Holland America Zuiderdam Cruise

March 16, 2015 Ft Lauderdale, Florida

 

 

 

 

We arrived in Ft Lauderdale on Sunday, March 15 in the late evening after visiting our Idyllwild, California friends, Mark and Julie. We awoke in the morning to have just a couple of miles drive to the Ft. Lauderdale Airport to return the rental car and catch a full shuttle to Port Everglades.

 What a gorgeous ship! Eleven decks, 14 elevators, two swimming pools, five hot tubs, and 24 public rooms. The Zuiderdam  uses its five diesel  engines and one gas turbine to move us at a maximum speed of  23 knots. This is our home for 15 days.

What a beautiful ship!

 

The rest of the afternoon we enjoyed watching the planes take off and land out of Ft. Lauderdale Airport and all the small pleasure crafts traveling the inter-coastal waterways.

 

 



Three ships were in dock….Celebrity Exquinox and Celebrity Celestial  (both going to the Caribbean for seven day cruises) and our ship,  Holland America Zuiderdam. Our ship was built in 2002 to hold 1916 guests and 800 crew. What a gorgeous ship!

 

 

 

 

 

 Larry and I enjoy the Holland America Ships because they have grand libraries, excellent exercise equipment, a movie room, free DVD’s, and outside dining. One hundred and thirty four  persons under the supervision of one executive chef  prepare phenomenal food daily….Oriental  with Larry’s favorite….shushi, Mexican,  Italian, American grilled fare, salads, fruits, breads, and  dessert  bars every day.  11,830 pounds of meat, 3,814 pounds of chicken, 3000 pounds of fish, and 2,575 pounds of seafood are consumed  on each seven day cruise.
 No one is reminding the guest to eat their veggies because 13,750 pounds of fresh vegetables are consumed as well as 1,150 pounds of ice cream. Interesting, the crew consumes 6000 pounds of rice.  We enjoy walking the top deck on the warm sunny days and the third floor covered deck on rainy days…. To recover from all the fabulous meals we have consumed.  

 

Ship's awards

 

The Casino

 

The ship always has beautiful fresh flowers.

 

Ft. Lauderdale in the horizon with the sun setting.

 

Our ship left the dock around 6:00pm on Monday March 16, a couple of hours later than expected. We enjoyed watching the other two ships leave, planes from the International Airport land and take off, and all the pleasure crafts that sailed by the dock.  We had a grand time on top of the ship sailing away from the USA with the sun sinking into the city. We enjoyed our cozy room on the seventh floor….Rotterdam Level.  

 

 

 

You may wonder,  what in the world would you do for eight days nonstop at sea…we never have a dull moment…in fact we have a hard time getting around to all the opportunities that are offered.  Besides eating and sleeping daily…we work out in the gym, soak in the hot tub, read, work on our tan in the sunshine, and observe the vast ocean views that afford beautiful sunrises and sunsets every day.

                                                                         Sunrise

                                                                      Sunset

We have been reading…. a historical novel by Kenneth C. Davis called America’s Hidden History , a novel called Don’t Go   by  Lisa Scottoline, a Stuart Wood mystery called  Paris Match, a  biography  called The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow as well as  exploring the world atlas and travel books that are on board.

 

Our days are filled with lectures about travel, historic explorers, health and fitness, computer skills, exercise, dance, Kursk ( a Russian Sub Recovery) given by Captain John Nixon, Roman History,  creative crafting…so  many topics of interest. In the evening we enjoyed  many shows…. Hillby,  the German Comedian…so outlandishly funny, the nightly  BB King Blues Band ….WHAT FANTASIC MUSICIANS! 

 We enjoyed so many different movies…..especially The Imitation Game, Birdman(yuck!), King of the Land,  The Way Back, The Guest,  and  Interstellar. Crossing the Atlantic is a relaxing and mind growing experience.