Sept 30, 2022, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Just a quickie post to get this adventure onto the on-ramp of the Zaandam highway that we will be on for the next 80 days. We start with our full day in Montreal, Quebec, a place that we have visited and enjoyed many times over the past many years. Old Montreal never disappoints, perhaps it was the beautiful fall weather or perhaps the fantastic, Le Saint-Sulpice Hotel (in the shadow of the Notre Dame Basilica), or that we are steps to our terminal tomorrow or the wonderful lunch and visit we had with my Aunt Heili and Uncle Richard or a combination of all the above. 

After our lunch we had a nice stroll around Old Montreal and then headed to pick up a few necessities that should cover us for the next two plus months. Back to the hotel for a power nap before heading out to an Italian dinner. A little more strolling and window shopping, there are some amazing Art Gallery Shops here, before heading back to our hotel. 

Lunch, including some great live Jazz was at Jardin Nelson while dinner was at Jacopo, both located in the Place Jacques Cartier. Time for a final repack before heading out in the morning, bonus, we have an eleven o’clock boarding time, fantastic. We shall see you onboard.

 

A few pics of our day, thanks for joining us… 

Sept 28, 2022, Vancouver, BC Grand Voyage Eve!

And the last minute scramble is on as we prepare for take off tomorrow afternoon on our Grand Voyage Plus voyage now commencing in Montreal. In total we will be away for 80 days, 9 days Montreal to Fort Lauderdale and then 71 days round trip around the Continent of Africa back to Fort Lauderdale. There are many i’s to dot and t’s to cross in embarking on a journey this long and as long as you capture the big ones, you should be okay - there is always something that will be missed, I have learned to just accept that, that’s life. Tip, look at you entire calendar for the time you are away, is your car insurance going to expire (should you cancel and just purchase storage insurance)? Is your home insurance going to expire? These types of things. Yup, going through the calendar one more time today.

So, two years in the planning and we are finally feeling that this Grand Voyage is going to be a go, obviously cancelled in 2020, and then again cancelled and moved forward from 2021. We really didn’t believe it until we were on the Voyage of the Vikings this past summer and saw that the gears of travel were going to actually catch and not disengage like a bad clutch. So, yes we are excited.

This voyage was originally planned out of Fort Lauderdale but with our Covid Cruise Credits from the VOV, we were able to use them to jump on the Zaandam 9 days earlier in Montreal, hooray! For those of you that don’t understand Covid Credits, should you contract Covid on board and are quarantined, you receive a prorated portion of you cruise fare back in credits to be used on a future cruise. We easily had enough to get us back on board on the leg prior to the Grand Voyage, hooray again! Thanks HAL. 

Circumnavigating Africa will bring us some amazing adventure opportunities, too many to list but will include, visiting the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, staying overnight in a Bebouin tent in Wadi Rum and a 3 day African Safari. Please see the itinerary listed below. We invite you to follow along as an armchair traveller if you would like to see what we get up to on this adventure, we blog pretty much daily. We do understand that there will be some changes to our eastern Canadian ports as a result of the recent hurricane, our hearts go out to those in the middle of this disaster, yes climate change is real and is all around us.

For now, time to get back to my final run through everything, haircut at noon. We would like to extend our thanks to all the folks at Cruise Critics, they have done an amazing job on this Grand Voyage, from the “spreadsheets” to the Photo Book to all the excursions they have put together, looking forward to seeing you all on board.

Sept 02, 2022 - At Home, Vancouver Summary Part 2

In getting this ready to send we hit a bit of a snag with our next adventure that required me to once again change gears. I will be posting this very soon but in the meantime let’s finish up the summary from this fabulous voyage. 

Beautiful Puffins on Vigor Island in Iceland 



Made a little purchase, Jan grabbed the only one in the gift shop.



Pictured here with Jearmelyn in the incredible scenic, Prince Christian Sund.

Our Mr. Glen Michael on the commentary.

Some floating art here in Prince Christian Sund.

The fog rolled in as we left the Sund, great timing.

Our ship in the Bay in Nanortalik, Greenland.

Jan chatting with some local children here in Nanortalik, Greenland.



So wonderful to have dinner with cruise friends, Lucia and Henk.

Here we are on the easy to reach Santiago trail in St. Anthony, Newfoundland.

Taking advantage of The Rooms museum here in St. John’s Newfoundland on our one rainy day.

Exciting the narrow entrance to St. John’s .

Mariner recognition day aboard the Zaandam, pictured here with the Captain and Florin, Hotel Director.

The crew lined up to greet us on the last “Dressy “ night. Nice touch.

Surf, Turf and Surf, why not…

At Peggy’s Cove with Brian and Margaret Callahan, wishing a great art show on Sept 17th.

Just a wonderful way to conclude our adventures here at Peggy’s Cove and the Voyage of the Vikings!

August 26, 2022 - At Home, Vancouver

It’s been pretty busy since returning home but now to take a moment to reflect on our Voyage of the Vikings experience on the Zaandam. Overall fantastic, it really is the crew at the end of the day that really makes this experience what it was. They are excited to be back at sea as well as us to be cruising with them. If you followed along you have seen that Covid is still here and does have an effect on the experience but that said, the protocols do work as well as the different stages of actions required when an outbreak does occur. I understand that this was the first longer cruise since the return to cruising so this really was a test to deal with Covid cases beyond a 7 or 14 day cruise. Did it get interesting, you bet, especially when all the isolation rooms filled up and infected guests had to remain in their own cabins with the scarlet letter red dots on their rooms. This was an unfortunate test for many of the crew on the ship, from the medical team to the room service department to the cleaning crew as well as customer service and the senior positions on the ship. I know this was a live and learn experiment and we’re good with being a part of it as the voyage of the Vikings cruise is a one of the pinnacle cruises to take, the itinerary is just one of the best. 

Just one further point to note on the return to cruising. Yes, many programs have been discontinued or canceled at this point in the restart. For us as long time cruisers we understand this and the importance of returning the company back to profitability before reintroducing some of theses programs. We are shareholders after all, so it is paramount that these ships stay afloat. That said, we have made formal comments as to which programs and/or positions we would like see returned.

The summary, the weather gods were with us with only one day of rain effecting our daily shore plans and even with that our alternative turned out to be a blessing. The highlights of this voyage include and not limited to (above and beyond just to be back on a ship), Greenland and cruising the Prince Christian Sund, the opportunity to explore our countries east coast, Iceland and cruising the route of the Vikings to and from Europe. On the ship, as mentioned, the crew, the ship itself and the many meals we enjoyed. We feel this was stepped up in quality and menu options. Yes, there were fewer options and that surf n turf was not offered at every Gala night, but please see above about the comment about returning to profitability. At the end of the day my scale at home has indicated that I was well fed. :)

Here is a selection of my favourite pics on this voyage with comments. We thank you joining us on the amazing journey, thank you for your emails and comments, they are much appreciated. We hope you will join us in our next adventure which is actually coming very soon. We are beginning to pack now… I will be posting this soon.

Quote of the day - “We travel, initially, to lose ourselves. We travel, next, to find ourselves”. Pico Lyer

With one of our favourite beverage servers, Enrico 

Yup, the Voyage of the Vikings! 

Renting an e-car in Bar Harbour for a driving tour of Acadia National Park.

Cheers to my very first Lobster Roll!

With cruise friends Lucia and Henk!

With cruise friends, George and Joanne! Formal, Gala or Dressy night, you pick.

A little Surf n Turf action!

Yes, Canada and Red Bay, Labrador a wonderful day here.

A nice pic taken on top of a hill in Red Bay!

The beginning of the ice bergs for the next few days…

Breakfast team in the Lido!

Our first visit to beautiful Greenland!

Greenland is remote and wonderful, with amazing fresh air. If only we could bottle it.

Yes, more incredible ice…

Well ice and waterfalls!

The one and only village along the Prince Christian Sund!

More picturesque ice.

A nice stop at a Glacier outflow, yes connected to the main ice cap of Greenland, some 2700 kilometres long!

Ah, owe, Covid break, making the best out of it with Room Service and Netflix, Stranger Things…

Six days later, we are free, hooray! Bergen here we come…

Bergen, Norway, a beautiful city!

In The Hague in The Netherlands !

A most beautiful Art Gallery here in The Hague 

A little Canaletto dinner in Rotterdam, pictured with our server Desi.

Cube houses of Rotterdam! Strange way to live…

A highly recommended tour of the old Rotterdam, now a museum, restaurant and hotel.

The Bray outside of Dublin, a very nice hike…

Formal night on board, pictured here with Indra, the MDR, manager.

The wonderful hike we did on a HAL excursion in Scrabster.

Colin was a fantastic guide…

Dancers and a piper bid us a farewell with a dock side hour show! 

A fantastic HAL excursion, waterfall hike here in Iceland!





Back in town for some retail therapy!

Someone picked up a nice new Icelandic sweater! 

Some hanging maple bacon here in the specialty Pinnacle Restaurant!

A wonderful hike around the city of Akureyri here in Iceland!


And yes we ran into one of the friendly Trolls!