MY Dec. 31 celebrations may have
been low key but the new millennium
is promising great excitement.

Offered a chance to sail on Holland
Ainerica’s January-April 2000 World Cruise, !
hesitated for a nano-second before plunging
into arrangements: billeting, dae cats, luring a
house-sitter, prepaying what seemed like end-
less bilis then scrounging up a little extra
money for the credit card in case an exotic port
of call yields a treasure. Also: visas, health and
travel insurance, enough inoculations to make my arm a pincush-
ion and a vigorous restart on that old diet.

And now comes the fun part. Armfuls of library travel books
for research on the 20 countries and five continents we'll be visit-
ing. The Rasterdam’s world itinerary is redesigned every year to

offer new ports for the many
repeating guests and, unlike
shorter cruises, has the luxury
of a litde more time to really
explore an area. For example
we'll be docked for one or two
nights in several places to take
inland tours such as a wild life
safari out of Mombasa, Kenya
and we'll make muléport visits
like the four planned around
Japan. However the biggest
anticipated highlight for many
of the well travelled guests has
proved to be Antarctica.
The first passenger ship of
noe her size to be given a permit
- to cruise there, the Rotterdam VI will spend three days in late
- January gliding through the supreme quietness and glacial
-. colours of this last frontier. At least that’s how [ imagine ir will
“be, or maybe the hundreds of thousands of resident penguins
will have something to teach me about that. I’ll let you know.

§ Jan. 6; 2000 — MS Rotterdam

+ Despite ¥2K, a plane connection, and slushy January weather
our trip from home to Fort Lauderdale was without glitch except
for the pre-ordered taxi who lost his transmission 100 yards from
picking us up on the North Shore.

As the 6:30 a.m. flight advised a 5 a.m. check-in my husband,
and.I decided to stay at the just-opened Fairmont hotel which
adjoins Vancouver airport and it was wonderful to walk just a few
minutes from lobby to international airline check-in. Early morn-

. 7 ings aren’t my favourite but when forced up I’m always struck by

how. beautiful and serene a Vancouver dawn is. Now I have a
sense_of how Pil miss home over the next three months, rainfall

records notwithstanding.

Embarkation went equally smoothly with
the first day at sea a welcome chance to orga-
nize the cabin, adjust to the three-hour time
change and scramble for names of familiar crew
and passenger faces. Because the world cruise
itinerary changes, its passengers tend not to, so
it’s unique in the high percentage of annually
repeating guests and we quickly bump into a
lovely couple fom Coquitlam whom we met
last year .

Our first port is Grand Cayman where the
weather cooperates in allowing us to tender (motor launch) into
Georgetown. Sweating brows, golden sands and the inevitable
shopping arcades greet us and friends disperse to teed stingrays,
visit the Turtle Farm or find their own amusements along Seven
Mile Beach. We enjoy the first of what we hope will be many
snorkelling dips and are thankful we packed our gear despite the
room it takes. You can usually rent but price, ficand quality
varies greatly. The highlight of tonight’s menu? Fresh seafood.

Jan. 10, 2000 --—- Panama Canal

The day is perfect to transir the three locks of the Panama
Canal, slightly overcast to shade a litde of the tropical sun and
ensure a spectacular sunset as we cruise out into the Pacific. As
expected there art no apparent hiccups from the Dec. 31 US. to
Panama transfer of the canal and tie views accumulate in my
mind as evocative snapshots:
& dozens of ships pagently awaiting their turn to transit includ-
ing owe other cruiseliners, tankers. tugs and barges of varying
size and condition. One lies partially submerged, beyond salvage.
At dusk they turn their lights on and look a lot pretder;

the rubble and detritus around the docks where mechanical
mules attached by cables pull us through locks so narrow you
could almost touch the concrete walls either side;
the gentle rising or falling of the skyline as water rushes into or
out of our locks before gigantic metal doors open to Tet us out
— doors supposedly stufied with leaves if our in-cabin informa-
tion is to be believed:
BI peaks of high ground sprouting through the surface of man-
made Gatun Lake, like little islands smothered with trees whose
roots must surely be under water. Birds of prey soar above and
pelicans swim below;
@ the shock as Panama City’s modern skyscrapers appear sudden-
ly between vistas of tropical overgrowth just before we sail under
the majestic Bridge of the America’s with one foot in central and
the other in S. America;
B and the best picture of all, a land-spit where dozens of local
kids are swimming and playing, stopping only to watch and wave
as the Rotterdam glides closely by. :

— Glenys Bolton boarded the Rotterdam: Thursday, fan. 6 in

Fort Lauderdale. Watch fer her dispatches regularly in1 the News,

Friday, January 21. 2000 —- North Shore News - 31
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