Trekking the Globe with Bill & Mary Ann on the 2017 World Cruise - 126 Days

Big sigh... I guess it's time for me to get a life now, lol. Thank you for another wonderful adventure!

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Thank you for sharing so much with your faithful followers. We all appreciate the time you spent, the wonderful pictures that allowed us to share the great moments, and all the descriptions that added to our enjoyment. Can't wait for the next adventure!

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I, too, am so sad to have your trip end. I look forward to each report each day and appreciate the enormous time and energy and effort they take. Thank you for sharing so much of yourselves and your adventures ! I enjoyed every minute - and may even have gained a couple of pounds from the pizza and beer lol. Be well and welcome home.

Linda

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Welcome Home! You have gone full circle indeed and we have enjoyed following you all the way on yet another WC. Your sharing in detail of your world cruise experiences, the good and the not so good, is much appreciated.

Thank you once again.

Welcome Home! You have gone full circle indeed and we have enjoyed following you all the way on yet another WC. Your sharing in detail of your world cruise experiences, the good and the not so good, is much appreciated.

 

Thank you once again.

Very nice of you to post your experience. However, it means NOTHING without pictures.

Report # 130 SailingTowards San Francisco, California May9, 2017 Tuesday Partly cloudy & 72 degrees

 

 

 

We had a pleasant day as the ship steered northwesterlyalong the coast of Baja California. The temperatures have dropped even more since yesterday, as we suspected. But then, so has the humidity. Many folks we talked to are pleased that thesticky, humid weather has been left behind.

 

 

 

Barbara H has continued her talks which today included one onSan Francisco, a city that is near and dear to our hearts. Born and raised in the city by the bay, ithas been the center of our world with family and friends either living in or onthe outskirts of the city. Despiteknowing every nook and cranny, we still like to listen to her lectures. Of course, the bottom line, is selling thetours, of which there are only 2 offered. That is kind of interesting since the scheduled stay there is from 8amto 11pm. Perhaps the tour booklet thecollector voyage guests get is different from the continuing guests. Anyway, there is a scenic city tour for 3 ½ hoursfor $65, and the hop-on, hop-off bus for 2 ½ hours. That was $45. Finally, a tour of the city with a transfer to the airport for 4 ½ hoursfor $104 works well for disembarking guests with late flights. One funny thing that is mentioned in eachdescription is the fact that fog may obstruct the views. Oh, do we remember that well…..

 

 

 

The Mexican Ambassadors are still onboard with music anddancing in the Lido Pool area, and later on they were teaching how to shopusing the Spanish language. ExecutiveChef Petr turned up the heat in the Culinary Center with a cooking show. He is the most approachable and friendly chefwe have known for a long time. Passionate about food, he loves to talk the trade. Thanks to him, he has explained many of theproblems that have cropped up with the stoppage of the BBQ’s onboard and someof the buffets we used to have. Alsointeresting is the fact that the HALships cannot take produce onboard from many countries we have recentlyvisited. For instance, some of the SouthAmerican countries as well as Central American nations where some of the nicestproduce grows, is no longer available to HAL ships. All of the fresh producehas to be sent via containers. The few exceptions that we noticed was fresh fishcatch of the day, particularly on the world cruise, was allowed to be broughton for the guests.

 

 

 

We enjoyed a cheeseburger and a hot dog from the Dive-InGrill, except we took it to our room to eat. Mostly because there happened to be a really good movie on TV called TheEagle Huntress. It was actually more ofa documentary of a 13 year old girl who trained to become the first female tobecome a huntress using a trained eagle in Mongolia. Excellent story as well as scenery in a mostdesolate part of the world. The funnything was that this movie was shown in the Wajang, but also televised, probablyby accident. Should have been on TVtomorrow. Oh well…lucky for us..

 

 

 

Between walks on the promenade and packing, the day flewby. Visiting with friends passed therest of the day until dinnertime. Tonightwas the final gala evening for those of us that are leaving in a few days. We have noticed that there has not been anycaviar or escargots on this two week trip, but we guess that only happens onGrand Voyages. The entrees tonightincluded rack of veal, which we both ordered. It was tasty and tender, but way too much food. Had to save room for flourless chocolate cakeand an ice cream sundae. One more nightof desserts, and that will be it for sweets, at least until we come back inJuly for two weeks.

 

 

 

The show tonight was the Talk of the Town, as performed bythe Amsterdam’s singers and dancers. Good music from the big artists of the not-so-distantpast was as good as the first time we saw this performance.

 

 

 

And the good thing was that the clocks went back one hourtonight. We are finally on Pacific timenow, and very close to have gone full circle, ending where we began thisjourney on New Year’s Day.

 

 

 

 

 

Bill & Mary Ann

Thank you for all the time and effort you put into giving us so much enjoyment. I hope you enjoyed every moment. Hope we meet someday.

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Very nice of you to post your experience. However, it means NOTHING without pictures.

Someone commented on the photos . I'm not getting them either but that's not a reason to be negative.

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Someone commented on the photos . I'm not getting them either but that's not a reason to be negative.

 

 

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Photos are on the blog: http://cruisingwithbillandmaryann.blogspot.com/

Welcome home!

I have enjoyed your world cruise blogs for years and hope to enjoy many more. Seems like I haven't heard anything about your window garden for while. How did your garden grow?

Thanks for all the great posts.

Very nice of you to post your experience. However, it means NOTHING without pictures.

How rude you are - cannot believe you would post a response like this 🙁

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Report # 131 SailingTowards San Francisco, California May10, 2017 Wednesday Partly cloudy & 72 degrees

The morning began as usual with a shared breakfast withfriends Don and Alene. Not sure we willconnect tomorrow, since sometimes the breakfast times change on a debarkationday. Instead of opening at 7:30am, theyopen an hour earlier. At least, that isthe case when we end our trip in San Diego. As we have stated before, this will be thevery first time we will be debarking without a flight to get back to thecity. And, if our information iscorrect, it will be the first time we shall be sailing into the new cruiseterminal at Pier 27.

This morning there was a Mariner Society Ceremony held at10:30am in the Queen’s Lounge for a select number of guests. As there was only one medal-awarding time, itwas necessary to limit the guests to those who were actually getting medals,and the highest day passengers, we assume. By a quick count, we would guess there were about 200 folks present.

There were only five members of the President’s Club in the “corral”. As always, we arrived at 10:15am, and wereescorted to a receiving line of CaptainFred, Bart, the hotel director, and Erin, the cruise director. Following us, were the new medal awardees,who sat close to the center of the room to get their new medallions. The most given out were the bronze for 100days, and only two for silver. No goldor platinum, although, when asked to raise their hands for those levels,several folks put their hands up. At theend, Joe and Sylvia, then the two of us went up to have our photos taken withthe officers. Dolly went up last, of course, which made her day. She looked so tiny between the Captain andBart, who are both rather tall fellows. Anyway, the 8 x 10 photo was delivered to our room later in theafternoon, complimentary. Nice.

We had some fancy canapes served on a three level server,along with cocktails. Good grief, it wasonly 10:30am, too early but someone has to do it right? Brunch in the dining room was being servedright after 11am, but we decided not to attend. Mostly because we had just eaten breakfast, and to eat again was out ofthe question. So we asked our headwaiter if he would save us the tiles, and he said certainly. We happened to notice that none of the centertables had reserved signs on them, so we doubted that any table would be hostedby staff. Shorter trips do not operatethe same as the grand voyage, where several tables are hosted. Today, there were two brunch times, with thesecond one beginning after 1pm.

Since today was our final full day onboard, we needed to dothe final packing, leaving out our clothes for tonight, which we will wear hometomorrow. The nicest thing about thiswas not having to worry about weight in any suitcase for a plane flight. We intend to ship everything Fed Ex, and onlycarry off the small wheeled duffels that were gifted to us on the world cruise.This way, we did not have to squish them into our big duffels, or buy extrasuitcases or even purchase cardboard boxes to ship the excess stuff.

The weather was finally cold today. Mostly cloudy, overcastand grey, except for a brief moment when the clouds parted and we saw sun for ashort time. Standing at the railing ondeck three, we spotted a flock of birds right above the water several yards offof the ship. Under them, were dolphinsfeeding, since all we could see were occasional dorsal fins breaking thesurface. Also seen, were some turtlesand one very large seal lion. Surprisingto see this wildlife, since the ship was sailing rather far off of thecoastline. Always pays to stop and look.

Life on the ship was continuing as usual with the rest ofthe passengers who are staying onboard to Vancouver or Seattle. There are a total of 500 of us going offtomorrow, but 540 coming aboard. Shouldget lively with the new guests, who for the most part, will be on for 4 days ofpartying, drinking, and gambling. Thefood and the entertainment are secondary, we have heard. Don and Alene will be staying on to Seattle,so they should have some good stories when they get home.

Ship sales were the big pitch of the day. Clearances of clothing and accessories werefront and foremost, as well as the final art auction. There was a $25K jackpot bingo and awin-a-cruise lottery draw. Wonder ifanyone ever wins either of those contests? We stopped attending those events many years ago. Remember the days when bingo attracted theentire population on the ship? For somereason, those days are gone. Maybe,because the cards cost a whole lot more now to play.

Most of the day, we spent saying goodbye to many friends,old and new. And the staff who has beenmost kind to us these past months. Theystill strive to provide the best cruise experience they can, even with the manycutbacks that we have noticed. Hard toblame anyone for this, since we understand every cruise line in the industryhas been following the same process. Intime, there will be winners among them, and we certainly hope HAL is amongthem.

Around 2pm, we ordered a light lunch through room servicewith soup and salad. When it arrived, adinner menu was left on the tray. We don’tknow why, but we will list what was available for dinner tonight.

Originally we had reservations in the Pinnacle Grill thisevening, but we changed our minds when we read the menu this morning. Some of our favorite dishes were offered, sowe cancelled the PG, and went to our table upstairs. This would be our last dinner with ourwaiters, so we did not want to leave without saying goodbye. By the way, the dinner menu began withstarters of a melon cocktail, smoked fish sampler, cherry tomato with mozzarellacheese, and Greek meatballs with Metaxa sauce. There are always three soups available, and tonight’s were tomatoFlorentine, liver dumpling, and a cold soup of chilled pear puree. The appetizer salad was spring mixedgreens. Always available are Frenchonion soup and Caesar salad. Gone arethe big shrimps with cocktail sauce, as they are only on the grand voyage. Mains included two vegetarian dishes of penneprimavera and wild mushroom strudel. Thelarger salad was tomato and bread with tender salmon bites. Entrees included soft shell crab pad Thai,beef ribeye steak, Grandma’s roasted chicken, and our favorite…wiener schnitzelold Vienna style. Always available aregrilled salmon, NY strip loin, and chicken breast, a good alternate. Desserts were numerous, but we ordered onescoop of ice cream with a little bit a chocolate sauce. Not really on the menu, but always do-able. Anyway, that gives you all an idea of what wehad to choose from every evening, and why it is impossible not to gain a coupleof pounds along the way. At least thiswill give us something to do (among other things) when we get back…..lose theextra pounds!

There was no special goodbye parade or baked Alaska on this segment. Just as well, as it can be sad to see thisall come to an end. On the world cruise,there are a lot of tears with longtime friends going their separate ways afterfour months of having fun together. As Tom,our host reminded us all, there are only 36 weeks left until many of us meetagain next year, or sooner if they join the Asia/Pacific cruise in thefall. For those of you that inquiredabout the 2018 Grand Asia/Pacific, nothing has been announced yet.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, with clearing customs, directingour luggage to the Fed Ex trucks, and finding our way to Pier 39, where our sonshould be picking us up around 1pm. Aslong as it is not raining, we will be happy. With this year’s most unexpected rainfall, anything is possible.

We will be signing off for now, but will return soon to dosome follow up reports, and our final thoughts on this 126 day trip. It has been quite a ride!

Bill & Mary Ann

PS Rich and Peg,we sure miss seeing you at breakfast! Happy to read that you have taken the time to read the blog. Hope we see you all soon. Marilyn and Harry, every day before 5pm, weexpect to see you sitting in the comfy chairs on deck five in the Atrium. Have missed our rendezvous! You need to comeback so we can keep each other up-to-date on ship and port news.

Very nice of you to post your experience. However, it means NOTHING without pictures.

Speak for yourself ! We have followed happily along the whole cruise, and never even noticed there were no photos.

DMG 1056. You can find all the photos here!!!

http://cruisingwithbillandmaryann.blogspot.com/?m=1

Cheers, Denise

Welcome home. Loved your blog beginning to the end. See you next year onboard our winter home. Sandra and Allan

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Someone commented on the photos . I'm not getting them either but that's not a reason to be negative.

 

 

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So very sorry. My Bad. Did not realize there was a Blog. I must be blind as well.

Thank you again....loved following along! Now what am I going to read while having lunch???:(

Thank you for all the time you took to write such a wonderful blog. I will miss checking in every day as well . We are looking forward to Alaska this summer on the Amsterdam and having never sailed on her before, it has been nice to hear about your experiences 😀 ⚓️

Thank you so much for your live posts. It was very informative.

Thank you for your very delightful and detailed posts on here and on your blog. What a grand voyage. We have always taken Cunard Line world cruises so it was very interesting to read about your journeys this year and last. We really appreciated all the time you spent each day and looked forward to each new adventure. Enjoy being home for a while.

Thanks so much for all of your excellent reporting. Can't tell you how much sunshine you brought to cold, gray, Boston this winter AND spring! Welcome back to reality.

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Speak for yourself ! We have followed happily along the whole cruise, and never even noticed there were no photos.

will second that ,

they described it so well what they did that it felt like i was there i could just about picture it in my head with out photo's same people you can not please sadly

Thank you so much for all the time you take to share with us, both here on CC as well as on your blog. I have truly enjoyed the hundreds of photos you post there for each port. They make it seem as if I'm traveling with you.

Looking forward to your next cruise --

Very nice of you to post your experience. However, it means NOTHING without pictures.

Obviously you missed the post early in the travelogue that gave the link to their blog, which could be subscribed. Many of us did that and have enjoyed the hundreds of photos for each port.

However, even if there were no photos, just the thorough descriptions of each port provides visualization. Too bad your ability to conceptualize doesn't allow that.

Thank you again for takings us all on another world cruise...I love your blog and your writing style is so descriptive I really don't need the pictures...I am subscribed to the picture part...but actually enjoy the written better! Thanks again...and hope you are home safe and sound:)

Will you be joining the World cruse 2018 in Fort Lauderdale or San Diego?