Enough Time on Land! Happy to be Back on Dam Ship

Day 1, 2024 Ultimate Mediterranean

Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024; Fort Lauderdale, Florida

After a whirlwind 16 days on land, it’s great to be back on a “Dam” ship, as Holland America cruisers like to say. This time, I’m on the Volendam for a 42-day cruise from Florida to the Mediterranean Sea and back.

During those 16 days, I saw four doctors, visited the dentist three times (crown replacement and cleaning), had a series of regular medical tests and — most importantly — spent a few hours with my hairdresser. Add in several trips to the pharmacy to top off prescriptions and a bit of shopping at the mall and I felt pretty busy.

I drove from Dallas to Fort Smith, Ark., to see my sister Eloise and repack my bags for the next seven months at sea. I then went to Galveston to visit my other sister, Elaine, for a few days. We both flew to Florida on Thursday (she for a girlfriends’ weekend cruise). We didn’t manage to get on the same flight, but we did pass the time together at the airport. I’ll next see my sisters in late April when our ships meet up in Barcelona.

Having seen enough travel delays (weather, airline equipment, computer snafus) over the years that led to missed cruises, I now fly to port cities in the United States at least two days early (three or more days early for international flights). Instead of staying in Fort Lauderdale right by Port Everglades, this time I booked a room at the Marriott Courtyard in Plantation, just a few miles west of the airport. It’s near the hotel where my travel agency books everyone the night before the world cruise, but more importantly to me it is near the Broward Mall, Target, multiple restaurants and other retail outlets. And a short Uber ride from the airport and to the port. Where there were eight cruise ships docked this morning. See if you can spot them all:

I managed to put in about 30,000 steps walking between shopping and meals. The area is full of office parks, hotels and green expanses, making my trips interesting.

Target is a great source for bulky extras, such as the shoe rack shelves that I bought to fit in the bottom of a closet. At just $7, I don’t mind leaving them behind and restocking for the next trip, especially as I will get months of use out of them.

As is typical of Holland America’s smaller and older ships (the Volendam is the oldest and smallest), the cabins tend to have more storage than the newer and larger ships. Compared to the verandah stateroom I recently left on the Westerdam, my ocean view cabin has an extra closet, three wide dresser drawers and a large square cabinet by the short sofa. The television is smaller, and there is no refrigerator.

In this configuration I think the cabin looks roomier with the beds separated so I can look out the window. I was slightly disappointed to see that in my cabin, just six cabins from the front of the ship, small obstructions keep the beds from abutting the walls completely. But I can live with that.

I told my travel agent I would consider paying a reasonable price to upgrade to a balcony, like I did on my recent Japan cruise. I didn’t want to pay full price for a balcony because I’m not sure how much time I would spend on it in the late fall. There weren’t any offers anyway, as the ship is sailing full. There are 1,347 passengers on this ship: 1,216 Americans, 88 Canadians, 17 Brits and the rest in ones and twos from 17 other countries.

The Volendam may be the oldest ship in Holland America’s fleet, but just today it returned to service from three weeks in drydock. It doesn’t look much like my vague memories from my first voyage on her in 2001, or my last in 2005. My cabin has new carpet and curtains, and I am delighted to see the tub replaced with a shower with glass door instead of a curtain.

As we have six sea days before our first port in the Azores, I’ll have time to explore the other improvements and post about them later. Meanwhile, I’ve hung my new map of the Mediterranean Sea and once we get there, I can track the voyage.