On the Sea Again, A New Adventure July 19, 2024

We had not planned on taking another cruise so quickly after our World Cruise. Definitely not. No way. BUT, then our travel agent contacted us with another deal too great to miss. So, here we go again! This cruise is known as “Voyage of the Vikings”. We are excited about the upcoming ports.

This cruise is round trip from Boston to Boston. On July 19th we woke up fully expecting to fly to Boston for an overnight stay at a hotel before our cruise on the 20th. However that was the day there was a worldwide computer outage affecting flights around the globe. We knew we had to be in Boston by 4:00 PM Saturday afternoon. We didn’t know whether to chance our flight leaving as scheduled, or ditching the airlines and renting a car and driving 20+ hours to Boston. We decided to chance the airport, knowing a flight cancellation would seriously impact us getting to the ship on time.

It turned out everything went like clockwork. jetBlue, who is notorious for delays and cancellations, left on time. After a smooth, uneventful flight, we arrived in Boston. A definite win for jetBlue. They left on time, had seats with generous legroom, free snacks and beverages, and very friendly flight attendants.

The hotel shuttle bus took us from the airport to the hotel. The next morning our travel agent arranged for a bus to take all of us to the cruise terminal. We felt very blessed as we heard horror stories from others who had long, difficult journeys to Boston. Several arrived but their luggage didn’t and they boarded the ship with no luggage.

After a short delay we boarded the ship. The Zuiderdam is the same ship as our World Cruise and it felt very much like going home.

Leaving The Dock

Captain Frank greeted us warmly and Kimberly, the fantastic Cruise Director, greeted us with big hugs. We were excited at the prospect of seeing our favorite crew members from the World Cruise. Sadly for us, most of them were on their vacation break. Time to make new friends! On the World Cruise we had cabin 5148. For this Voyage of the Vikings cruise, which is known as a Legendary Cruise, we are in cabin 5151. Cabins very close, so again like home!

The ship was originally supposed to leave at 5:00 P.M. but departure was delayed until 7:30 P.M. to give passengers flying in additional time to meet the ship. This included passengers as well as crew members who were struggling to get here in time.