Day -04 - Tuesday, 11/05/2024

 After over an 18 month wait, it's finally about time to begin our round trip voyage from Fort Lauderdale, Florida on the Volendam to Africa.  When we first booked this cruise, it included two stops in Israel, but due to the conflicts in that region, those were deleted.  As of this writing, a few days before the cruise starts on Saturday, November 9, 2024, Alexandria, Egypt is still on the itinerary.  For us, Africa is our last continent to visit after traveling the world for the past 12 years mainly by cruise ship.  Over that time, besides cruising, we've done a few land trips, one river cruise, and have ridden much of Europe and America by motorcycle.

This cruise is our 7th and final one this year.  We've previously sailed 146 days on the Volendam; and for us, it's the second most sailed on ship on Holland America's (HAL) fleet behind the Maasdam with 195 days.  Even with this cruise, it will still be second. The Volendam has been in a shipyard in the Bahamas for the past 3 weeks undergoing a $8,000,000 refurbishing, and we will be the first cruise after the drydock. I've been in contact with the Hotel General Manager on the ship, and his words are that it's been exhausting, but that they will be ready for us on Saturday. I'm sure part of this is preparation for the ship to become the ship that HAL uses for the World cruise beginning in 2026. 

We will be traveling in an aft inside cabin for the 42 days. We have independent shore excursions planned for most port stops, and we are taking a few HAL.shore excursions as well as simply walking the port area for a few stops.  I'll present the itinerary after the cruise begins, and we have visited about 1/2 of the port stops on previous Mediterranean cruises.  Stops in the Azores (Portugal) and Africa are new to us.  We are also a couple who travels with minimal luggage (a backpack and a small roller bag).  

I'll update this blog once we are in Florida. Once we are on the ship, I'll do a daily post here (sometimes delayed a few days) and report on the daily activities and changes from the just completed drydock.  If you are a Facebook participant, I post most of my pictures there and I also do a thread on Cruise Critic in the Holland America board on that site.

Comments

  1. Pat and KarenNovember 6, 2024 at 8:43 PM

    How many "Cruise of a Lifetime" are you allowed? I look forward to reading your blog posts every few days and if you have time please post a map. Karen and I leave on a measly 10 day cruise at the end of the month out of San Diego on the Koningsdam.

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