World Cruisin'

Then we had two days in the vibrant city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. One of the sites of the New Seven Wonders of the World, Corcavado, Christ the Redeemer statue, is perched high above the harbor, overlooking the city. Sugar Loaf Mountain is another great site overlooking the breathtaking sandy beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. It was not my first time there so having seen those great sites in the past, some friends & I headed to Ipanema for the afternoon. It was extremely hot that day so most of our time was spent at a little café, trying the local beer.

Since the ship was staying in port overnight, late that evening I went out for a typical Brazilian style meal overlooking Copacabana Beach where the delicious beef, lamb, chicken, fish, pork, shrimp, and sausage kept coming and coming.



The next port was Recife Brazil. This was a much more modern city than I had anticipated and especially so in comparison to Belem. I enjoyed a tour to the charming town of Olinda. All around there’s evidence of the preparations for Carnavale celebration.

You’ve probably heard about the great party environment similar to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Besides being the party it is actually a huge dance competition. Dance schools, towns, communities compete each year with special arrangements that are performed in a parade like setting. There is a type of stadium along the competition route that is not the circular formulation we are familiar with but the seating is along each side of the street and the contestants dance down the middle. They spend the entire year preparing for this event with beautiful costuming and lively dance routines. These are performed late at night – after midnight into the wee hours of the morning. So of course when people are here at this time, we think we want to be like them.





I am fortunate in my position that I am in charge of my own schedule so am able to enjoy much port time off. After all when we are in port, all the passengers are also in port so there is no one to sell cruises to so that’s logically when I get my time off. In our time in Rio although I worked a bit in the morning and evening the first day and evening the second day, it actually felt like I had a “weekend” off.

Buenos Aires is next on our itinerary with two days in this great city. Although it’s not “officially” part of my job, I do occasionally escort passengers on tours. It’s kind of luck of the draw which tours you get. I was fortunate to “draw” a 14-hour tour where we flew in a 16 seater aircraft to Iquazu Falls for the afternoon – another one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Photos don’t begin to express the beauty here. I was happy to see the same tour guide, Nestor, as our escort again on this tour, his English was very good and he was a lively guy which made the tour very enjoyable. The flight is one where there are two Captains but midway through the flight one comes back and passes out beverages to everyone. They can’t do it too early as it’s a 2 ½ hour flight with no bathroom on board.

Just a word about our Captain. Captain Johnathan Mercer is new to the Grand World Voyage this year although he has been a Captain for over 20 years. He hails from England but now lives in the US. His wife, Karen, will be sailing with us for much of the cruise. He has written a book about his long climb to get to the top that is quite entertaining. He started as a Merchant Marine and has worked his way up the ladder and that experience has helped him develop to one of the finest Captains I have had the privilege to sail with.

We have entertainment in our show lounge each evening. For the world cruise the entertainers only stay with us about one week. The entertainment doesn’t repeat so they are gone so quickly, I don’t have the chance to meet as many of them as I have in the past.

We made two port calls in the Caribbean to Dominica, land of beautiful waterfalls, one of the few in the Caribbean that is very green & lush with forests. Then on to Barbados, one of my favorite islands where I love to shop – they seem to have my style of clothing. Unfortunately my favorite shop there was closed for remodeling so on the positive side, it saved me some money.

Now it felt like the cruise was beginning as we sailed to Belem, Brazil, the mouth of the mighty Amazon River. Our ship is too large to go into the river so excursions were offered to go on smaller boats for that experience. I have sailed 1000 miles into the Amazon on past cruises so opted for wandering the local markets that day. . I spent some time ashore with my long time friend comedian/magician who was sailing with us. The market there had some interesting “home remedies” and sold live poultry as you can see in the cages.


We have entertainment in our show lounge each evening. For the world cruise the entertainers only stay with us about one week. The entertainment doesn’t repeat so they are gone so quickly, I don’t have the chance to meet as many of them as I have in the past.

And now the Grand World Voyage has begun. The sailaway party was like a reunion with friends I had met during my previous two world cruises as well as on many of the other cruises I have worked on for Holland America Line for the past 6+ years.


At the beginning of each cruise, there is an evening (formal dress) where the Captain of the ship introduces senior officers. Although I am officer status, I do not have to wear the uniforms with stripes on my shoulders. Here’s a photo of the officers on stage during introductions. I’m the one on the right in the purple gown.

On many of our cruises we make a stop at Holland America Line’s private island, Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas. We made a call there at the end of our 10-day Caribbean New Year’s Eve cruise. Pictures tell more than words could ever say – it’s truly a paradise island. They’ve recently added a bar that looks like an old pirate ship with live music playing while we are there.






When back at our home port of Ft. Lauderdale, we were in port with two of our other “dam” ships. I got together with friends who do the same job I do on the other ships. Jeanni, Leslie & me.

St. Thomas
This popular stop in the Caribbean is a US Territory with some of the most beautiful beaches in the world featuring turquoise waters and white, sandy beaches. I took a nice long walk along the oceanside to to the millionaire’s yacht harbor and enjoyed a luscious lunch.





My ship, the Amsterdam, was docked next to the world’s largest cruise ship (5000 passengers) which makes our 1350 passenger ship look like a toy! It was hard to get a photo showing the drastic size difference but I have one from my last ship, the Ryndam, next to the Allure of the Seas (a sister ship to the Oasis which means they are the same size) in Cozumel so you can see the difference.

The Journey Begins

I flew to Miami the day after Christmas where I was able to spend time with my ship friend Fritzie at her lovely condo on the beach. She loves to walk along the beach and has adopted all the stray cats bringing food to them so they all run when they see or hear her coming and she knows them all by name.

My nephew, Connor Corgard, a senior at Minnetonka High School, is big into sailing and was in Miami for a competition so we hooked up that evening and I took him and a buddy for their first visit to Hooters!

I boarded the Amsterdam on the 27th. It’s very busy at first with settling in – unpacking, reviewing procedures as after being home for 2 months when I didn’t need to even think about work it does take some catching up to get back in the swing of things. There are many crew as well as passengers that I have sailed with before so it feels like home already. New Year’s Eve was a great time had by all.


Today we visited French Martinique, which means the island of flowers. It has been several years since I was here and it was nice to see many improvements made. It is considered a “region” of France, they speak French and use Euros as their currency. It teased us with a little rain but I did manage to get a few photos. The sailboats always remind me of Connor and I believe he’ll probably sail these islands some day. I always like to try to imagine lifestyles in ports and in browsing some local stores I find things such as disposable goods are not plentiful so of course are expensive. A package of 20 small paper plates was 3.20€ - or about $5. People tend to buy fresh items frequently so items are in small quantities at the grocery stores – not the huge items we are used to buying in bulk at our Costcos or Sam’s Clubs.