On Day 104, June 19, 2026 The Vista is scheduled to dock at 7:00 am, allowing all day to explore this country within a country. While they are officially under British rule, all self-respecting Scots will tell you first and foremost they are Scots! Our former assistant cruise director, Robbie, is my source for this information. Great pride in their heritage! What is the one thing everyone has heard about in Scotland? The Loch Ness Monster, of course. So, my first and o

On this Day 103 of our 120 Day Odyssey (meaning: a long, adventurous journey or wandering, often marked by many changes. . .), my excursion of choice was Panoramic Belfast & Titanic, which consisted of a coach tour of the City, then off to The Titanic Museum. I'm telling you, these people are obsessed with the building of this fateful ship. In minute detail, they discuss it as if it happened yesterday. Okay, to be fair, I did literally buy into it, didn't I? I could just a

June 17th, 2026, Day 102 of my "Global Wanderlust" journey, finds us docking in the most colorful city of Cork - which they see fit to spell Cobh. My excursion of choice was none other than a panoramic tour of Cork and a visit to Blarney Castle. Before leaving, I snapped a few shots from my veranda capturing one of Ireland's many wind turbines and a museum for what seems to be one of Ireland's proudest achievements - the building of the Titanic. That ship building firm is

June 16, Day 101 of this Global Wanderlust finds The Vista at anchor off the coast of Dublin. My excursion of choice, in keeping with my preference to view more of God's works than man's, is a "Summertime Drive Through Ireland's Countryside" consisting of: a drive to Glendalough Ruins, lunch at a real, authentic Irish Pub, then off to Powerscourt Estate & Gardens, and then back to our home-away-from-home, some seven and a half hours later. Absolutely perfect choice!!!! I w

Day 100 of this most incredible experience finds The Vista and its passengers docked at Falmouth on the southern coast of Cornwall. Cornwall rang some bells in my memory bank, Falmouth - nope, not at all. But when one finds oneself in Falmouth, what is one to do? Solution: take a scenic Cornish drive through several other heretofore unheard of towns. No worries, I much prefer to see the countryside than cities any day of the week. The drive did not disappoint offering up

Day 99 of this voyage finds The Vista docked in South Hampton, UK. When our itinerary was initially changed, those who had booked either the 180 day or 120 day Around the World "2026 Global Wanderlust" adventure were given an option to disembark in Singapore and rejoin the ship in South Hampton. Travel expenses to and from those ports were at the passengers' expense. Those who chose to stay aboard were given a future cruise credit since we were not getting what we had initi

According to our "Currents" daily publication, Le Havre, a Unesco World Heritage Site since 2005, ". . . is a love letter to modernism, evoking, more than any other French city, France's postwar energy and optimism." Whether that is true or not, I cannot say, as I chose an excursion into the French countryside to tour a cheese factory operated by the same family for more than 100 years. Every step of the entire cheese making process was described in minute detail. Then, a

From Madeira to Lisbon was sea day #43, but no matter as we were "Out Of Africa!" Please don't get me wrong, there are many places on that continent that I dearly love and would happily visit again and again! Some of my best travel memories are from various places in Africa. However, there are some that I am strongly opposed to seeing a third time. Back to scheduled sea day #43 (due to bad weather and/or high swells, some unscheduled days at sea have been added), the seas

Almost three days after leaving Cape Verde, The Vista docked in Funchal (Madeira) Portugal. Those sea days were NOT the smoothest, most enjoyable days of our journey. Nay, there were times that I worried that I might be jolted from my bed, the seas were so rough. I'm fairly confident our trusty Captain would have preferred to make the trip at a slower pace given the rough seas, but our schedule did not allow. Full speed ahead, sixty-five hours (including a couple of time

Show me the "green" here...?! Cape Verde was discovered and claimed by the Portuguese explorers in 1456 (or perhaps 1458, depending on which AI one believes) and remained under their control for eons, only declaring their independence July 5, 1975. Presumably, it was so named at that time. Perhaps an apt description/name then. Today, much controversy swirls around a part of its name... Is it really Cape or Capo? ...Really? What are they thinking? The real question shou

From my 2023 voyage, our stop in The Gambia holds many fond memories so I searched the list of possible excursions diligently for something new and different. The winner was "Lazy Day Cruise". As described by our Destination Services this seemed to me to be the most fitting choice as it required very little exertion on the part of its participants except for the getting onto and off of the "very basic, partially covered, open-air boats featuring benches, sunbeds, and unsec

Travel agents would be hard pressed to sell this itinerary to anyone who has made the voyage before - which has been proven by the number of vacancies in this segment. Wait staff has been slashed. Multiple sea days have been added. Ports chosen based on the availability of fuel. Yet destination services, as well as the entire entertainment staff, has worked tirelessly to keep their spoiled, pampered guests content. Oceania has done their dead-level best to make deliciou

It seems cute little creatures in the elephant family inhabit this mountain top. They look nothing like elephants - no trunk, no tusks, no big floppy ears, not even grey, but we were assured they were the smallest creature in that family...

Thankfully we had another beautiful sea day after that most fantastic day in Durban. I needed it to rest, as my excursion of choice for Port Elizabeth was scheduled to be five and a half hours in duration - most of which was spent bouncing along deeply rutted dirt roads in a 4X4. The Addo Elephant Park is located an hour and a half's drive from the port on a well-maintained highway through rural countryside. Addo Elephant Park is another of South Africa's National wild anim

Though we are now far removed from the abject poverty and desperation of The French Nation Islands, their plight remains in my heart and mind. Surely there is something that someone, somewhere can do for these people to improve their situation and restore the islands to the wonder God created... Not saying that everyone should live as you and I do, but surely, drinkable water and sanitary living conditions would certainly make life a little better for them. Our next port

Back to Hell-Ville. This community/town/village was founded in 1840 by a French Admiral named Hell. How unfortunate. Pity he wasn't named Pleasant or Prosperous or perhaps even Not So Bad. Not to be....

God does have a wonderful sense of humor!!! If you recall, after my 2023 experience in India, I vowed that even though I had long wanted to see The Taj Mahal, I would not be doing so until such time as I learned it was no longer in India. God heard my vow. Then, along came this voyage which allowed an inland excursion to The Taj Mahal. I waffled... Signed on for a shorter version of the "Around the World" including The Taj Mahal, along with other favorite ports from prev

When we first arrived, I noticed that both ladies were wearing head-cloths. I assumed for protection from the sun... Nope!

Still on the original itinerary, after leaving Indonesia, we made our way through more of the huge Indian Ocean to Singapore...

After our delightful dinner ended, some seventy of my shipmates and I were instructed to stroll over to the amphitheater for a performance of a ceremonial, tribal dance entitled "Kecak" - otherwise known as "The Monkey Dance." The name is derived from the sound monkeys make while at play in the forest. To begin the performance at least one hundred men dressed in their native attire of decades ago came onto the grass below and took a seat. They came in chanting "KEH - CHAK"