30th March, Madagascar

Landfall, after leaving the Seychelles and crossing 10⁰South latitude, the demarcation line for ‘pirate’ country we sight the northern tip of Madagascar in the early morning light. Our destination, Adoanay, formerly known by its French name Hell Ville, lies on the island of Nosy Be, on the north-west coast of Madagascar. It’s a ‘tricky’ transit of the shoals and reefs surrounding the island and, as in similar destinations, we have allowed ourselves sufficient time to make the final 15 miles at a sedate speed. The waters are blue and calm and as the sun rises, fishing dhows leave some of the villages on the island and make their way out for the morning’s fishing. These are of the classic ‘Arabian’ style, with 1 triangular sail and they are accompanied by dugout canoes with outriggers.

We round the southern end of the island and approach Adoanay itself. The charts we are using are not of the accuracy to which we are used to, in fact, one chart, originally produced in 1905 from French surveys is obviously inaccurate when compared to our electronic charts of more modern times and so it is on the electronic version we rely. Anchoring a ½ mile from the jetty we are immediately surrounded by dugout canoes, the occupants desperate to sell our guests all sorts of trinkets; wooden face masks, models of dhows, even bananas. It is taking a step back in time.

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Topics: Captain's Log, Grand Voyages, ms Amsterdam, Postcards from..., Shore Excursions | | 1 Comment

Mike Faust, editor of Cruise Currents, recently sailed on board Eurodam for a seven-night eastern Caribbean cruise and chronicled his trip for us. What’s your favorite Caribbean port? Let us know in the comments below!

Cruising the Eurodam – Day 7 – Half Moon Cay

I woke up bright and early for the final day of our cruise. It was around 7:00 a.m. and we were still about an hour away from dropping anchor in Half Moon Cay, our final port of call. I used this time to just sit on my balcony and enjoy the passing islands and watching the warm waters of the Bahamas slip past me. Soon we were approaching Half Moon Cay and dropped anchor. The tenders began to arrive and the crew made their way ashore to prepare the island for us. Today was to be a tropical island retreat.

After a quick breakfast in the Lido Restaurant, we made our way down to board our tender to take us ashore. After a short wait, we were quickly sailing closer to Half Moon Cay in our tender. As soon as we were on shore we headed straight for the beach. We quickly found our way into the surprisingly cold water which quickly became warmer with the rising Bahamian sun. It was so relaxing to just kick back and relax on our final day. Except I couldn’t relax, because at 11:00 a.m. I would be parasailing 200 feet above the island. This is a problem for me since I have a minor fear of heights, but for some odd reason I picked the one excursion that would incorporate this fear into a cruise.

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Topics: Caribbean, Cruise Diary, Half Moon Cay, ms Eurodam, Shore Excursions, Videos | | 2 Comments

Mike Faust, editor of Cruise Currents, recently sailed on board Eurodam for a seven-night eastern Caribbean cruise and chronicled his trip for us. What’s your favorite Caribbean port? Let us know in the comments below!

Cruising the Eurodam – Day 5 – St. Thomas

We docked in St. Thomas at the Crown Bay Cruise Center around 7:30 am. I had just woken up and was sitting on my balcony taking in the beautiful and tropical views of St. Thomas when the Allure of the Seas began to dock next to us. Now, I know from my tour of Oasis last year that the Allure and Oasis are beautiful ships on the inside, but I was kind of annoyed that a bunch of balconies would be blocking my view of St. Thomas. Anyway, I enjoyed a quick breakfast in the Lido Restaurant and then went down to our cabin to get ready for our pre-planned shore excursion.

Today we would be doing the Champagne Catamaran Sail to St. John. This tour gave us the opportunity to snorkel with the fish of the Virgin Islands or swim to the white sandy beaches ad just relax in the clear shallow waters. After a fun roller coaster-like sail over, we arrived in St. John. Our instructors quickly suited us up to go snorkeling, and in no time, I was jumping off the side of the catamaran into the blue waters of the Virgin Islands. My first underwater view was truly amazing. As I began to rise back up from the bottom, I was able to see the different shades of blue that made up the cool water I was snorkeling in. I eventually began to snorkel through the reefs located just feet from the beach, spotting beautiful colored fish darting in and out of their coral homes. Some other Eurodam guests even said that they saw a sea turtle and a sting ray!

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Topics: Art, Activities & Entertainment, Caribbean, Cruise Diary, ms Eurodam, Shore Excursions | | 1 Comment

HAL guest blogger Sharon Wilhelm recently sailed aboard Amsterdam’s 75-day Grand Asia & Australia Voyage. While aboard the ship she chronicled her cruising experience for us on the blog. Below is her final post. Enjoy!

November 3 – Darwin, Australia
We took the tour “Jumping Crocodile Cruise” that began with a drive into the countryside to the east of Darwin. The first stop was at the Humpty Doo Pub, truly an authentic Aussie establishment, where we enjoyed a glass of Victoria Bitter while meeting and chatting with some of the locals. The locals were some of the friendliest individuals that I can remember and can be visualized by some of their names e.g. “Crash” and his female companion “Tillie.” They both were a delight to talk to – very pro America. I couldn’t help noticing the menu posted on the wall behind the bar. The “Humpty Doo” was a wonderful travel experience.

Humpty Doo Hotel & Pub.

Humpty Doo Menu.

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Topics: Asia-Pacific, Australia/New Zealand, Cruise Diary, Grand Voyages, ms Amsterdam, Shore Excursions | | No Comments

Guest Sharon Johnson and her husband were on Volendam for the trans-Pacific voyage to Sydney and the circumnavigation of Australia for 55 days. Enjoy these photos from their port call at Lombok, Indonesia.

After leaving Komodo Island, we sailed to Lembar, Lombok, Indonesia. Lombok is an island to the east of Bali. A ferry from Bali can reach Lembar in about four hours. The capital city of Lombok is Mataram which is 12 miles from Lembar, where Volendam anchored. Three million people live on this small island. We took an eight hour HAL tour: Fascinating Culture of Lombok. When we tendered ashore we were greeted by a Lombok gamelan orchestra played by Balinese Lombok men. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay to photograph them like I wanted to as we would have obstructed the pathway to the tour buses, taxis and bemos.

View from the ship off Lombok as we approached the area where we would anchor off the port of Lembar.

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Topics: Asia-Pacific, Cruise Diary, ms Volendam, Shore Excursions | | No Comments

Here is a photo of some of Volendam’s crew during the Komodo Dragon Adventure tour on December 5th.

Anne Marie is Volendam’s human resources manager.

Topics: Asia-Pacific, ms Volendam, Shore Excursions, Staff & Crew | | No Comments

Eleven crew members participated in the Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb during Oosterdam’s dry dock “down under” on December 10. Here’s a photo of the group at the top!

Joe Reina is Oosterdam’s human resources manager.

Topics: Australia/New Zealand, ms Oosterdam, Shore Excursions, Staff & Crew | | No Comments

Aloha! During our call at Hilo, Hawaii some of the crew took the opportunity to take the Waterfall, Cave & Black Sand Cove tour. James, our tour guide, explained a little bit of Hawaii’s fascinating history along the spectacular wild beauty of coastal Hilo on our way to Rainbow Falls. Eleven of Statendam’s crew also explored the Kaumana Caves that were formed by the 1881 eruption of Mauna Loa, the largest volcano in the world. Our final attraction was the rugged coastline and Black Sand Cove. Here we had a great time enjoying snorkeling, swimming with turtles, sun bathing and, of course, relaxing on the black sand itself.

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Topics: Hawaii, ms Statendam, Shore Excursions, Staff & Crew | | 1 Comment