Join us, Bill and Mary Ann, on our 128 day epic journey around the world in 2009

[WCB]

Report # 130 May 12, 2009 Tuesday Last Day at Sea

 

We had the usual morning drill, but with a light breakfast for a change. We walked and packed. It was almost better packing because the weather has been very hot these last few days. At least our room is cooler.

 

We were invited to a special lunch in the dining room with 40 of our CS members in appreciation of being long time cruisers with their company. Hosts Ellen and Tom and Tom B., the president, changed tables with every course. Since they are all super nice people, it was a pleasure to spend a little quality time with each of them.

 

We were handed a pre-printed three course menu starting with white or red wines, a Caesar salad with chicken, a choice of steak or barramundi, and the over-the-top rich Omani chocolate mousse/cake we had while we were in Muscat. Ellen was able to charm the recipe from the chef at the resort hotel where we ate lunch that day while on a tour. We ordered the fish and it was delicious. But the dessert was the best, although it was a bit heavy on the sprinkling of rum.

 

The rest of the afternoon was spent filling out questionnaires on our cruise experience. The $900 gift of a world gold money clip had already been won yesterday for turning in the forms early, so we're in no hurry to finish ours. We are not sure that these forms are ever read anyway. There was an interesting onboard survey reference plastered on the front page of the daily program. Here is the actual request. "We ask you to rate us on your overall positive experiences of a service or department and not have a single incident negatively affect your excellent perception of that specific service or department." Continuing on it read, "we ask you to rate us on a North American scale, where a 9 simply tells us that you have enjoyed that aspect of your cruise." We have a problem with these statements. Like exactly how many negative incidents are required to lower our perception to an 8? That is still high in our minds. People need to feel free to rate as they see fit. At least that is the American way, or HAL just needs to print 9's on everything and be done with it!

 

We did have the chance to write our comments, good and not so good, on the questionnaires, but will anyone read them? We have written for several years now, that the TV programming is poor. On a 128 to 131 day world cruise, there should never be reruns. An occassional rerun may be acceptable, but not shown segment after segment, three or more times a segment. HAL needs to realize that over 600 passengers are doing this whole world cruise, and would appreciate better programming. With the thousands of movies out there, we should not have to see the same ones three or four times every month. We know this is a small complaint in comparison to big problems (if there are any), but we think HAL could easily remedy this in the future.

 

On a positive note, we did rate almost every aspect of this cruise with "9's". The biggest and most welcome improvement this year had to be the excellent quality of the food we were served. We made it clear to the staff how much we appreciated the effort to improve the cuisine from last year. They really deserve "10's"!!

 

We put 18 pieces of luggage out in the hallway around six pm. They were gone in a half hour! Like magic!

 

It was so sad to go to the Crows Nest one last time. It's always hard saying goodbye to all of our buddies, old and new. We're all hoping to meet again on a future cruise. So many of these people do the grand voyages, it seems that we do end up on the same ones, even if it is every other year.

 

Dinner was excellent again. We ordered the prime rib, and it was every bit as good as the first time we had it way back in January! We said our goodbyes to all, but do hope that George, our absent-minded professor, will join us on the Prinsendam next year. God-willing, we hope to do the South America Grand Voyage in January.

 

We had two pieces of luggage left to put out in the hallway. All we plan on taking with us on the plane tomorrow are two hand bags each. Hopefully, Fed Ex will deliver the bags within a week, we hope.

 

Tomorrow should be a long and busy day, so we headed for bed early.

 

Mary Ann & Bill

 

PS We are safely at home as we write this, but we shall continue with the last day of debarkation and our final thoughts of this cruise.

[cruz chic]

Thank you so much once again for helping me escape to places I will probably never see. It's just about as good to see them through someone elses eyes:). I always appreciate your honesty and not sugar coating things like some posters seem to do. I like to hear the good and bad. Welcome back to reality:D.

[seafun]

Thanks for the news that you've made it home safely -- many good wishes that your luggage (and the treasures within) makes it home safely, and promptly, as well.

Obviously you have shared a lot of pleasure with a lot of people by so generously sharing your grand voyage with us.

"Thanks" seems so inadequate for all the hours (and expense) you put into sending us your reports. But "Thanks" is about all I can add.

I'll be looking for you on a future voyage so I can at least buy you a drink, to say thanks again, and hopefully coax you into sharing more intriguing tales.... :D

[cccole]

I join the hundreds who have followed your voyage from the beginning and thank you for including us.

 

I also think you may have answered Kryos' question of "How do you deal with the sadness at the end of such a wonderful trip?" Being able to look forward to a long voyage in 2010 would make things a lot easier, it seems to me. For those who can only do this once in their lifetime it may be more difficult. But, it also seem like many who take these voyages do it often.

 

Thank you again for the travel log!!!! Looking forward to your "wrap-up." Cherie

[ldog]

It's good to hear that you are now home safe and sound. Thank you for taking us with you on the trip.

[Aussie Gal]

Mary Ann and Bill,

 

So glad that you are home safely after your long voyage. It must seem strange to be back on land and in a house with a garden and rooms probably twice as big as you cabin.

 

It has been great reading your instalments each day or so, I have envied your time on board though I do think I would be dying to get home after 4 months away.

 

I look forward to reading your final instalment.

 

Jennie

[baroness51]

What a wonderful gift you have given us all. I have enjoyed every minute of it. Just got off the Westerdam to Alaska and back (great trip) and when I sat down at the computer today this is the first place I came to. I'll miss you and look forward to your next adventure.

 

Linda

[lccruiser2006]

Mary Ann & Bill,

 

Hello from another lurker! I enjoyed your blog/trip report last year & really looked forward to this year. I've enjoyed this World Cruise from your perspective every day, & just wanted to say thank you. :D

[alsas]

thank you for all your wonderful memories of the World. We followed along with yours and Jeffs daily reports on what was going on on the Amsterdam. We got home the same day as you after a wonderful journey,and now counting the days till we board the 2010 world. We really are spoilled. I noticed you talked about the Princendam for 2010 are you still planning to come on Amsterdam for partial world next year? Hope you are settling back to reality. Best wishes Allan and Sandra

[WCB]

Report # 131 May 13, 2009 Wednesday Ft Lauderdale, Florida - The End!

 

It wasn't until we emptied our room with all of the luggage, that we realized how large our room was! We certainly found every nook and cranny to stash our stuff for 128 days, especially the two corners at the foot of our bed. If we had not brought three ice chests, we could have used the cardboard drawers the ship offered to us. Stacked three high, they would have held a lot of clothing. We also noticed that many passengers had used the clothes rack on wheels that were offered prior to sailing. We are not sure where they put this rack in their verandah rooms, except in front of the couch.

 

Our day started early, with breakfast being served in the dining room between 6:30 and 8 am. We enjoyed our last breakfast with a raisin bun and a chocolate croissant, sliced melon, and omelettes. We will miss being spoiled like this everyday.

 

The ship was supposed to be cleared by 9 am. That did not happen. It never does. We had all been given colored tags to disembark, but no time or sequence was given to us. It was anyone's guess as to what time we would be called off. We are sure the times are coordinated with flight times. If you had no flight, as many did not, they were called off first.

 

By the way, there will be about 600 passengers leaving today in Ft Lauderdale. Two days later, 300 will be disembarking in New York City. The rest, about 200, will be sailing onward towards Rotterdam, Holland, along with 900 new passengers.

 

Our time to get off was at 10:15 am. It was very easy getting off of the ship, and having our roomkey scanned for the last time. Did we mention the problem we had with losing the magnetic info on the room cards? That happened to me three times, more than likely due to carrying the room key in clutch purses during dinner. Apparently, the magnetic catches can affect the cards. It never happened to Bill, so the purses were the culprit.

 

Anyway, we entered the large terminal building at Ft Lauderdale's pier. I waited in a very short line for porters, while Bill went in search of our 20 bags. It took only two minutes to get a couple of porters, but it took much longer to find the luggage. It was all in the general area, but in different rows. It did help having the red and purple yarnballs on each piece. Next time, we will bring a variety of extremely bright foil ribbon to tie on each bag. That really stands out in the crowd.

 

The two strong porters each loaded ten bags on their heavy duty handtrucks. We had to exit with all of this, along with our passports and custom's declaration card. The official looked at each passport and the card and waved us through. No problem. We followed the porters to the Fed Ex truck, and once we knew all of the bags were stacked together, we were done. We thanked the porters, and tipped them well, so glad we did not have to do the lifting ourselves.

 

A stretch limo was waiting for us in front of the terminal building. It was sure nice to climb inside and get out of the Florida heat. We left the pier, instyle, by 10:50 am, a record time for us. The ride to the Miami airport took only 45 minutes, because there was little traffic this time of day.

 

We checked into American Airlines at the first class desk. We had no luggage to check, so we only had to get our tickets and head for the security checkline. Even there, we were directed into a different line, which moved swiftly. We did the usual security procedure by taking off our shoes, jackets, computer out of the bag, and putting the quart bag of liquids in the basket. We sailed right on through, but for some reason, our friend Val had to go to the side table to open her roll-on bag. That usually happens to us, but not today.

 

Since our flight wasn't due to leave until 3:40 pm, we had time to spare. We tried to use American Air's Admirals Club, but could not since we were not flying international. So we just wandered through the terminal, checking out the numerous stores. We did make a stop at Nathan's for tasty hot dogs and large sodas. Come to think of it, this was our first hot dog on the whole trip. We never did try the hot dogs at the Lido grill.

 

Our flight left on time, and was quite comfortable riding in first class. The weather was fine, and the food they served was good. Our only complaint was that they ran out of ice cream sundaes! The stewardess offered the cheese plate, but we said no thanks. Cheese isn't quite the same as sundaes! By the time we watched two Jennifer Aniston movies, we were landing in San Francisco at 6:30 pm Pacific time.

 

Our son, Bill, picked us up, and headed across the Bay Bridge. The traffic wasn't so bad since it was after 7 pm. We stopped for dinner at Applebees in Walnut Creek, and caught up on all the news we missed while being gone.

 

It was nice to be back home, in our own bed, listening to the crickets that have reappeared for the spring. The only thing we really missed was the constant rolling of the ship, and the sound of the waves lapping against her sides. That motion rocked us to sleep every night! We will know the trip is really over when we have to shop, clean, cook, and catch up on the gardening! But hey, we missed that too! Yep, it's nice to be home!!

 

Mary Ann & Bill

[DeepWaterMariner]

Welcome back...and thanks for the fantastic journey!

[Mary Ellen]

Welcome Home! We enjoyed reading everything - particularly the parts we missed when we had to cancel.

 

Thank you for taking us along anyway!!!

[Fairport]

Welcome Home! We enjoyed reading everything - particularly the parts we missed when we had to cancel.

 

Thank you for taking us along anyway!!!

 

 

We'll second that.

 

 

Ken & Eileen

[OCLadies]

Since its doubtfull that I'll ever have enough time or money to take such a wonderfull cruise I was wondering if you'd be kind enough to answer a couple of questions. 1 - What would you consider an "average cost" for taking a cruise like this, including the types of excursions you took? 2 - I assume that most cruisers on your trip are retired, but curious as to what types of jobs/careers most came from?

 

I see from one of your fellow cruisers, Jeff, that he will soon be off on yet another 200 + day cruise. OMG...how can he afford to always be off on such thrilling adventures?

[timothy998]

OCLadies...I appreciate our "friends" taking the time and expense to share their trip with us and would hate to embarrass them by asking what they paid...and I'm sure that isn't your intent. That said, it is quite easy to find the cost of various cruises from the HAL cruise finder site.

 

 

I'm certain some people have worked their tails off and have been successful starting or running businesses, or have had other good fortune...and are enjoying well-deserved R&R. That said, figuring the cost of running a household, maybe it could be less expensive to live on HAL?! Or, maybe they traveled a lot for business/pleasure and are just burning-off the millions of hotel & airline points they accumulated!

[mudscraper]

Since its doubtfull that I'll ever have enough time or money to take such a wonderfull cruise I was wondering if you'd be kind enough to answer a couple of questions. 1 - What would you consider an "average cost" for taking a cruise like this, including the types of excursions you took? 2 - I assume that most cruisers on your trip are retired, but curious as to what types of jobs/careers most came from?

 

I see from one of your fellow cruisers, Jeff, that he will soon be off on yet another 200 + day cruise. OMG...how can he afford to always be off on such thrilling adventures?

rude

 

 

Rich

[DFD1]

Thanks, Bill and Mary Ann. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of us out here who have enjoyed your reports. Thank you for taking the time and spending the money to make us a part of your cruise.

 

That was a truly nice thing for you to do.

 

All the best, DFD1

[jbhcw]

Having just returned from my little 7 day voyage I've finally had time to catch up:)

 

Thanks so much for taking us along, I've enjoyed your reports for several years now. You do such a service to all of us who probably won't get to do a World Cruise.

 

Thanks:):)

[PA mom]

Hi Mary Ann and Bill,

I read the Disney cruise line forum, but accidentally clicked on Holland America one day back in Jan. The title of the thread caught my eye, and it was your first post. I have been following along everyday, even giving family and co-workers up-dates. :) I have really enjoyed your journey and appreciate the time you spent writing a trip report. I looked forward to your adventures everyday, and will miss them. You'll just have to go on another cruise ;) It was fun to travel somewhere exciting everyday with you.

Thanks again,

Kim

[ldog]

I feel as though one of my own trips has ended and I have to come back to reality. I've truly enjoyed your trip. Sorry it's over.

[Furniturelady]

Dear Mary Ann and Bill

 

Thank you so very much for your constantly entertaining and interesting blog. I followed along faithfully and now I am wondering what to do to fill the void. I cannot imagine how you must be feeling at the cessation of your great adventure. Your generosity at sharing this great adventure is overwhelming and I look forward to reading that you have embarked on yet another trip. You can count on me coming along in spirit and I will faithfully follow every written word.

 

May there be many more adventures in your future! Thank you.

 

michele

[suse]

Thanks for the great trip! Oh, and that person who asked you how much it cost, well that reminds me of people who ask me how much I paid for my house. Jeepers.

[preciouspup]

Thank you for all your reports!

[NAUdebo]

Since its doubtfull that I'll ever have enough time or money to take such a wonderfull cruise I was wondering if you'd be kind enough to answer a couple of questions. 1 - What would you consider an "average cost" for taking a cruise like this, including the types of excursions you took? 2 - I assume that most cruisers on your trip are retired, but curious as to what types of jobs/careers most came from?

 

I see from one of your fellow cruisers, Jeff, that he will soon be off on yet another 200 + day cruise. OMG...how can he afford to always be off on such thrilling adventures?

 

To come to this poster's defense, somewhat...

 

At no point did they ask "What did you pay for your cruise"? As I think we all would agree, that would be inappropriate. Yes, as someone mentioned, you could look at a brochure, but that doesn't necessarily answer the question. How many people actually pay the going rate in the brochure, for any of these trips? Also, the question asked for an average cost, all-inclusive. When you add in airfare, on-board expenses, extra gratuity, the variety of shore excursions available (keeping in mind some multi-day trips offered on a world cruise), minus the shipboard credit given to full-trip pax, it's a reasonable question. I've always been intrigued by the Grand World Voyages, and seen the base prices, but have no idea what it actually translates to in real life. I'm guessing Bill and Mary Ann have a better idea of all the costs in a trip like this than most of us on these boards.

 

Question #2 was also a general question about the nature of pax on a world cruise. Not specific to Bill's life at all. To try and get into the mind of the poster who started this, are many of the pax business owners? Corporate execs? Consultants? Work from the ship? It's a select group of people who are in a position in life to leave everything behind for five months, and wanting to know a little about the group dynamic is a fair question.

 

On the other hand, I do believe the comment/question about Jeff was uncouth. That was personal, and asking Bill to explain to everyone the details on how one person is able to afford to travel all the time. That should have been left out.

 

Just my humble opinion...

[jbhcw]

Naudebo, good post. I have speculated and wondered re the total cost of such a voyage, but would never ask:eek:

 

I have also followed Jeff's adventures - and I just say - more power to anyone who can afford to cruise in this way:):)