The Countdown Begins ...

 December 20, 2023

LeRoy and Vialula here again.   Getting ready to start a new adventure abroad!  Last time we cruised, we kept a journal for us to remember the journey by.   Didn't know that other people would actually want or would be forced to read it.   That being said, I, LeRoy, hope to do a better job of it this time.  The only problem is that now I don't know where to start.

In the infamous words of Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music, "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start."

All our bags are packed, we're ready to go.  The boat's a waitin, it's tooting it's horn.... etc.

They came and picked up our bags about a week ago so we are hoping they will be waiting for us in our stateroom once we get there.   Which, by the way, is stateroom 6089. It is mid-ship on the starboard (right) side.  Last time we were aft on the port side so change is good.  We have a veranda to enjoy our morning coffee on and watch the workings of parking this big boat in our various stops.  It is quite the process and the crew works hard at it.

So, let's see, maybe I should lay down some ground work to give everyone an idea of what is ahead. This time it's a 128 day journey to go around the big blue marble we refer to as home.  We leave out on January 3rd and come back on May 11th.  We are on the the Zuiderdam this go around.   We take out and return to Ft. Lauderdale, same as before.  We will be traveling to 26 different countries, parking the big boat in 48 different ports of call and enjoying 70 sea days.     I like my sea days!!     We do repeat a total of 6 ports that we went to last time but everything else will be new to us.   Vialula and I will do our best to capture in words and pictures each and every stop we make but I offer no promises that you will enjoy it more than we will!

Some of the high points for us will be several stops in Japan, several in China, where we will go to that big border wall that was built long before we had our problems in the southwest.  We travel down to Brazil and actually go into and make some stops in the Amazon river.   Stops in Mexico, Stops in Hawaii. We also travel to the Middle East and visit Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Dubai, Abu Dhabi.  We stop in Vietnam, Saipan, Guam and we traverse both the Panama and Suez canals.  We visit Turkey, Greece and Naples, Italy.  As you can see, we will be busy.

This ship is a bit larger than the Amsterdam we sailed on the first time.    Some stats:  

The Zuiderdam was built in 2002 and refit in 2017.

It is is 936 ft long and 105.8 ft wide.  11 decks with a multitude of things to do on each one.  The cruise is sold out again as they all are, and that means I will have 1962 of our best friends with us! There will be 817 crew members to take care of our every need.  

While it is such a blessing to be able to do this trip, it is always a bit nerve wracking leaving everyone and everything at home.   We will miss everyone, especially Melba Jean and her new husband, Jet Plane.  We hope you will follow along as we blog our way around the world.  Big lesson that LeRoy learned from the last trip ...  people are pretty much the same everywhere.   Just trying to take care of the every day things and just getting by.

And so it soon begins ... 13 days, 12 hours, 31 minutes

Until we get together again, we hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas season, full of good cheer and good wine.  May God bless you and yours in 2024! 

See you on board.

LeRoy & Vialula