Only three days left....and so much to do.
I think if we had thirty three days we'd still feel we weren't ready so I'm not going to worry.
Finally made our reservations for the Cruise Connection, a bus that runs down the west coast of Florida and then over to Ft. Lauderdale. Naples where we will pick it up is the last stop so we'll probably be in the back of the bus but as long as it gets us to the Prinsendam we're happy. Unfortunately, it doesn't run on Wednesdays, the day we return but we're lucky that Frank and Mike who are staying at our house in Bonita will come over to Ft. Lauderdale and pick us up on March ll.
We met Frank and Mike on the World Cruise. They are from Toronto.
In case anyone wants to follow the cruise on a map or globe, here's the itinerary. The skipped dates are days spent at sea cruising from one port to the next. Sorry I don’t have my cheat sheet of foreign letters so there are no proper accents on some of the places.
January 2 Fort Lauderdale, Florida
3 Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (Holland America’s private island))
6 Bridgetown, Barbados
8 Devil’s Island, French Guiana
10 Macapa, Brazil (the start of what Holland America calls the Amazon Experience) Cross the equator. Cruising the Amazon
11 Santarem, Brazil
12 Boca da Valeria, Brazil
13 Manaus, Brazil - overnight
14 Manaus, Brazil start back down the Amazon at 4 pm
15 Parintins, Brazil
16 Alter do Chao, Brazil
17 Cross the Equator again, continue cruising down Amazon
19 Belem, Brazil
21 Fortaleza, Brazil
23 Maceio, Brazil
24 Salvador, Brazil
26 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - overnight
27 Rio de Janeiro
28 Ilhabela (San Sebastiao) Brazil
29 Itajai, Brazil
31 Montevideo, Uruguay
Feb. 1 Buenos Aires, Argentina - Overnight
2 Buenos Aires
5 Stanley, Falkland Islands (weather conditions permitting)
8 Cumberland bay, South Georgia
11 The beginning of the Antarctica Experience. Elephant Island (Endurance 11 Glacier), Paulet Island, Hope Bay (Esperanza Station).
12 Greenwich Island (Yankee Harbor), Half Moon Island, Paulet
Island, Livingston Island (Hannah Point), Deception Island.
13 Anvers Island (Palmer Station), Paradise Bay, Cuverville
Island, Lemaire channels, Petermann Island. (end of Antarctica
Experience)
14 Cruising Cape Horn and Drake passage
15 The bottom of the world. Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.
Passing Italia, Francia, Aleania and Romanche Glaciers.
Cruising Beagle and Cockburn channels
16 Cruising Strait of Magellan
Punta Arenas, Chile
17 Cruising canal Sarmiento and Amalia Glacier
18 Cruising Darwin Channel and Chilean Fjords
19 Puerto chacabuco, Chile and more of the Chilean Fjords
20 Puerto Montt, Chile
22 Valparaiso (Santiago) Chile
23 Coquimbo (La Serena), Chile
25 Arica, Chile
27 Callao (Lima), Peru - Overnight
28 Callao
March 1 Salaverry (Trujillo), Peru
3 Manta (Quito), Ecuador
5 Fuerte Amador (Panama City), Panama
6 Enter Panama Canal at Balboa, Panama,
Transit canal to Cristobal.
7 San Blas Islands, Panama
8 Santa Marta, Columbia
11 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
That adds up to 15 countries, 33 ports, two oceans, and two continents. Glaciers, waterfalls, whales, penguins, ancient civilizations and modern cities. Predicted temperatures from the 90s in the Amazon and Panama to the 40s in Antarctica.
As I said before, we’re traveling on Holland American’s ms Prinsendan: 790 guests, 38,000 gross tons, 673 feet long, 9 guest decks, 4 guest elevators, 22 public rooms, 3 restaurants, 2 swiming pools, a movie theatre, casino, spa and salon, fitness center, self-serve launderettes (we’re spoiled, we ordered laundry service), internet center, library, art gallery, putting green and sports courts.
Our cabin is on Dolphin Deck, approximately 190 square feet, with a large window and a walk-in closet!
We’ll have 9 formal nights, 8 informal (jackets for men, dressy outfits for ladies) and the rest casual.
We know three of our friends from the World Cruise will be on board---the Cormacks from Maryland ---and we wonder how many more.
In addition to the shots we needed (or got to be on the safe side) for the World Cruise, we had yellow fever (required by Brazil) shots for this cruise. And visas for Brazil.

We're off again!

Hi everyone,

We had such a wonderful time, met such great people and learned so much on last year's World Cruise that we're taking another fairly long cruise this year. We'll be traveling from Ft. Lauderdale to Ft. Lauderdale on another Holland America ship the Prinsendam. It's small, only 750 passengers, but we loved the Amsterdam so we expected only great things from the Prinsendam.

We leave Bonita Springs for the pier at Ft. Lauderdale on Jan. 2, 2009 and return March 11.
That's 68 days, more ports and countries than I can remember, and Antarcticia!

Our bags have been shipped from Falmouth, we're seeing friends in Bonita Springs, and finalizing a little packing as we clean up the house a tad.

Hope you enjoy our travels. You won't be able to post to this blog but please send comments and news (no jokes, please) to my usual aol. address.

We're off again

......And I'm still having problems with the blog. You would think that after 4 months of doing it, I'd have it right but I guess not. Anyway......

We had such a wonderful time on last year's World Cruise, met such great people, and learned so much that we decided to go on another long cruise. This time we're going around South America, from Ft. Lauderdale to Ft. Lauderdale. We leave Jan. 2, 2009 and return March 11. That's 68 days and more countries and ports that I can remember. One place I do remember is Antarctica so hopefully I'll be posting plenty of pictures of penguins. We going on Holland America Cruise Lines again, this time on a smaller ship (750 passengers), the Prinsendam. I'm sure it will be every bit as enjoyable as the Amsterdam.

This is my second attempt at posting this so if you see it duplicated, ignore one.

Hope you enjoy reading about our travels. You won't be able to post to this blog but we'd love to hear comments and your news on my regular aol address.