Joyce Nutta, 62, recently retired as a linguistics professor. Together with her husband, Giorgio, 65, they set out to see the world in one fell swoop. Parag Raval, 59, who retired 17 years ago after helping design “the brains” of Intel computers, and his wife, Cheryl, 54, spent a year planning their trip and came armed with spreadsheets he developed for the 49 places in 34 countries and territories they would visit. James Brill and his wife, Diane, both 75, were world-cruising for a fifth time. “We are crazy people. We like the ride,” James said.
All had embarked from Fort Lauderdale on January 4 and had since sailed 37,000 nautical miles. They had 7,000 more to go on the way back to Florida when my husband and I dropped in on their 124-day Grand World Voyage aboard Holland America Line’s 1,916-passenger Zuiderdam, a well-kept 23-year-old traditional cruise ship. We spent a few days on the ship to see what a world cruise is all about.
Guests doing the whole shebang, about 700 people, had sailed through the Panama Canal to South America, then on to the South Pacific, Asia, Africa, and Western Europe. Stops included Easter Island, Bora Bora, the Great Barrier Reef, Komodo Island, and South Africa. The cruise skipped the Red Sea and the Suez Canal for geopolitical reasons (changes announced a year prior), subbing in stops in Namibia, the Cape Verde Islands, and Morocco instead. As my husband and I boarded in Athens to sail to Barcelona, guests and crew alike greeted us, “Welcome home!” OK, we thought, maybe this is going to be different than a typical seven-day sailing. It was, indeed.
For some passengers, the option to dance to the soundtrack of live music is a big draw.
Photo by Ruben Bleichrodt
Our initiation was an invite to a Block Party, an event that takes place when large numbers of new guests come aboard. This was the case with 300 newbies boarding in Athens for the 21-day return sail to Fort Lauderdale. Guests can book a whole world cruise or segments like this one; 21 days is considered “short” in world cruise lexicon.
For the party, we dutifully followed instructions to bring an empty wineglass from our cabin to a nearby stairwell landing for free wine and a chance to meet our “neighbors.” A group of ship officers stopped by, too.
As we toasted, neighbors asked our address, aka our cabin number, and told us about the previous occupants. Sizing us up, they also offered advice based on their experiences. One couple suggested we join an ongoing tango class. Another advised us to take advantage of the free shuttles to town in each port.
Clearly, we had entered a community. As we got to know the ship and passengers a bit more, this became even more apparent. There were the jocks who played pickleball, competitive bridge and mahjong players, the foodie crew. Rock ‘n’ rollers went dancing to the band that played Janis Joplin and Grace Slick hits in the Rolling Stone Rock Club, while others listened to Billy Joel and Elton John covers at the Billboard Onboard piano bar. The cerebral crowd attended lectures on topics such as the Italian sculptor Bernini. High and medium rollers tried their luck at the casino.
For those who splash out for a larger suite, like the Pinnacle Suite with its large deck, Holland America Line’s world cruise can cost as much as $100,000 per person.
Photo by Michel Verdure
Most, but not all, guests were over 65, some well over, and they were mostly couples but also solo travelers. There were some parents traveling with their adult children. The majority of those aboard were retirees, though some passengers were working remotely.
One prerequisite appeared to be several previous cruising experiences. Another differentiator: enough wealth to pay fares starting at about $25,000 per person and going up to more than $100,000 per person for suites, not including shore excursions, or booze, for that matter.
It was also a crowd with stories to tell, life and travel experiences being a common topic of discussions. Even though the cruise set sail in January, most passengers from the United States said politics were seldom discussed. Some guests said they were content to escape all together, although the ship had good internet and television service, and the cruise line’s app offered the ability to read newspapers from around the world.
In early January, passengers set out on a 124-day around-the-world journey with Holland America Line, traveling to 34 countries in South America, the South Pacific, Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Photo by Ruben Bleichrodt
Life aboard . . . for months . . .
Activity calendars are jam packed on a world cruise, as we discovered. During a day at sea without port calls, I counted more than three dozen activity choices, all before 3 p.m. Not everyone participated. Taking time to contemplate or do nothing in particular is also a popular choice, I was told.
Monica Sinclair, 64, from Wisconsin, who was traveling with her husband, Tom, 67, was on her fifth world cruise, with two more already planned. She said people often ask how she can be away from home so many months.
“At home, you have a routine. And on the ship, you can still go to the gym, get your walking in,” she says. “I don’t think people technically understand what I do all day. You can do as much or as little as you want.”
Holidays are celebrated, with a priest, a minister, and a rabbi aboard. On our sailing, Easter started with a sunrise poolside mass at 6 a.m., followed by an Easter egg hunt and brunch. We learned the rabbi was particularly popular; her Hebrew classes were well attended no matter guests’ religion.
The ship is a beehive of activity from early morning Zumba classes run by passengers to late-night dancing. Live entertainment changes every four to six weeks, with new vocalists, magicians, and comedians coming aboard.
Another trademark world cruise activity is supporting Project Linus (named after the Peanuts character), a non-profit group that gives handmade blankets to children in need. During last year’s Grand World Voyage, more than 500 blankets were knitted, and this year’s world cruise guests were back it again, using their time at sea to contribute to a good cause.
Over the course of the cruise, passengers knitted blankets to support Project Linus, a non-profit that provides handmade blankets to children in need.
Courtesy of Holland America Line
Seeing the world in one fell swoop
For Joyce Nutta, the world cruise started with an epiphany that she had never been south of the equator. She saw the world cruise as a way to kick-start her travel life. “I thought it would be efficient,” she says. “I could check these places off my list.” She and husband Giorgio stepped onto the ship two days after she retired and explored most ports on shore excursions.
She expected to be awed by changes in climate and landscapes but didn’t expect the emotional connections, especially as she met Indigenous communities and heard their perspective on history. “It gave me a whole different idea of my place in the world, seeing the expansive view of movement of people and how our lives interconnect,” she says. “This experience really changed us.”
For Parag and Cheryl Raval, planning for their first world cruise included research and weekly date nights to discuss what to do in each port—on their own, not on provided excursions. As an engineer, he developed spreadsheets that even included predictive weather so they knew what to pack. Another spreadsheet predicted how much they would need in terms of face cream, shampoo, and other necessities. “None of this is, of course, necessary,” he says, laughing.
One of their experiences during this journey was traveling from the port city of Callao near Lima for an overnight at UNESCO World Heritage site Machu Picchu. They also rented a helicopter to fly over the Great Barrier Reef, with a landing at a deserted beach. In South Africa, they went on two safaris and met an “elephant whisperer.”
Two passengers planned their own personal excursion to Machu Picchu during Holland America Line’s Grand World Voyage, maximizing their access to new and exciting international destinations.
Courtesy of Denisse Leon/Unsplash
According to Parag, they are now world cruise fans and would do it again. “It is not a tangible thing they are selling,” he says. “You feel part of a community.”
“When we come back from port, there is a sign that says welcome home, and it really feels like we’re home,” adds Cheryl. “It’s just exciting to get off the ship, go to a new place, and discover it. It’s also exciting to come back.”
At Holland America Line’s Seattle headquarters, itinerary planning for the annual Grand World Voyages starts some three years in advance. The itineraries are always a bit different each time. For the hospitality team, planning begins a year in advance. Crew, many from Indonesia and the Philippines, are carefully chosen and trained, because these cruises can be intense, says Henk Mensink, the ship’s hotel director who was working his 30th Grand World Voyage.
“Crew need to be more dynamic for a world cruise,” he said. “The team is encouraged to understand people are away from home and left things close to their heart.”
Frequent world cruisers, such as the Sinclairs and the Brills, said that when they return to a world cruise, they are greeted like family by crew they have met on previous voyages. James Brill has some 400 Holland America crew following him on Facebook.
“It’s like a marriage for 124 days,” Mensink says. “There’s not a dry eye in the house—not just guests but crew—at the end of the voyage.”
