No time to be bored even when the cruise is at sea all day

It was South Korean ship building company STX who took over the Finish ship building company Turku about a year ago.

Turku is the cruise building company who has built the world's biggest cruise 'Oasis of the sea' and also currently building the twin ship 'Allure of the sea'.

Its size is 5 times bigger than the legendary 'Titanic' and 17 stories height, 220,000 ton with more than 5,500 passengers and 3,000 crew members.

Owned by one of the largest cruise company 'Royal Caribbean' now claims the title 'the biggest cruise ship in the world once owned by Cunard's 'Queen mary II'

'Oasis of the sea' just made a maiden cruise in Caribbean sea on 27th November 2009.

It was amazing to hear and believe that the cruise could manage to check-in such a number of passengers in 20 minutes in her maiden voyage.

The cruise we will be on board for 4 months is ms(motor ship) Amsterdam of Holland America Line.

And she is about a quarter of the size of 'Oasis of the sea' with over 1,000 passengers and 800 crew.

We, however, want to stress the fact that the smaller the ship in passenger numbers the better quality in services.

Imagine that the cooks and chefs try to feed 6,000 people about 5 times a day everyday!

Galley would be rather looking like some sort of factory.

You would not expect a decent gourmet meal from that?!

Assorted canapes for High Tea Time

Ya~~am!!

No calories, no fat, no sugar?

Hmmmm

You don't expect me to believe that, do you?

2010 Itinerary


Super luxury the Penthouse suite


Deluxe Verandah suite

Verandah stateroom

Stateroom Outside with window

Stateroom Inside without window

Library and Internet facility

Never used computer? No Problem!!

You could be a great photographer after this Digital workshop

Culinary demonstration

Delectable demonstration with guest chef

Game room for teens

Some place to hide & seek for kids

'Oasis' the children's playground

Wine tasting room at sommelier's lounge

Main restaurant 'La Fontaine'

Specialty fine dining experience at the Pinnacle restaurant

Exclusive Neptune lounge for suite passengers only

Hydro pool

Damaged skin by harmful sunlight and harsh sea wind will need extra tender loving care at this 'Green House Treatment Room'

We will have a lot of calories to burn with these machine at the health club

Hub of entertainment at the Queen's lounge theatre

Explorer's lounge

Sipping Cocktail, listening to Jazz or dancing with your partner at the Crow's nest bar

Outdoor pool

ms Amsterdam visited Sydney in Feb. 2008 during its World Cruise.

We were invited on the ship's dinner by few friends on board.

Greg's first ever Grand World Voyage in 1994 on board Statendam which is one of ships from Holland America Line

Atrium

Today, we received a parcel by FedEx.

It came from travel agency in Seattle that we have booked through.

We were waiting for the parcel as the agency already sent us an e mail a week ago.

Various information about our cruise is found such as:

Booklet of what to prepare (visa, vaccination etc)

Onboard package information

Stationary order form

Luggage services flyer

Silicon luggage tags

Information for Friends and Family with itinerary

Special onboard events

Onboard packages are for example, dinner at the Pinnacle fine dine restaurant, wine packages, massage, personal training in health club, hair saloon, laundry package, internet package, photos and dvd package etc

All meals in La Fontaine, Lido buffet, Poolside snack bar, Canelletto Italian bistro, soft drinks, theatre performances, movies, housekeeping services, parties, pool, gym, activities are already inclusive of payment.

Bruce the cruise director who is in charge of onboard entertainments and activities boasts that there won't be any dull moment of boredom during sea days.

What you can do includes various dance class, culinary academy, wine tasting, participating passenger talent show, choir practice, indoor golf, tennis, trivia night, bingo game, photoshop class, computer game room, flower arrangement, guest enrichment lectures, art & craft class, watercolor painting class, yoga & tai chi class, casino, cinema and theatre.

And, of course, there are shore excursion presentations on our many diverse ports of call.

For those who love to dress-up!

There will be 16 formal nights and these are Black & White Ball, Antarctic Orange ball, Valentines Ball, Tropical Paradise Night, Royalty Ball, Kimono night, Fairy Tale Ball and Mardi Gras etc.

There are many fun theme nights planned like South American dinner, South African Braai, King Neptune ceremony, St Patrick's day, Murder mystery dinner, Indian dinner and Indonesian dinner etc.

Our very exciting Grand World Voyage is now less than a month away.

We are now really looking forward to it.

6th January 2010

Fort Lauderdale, Florida to L.A California for 24 countries and 43 ports in 114 days!!!