Monday, December 16, 2013

Bill and Pat's 2014 Grand World Voyage!!!


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!

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