Twice in a Lifetime

Anyone who followed this blog during our 2012 world cruise on Holland America Line’s m/s Amsterdam knows that we considered that voyage a “once in a lifetime” trip. Since then, we’ve enjoyed time at home, settling back in with friends and neighbors and becoming more involved in home-based activities. That time was punctuated by a month-long trip to visit family and cruise the Baltic and North Seas in the summer of 2013, as documented earlier in this blog.

But now we’re going to make it twice in a lifetime! Diane and I are booked on Amsterdam’s 2014 world cruise, beginning in January. The idea is the same—a four-month circumnavigation from east to west—but the itinerary differs enough from our previous route to make it a whole new experience.

We’ll leave Fort Lauderdale and immediately head for Central America, passing through the Panama Canal, which we’ve never done. We’ll make a few stops on the west coast of South America, another visit to Easter Island, and then French Polynesia will beckon again. There will be lots of islands on this trip: Pitcairn Island, American Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, the Seychelles, Reunion, St. Helena, Ascension Island, the Cape Verde Islands, Barbados, St. Maarten, and Dominica.

We’ll visit three Australian ports—Sydney, Brisbane, and Yorkey’s Knob—and some Asian cities that we enjoyed before:  Hong Kong, Singapore, Phuket, and Colombo. Rather than take the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, this time we’ll sail the long way around Africa, visiting several African ports along the way, including Durban, Cape Town, Walvis Bay, and Dakar.

One of the attractions of this itinerary was the two scheduled port calls in the Philippines—Cebu and Manila. Even before the recent typhoon, Cebu had been scratched from our port list because of some remaining problems in their harbor from a maritime accident. We’re still hoping to get to Manila, and we’re holding all the people of that storm-damaged country in our thoughts and prayers.

Below are some pictures of the kinds of people, places, and things we expect to see on this fabulous journey. We’ll make another post or two to keep you updated on our preparations as departure day draws closer, then more frequently during the trip.

(Remember, you can click on any photo to enlarge it.)

This time our itinerary will be significantly different.

This will be our first trip through the Panama Canal.

We’ll spend a couple of days in Lima, Peru.

One of our stops will be Lautoka, on the island of Fiji.

The natives of Papua New Guinea appear to be fierce!