LIVE - World Cruise 2017

We are off to a rocking and rolling start with 4 meter seas overnight.

The ship looks very good. New carpets in the staterooms, new, lighter color wall paper and new flooring in several places as has already been mentioned.

The staff is as follows: Captain Caltaldo Destefano, Staff Captain Zbigniew Jasewski, Chief Engineer Henri Guille, Hotel Director Norman Rafelson and Cruise Director Fernando de Oliveira. International hostess Ana and Shore Excursion Manager Clive are also on board. Donaldo is MD in La Terrazza, Antonio or Gilbert is MD in the MDR, and Julia is MD in Le Champagne. David Bilsland is the Guest Chef, and Jerome Foussier is the Head Chef. Our Butler is Ricardo.

The ship is not full on this first 20-day leg of the trip, and I'll post the correct passenger count when I get it.

We seem to have a good group of lecturers with Tom Jones (no not THAT one), Tracy Fleming, and Mark Elowitz. Destination Consultant Jon Fleming is also on board.

The weather is beginning to improve with the sun trying to peek through.

We had a lovely dinner with the Wellseasoneds and Dusababy last evening in La Terrazza. I had forgotten just how lovely that room is on this ship having spent the last 10 cruises or so on the Spirit and the Cloud.

The Captain's welcome event will be this evening, and we look forward to seeing everyone there.

We were stunned by the news of the shooting at Ft. Lauderdate airport and send our best wishes to those impacted by the news.

We are off to a rocking and rolling start with 4 meter seas overnight. The ship looks very good. New carpets in the staterooms, new, lighter color wall paper and new flooring in several places as has already been mentioned. The ship is not full on this first 20-day leg of the trip, and I'll post the correct passenger count when I get it. We seem to have a good group of lecturers with Tom Jones (no not THAT one), Tracy Fleming, and Mark Elowitz. Destination Consultant Jon Fleming is also on board. The weather is beginning to improve with the sun trying to peek through.

Appreciate these great opening details and best wishes for the travelers who started their fun World Cruise "adventure" from San Francisco. Especially look forward to the reports and details from their stops in New Zealand and Australia, plus the visits in and around Southeast Asia. With 116 days, 62 ports and 25 countries, there should much, much to share with us folks stuck here in the cold and boring parts of the U.S., U.K., etc., during these winter periods.

Glad that you are using that free, on-board Internet time to do lots of posts on the ship, speakers, staff, ports, etc. Any and all info is very interesting and helpful. Keep it coming!!

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 165,654 views for this posting.

Emtbsam, sounds like a good team. Please share my greetings to all. It is lovely here in the Caribbean. Maybe next year! Enjoy!

It is lovely here in the Caribbean.

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Happy sailing. Looking forward to your live updates.

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There are 291 passengers on board for this first 20 day segment with 15 sea days.

The average age appears to be over 70, with a few much younger people on board including a young boy of around 10 years of age.

Dear Emtbsam

Many thanks for your inaugural post from the WC on the Whisper - Jealous - who me?!

Sorry to hear that San Francisco was not kind to you when you left the port and hope that the weather is improving.

Thank you also for your detailed information on who is who currently sailing on the Whisper.

Do give our love to Clive and Ana, are they both on for the duration, I expect the former will be, as indeed he was last year, when we met in Sandakan when we were both in port - we were on the Shadow.

We are very busy in finalizing our details for our trip on the Spirit in February - so much to do and so little time left! Unfortunately your contact in B.A, Ariel's email address is no longer valid, so we will have to try and find another.

No doubt you will soon be, if you are not already, Numero Uno in Trivia, do hope

you have a good team and hope you are having a good time.

Looking forward to all your reports, the next best thing to sailing on the WC is reading all your news!

Kindest regards

Master Echo

Yes, the weather is pretty awful, but nothing has flown off the shelves so far. It was great to see Donato back in charge of La Terrazza and Antonio Mendes back as Restaurant Manager. And the pappardelle with duck ragout was as great as always! The astronaut Tom Jones gave a very interesting talk this morning. First bout of trivia coming up today and hope we and the Emtbsams can continue our previous winning ways. Seems like a friendly passenger group with many familiar faces.

Victoria,

Sounds like you are in good company with guests and crew alike.

Have a fabulous world cruise. I will enjoy reading about your adventure.

Will miss you and Bob on the Spirit this March :)

Enjoy!

Almost forgot. The wi fi is indeed now free and unlimited for all passengers. Each 24 hours you must sign in again, but this is very simple. If you sign in on a second device the first is automatically disconnected. But this is per person, so a couple can remain signed in on separate devices continuously. I has also been pretty fast. A big improvement!

...the pappardelle with duck ragout was as great as always!

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Yes, stumblefoot, we are round tripping Ft.L. 3/4 times. I am happy and warm. I have become one of THEM. I don't care where the ship is going as long as I am warm and THE HUB is being well cared for! [emoji4]. We are geographically limited these days so I will settle for the dull, boring but WARM Caribbean. Annoyed that I never got an invite to 2 CC M&Ms. Lots of people I will not get to meet! My best to your lovely family.

Yes, stumblefoot, we are round tripping Ft.L. 3/4 times. I am happy and warm. I have become one of THEM. I don't care where the ship is going as long as I am warm and THE HUB is being well cared for! [emoji4]. We are geographically limited these days so I will settle for the dull, boring but WARM Caribbean. Annoyed that I never got an invite to 2 CC M&Ms. Lots of people I will not get to meet! My best to your lovely family.

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Very jealous, emtbsam! Have a wonderful trip and please post so I can sail vicariously with you.

Thanks for the reporting, enjoying reading.

So far, the food has been excellent in La Terrazza, the MDR and at Hot Rocks. Even the lunch buffet in LT seems to be better than in the past. The menus are similar to those we have seen on the Spirit and Cloud, but the prep just seems better. There was no fresh fruit in the cabin when we arrived, but we could have it just by asking. We actually prefer to ask for it since otherwise, there is too much waste.

The lecturers, Tom Jones, former astronaut and Mark Elowitz have given superb presentations so far. Fernando also did a very interesting talk on ocean liners of the past - a particular interest of mine. We have not gone to the after dinner entertainment yet but will report on that if we do.

There will be another cooking session today with David Bilsland, Spanish, Italian and French classes with Fernando and of course the blood sport of Trivia! Our team has done fairly well the past two days and we are looking forward to improving our standing!

The weather has moderated, but is still not really warm enough to spend extended time outside walking. We will continue to use the gym equipment until we can get outside. Speaking of the gym, so far it has not been crowded, and the equipment seems to be in good working order.

I am happy to answer any questions anyone might have.

So far, the food has been excellent in La Terrazza, the MDR and at Hot Rocks. Even the lunch buffet in LT seems to be better than in the past. The menus are similar to those we have seen on the Spirit and Cloud, but the prep just seems better. There was no fresh fruit in the cabin when we arrived, but we could have it just by asking. We actually prefer to ask for it since otherwise, there is too much waste.

 

The lecturers, Tom Jones, former astronaut and Mark Elowitz have given superb presentations so far. Fernando also did a very interesting talk on ocean liners of the past - a particular interest of mine. We have not gone to the after dinner entertainment yet but will report on that if we do.

 

There will be another cooking session today with David Bilsland, Spanish, Italian and French classes with Fernando and of course the blood sport of Trivia! Our team has done fairly well the past two days and we are looking forward to improving our standing!

 

The weather has moderated, but is still not really warm enough to spend extended time outside walking. We will continue to use the gym equipment until we can get outside. Speaking of the gym, so far it has not been crowded, and the equipment seems to be in good working order.

 

I am happy to answer any questions anyone might have.

Thanks for posting your adventures!

 

The staff is as follows: Captain Caltaldo Destefano,

 

Super trivial, but thinking back to our days with Sitmar Cruises and its Italian background, we wonder if your Captain Destefano happens to be the son (or any relation of) Sitmar's Captain Nicola Destefano?

silver sweethearts...

I checked with Fernando who called the Captain, and Nicola Destefano is not his father but he knew that he had worked for Sitmar, so I guess you are not the first to ask.

Today Fernando will give another of his lectures on cruise liners which should be interesting. This morning's talk by Tom Jones was on Hawaii, its volcanos and importance for space exploration. Another fine lecture.

In fact the only thing that is not wonderful on this trip is the persistent smell from the toilets. It is much more frequent than we have ever experienced even on the Cloud, and this was supposed to be one of the items that was refurbished in the recent dry dock. It still needs considerable improvement!

Knowing that we would be on board for a long time and that I might want additional hanging space, I bought magnetic hooks which are working perfectly on the cabin walls.

The seas are relatively smoothe, the temperature is in the mid to high 70's, and we are getting ready for our first port of Hilo tomorrow where we will hike the volcano. I will report on the tour when we return.

It has been a lovely day, sunny and warm. The sunburns are blossoming on skin all over the pool deck. The crew is wonderful as always, and everyone seems to be in good spirits. Fortunately, we have not experienced the toilet odors Emtbsam noted. We are looking forward to Hot Rocks tonight.

Not much to photograph so far, but I'm sending a couple. The first is the Whisper sailing in past Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco at 6:30 A.M.

Departing under the Golden Gate Bridge at 7 P.M.

Sunset 1-9

Sunset 1-10

Thanks Vicotoria and Dieter for keeping us posted, and for sharing pictures Dieter. Victoria how was y'alls hike in Hilo compared to our Oahu Diamond Head hike back in 2015?

Dear Wellseasoned and Emtbsam,

Thank you both for your updates - and the beautiful pictures, what a lovely sky.

Sorry to hear about the "smell" - have you spoken to Norman? It obviously is not in all cabins. What a clever idea of magnetic hooks.

Do hope you had a good day in Hilo, and you are not too worn out by all that hiking. Good excuse to have a large dinner!!

Kindest regards

Master Echo

Not sure that speaking to Norman will achieve anything, I heard that Begonia was on as the GRM, if she is, she is much more likely to get something done.

:D

Begonia is aboard, Mr. Spectre.

One change about what I said about internet: I have not had to sign in again at all. My sign in on the laptop and my wife's on the I-PAD have remained in force for the whole cruise so far. Speeds remain fine. The ship currently has no computers for passenger use. The computer room has none. I have heard that new ones will appear shortly, maybe in Honolulu. But so far, you'd better have your own.

Beautiful day today in Hilo, not the drenching we had on our last visit. I was thrilled by the views of the volcanoes sailing in and during the day. Great view of the astro observatories atop Mauna Kea!

The crew and food remain excellent. I spoke to Norm and he managed to increase the show lounge temperature to tolerable levels, so no real complaints from us.

Mauna Kea during sail-in

Mauna Kea observatories later morning

Whisper docked and Mauna Kea

Begonia is aboard, Mr. Spectre.

Awesome pics, Wellseasoned!

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