A nice surprise this morning with our ship waiting for us at Terminal 1 rather than the adjusted plan of checking in at this terminal and then getting shuttled to Terminal 3. I could only imagine what that would have been like especially those folks with mobility issues - much better with the ship here. So yes, a nice surprise. We arrived at the terminal at about 10:45 and were in our stateroom within a half hour, so nice and smooth. For those wondering, our terminal arrival time was to be 11:00, so it worked out for us to be a few minutes early of our slated time. On board it was great to see so many familiar smiling crew faces. I guess with us leaving the ship about a month and a half ago this was bound to happen given the crew’s contract cycles. Very nice to be in these familiar surroundings on board the Zaandam. We settled in pretty quickly.
The first thing we did notice and not surprised about was the itinerary change with the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona along the east coast of Canada. We will now have an overnight (two day stay) in Quebec City then a day at sea followed by a visit to a new port, Cap-aux-Meules, then back to the regular itinerary of day at sea, Boston and then two more sea days until Fort Lauderdale on October 10th. For us you could call this a nine day shuttle to the Grand African cruise, well a nice luxurious, pampered shuttle and an opportunity to see some of the crew that will be having their contracts ending before October 10th.
We had a nice dining room lunch followed by doing all the necessary embarkation requirements, safety video, muster station check in etc. 3:30 came and we enjoyed the Mariner reception in the Crows nest and then the wonderful sail away under overcast but dry skies. The bonus at sail away was cruising past the former Prinsendam (now Amera, a German based ship), different colour but all the same features of one of our favourite ships. Seeing this ship brought back some amazing memories from our best cruise to date, the 2019 Grand South America and Antarctica adventure, the last GV of this ship.
At about 6 pm our luggage arrived and we had some time to unpack and sort everything out before our 8pm dinner. All good. We have settled in nicely as we are now firmly on the highway of our 80 day adventure to Africa and back. We hope you enjoy this journey with us.
A few pics of our embarkation day…
A really great start to your blog, very descriptive and well written. I visited Quebec City with HAL many years ago, and was very impressed. Knowing the ship and being familiar with the HAL way of doing things - I actually felt I was there on the ship!! I'm glad that you have full production shows (I didn't on my last cruise, and really missed it), they are definitely the best. :-) I hope you will get port handouts once you leave FL and start the Africa GV. Who is your Cruise Director? By the way, is it a full ship? Your photos of the back of the ship look practically empty. Remember to let me know if there are dance hosts and ballroom classes once you start the GV. Looking forward to reading your next update - Happy cruising!!!
ReplyDeleteSo sad we were not able to see you at home. We are now at Palm Desert after that 6500 km drive. We will read you every day from now. M&S
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