By Gary Walther

Day 5: Friday, March 29, Hamilton Island

One of the great pleasures of cruising is pulling back the curtain each morning to discover how the world has changed overnight. This morning I am greeted by a long line of low-slung islands, most thickly rain-forested. They are like an honor guard for the ship as it promenades toward Hamilton Island, one of the 74 islands that make up the Whitsundays. I go up to the bow on Deck 9 for a better look. Off to port, it is raining; off to starboard it is reigning sunshine, a vast hoopskirt of rays that put the islands on that side in high relief. (The Whitsundays are so named because Captain James Cook thought he came upon them on Whitsunday, but like many long-haul travelers, he didn’t really know what day it was. Nonetheless, the name stuck.) … Read More

Gary Walther, the former editor-in-chief of Departures and ForbesLife, now writes “The Hotel Detective” column on Forbes.com