Amazon & Carnival Explorer Cruise - Day 1: Embarkation Day

Monday, February 4

Today was the big day, we boarded the ship to start our cruise.  We weren’t planning on leaving for the cruise port until around 11:00 AM so there was no big rush to get up and get going, but we did get up at 8:00 so we could get breakfast before we left.  The Embassy Suites has a very good breakfast buffet including made to order eggs and many stations of both hot and cold food.  After breakfast, it was back to the room for our final packing and then killing time until it was time to leave.

Finally it was time and we made our way down to the lobby to catch the shuttle.  It was not nearly as crowded this morning and after checking out we immediately got on the shuttle and were on our way to the port.  Our ship was the Holland America Veendam and we were dropped off at the terminal and quickly made our way through security and check-in, but they weren’t boarding the ship yet so we settled in for a short wait until we could board.

Boarding time finally arrived and we made our way onto the ship.  Most of the rooms weren’t ready yet, but luckily ours was and we were quickly in our room and started our unpacking.  We carried on all of our luggage except the large pieces we had shipped, which hadn’t arrived yet.

We once again booked a Neptune Suite so we made our way to the Neptune Lounge, introduced ourselves to the concierge and had some snacks as we were both getting hungry.  We took a walk around the ship, which was very familiar to us as it is the same ship we were on for our trip to the Mediterranean in 2017.  We returned to our room hoping our luggage had arrive so we could complete our unpacking, but no such luck.  I had received an e-mail from Luggage Forward saying that our luggage had been delivered to the ship so we knew it was just a matter of time.  My suitcase arrived around 2:30 and I finished my unpacking and was set to go, but Val’s still hadn’t arrived.

At 3:30 there was the mandatory muster drill where everyone must report to their lifeboat station to become familiar with what to do in an emergency situation.  No one really likes to do these, but they are necessary and important.  After the muster drill, there was a meeting in the Crow’s Nest of people in our Cruise Critic Roll Call who were interested in independent travel (travel not ship sponsored).  We attended that and although over 90 people signed up to attend, there was probably only about 20, but it was the first day of the cruise.  After that meeting, it was back to our room where Val found her suitcase waiting.  Although not really worried, she was relieved she finally got it.  Now it was her time to get everything put away while I watched.

Val likes to play trivia and I don’t, but I agreed to do the evening trivia with her again this cruise.  Our dining time is 8:00, and trivia is at 7:00 in the Ocean Bar so it was soon time to get ready.  We made our way up to the Ocean Bar and were shocked to see a familiar face sitting there.  Roy, who was on our trivia team on our Mediterranean cruise, was there waiting for trivia to start. Small world!  Roy was as surprised as we were, and all of us were happy to see a familiar face.  Gabriella, Roy's wife, who likes trivia about as much as I do, didn’t join us until after trivia was over and was shocked when she walked in and saw us.  We had gotten along well and liked Roy and Gabriella, so this turned out great. Roy and Gabriella are both very sharp trivia players so that's always a real bonus for a trivia team. Another couple, Wally and Nancy, a couple from Iowa, filled out our trivia team to the maximum of six.  We actually did quite well, but not quite good enough to win.

After trivia it was off to dinner where we met our dining stewards Dolly and Airy  and had an excellent meal.  On our last cruise on the Veendam the food started out very good, but deteriorated as the cruise went on so hopefully that won’t happen on this cruise.  As anyone who reads this blog knows, on a cruise we usually spend our after dinner time in the casino and tonight was not an exception.  I actually broke even which counts as a win for me as I usually don’t do well, but Val didn’t do very well.  After the casino, it was back to the room and almost right to bed as embarkation day is usually a bit stressful and tiring.  Tomorrow we will be in Key West, Florida.

The sun sets as we sail south along the Florida coast.

Amazon & Carnival Explorer Cruise - The Journey Begins

Friday, February 1 – Getting Away

Departure time finally arrived.  Today we drove to my brother Doug’s home in Granada Hills where we will spend the night before catching our flight to Fort Lauderdale tomorrow morning.

We hit the road just before 1:00 and had a quick sandwich in San Luis Obispo before an uneventful drive down US 101 to my brother’s.  They are expecting a major storm in California today, but except for a few rain showers, we stayed ahead of it.

We arrived at Doug and Janis’s around 4:30 and chatted with them until it was time for dinner.  We had missed Janis’s birthday in January so we took Janis (and Doug) out to the restaurant of her choice for a belated celebration.  It turned out the restaurant of her choice was our favorite Thai restaurant and we had an excellent meal.  After dinner it was more talk, but we went to bed early as tomorrow is an early morning for our trip to the airport.

We did hear that US 101 was closed in Santa Barbara due to flooding and debris flow yesterday after we drove through there so we were glad we left when we did.

Saturday, February 2 – LAX to Fort Lauderdale

Our flight to Fort Lauderdale wasn’t until 10:40 AM, but we were up at 6:30 to allow enough time to get to the airport, get checked in and through security.  Doug and Janis had again generously offered to take us to the Flyaway bus terminal in Van Nuys to catch the airport shuttle so they were up early too.  Thanks so much Doug and Janis, we really appreciate it.

When we arrived at the Flyaway bus terminal, there was a bus loading so after a quick good-bye, we were on the bus and heading to LAX.  The rain had hit the LA area and it was raining pretty hard, but not hard enough to cause problems.  Because it was Saturday morning, there wasn’t much traffic so we got to the airport earlier than expected.  Check in went quickly and thanks to our Global Entry which includes pre-check, we were also though security without much delay.

We hadn’t had breakfast yet so once we got through security, we found a restaurant and ate, then settled in to wait for our flight.  We were told that check-in would be at 10:00, but as the time drew near, we noticed there wasn’t a plane there.  10:00 came and went and finally an announcement was made that we didn’t have a plane because they used our plane for another flight, but they were getting one ready for us, and there would be a short delay.  The short delay turned into a long delay and we didn’t board until just before noon.

While we were waiting, Val noticed the pilot and co-pilot standing nearby waiting, and being the nervous flier she is, she went up to ask them about flying in this weather.  They reassured her that the weather would not cause any problems so that made her feel a lot better.

We finally boarded and were in the air by 12:30 and actually made up some time in flight and arrived in Fort Lauderdale only an hour late, but then we had another problem.  They had given our gate to another flight so we had to sit and wait for them to leave.  The pilot said he was told it would be only a ten minute delay, but that turned forty-five minutes.  The pilot made several announcements and you could tell he was getting frustrated as he finally said he didn’t know what was going on and no one was telling him anything.  Anyway, we finally got off the plane, claimed our luggage, caught a cab and were at our hotel and checked in by 9:00.  It was only 6:00 California time, but we were very tired and went to be early.  Our cruise doesn’t leave until Monday so we have tomorrow to rest up and relax.

We don’t fly very much so I don’t know whether our experience is normal or we just have had bad luck, but in the last two years we have flown three round trips (Fort Lauderdale twice and Hawaii once) and out of the five flights all but one has had significant delays.  Hopefully our return flight will go better, but I’m not betting on it.

Sunday, February 3 – Fort Lauderdale

Today we have a free day in Fort Lauderdale.  We slept in and felt refreshed and well rested when we got up.  After getting ready and puttering around in our hotel room, we decided to go to a nearby shopping center and eat a late breakfast at a place called Joe’s Diner where we had a very good breakfast during our last stay here.

We are staying at the Embassy Suites on 17^th Street, which is close to the cruise port and airport and offers a shuttle service to the port.  Before we left for lunch, we stopped by the shuttle desk and got our shuttle passes for tomorrow morning and then walked over to Joe’s Diner.  The hotel lobby was a madhouse with lots of people leaving on cruises today, hopefully tomorrow it won’t be so bad.

We walked over to Joe’s, but they were very busy so we had to wait a bit, but not too long and soon we were seated.  I have to say, I was a little disappointed as my omelet wasn’t bad, but just not as good as I remembered it from our last visit.  Oh well, it was still a good breakfast so we left satisfied and full.  We wanted to pick up some water to take with us tomorrow so we walked to a nearby market and bought a 12 pack.  Before walking back to the hotel, we checked out a nearby Mexican / Spanish restaurant for a possible place for dinner tonight.

From there it was back to the hotel where we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and taking care of a few last-minute details.  We shipped our two largest pieces of luggage with Luggage Forward so we wouldn’t be bothered with them until we reached the ship, but I hadn’t gotten any updates so I called them.  They assured me it had been delivered to their agent and would be delivered to our stateroom after we boarded.  I also updated the blog so that took up part of the afternoon.

The hotel has a happy hour every day at 5:30 where they serve complimentary drinks and appetizers for guests so we decided to go down for that.  There were quite a few people from our Cruise Critic Roll Call staying here pre-cruise and someone suggested we all get together at the happy hour, but we couldn’t find any groups of people together so after hanging around for a little while we decided to leave and have some dinner.

We walked back over to the Mexican / Spanish restaurant we had seen earlier and had dinner there.  The Super Bowl had just started so the restaurant was pretty empty.  Dinner was not bad, but not great and suffered from the same problem our breakfast did; not much seasoning making the meal pretty bland.  I I don’t know whether that’s a characteristic of the area or just an unlucky day for us, but we were a little disappointed in the food compared to our last visit.

After dinner, it was back to the store for a forgotten item and then back to the hotel for our final evening in Fort Lauderdale.  Val and I aren’t football fans so we usually don’t even bother watching the Super Bowl, but we did watch the last quarter and then called it a night.  Tomorrow is embarkation day and our cruise will finally get under way.

Amazon & Carnival Explorer Cruise - We're Back

We are almost home so I thought it was time to post my introduction to our trip.  I will begin posting the rest of the blog in the next couple of weeks.

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

We're back!  My Valley Fever is long gone and Val has a new knee and it's time to hit the road or in this case, the sea again.  In two days we will leave for our first long trip in over a year and we are ready to go.  

We are taking a 50 day cruise to the Caribbean and Brazil.  We will spend nearly a month in Brazil and be in Rio de Janeiro for Carnival before cruising up the Amazon hence the cruise name - The Amazon & Carnival Explorer.  The cruise line is Holland America and we will be on the Veendam, the same ship we did our Mediterranean cruise on.  

We're are really looking forward to this cruise, but we are also a bit wary.  We had to get yellow fever shots and a prescription for malaria pills to take while we are in Brazil.  There are also some warnings of political unrest and some areas being dangerous to visit, but we heard some of the same things on other trips so I'm sure everything will be fine.  The cruise line is very cautious and never goes to a port which puts the passengers in jeopardy.

As we have done for our last few cruises, we have shipped our main luggage a head of time and it will be delivered to our stateroom on the ship.  It left last week and there is always a bit of worry that it won't show up, but it always has in the past.  We still carry small bags, but the bulk of our clothing is being shipped.

This cruise leaves from Fort Lauderdale, Florida as our Mediterranean cruise did so we will be doing the same thing as then.  We will fly from Los Angeles two days early to give us a decompression day and then board the ship on February 4.

As usual I will be writing the blog every day as it happens, but I won't be publishing it until we get home.  I enjoy doing the blog, but doing it live just takes too much time.  So, it's time to do our final packing and be on our way.

Here is a map and our itinerary.

I couldn't upload a pdf file so had to export it to an image.  The quality isn't that greatest, but if you click on the picture, you'll see a larger version that should be legible.

On Hiatus

I thought I would be writing about our trip to Alaska now, but things have not worked out as we planned.  In fact, it looks like there won't be any travels for us this year.

When I wrote about our Mediterranean cruise last winter, I mentioned that I was sick with a cold when we got back from our cruise.  The cold went away, but I continued to cough and after several treatment attempts my doctor decided to do an x-ray.  The x-ray showed a nodule on my lung which was pretty scary, but a subsequent blood test showed that I had valley fever.  Valley fever is a fungal disease that is caused by breathing a fungi spore into the lungs and only occurs in the Southwestern United States.  It's not very common, but is becoming more common, particularly in the area we live.  Luckily for me, my doctor recognized it right away and started treatment immediately.

Valley fever can be a very serious disease, but luckily for me I never got very sick and the worst things I experienced were the coughing and a loss of energy.  To be honest, the side effects of the medication were worse than the valley fever symptoms.  Anyway to make a short story long, when it came time to make our final payment for our June Alaska cruise, we decided we shouldn't chance losing our money and decided to cancel our cruise.

We were disappointed, but we made up for it by booking a two week trip through the Canadian Rockies on the Rocky Mountaineer train and then another week on Vancouver Island.  By the end of June I was feeling pretty much back to normal and my doctor gave me a clean bill of health.  It looked like all things were go for our fall trip.

Unfortunately, as I was getting better, Val was starting to have problems with her knee and it kept getting worse and worse.  Finally in May she got an MRI and the news was what we feared, she needed a knee replacement.  At that time she thought she would still be able to take our fall trip and get the surgery after we returned, but it kept getting worse.  In mid June we went up to Stanford and got a second opinion, which unfortunately just confirmed her doctor's diagnosis.  By then the pain was getting worse and she knew she wouldn't be able to make the fall trip so last week we cancelled our fall Canadian trip and she is scheduled to have her knee replaced in August.

She has already had her other knee replaced five years ago so she knows it's not a very enjoyable experience with a lot of pain, exercise and physical therapy.  Full recovery usually takes a year, but the first month is the worst and by the end of the second month she will still have some pain, but will have pretty much resumed her normal life.

This was a big disappointment for both of us, but things happen that you have no control over, especially as you get older.  It looks like 2018 will be our first year without a major trip, but we will come back strong next year.  A year like this will give us an even greater appreciation of our past and future travels and our life in general.

That's it for now, Val always tells me I go into too much detail when I write and it looks like I've done it again.  We do have one trip already booked for February/March of 2019; a cruise up the Amazon River and then on to Rio de Janeiro for Carnival.  Also, we would like to re-book our Canadian trip for next Fall.  Looks like we'll be getting right back to traveling, so we'll see you on down the road.

Atlantic Adventurer Cruise: Reflections

Reflections

If you've made it this far in the blog, congratulations, it was a real marathon.  I normally write the wrap-up and reflections for our trip as soon as I get home, but for this trip, here I am doing it on February 1st, almost two months since we returned home.  This was not really by design, but more from circumstance.  I came home sick, my computer failed and it was two weeks before Christmas so I put almost everything about the trip on hold until the beginning of the new year.  I decided to publish the whole blog before I wrote my wrap-up and finally, the blog is done!!  It is the longest one I have done, and there were a lot of photos to go through, but it did allow me to relive our trip and gain a little more appreciation and perspective of what we saw.

Before I get to my reflections, a little sidebar here.  When we got home I was watching TV one night and there was a car commercial on that was about a young couple with a new car throwing darts at a map to see where they would go.  The commercial was kind of stupid, but at the end they said something that struck me as being pretty profound.  I don’t know exactly how it was worded, but essentially it said, “it’s not the destination that makes the journey, but who you make the journey with”, and that is so true.  There is something wonderful about traveling and seeing new things, but even more wonderful is having someone to share it with and there is no else I would rather share it with than Val.  Thank you Val.

Since we have gotten home, several people have asked me what was my favorite place on the trip was and my answer always seems to end up a lengthy response.  One memory leads to another and almost every place we visited had something special to offer.  We got a taste of the tradition and culture of some places, and were amazed at other places as we realized that we were looking back at thousands of years of history.  Since I can’t really pick out any favorite place, I will talk about the places I enjoyed the most (standing in pouring rain in Athens will not rate as one of most enjoyable moments).

Visiting the Azores was very special as we had no idea how green and lush they were.  We didn’t have the best of weather so it would be nice to return with a bit of sunshine, but the Azores were still a great way to kick off the trip.  Our time in Lisbon was also wonderful and spending the day with Greg and Isabel was one of the best times on the trip.  Barcelona was a big surprise, we had heard and read so many negative things about the pick-pockets, petty theft and crowds, but Barcelona is a great place.  It is a beautiful and vibrant city with friendly people who seem for the most part, to be tolerant of tourists and that can’t be said of everywhere we visited.

Another place that really surprised us was Pompeii, I never realized what a large city it was.  Reading about the city is one thing, but seeing it and the artifacts made you think of the people living there and how their lives were so quickly changed.  Seeing the original ancient site of the Olympics in Greece was also an eye opener, I had no idea it was such an elaborate and large compound.

One of my favorite places was Dubrovnik in Croatia.  We saw many medieval walled cities on the cruise, but Dubrovnik was by far the best.  Val and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit there and would like to go back again someday.

I think our best stretch of ports were the islands of Rhodes, Crete and Malta.  The day we spent visiting Lindos on Rhodes, and Chania on Crete were two of the highlights of the trip.  I think though, if I had to pick my favorite place we visited it would probably be Malta.  We spent two days there and had a wonderful time.  Both days we had private tours with excellent guides and they made it even more special.

Visiting the island of Sardinia in Italy also stood out as we were able to spend part of a day experiencing the traditional hospitality, culture and food with an extended family at their villa.  That was a Thanksgiving we will always remember.  Lastly there’s the Portuguese island of Madeira.  We didn’t really get to see much of it because Val was sick, but it was such a nice day and the island was so inviting, we would love to revisit it and see a lot more.

I have fond memories of everywhere we visited (maybe with the exception of Athens 😎), but these were the memories that stood out for me.  This was a long cruise with lots of time changes and a pretty intensive port schedule, but Val and I both agree that we would do it again as there is so much more to see and do.

Our next trip is another cruise, this time a short 14 day Alaska cruise out of Seattle in June.  We decided to take a breather this year and not travel so much so it is the only thing we have planned so far.  We always do our “geezer” trip in the fall, but we aren’t even doing that this year due to unforeseen circumstances, but hopefully we will restart that in 2019.  We will do some short trips and probably do a road trip or two, but otherwise things are going to be pretty quiet in travel wise in 2018.  That’s it for now and we’ll see you on down the road.

Atlantic Adventurer Cruise: Day 49, Debarkation and the Trip Home

Friday, December 8, 2017

Debarkation

We were up this morning at 6:30 as the ship was schedule to dock at 7:00 and we were scheduled to get off the ship 7:45.  Neither of us slept well last night so we were both tired when we got up; not a good way to start a long day.  We packed our last remaining things and headed off to the Neptune Lounge for our last breakfast on the ship.  We then returned to our room and waited for our debarkation group to be called.

Our plane doesn’t leave Fort Lauderdale until around 7:00 tonight so we have a lot of time to kill today.  To pass some time we signed up for a ship airport transfer that include a tour of Fort Lauderdale and a boat ride around the inland waterways and harbor.  Because of that we were one of the first groups scheduled to leave the ship.

Getting off the ship was a breeze as luggage was just being delivered to the terminal when we came off the ship and after a short wait, we found our luggage and headed to customs.  This summer Val and I signed up for a Global Entry Pass and although it was a bit of a hassle to get, it was well worth it.  Fort Lauderdale is the only cruise port in the US to have a Global Entry line and there was hardly anyone in it.  We sailed right through customs in less than five minutes and were outside the terminal in less than fifteen minutes after leaving our room.

Before we found our tour bus, we had to deliver our two large pieces of luggage to the Luggage Forward representatives as we were shipping them instead of lugging them around.  This is the second time we have done this and even though it’s a little pricey, it is well worth it for us.  There was a bit of a mix up finding them, and we were given wrong directions several times, but we finally found them right in front of the terminal.  Because we had gotten off the ship so quickly, they weren’t there when we first exited the building.

Fort Lauderdale Tour

After getting rid of our large pieces of luggage, we found our tour bus and got on and enjoyed the cool, air-conditioned air.  Even though it’s December, Florida was still warm and humid, even at 8:30 it the morning.  We sat on the bus for a while and waited for the stragglers to wander in and then we were on our way.  The tour was nice and drove us around Fort Lauderdale and gave us a feel for the culture and history of the city. 

After our drive around the city, we were dropped off at the harbor where we boarded a tour boat that gave us a tour of the inland waterways and harbor.  Fort Lauderdale is made up of a lot of inland waterways lined with very expensive homes and lots of boats and yachts.  It seemed that the main purpose of the trip was to point out the expensive homes of all the rich and famous people, which while being interesting, didn’t make me want to move to Fort Lauderdale.  The boat ride was very pleasant as we were shaded and there was a pleasant breeze blowing off the water.  After the boat tour, the bus picked us up and delivered us and our remaining luggage to the airport.  I’m glad we took the tour even though it wasn’t as interesting as what we have been used to seeing on the trip, we did enjoy it and it helped pass some of the long wait we have before our plane leaves.

The Flight Home

When we got into the terminal, the first thing we wanted to do was check our bags, get through security, and find something to eat.  Unfortunately, things didn’t work out that way because the Virgin America check-in didn’t open up until two hours before our flight.  I guess there aren’t enough Virgin America flights out of Fort Lauderdale to keep the check-in open longer.  We found some seats in the terminal and started our three-hour wait for the check-in to open.

I left Val with the bags, and went looking for a place we could get something to eat.  It seemed that all of the restaurants were on the other side of security, but I did find a Starbucks that served sandwiches so we took turns getting something to eat while one of us watched the luggage.  The sandwich was actually pretty good, but having to sit in the terminal juggling our food and drinks on our laps wasn’t what I had in mind.

While we finished eating, I noticed there were people in the Virgin America check-in line.  We immediately got in line, checked our luggage and quickly got through security, found our gate and had a seat for the long wait.

I still wasn’t feeling well and it had already been a long day so all I could think about was getting on the plane and getting home.  My cough, which I hoped was going away, got worse so I went on a successful search for cough drops, but unfortunately, they didn’t help that much.  We still had over four hours before our flight so we read, talked and took turns walking around the area.  There were a lot of people and most of the gates were packed with people so we didn’t want to lose our seats.

Time slowly passed, and it was finally getting near time to board when the dreaded announcement came that our flight would be delayed.  It turned out to be only a 35 minute delay so by 7:30 we were boarding the plane.  They wanted to make up time so they were hustling everybody on board and trying to get them seated.  We again had opted for the economy plus seats that gave us extra legroom as well as free food and drinks, movies and priority boarding.  The priority boarding is a big plus as it is such a hassle to find space in the overhead bins when you board late.

The flight seemed very long and Val ended up watching two movies.  I mostly read and played my Wordbrain game on my phone until we were finally landing at LAX.  We made our way to the luggage pickup and saw my brother Doug and his wife Janis waiting for us, which was a very welcome sight.  It didn’t take long to get our luggage and we were soon in their car heading to their house where we spent the night before driving home tomorrow.  We are so grateful to Doug and Janis for picking us up; the original plan was for us to take the Flyaway bus service to a terminal near their home where they would pick us up, but while we were on the trip Janis had e-mailed me and said they would pick us up at the airport.  Thank you so much Doug and Janis, you made a very long day much easier.

We made the 45 minute drive to their house and we all quickly headed off to bed.  We were in bed by 11:30, which was 2:30 AM EST and that meant it had been 20 hours since we had gotten up on the Veendam this morning, a very long day.  By this time, we were both running on fumes and the bed felt very, very good.  It will be great to get home tomorrow.

Saturday, December 9 - The Drive Home

I guess because I was used to being on Eastern Time, I woke up early and was up by 8:00.  Val had no such trouble and slept in.  Janis had an appointment this morning so I had some breakfast, read the paper and talked to Doug until Val got up.  There is currently a massive fire raging in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, which is between Doug and Janis’s home and our home in Atascadero.  We thought maybe we could see them from the plane last night, but that wasn’t possible.  Highway 101, which is our route home, has been closed on and off all week so our concern today was that we would have to take a more roundabout way home, but I checked when I got up and it was open.

Val finally joined us and after a bite to eat for her and a little more conversation, we hit the road.  We were originally going to stop in Thousand Oaks and visit my parents, but with me being sick, that didn’t seem like a good idea so we shelved that.  The other thing we wanted to do was stop at Los Arroyos, our favorite Mexican restaurant.  We timed it just right so it was lunchtime and we were hungry just as we got to the restaurant.  It had been over two months since we had a good Mexican meal so this really hit the spot.

After lunch we continued our drive north and as we approached Ventura we could see a massive plume of dark smoke ahead of us.  That much smoke is unusual in a fire that is more than a week old so it showed just how massive and terrible this fire was.  As we drove north through Ventura and the area south of Santa Barbara, we could see where the fire had burned down to Hwy 101 and in some cases, jumped the highway and burned to the ocean.

We made it home by mid-afternoon and I can’t tell you how good that felt.  We loved our trip, but being gone for almost two months is a long time, especially when you come home sick.  Everything at home seemed fine, which was a relief, but we did have a pile of mail a mile high.  Traveling the world and seeing new and exciting things is a wonderful way to spend your time, but as the saying goes – there’s no place like home.