We just returned from three back-to-back cruises on the Holland America Rotterdam. The first cruise segment marked our 20th cruise on the Holland America cruise line.
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The only ports that were a repeat for us on this cruise was the home port of Amsterdam and the Carnival Corporation private Bahamian island known as Half Moon Cay.
The first cruise was a seven-day, Norway-only, one. We have been to Norway before but not to any of these ports.
Then, once we got back to Amsterdam, we began our 14-day cruise that took us into the Baltics. Once we arrived in Amsterdam for the final time, we began our 15-day cruise through ports in Western Europe and finally crossing the Atlantic to end the adventure in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
In addition to looking forward to the ports, we found out that a couple from the Netherlands, whom we met on our South Pacific cruise, were on the Norway portion of our cruise. It was nice to see them again. We also met a very nice couple from South Georgia, and I hope we can cruise with them again one day.
This trip was very port intensive ending with numerous sea days. For this journal, I am going to write about our days in the ports as individual posts. I am going to combine the sea days to discuss the various activities since many of them were repetitive.
The day has finally arrived. This trip was first booked in 2020 for a 2021 departure which was then pushed back to a 2022 departure. Wasn’t even sure if it wouldn’t get pushed back to 2023. But here we are – our first travel day.
Woke up with the alarm at 6:00. I have a number of worries on a travel day. But my biggest worry is making sure Pumpkin is safe inside. He came in promptly at 6:15 for his breakfast but wanted right back out. I didn’t want to bring him in too early as I knew he’d meow incessantly to go back out. I kept an eye on him throughout the morning. I was worried he would chase something into the woods as he was gone yesterday until 6:00 pm.
Sometimes he comes in voluntarily around 8:00 am and naps all day in the house. Today was not that day.
This morning, he chose to nap on the deck in the shade which was a relief since I could watch him. However, the sun eventually found him, and he was on the move. That’s when I went outside, scooped him up, and brought him inside.
You’d think he would enjoy the nice cool house with plenty of beds and soft chairs to sleep on and a lot of toys to play with at any time. His sitter comes every day to play and take care of him. But he cannot go outside. Too many things can go wrong. But no. He was not a happy kitty. Went under the couch to sulk.
The last time we drove to our airport shuttle place, I caught every red light and there was slow construction traffic, so we barely made the ride. This time we left the house earlier and I sailed through every green light and no traffic. We were there 30 minutes early. Sigh. I can’t seem to time it right.
We left right on time with a full van. Everyone was headed to the airport, so we didn’t have to make any auxiliary stops. One person was flying international but the rest of us were domestic. Of course, we do what we normally do and go down the day before the flight, so we picked up the hotel shuttle at the departure point.
We always stay at the Hyatt Place airport south. It is next door to two restaurants. I had checked in with the app, so I just picked up the key upon arrival. It is a very nice hotel in a great location.
It was featuring Wine Down Wednesdays for Hyatt members, so we enjoyed a drink, hot appetizers, and good conversation with others at the bar. Very nice amenity.
We were going to eat dinner at the Burger Bar restaurant, but they were only offering “to go” dinners. We walked over to Ruby Tuesday. I had the salad bar and Chuck ordered the “hot mess.” Because it took so long to cook, they gave him two free large draft beers as an apology for the wait. He was happy.
