Ft.
Lauderdale on January 3rd, 2014 and board the Amsterdam on January 4th
for a 114 day Grand World Voyage. A few of the ports we visit will be the same
as in 2012—Easter Island, Tahiti, Pago Pago, Sydney (Australia), the Great
Barrier Reef (Australia), Hong Kong, Singapore, Phuket (Thailand) and Colombo
(Sri Lanka)—but we are excited to go back and
see things we didn’t see the first time.
But most of what we see will be new.
This time, we will leave Ft. Lauderdale on January 4th, stop in Costa Rica, and then travel
through the Panama Canal. We will continue our journey south down the west coast
of South America visiting Ecuador, Peru, and Chile and then head west across
the South Pacific visiting Easter island, Pitcairn Island, Tahiti, Bora Bora, Pago
Pago, Fiji and New Caledonia, before arriving in Sydney, Australia on February 11th. From
Sydney, we will visit Brisbane and the Great Barrier Reef, and from there head north
to Papua-New Guinea, Yap Island, and the Philippines--arriving in Hong
Kong on March 3rd.
After arriving at, Hong Kong we are going to do
something a little different than what we did previously. On the 2012 trip—and
this trip as well!—there were/are “overland excursions” available. An overland
excursion is one where you get off the ship in one port, spend several days
traveling overland to see the sights of the region, and then re-board the ship in another port. In 2012, we wanted to spend every night on the ship, and so we
did not take advantage of any of the overland excursions which were available. But
this time, when we reach Hong Kong, we will take a 6 day/5 night overland
excursion through China as part of the “Grand China Adventure.” On this
excursion, we will take a riverboat tour down the picturesque Li River, travel
to Xian and see the Terracotta Warriors, visit the Great Wall of China, and
travel to Beijing to see Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.
We will re-board the ship after
visiting Singapore, and travel to Phuket, Thailand and Colombo, Sri Lanka
before heading west across the Indian Ocean. On that part of the journey, we
will stop at the Seychelles, and the islands of Mauritius and Reunion before
traveling south down the east coast of Africa to the city of Durban, South
Africa.
At Durban, we will take another
“overland excursion”—this time 5 days/4 nights to Kruger National Park. On this
excursion, we will be staying at the Lukimbi Safari Lodge and going out into
the South African “lowveld” in 4 X 4 vehicles—where we hope to see the African
“Big 5”—water buffalo, elephants, leopards, lions, and rhinoceros—as well as
plant life and other animals.
We will re-board the ship after
visiting Cape Town, South Africa on April 1st and then travel north along the west coast of
Africa visiting Walvis Bay (Namibia), the islands of St. Helena and Ascension,
Banjul (Gambia), Dakar (Senegal), and the Cape Verde Islands before heading
west across the Atlantic Ocean.
After crossing the Atlantic, we will
visit the islands of Barbados, Dominica and Saint Maarten in the Caribbean
before arriving back in Ft. Lauderdale on April 28th.
We have posted on this blog a map and
complete itinerary of our journey—we cross the equator 4 times and the
International Date line once. But as in any Grand World Voyage, there will
undoubtedly be modifications to the itinerary—stay tuned!
While we are away, we will be in e-mail communication--although maybe not every day. We would love to hear from anyone who has time to write. Our e-mail addresses are:
Bill: Bond_William@msn.com (Don't forget the underscore space between the "Bond" and the "William")
We may even be in telephone communication--especially when we are in port. We are working on that one--more later.
We feel so blessed and fortunate to
be taking this trip. I guess our attitude is to do things we want to do
now—life holds no guarantees for later. And we hope that what we post on this
blog you will find interesting. Stay tuned—the next blog post will probably be
shortly after we depart Ft. Lauderdale on January 4th!
