Random thoughts from the sea
Days 111-114, 2026 Grand World Voyage Friday to Monday, April 24-27, 2026; Kodiak, Sitka and Ketchikan, Alaska. Alaska is a special place to cruise. Majestic mountains with snow-covered caps, dense evergreen forests, dozens of rocky islands and if you’re lucky, plenty of sea life, wildlife and even bald eagles. It
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Days 103-110, 2026 Grand World Voyage Friday to Thursday, April 17-23, 2026; Hakodate, Japan, and Seven Days at Sea If you placed a map of Japan over a map of the North American east coast, our six Japanese ports would stretch from Miami to Nova Scotia. Most maps — whether
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Days 100-101, 2026 Grand World Voyage Tuesday and Wednesday, April 14-15, 2026; Yokohama, Japan. They say you can’t go back again. But sometimes you can. I went back to a magical bamboo forest in Kamakura on Tuesday, and it actually lived up to my memories. A beautifully groomed forest of
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Day 99, 2026 Grand World Voyage Monday, April 13, 2026; Shimizu, Japan. If you want to learn to make sushi, why not take a master class? Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto and his team guided us through the steps to make maki and nigiri. (Maki is what most of us think
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Days 96-98, 2026 Grand World Voyage Friday to Sunday, April 10-11, 2026; Nagasaki, Japan, and at Sea. Just steps from the docked Volendam I discovered a world of miniature art that, once again, challenges me to think beyond simply replicating a scene. After all, a photograph will do that. Artist
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Days 93-94, 2026 Grand World Voyage Tuesday and Wednesday, April 7-8, 2026; Naha (Okinawa) and Amami, Japan. The sound of children playing at recess told me I had arrived at my destination. Google Translate proved it. The “Amami City Obama nursery school.” While putting together a walking route in this
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Days 90-91, 2026 Grand World Voyage Saturday and Sunday, April 4-5, 2026; Kaohsiung and Keelung/Taipei, Taiwan. Who cares that I wore formal evening attire to a casual Italian restaurant in Taiwan? I didn’t even get any weird stares. Elaine hadn’t returned yet from her all-day tour to Taipei so I
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Days 87-88, 2026 Grand World Voyage Wednesday and Thursday, April 1-2, 2026; Hong Kong. It’s not news that I’ve come to enjoy clothes shopping while on a cruise. Perhaps because there’s no pressure to find something, or the styles in other countries suit me more. Losing a few pounds hasn’t
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Days 82-85, 2026 Grand World Voyage Friday to Monday, March 27-30, 2026; Phu My, Da Nang and Hạ Long Bay, Vietnam. While not as well-known as Angkor Wat, Hạ Long Bay in Northeastern Vietnam has been on my bucket list for years. Through travel-brochure photographs, I’ve long admired the otherworldly
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Days 80-81, 2026 Grand World Voyage Wednesday and Thursday, March 25-26, 2026; Siem Reap, Cambodia. When my alarm went off at 4 a.m., I wasn’t happy. But you can’t sleep in if you want to see a spectacular sunrise at the largest religious complex in the world. We joined hundreds
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