October 11, 2024 - At Sea (1,000 days)

We are now experiencing 23 hour days as we head east with a new time zone almost everyday. We are thrilled that they are doing this like they did in the old days (10 years ago, lol) by changing the clock forward at 1pm in the afternoon. This is way better than in the middle of the night. At 12:59 pm our cruise director gets on the PA and announces a count down from 5,4,3,2,1, Happy Two O’clock Everyone. This is accompanied by the ship’s horn, making it truly official. The last two days have been relaxing with just taking in the activities that the ship has to offer. Last night was a costume party where many guests and crew participated. I only took the one pic of our Cruise Director dressed as a six foot lady bug - cute. For us, many of these activities take place during our late dining time, which is actually okay by us - we have seen many of these but still fun to see the tail end.

Speaking of seen many of these, according to my calculations today marks our 1,000 days of cruising with HAL. These are actual cruise days and does not include the extra days they give you for on board purchases etc.. So, a milestone for us, hooray. We treated ourselves to 75 minute hot stone massages to mark the occasion. We also enjoyed a wonderful performance in the World Stage featuring two of the classical musicians. I took the pic because of the featured photo for the piece they were performing. We purchased a small exact statue like that one in Greece on our Honeymoon some 995 cruising days ago with our very first HAL cruise. Full circle indeed. 

BTW update. We will be arriving in Honolulu one day earlier because of our medical situation giving us a two night layover in this Hawaiian city. Wonderful for us, I have already reserved a rental car. Sorry, no update on the patient, not for me to report anyway. 

Only a few pics of the past few days, hope you enjoy…

No land, no ships nothing in sight except flying fish…

October 9, 2024 - At Sea

A couple things to report. First up, we hit a bit of weather causing some rocking and rolling over the past 36 hours and two, there is a passenger in need of a medical evacuation, oh boy. Remember when I mentioned that we were going to be eleven days at sea, we are only on day four today and that we at the point of no return. So, unfortunate bad timing indeed. We are going to miss scenic cruising of Mid Way and head straight for Honolulu. We are beyond the range of any helicopters, so this is our only option. We hope this passenger can weather through whatever is going on with them until we can get close to help for them. Thoughts and prayers are with them and their traveling companions.

For us tonight was a taste of Tamarind Specialty Restaurant - a pop up here on the Westerdam. For the rest of the cruise the Pinnacle is transformed to the Asian Fusion Restaurant. 

A few pics of our dinner… yum…

Studying the menu…

Enjoying a Morimoto Special Martini





Great to see Afton on board with us.

Tempura Shrimp for me.

Five types of Satay for the table. Okay, Jan and I. Lol

Lobster potstickers for Jan.

Second course, Baby back ribs. Yum

Yummy Spring Rolls


Beef Tenderloin for me.

Rack of Lamb for Jan.



Desert, Mongo Cloud

Deconstructed Cheesecake. I had to toss it like a salad to construct.

Yes, we were very full after all that delicious, wonderful food. Great service.


We are indeed in the middle of nowhere… stay tuned.

October 7, 2024 - At Sea, Scenic cruising of Iwo Jima, Japan

We are once again very fortunate to have a perfect day to proceed ahead with a few hours of scenic cruising of a very important island here in the Pacific, Iwo Jima. Many on board are here to pay respects for the many lives lost here as this battle was an important precursor to the ending of WWII.

Wikipedia states the battle as follows:

The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and United States Navy (USN) landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II. The American invasion, designated Operation Detachment, had the purpose of capturing the island with its two airfields: South Field and Central Field.

The Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily fortified, with a dense network of bunkers, hidden artillery positions, and 18 km (11 mi) of tunnels. The American ground forces were supported by extensive naval artillery and had complete air supremacy provided by U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviators throughout the battle. The five-week battle saw some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the Pacific War.

Unique among Pacific War Marine battles, total American casualties exceeded those of the Japanese, with a ratio of three American casualties for every two Japanese. Of the 21,000 Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima at the beginning of the battle, only 216 were taken prisoner, some of whom were captured only because they had been knocked unconscious or otherwise disabled. Most of the remainder were killed in action, but it has been estimated that as many as 3,000 continued to resist within the various cave systems for many days afterwards until they eventually succumbed to their injuries or surrendered weeks later.

The action was controversial, with retired Chief of Naval Operations William V. Pratt stating that the island was useless to the Army as a staging base and useless to the Navy as a fleet base. The Japanese continued to have early-warning radar from Rota island, which was never invaded. Experiences with previous Pacific island battles suggested that the island would be well-defended and thus casualties would be significant. The lessons learned on Iwo Jima served as guidelines for the following Battle of Okinawa and the planned invasion of the Japanese homeland.

Joe Rosenthal's Associated Press photograph of the raising of the U.S. flag at the top of the 169 m (554 ft) Mount Suribachi by six U.S. Marines became a famous image of the battle and the American war effort in the Pacific.

We had great commentary coming around the island where Captain Mark did a complete 360 of the ship so that all could have a good look at the place where the troops stormed the beaches. This 360 was a tricky maneuver with a ship this size with the wind and the swells. We had learned this in the Antarctic when the Captain had to turn the small Prinsendam around. He told us that putting the thrusters on to turn the ship is only one step because as the ship becomes broadside to the wind, the wind hits the balconies causing a reverse effect and when you throw swells in there it can be a bit tricky. So well done Captain Mark.

Only a few pics of our day, hope you enjoy our day 2 of 11 at sea…

The beaches that were stormed.





The spot where the famous picture took place.









The famous picture.

Yes, we are beginning to get to the middle of nowhere. Hope all remain healthy on the ship. No return now.

October 6, 2024 - At Sea

Today is day one of our longest “at sea” segment to date, it will be eleven days to reach Honolulu, Hawaii. It will be very interesting to see how the crowd manages as each day goes by. Funny thing then is that we will have two ports in three days before another five days before we arrive in Seattle. So over the next nineteen days, sixteen will be at sea. I think our longest so far is eight, so this will be interesting for us as well. I believe things will get interesting on October 12th, when we will have our Groundhog Day of having to repeat the 12th, that may be the madness tipping point for some folks. Stay tuned.

To kick this stretch off we had a “dressy” night, Casino Royale night. For us, this happens during our dinner time so unfortunately we miss the kick off festivities. It looks like they were having some draws for prizes as we drifted through on the way to tonight’s entertainment. The real win for us tonight was that we met our Captain up close and had a nice chat with Captain Mark Trembling. We thanked him for his great skill in getting us into some tricky ports.

A few pics of our first day at sea… We are scenic cruising Iwa Jima tomorrow so there may be a post tomorrow as well. Hope you enjoy…

Our Japan fridge magnet collection.

We have Hawaiian ambassadors on board. They perform poolside for an hour at sunset. Nice.



Casino Royale evening.



Pictured with our head waiter, Kelana



Pictured with Ade, assistant maître d.

Rack of Lamb for Jan.

Yellowfin sole filet for me, Yum.

Pictured with Ade and Daz, our chef…

Our yum, yum guy, Lambang.

With Captain Mark Trembling.



Billboard on board hits the World Stage. Great performance by George and Lina with Dan the drummer.

Day one of eleven.