08 December 2017 -- Ft. Lauderdale, FL We are off the ship and in the airport waiting to see if we can get to Atlanta with its snow. May have to extend our stay here in Florida awhile longer. We can't say enough of our last 49 days and all our adventures. We'll slowly come back to reality and look back on it all and smile! Thanks for sharing our experience through this blog and hope it was a good way to stay in touch.
Posts
07 December 2017 -- Half Moon Cay, Bahamas What a beautiful day and a beautiful location! We used the ship’s tenders and other tenders from Half Moon Cay (owned by Holland America) to get to the island and back. It was a little rough but we survived. Another Holland America ship, the Zuiderdam, was also there as their cruise to the Panama Canal was just starting. We had a very relaxing time on shore, a good lunch provided by the ship’s culinary team, and lots of sun. It was a nice respite to end a wonderful vacation. Robbi got her swim in the ocean and John got a long walk on the beach. So now we have a dinner and breakfast left on the ship and we dock in Ft. Lauderdale at 7:00am and we are scheduled off at 9:30am. Then a flight back to Atlanta and reality!!! What an experience! We cannot express in words what it was like and what a great time we had seeing what we saw at all our ports of call. Oh, and by the...
Crossing the Atlantic – 30 November thru 06 December 2017 After leaving Funchal we headed west for our last stop in the Bahamas before our exit in Ft. Lauderdale. We were delayed leaving Funchal due to a mechanical repair to our backup diesel generator and as it turned out, it was good as another medical emergency arose that could have caused us to turn around had we left on time. The Culinary staff treated us to a Mediterranean Food Feast on the night leaving Funchal to celebrate our last main port. Delicious!! Our first day at sea was rainy (30 Nov.) but cleared up in the afternoon. We had a course changes and turned to a southwesterly direction to avoid a deep low pressure disturbance in our original path. Even with this correction we experienced very rough seas throughout the night and day of 01 December, with off-and-on squalls and high gusty winds. By evening though the seas calmed and we had a nice night. Saturday 02 December w...
29 November 2017 –– Funchal, Madeira, Portugal As we arrived in port early this morning still before sunrise, wwe saw wet streets and evidence of drizzle and overcast skies. BUMMER!! As we needed sun or at least dry weather to do the most important event of this cruise – the toboggan down the streets of Funchal! The plan was to take the cable car (teleferico in their Portuguese) and come down the mountain on the toboggan. As we left the ship there were some small signs of clearing in the sky, and as we strolled down the long walk to the cable car, we couldn’t believe that the sun was shining brightly!! The views from the cable car really gave a good picture of the city of Funchal that is built on these steep hillside. As we arrived at the top it was only a short walk to the toboggan run. WE MADE IT!!! The ride down was something to remember for a long, long, time, and what a memorable way to...
27 November 2017 –– Casablanca, Morocco We arrived in port early this morning still before sunrise, and couldn’t believe the amount of commercial ship traffic and loading/unloading transpiring! It is a major port for all goods into and out of North Africa, and it reflects it. At first glance Casablanca reminded us so much of Sao Luis, Brasil – crowded streets, crazy drivers, lots of pedestrians, old buildings that had been gorgeous in their day, and lots of restoration and construction. Our first point of interest was Mohammed V place that seemed to have more pigeons than people. Across the street was a post office, but as we came to expect had a beautiful mosaic around the main door way. Next was the highlight of the whole tour – the Hassan II Mosque. It was constructed from 1987 to 1993 for about US$1 Billion and used all materials from Morocco except for the chandeliers (Murano glass from Italy) and the sound system (from Sony...
26 November 2017 –– Cadiz, Spain We arrived in port early this morning before the sun even rose and after breakfast, got off the ship and started walking on our own. We started in a beautiful tree-lined plaza and the Information Booth opened as we got there and we picked up some maps. One of them was a DIY. The city had painted 4 colored lines that led to 4 different walks and each had historical markers at the points of interest. Something very unique! The skies were overcast and we even felt a drop of rain or two, but the skies cleared and gave us a beautiful warm, sunny day. We had a 10:30am walking tour scheduled and we met our tour guide, Pablo, who is a native of Cadiz, and he was excellent, filling us with the history and folklore of the city and showing us all the sights! We saw the old cathedral that used to be a mosque; the new cathedral that was built over a period of 113 years, by 3 different architects, usin...