Cruise Specialists hosts Steve and Wendy Bodenheimer have taken us along on their remarkable journey. This post wraps up their incredible experience cruising around the globe with Holland America Line on the 2018 Grand Voyage. Wendy and Steve previously shared their wonderful excursions to The Gambia and Senegal, Namibia and Angola, South Africa and Zambia, Mozambique, Thailand and Sri Lanka, Singapore, Western Australia, New Zealand and the Polynesia region.
Looking Back on our Holland America Line World Cruise
We’re home now, tired but happy. We had a memorable time with our Cruise Specialists guests and have made some great new friends. Working with fellow Cruise Specialist host Tom Mullen is always fun and enlightening. The itinerary offered an extensive variety of places, all of which we enjoyed. As we have often said, we may not love every port, but we love the experience of being there. Looking back, there are quite a few places we look forward to visiting again:
- Victoria Falls — Can’t wait to go back and show Steve why it was so spectacular.
- Sydney Bridge Climb — A memorable experience and a real feeling of accomplishment for us.
- Moorea — Our favorite island in French Polynesia for its simple, unspoiled beauty.
- New Zealand — Where we found our favorite wines, friendly people, the Maori culture, and beautiful cities, towns and villages.
- Milford Sound — Home to Fjordland National Park: An unforgettable place for dramatic scenic cruising.
- The St Paul Underground River Subterranean Caves in Puerto Princesa, Philippines — A unique place.
- Gardens by the Bay — the remarkable complex in Singapore, filled with all things green and a whole lot more.
- Cape Town, South Africa — A dynamic city, with striking natural beauty. So much more to explore there.
- Wild Game Safaris — Seeing all those majestic creatures thriving in their natural environments at Chobe National Park and Aquila Game Reserve was a special experience.
HAL World Cruise Information
We covered over 32,000 sea miles, crossed the equator several times, experienced more than two dozen time changes, stopped in 38 ports in 25 countries and missed only one because of weather.
For those following our geocaching statistics, we found 260 for the entire voyage! That was more than we expected, considering quite a few places had none or had those we found on previous visits. We increased our caches found count to over 9,000, the count of countries we’ve cached to 80, and we recruited 20 new people to the activity through our lecture, field trips and one-on-one coaching sessions.
News on Upcoming Voyages
We’re delighted to tell you that we have been invited to do the 2019 Grand World Voyage for Cruise Specialists and of course, we accepted! The itinerary will include a few new places for us, including India and Easter Island, and many great cities, including Copenhagen, Oslo, and Barcelona, which we are happy to revisit.
But before that, we have another fantastic assignment this summer. We head off to Amsterdam in mid-June to tour Norway, the British Isles (including Scotland and Wales), and Iceland. An added bonus will be getting to see our friends Chris and Maureen, who live in England. Then, we return to Boston via the second half of the Voyage of the Vikings. We’re thrilled to return.
As always, we appreciate those who write to us and comment on our experiences while we are away. We love hearing from you.
We know how fortunate we are to do trips of this magnitude and we know everyone can’t do such long or exotic voyages. But we would encourage you all to have your own adventures, even if they are close to home! It’s an amazing world out there waiting to be explored.
We hope you’ve enjoyed the ride. Until the next time!
Fondly,
Wendy and Steve
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