Repositioning – Melbecs

AZ 2024 World Cruise – Repositioning Segment – Apr 26 – May 30

Leg 1 Leg 2 Leg 3 Leg 4 Leg 5 Leg 6 Leg 7 Repositioning Leg 9 Leg 10 Leg 11

As this segment wasn’t planned – I don’t have a map, however, I do have a schedule. As you can see, there are a LOT of sea days. We’re not sure what to expect, as we’ve never experienced anything like this before. But we’re up for the adventure!

April 27 to May 3 – Sea Days

We begin our 34 day “repositioning” cruise with a “Welcome Aboard” party with Captain Carl. This is a presentation given at the beginning of each cruise (or leg) to welcome the new guests aboard. This was an unusual Welcome Aboard Party, as we had all already been aboard for over 100 days. We laughed and drank and wondered what the next 35 days was going to bring!

We spend our first 7 sea days catching up on our rest, working on our pictures and blog, and planning for our upcoming African trip. As there were only about 190 of us, the crew did an amazing job of keeping us entertained, and because of there were so few of us, they got to join in the fun as well. Below, you can see pictures of some of the parties and entertainment. Left to right – Eric (our cruise director) dancing with Elizabeth (our hotel director); Tony(our former cruise director and current guest entertainer) with Christina (Tony’s wife and performing partner); and all of us enjoying a deck party with our entertainers.

his picture is of us eating with our six friends that we ate with on our very first World Cruise dinner together – the pre-party! We didn’t know each other then, but we have become good friends over the last four months. Couples from front to back – Bruce and Susan (the Colonel), Kirk and Barbara, and Heather and Chris. We’re so happy that we’re all finishing the cruise together!

May 4 – 8 – Mauritius to Walvis Bay

We disembark for our overland adventure! We begin with an overnight in Johannesburg, and board a flight the next morning which takes to our safari lodge in Madikwe. You can see details of the African Safari through the link above titled “Africa”, or by clicking on the below image of the African sunset. I highly recommend you check these out – there is nothing that compares to an African Safari!!

May 10 – 11 Walvis Bay, Namibia

After the safari, we flew to Namibia where we met two of our fellow World Cruisers. Carmen and George had spent the last six days doing a “wine safari” near Stellenbosch. As we knew that we were connecting in Namibia, we booked an all day excursion – the morning to be exploring the land by water, and the afternoon to be exploring by desert.

You can find the pictures of our Namibia exploration (and Namibia haircut experience) by clicking on the pictures below:

After enjoying an interesting day in Namibia, we meet up with two more World Cruisers, Heather and Chris, who have joined us in Namibia. They also just returned from an overland safari in the Sabi Sands area. The six of us head out to dinner to exchange stories of our various African adventures. While we’ve all made fabulous memories in our various adventures, we’re all looking forward to joining the ship again tomorrow!

May 12 – Rejoining the Ship!

We sleep in a bit, and then looked forward to re-boarding the ship – our “home away from home”. However, before boarding, we took a walk along the boardwalk to say goodby to the flamingos. During the walk, we passed the “Namib Times” the local newspaper. We’re always happy to see free press in the word!

After the walk, we stop to have on last beer in Namibia. It’s been a fantastic experience in Africa – we’re so happy that our cruise worked out this way!

May 13 – 19 – Sea Days and Special Events

Now that we’re back with our World Cruise Buddies, we’re reminded that there are less than 200 guests – less than 1/3 of the ship guest capacity. We have close to 400 crew members – probably the first cruise ever to have more crew members than guests!

We’re beginning a long stretch of 9 sea days. What are we going to do? No worries – the Azamara crew have planned many special events to keep us entertained. Our first two sea days included:

Of course, one of the first things that we do is head up to the Atlas Bar to see our favorite bartenders! Marion and Jeffrey warmly welcomed us back, and surprised us with a “World Cocktail Event” with global specialty cocktails being served!

We have dinner under the stars tonight, sitting with our friends Sara and Frank. Later, we kick it up on the dancefloor with Bruce, Susan and Heather. (No Chris – we couldn’t drag him to the dance floor)

OK – tonight Azamara outdid themselves! They planned a special event for us, and while I realize that I’ve assigned the label “favorite” to many days and events – tonight was the favorite of favorites! We were told that this event would never be repeated, as Azamara would never sail again with less than 200 passengers around the coast of Africa.

I want you to get the full effect of the event – so I’m not even posting any pictures here. You have to follow this link to get the details. I hope that you do!

This afternoon, we attended a special show presented by Tony and Christina in the Living Room. Of course, we sat at the bar with some of our friends, and had an inspiration to be “back-up” singers to the duo. We called ourselves the “Barbells”. Our hotel director, Elizabeth, took a short video of us performing – click on the picture to be entertained!

Tonight we had a very special show. Three (former and current) Azamara Cruise Directors were on stage together. Eric, Amanda and Tony all performed together in a “once in a lifetime” event. It brought back many memories to those of us that had sailed with all of them in the past. I don’t have many pictures – you just had to have been there!

Wow – these sea days have flown by! The crew plans one more special evening for us before we arrive in the Canary Islands tomorrow. The are performing for us – crew-ioki! Several of our favorite crew members are performing – and they have amazing talent! Go, Ra Ra!!

May 22 – Las Palmas, Canary Islands

After 9 days at sea, we arrive at Las Palmas, Canary Islands. While we have enjoyed all of the special entertainment provided for us on our sea days, we are looking forward to being on land. We tour the island on our own, possibly following Christopher Columbus’ footsteps when he stopped here in 1492 on his way to discovering the Americas!

In the evening, we were treated to a special show by three entertainers who had been with us since we embarked in January.

May 23 – 25 – Sea Days

More sea days! While we do have a LOT of sea days in this segment, we are enjoying them all!

There was a new “crew participation” activity on board this afternoon, which we had never seen before. The crew created designs from recycled items on the ship. They were so creative! We had a tree of life, swans, and miniture ship furnature – all made from recycled materials.

While all of the art was great – the grand prize was a recreation of the ship – complete with pool and pictures of the officers!