At 12:00 noon today an unusual chime is heard around the ship, not the usual sound we hear but one that is different and pretty much gets everyone’s ear (or two). We were sitting in mid stream trivia, question 8 I believe. Bing, Bing, Bing, Bong. “This is Captain Jonathon from the bridge, you may have heard the chatter and rumours around the ship…”. Bottom line, with the US Government claiming a state of emergency across the States, Holland America, following the lead from Princess Cruises, a sister cruise line, has decided to terminate all cruises for a period of 30 days. For us the 2020 World Cruise will end mid stream in Perth / Fremantle. I say mid stream because we will be about half way around the geographical world from where we started even though we will be at 80 days of the 128 days voyage. The problem that we as a ship are facing is countries and islands closing their ports to cruise ships. We had a potential fuelling stop mid way across the Indian Ocean but not a guarantee and it would not be possible for us to reach Cape Town without refuelling - so that way is out. Asia ports are not an option so we cannot go that way. So, like our tour the other day, this World Cruise 2020 is also now a bust. Funny, after the announcement, Hammish, the cruise director goes, “so where were we, awe yeah, question number eight”. I find this hilarious, our cruise is terminated in ten days and rather than saying something like, wow, that was some major information, lets postpone the game until tomorrow and give you folks a chance to digest, nope we continue with question number eight. What’s even more hilarious is that everyone, including us are listening intently to question number eight. I guess after the changes we have experienced and the other issues we have had to overcome its like okay we will wait until we receive further information, awe, where were we, oh yeah question number eight. This is such a great crowd of travellers - not tourists but travellers.
Tonight we had the “under the sea” Gala night theme, we were very fortunate to have one of the ship’s medical officers hosting our table, Lorrie Rail, who as it turns out makes her home in Secret Cove, BC - yes, the same Secret Cove where we moor our boat, small world. So life here goes on, very nice dinner both in food and conversation, we have learned that there are indeed zero cases of this virus on board, which is what we thought and she will be staying on board as part of the skeleton crew as the Amsterdam sails back to Fort Lauderdale, whenever that may be. You see, there may be a current capacity docking situation around the globe with all these ships not cruising. There is a good chance the Amsterdam may have to stay in Perth for a bit before continuing on back home. What happens to us, well stay tuned, once I know you will know. In the meantime we have Darwin in a couple day, then a few more ports before we say good bye to our home here onboard the Amsterdam. Funny thing number two, (two or five, lol), we received our cruise plates today of the, Cruise that could have been, ha ha, why not just slap us in the face while your at it. No that is not funny thing number two (or five), I know this is not the first time they have sailed to Sydney, Australia but for some reason the person reviewing the mass production of these plates cannot spell Sydney correctly, they spelled it Sidney. So a slap in the face and a punch in the gut while your at it. A few pics of our dinner tonight and the fabulous on board entertainment from the amazing Amsterdam, Singers and Dancers, only a few pics for tonight, hard to be in the mood… Hope you enjoy…
Quote of the day - “One child, one teacher, one pen, and one book can change the world.” - Malala Yousafzai
Wow, this is a sad day, very sad. This is why we just cancelled all our future cruises even next world one. To much incertitudes, health in the world and country’s closing all access. You don’t know yet if you will be sailing or flying back ?
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