Richard Detrich’s Boquete, Panama Weblog

It started in 1968.  I was pastor of a little all black church in a Puerto Rican section of the South Bronx.  Holland America Line’s offices were at Pier 42 on the Hudson River.  I started filling in for Protestant Chaplains who cancelled at the last minute.  My first cruise was on the old ROTTERDAM for 19 days.  Back in ‘68 cruising on the ROTTERDAM was quite the experience!  A table for two in the La Fontaine dining room was attended by a waiter and a busboy who just took care of your table!  Every meal was presented on a huge silver platter.  Well I did lots of cruises.

 I watched as groups of friends and from various organizations sailed together and saw how much fun they had, so eventually I started taking church groups on cruises.  In Milwaukee I worked with a local travel agency and the owner soon discovered I knew a whole lot more about cruising than he did, so he got me to start working with his agents teaching them how to sell cruises.

 Eventually, when we ended up in California, we decided to open a cruise only agency.  This was when cruising was just catching on and we were one of the first “cruise only” agencies.  At first no cruise line would give us the time of day, except Carnival.  My Carnival sales rep was a young woman who was eager, energetic, and delighted to help us get started.  Princess wouldn’t return our phone calls!  As things worked out we became a top producer for Carnival, Holland America, Princess and Sitmar.  When Princess and Sitmar merged we became the number one Princess producer between LA and Santa Barbara.  My Carnival sales rep went on to become the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Carnival!

 We had the cruise business for 15 years and I went on lots of cruises and inaugurals.  I tell people I’ve been on over 100 cruises . . . actually, I think the real number now, is more like over 200, but I’ve stopped counting.

Four years ago I started sailing with Holland America again as Chaplain.  About a year ago I started lecturing on ships, first on Celebrity and later on Holland America.  My goal as a lecturer is to entertain and educate, something called “edu-tainment”, hopefully a far cry from the old days when professors would come on with dog-eared yellowed course notes and put their audiences to sleep!  I talk about exploration, the Canal and life in Panama, piracy, slavery, rum and tequila . . . and it’s lots of fun.

In 2006 I sailed on INFINITY, GALAXY and AMSTERDAM.

In 2007 I will have spent 3 months of the year on ships!

So where have we been this year?

1/31/07-2/16/07 ROTTERDAM South America Explorer - Rio, Montevido, Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, Punta Arenas, Puerto Montt, Valparaiso.

3/18/07-4/1/2007 VEENDAM Southern Caribbean - Tampa, San Juan, St Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, Grenada, Isla de Margarita (Venezuela), Bonaire, Aruba, Grand Cayman.

4/5/07-4/20/07 ROTTERDAM Tri-Continent Sojourn - Rio, Salvador, Recife, Dakar, Gibraltar, Cadiz, Lisbon

4/30/07-5/18/07 AMSTERDAM Spring Panama Canal - Ft Lauderdale, Cartagena, Puntarenas, Puerto Quetzal, Huatulco, Acapulco, Cabo, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Seattle

10/21/07-10/31/07 MILLENNIUM Mediterranean Legacies - Venice, Dubrovnik,  Athens,  Ephesus,  Naples,  Sicily,   Rome

11/1/07-11/17/07 ROTTERDAM Spanning Three Continents - Lisbon, Cadiz, Casablanca, Dakar, Recife, Salvador, Rio

FOR THOSE WHO YOU WHO LOVE CRUISING . . .

You will love this story of a man in France who took 11 years to build his own cruise ship in his backyard . . . and is now sailing it around the world.  Check it out . . . seeing is believing!  http://www.al-cruise.com/Homemade-Cruise-Ship.htm

A cruise ship is a wonderful family of people who come from many different parts of the world, representing different cultures and religions, all coming together in peace and harmony in the floating world of a cruise ship.  This is traditionally celebrated at the end of every Holland America cruise with the crew all joining together to sing a song entitled, “Love In Any Language.”  You can see it as it was performed recently on the OOSTERDAM on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrB3H52INzc

2008 Cruises

Some of you have asked what cruises I will be on in 2008.  Here is the initial list for the first part of the year.

Holland America VOLENDAM - 10 day Southern Caribbean cruises roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale including Half Moon Cay, Aruba, Curacao, Panama Canal (partial transit), Colon, Puerto Limon, Costa Rica - January 12, 2008, March 2, 2008, March 12, 2008.

Holland America VOLENDAM - 19 day Spring Panama Canal from Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver including Cartagena, Columbia, Canal Transit, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Manzanillo, Mexico, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Mazatlan, Mexico, Topolobampo, Mexico, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, San Diego, Victoria, British Columbia - April 11, 2008.

Although space on Holland America is usually sold out far in advance, you may find some cancellations or limited space available on some sailings in a few categories.  Check www.HollandAmerica.com for details.

Wishing you all Happy Sailing!