Caribbean Fun X 2

So, we thought it would be fun to have two cruises to the Caribbean that only had a few weeks apart from each other. And it was. But, with all the appointments, tax preparation, and other obligations that we had between the two cruises, doing an individual blog for each one proved too overwhelming. So, this blog will combine the experiences of the two.

We sailed Holland America (HAL) for both cruises. The first cruise was on the Eurodam, a Signature-class ship we haven’t sailed on since 2011. At the end of February-first of March, we took a back-to-back (B2B) cruise from Fort Lauderdale. The first seven days, we were in the Eastern Caribbean.

The ports were Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos; San Juan, PR; St. Thomas, USVI; and Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (private island). The second seven days, we were in the Western Caribbean. The ports were Half Moon Cay, Bahamas; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Georgetown, Grand Caymans; and Cozumel, Mexico. None of these ports were new to us.

At the first of April, we went back to Fort Lauderdale to take a 22-day transitioning cruise to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Our ship was the Koningsdam, a Pinnacle class ship that we last sailed in March 2025. We had tried to do this same transitioning cruise in 2024, but it was not meant to be. We had done some partial Panama Canal cruises where you enter from and exit back to the Caribbean Sea.

This cruise would take us from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The ports for this cruise were Cartagena, Colombia; Fuerte Amador, Panama; Puntarenas, Costa Rica; Acajutla, El Salvador; Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala; Puerto Chiapas, Mexico; Manzanillo, Mexico; Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; San Diego, California; and San Francisco, California. Several of these ports were new to us.

The ships and itineraries may have been different but the anticipation excitement prior to both cruises was exactly the same. 😊🚢

Next Up: Traveling to Fort Lauderdale and Embarkation