If you’ve sailed on Holland America, you know that the orange party is one party onboard where you can count on HAL to bring it- and that they did! I want to stress that Holland America has really upped their game when it comes to bringing high energy fun. Whomever is the putting together the activities is putting more effort in than I have seen before. Bringing in the world stage cast to sing and dance at the evening parties is a nice touch, and holding them at the lido is m

I ’m typically not one to dress up for a costume party. I use my luggage space for the really important things like snorkeling gear and shoes. Until now. That’s because I have never had the opportunity to sail with Marvelous Mimi and Mr Mike! This gentlewoman whipped up costumes and an entire theme (complete with group chant) in no time at all. One quick rehearsal and we were ready to roll. We came as the “Glow Gods of the South Pacific”. Loren from the activities staff made

I will give credit where credit is due and whomever is planning the parties is putting in substantially more effort than either year on the K’dam and it shows. The last two years the masquerade party has been pretty lame. This year the decorations in Rolling Stones were on point, and there was a lot of crowd participation with the masks. I suspect that is because while the ship was in Honolulu, the staff went and bought a whole bunch of crafting supplies and held multiple art

The sale entry is every day as beautiful as the sailing into Venice used to be. If you get up super early, we sail by Bora Bora, but it’s pretty dark. The last three years the captain has opened up the bow at 6 AM. I highly recommend you get out and about for the sailing because it is very unique. First, the ship sales passed Bora Bora, and makes a turn to enter the lagoon at the north end of Tahaa. Shipp makes a sharp right turn in sales down the West Coast of Tahaa before c

This is the third year in a row I have visited this little rustic Motu in the South Pacific. Located just a short water taxi from the town of Uturoa, Raiatea, a relaxing beach day at Motu Ofetaro is the perfect first day in French Polynesia. This year Holland America threw a little wrench in our plans as use of the dock was claimed so our ship was forced to tender. I think we adjusted well given we grabbed tender tickets at 8:50 and were in the line to buy water taxi tickets

We arrived in Honolulu on Sunday, February 22nd and have had exceptional weather considering other parts of Oahu are under flood warnings. It’s sunny and hot in Honolulu. As some of you may know, we had an unexpected overnight here when Kauai was pulled from our itinerary due to weather.    I like overnights very much. The crew likes them more. The crew is often allowed to leave the ship on overnight visits. In order for them to get more time onshore, I put my “no thanks” tag

I’ll go out in a limb and claim that our trip to the Monkeypod was a smashing success (in more ways than one given how strong those MaiTais are). We had somewhere between 25-30 of my newest friends in attendance and only one person didn’t like the famous MonkeyPod Maitai so that’s a score. Everyone else seemed to share in my obsession with that honey Liliko’i foam (iykyk). A little birdie (aka the bartender) told me a couple folks met the 5 maitai limit which makes me proud.