Grand World Voyage Comes With Its Own Rhythm of Routine

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Day 5, 2025 Grand World Voyage

Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025; Puerto Limón, Costa Rica.

Five days in and we’re settling into a routine on the world cruise. To be honest, my routine doesn’t change greatly from cruise to cruise, but – like a new year – there’s something about the start of a world cruise that inspires me to consider what I want to spend my time doing.

My aspirations always include some form of daily exercise, but I come up with one excuse or another. I love my sea day morning routine of rising early, grabbing a bowl of oatmeal in the Lido Marketplace and then settling into a table at the Crow’s Nest to check mail, read online newspapers, browse social media roll calls for future cruises and then finally write my blog.

Cruise Director Kimberly already has thrown a wrench into the works with her 9 a.m. Coffee Chat with various officers and crew members. She is an excellent host and asks interesting questions. The answers help us to get to know each other better, so I take a break to attend.

We’ve already had a session with General Hotel Manager Henk Minsenk, on his 21st and final world cruise. When Kimberly asked him about his socks, he said his latest passion is his electric guitar, but demurred at the suggestion he perform during this cruise. He is drawn to the practice, not the performance, he said. We have 119 more days to work on that.

Today is the second of two Caribbean port calls. On the Atlantic side of Costa Rica, Puerto Limón lacks some of the beauty of the country’s Pacific Ocean coast. It’s a convenient stop for cruise ships heading to the Panama Canal. Today Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas and Explorer of the Seas joined us.

Puerto Limón perhaps is best known for the sloths that hide in the branches of tall trees. On my first stop here, I visited a sloth sanctuary and banana plantation. Since then, I generally just walk off the ship to Parque Vargas, a nearby wooded city park where the locals are glad to point out sloths sleeping in the trees. The creatures blend in, don’t move and can be hard to see.

It rained off and on during the morning, but between showers I joined two friends to stretch our legs walking through town, where we might be seeing our last signs of Christmas. Tom was looking for a short length of rope and he had his choice of hardware stores. We wandered through a small art gallery and stopped for Diet Cokes near the city market square.

I knew better than to bring my drawing supplies on such a wet day, but got some photos of the modern cathedral for a future painting.

Two days ago we stopped in Grand Cayman, where large local boats tendered us ashore. I repeated my same misguided mission from 2023 – looking for Maltesers. The British malted milk balls are much better than American brands, and I can generally find them in countries that are or were part of the British Commonwealth. The Cayman Islands qualify, but no one ashore seems to have heard of them. Oh well, we’ll be in Sydney in a month and I know where to find them there.

Yesterday was our first formal dinner, and as is unique to grand cruises, most passengers dressed in their finery, with about half the men in tuxedos and women in similar attire. Ali, the food and beverage director, joined Tom, Monika, Deb and me for dinner. Afterward we headed to the Mainstage, where Capt. Friso introduced all of his senior officers, sharing interesting tidbits about each one. I think he relishes his expanded introductions on the world cruise.