Taking a Slow Boat to Rome (Part 1)

Ron and I decided to take a transatlantic cruise to Italy in April, 2019.  We booked a cruise on Holland America's Koningsdam from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  The journey was 14 days long with 8 days at sea before our first port of Ponta Delgada in the Azores (Portugal).

Our itinerary:
SUN 07APR19 Sail from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US 5:00pm
MON 08APR19 Sea Day
TUE 09APR19 Sea Day
WED 10APR19 Sea Day
THU 11APR19 Sea Day
FRI 12APR19 Sea Day
SAT 13APR19 Sea Day
SUN 14APR19 Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores, 11:00am 6:00pm
MON 15APR19 Sea Day
TUE 16APR19 Sea Day
WED 17APR19 Malaga, Spain 8:00am 6:00pm
THU 18APR19 Cartagena, Spain 7:00am 4:00pm
FRI 19APR19 Sea Day
SAT 20APR19 Debark Ship Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy 7:00am

Being our first transatlantic cruise, we both wondered if we might get bored.  But we found that a transatlantic cruise was the perfect relaxation solution to a highly stressful world.  We lounged on deck, read books, listened to music, enjoyed pleasant dinners with our assigned table mates and enjoyed a mostly calm sea.

  

Our stateroom was on the Panorama deck above the Lido Deck

Ron with David from Wales, UK

Susan and Werner from Florida

David and Susan, of Wales, UK and Florida, USA.

One of the many lovely appetizers at dinner.  Here is a typical dinner menu.

Enjoying the dueling pianos in the Billboard  On Board Bar

Our stateroom on the Panorama Deck 10 

  

Breakfast on the Panorama Deck 

The view from  the Panorama Deck

Coffee and bagels from the NY Deli

A reflection of the sea on the windows of the Panorama Deck.

The Crow's Nest (Deck 12)

A good book and tea in the Crow's Nest

Ron enjoyed reading and relaxing in the Crow's Nest.

Enjoying a glass of wine on our stateroom's veranda.

We enjoyed two Gala Nights where the guest are invited to dress up, enjoy a special menu which included lobster, and attend some great live entertainment.

   

We loved going to the Billboard on Board bar nightly with dueling pianos and  

two talented singer-pianists who performed a great playlist of songs and took requests for favorites

If you want to get a very inexpensive cruise fare with about half off,  book a transatlantic cruise in the last few weeks before they sail  An inside room on this cruise was going for less than $400 per person in a double occupancy inside room two weeks before the ship sailed. That is $30 per day per person! Since all your meals, room, and most ship board activities are included, you'll find this the least expensive way to enjoy a cruise. The main additional costs were airfare from NM to Ft. Lauderdale and air fare home (from Rome, for two of us that was less than $900).  Uncovered expenses include alcohol, soft drinks (other than juices, iced tea and lemonade), shore excursions, spa treatments, casino play, and dining in specialty restaurants. Transatlantic cruises are "repositioning cruises" as ships transition, for example,  in the spring from North America to Europe and in the fall from Europe to North America.  Therefore, they are never full and rooms are available at deep discount in the final weeks before it departs.  We booked too early at full price, so we called Holland America and asked for an upgrade in the last two weeks when we saw fares slashed in half.  We got an upgraded room, $50 in beverage cards, a couple of hundred dollars off excursions, and $400 off a future cruise.

When we got to the port of Ponta Delgada on the island of São Miguel in the Azores, we were still two days away from the continent of Europe. 

  

Ponta Delgada as viewed from our ship in port

Our first port of call was the island of São Miguel 

I left the ship early to check out our transportation options and then walked around the small downtown area.  We had booked an excursion to the west part of the island for the afternoon.  It was lightly raining as I walked the narrow tiled streets where I bought some canned seafood products and cork purses before returning to the ship.  

Ron and I took a ship excursion up into the volcanic mountains to Sete Cidades with forests, colorful lakes and rhododendron flowers, and incredible ocean views:

Sete Cidades

Rich volcanic soils make for verdant farmlands

Sete Cidades lake was formed by the caldera of a volcano

View of the sea

The lakes on São Miguel Island are volcano calderas filled with water

After re-boarding, we spent a couple of days at sea.  On the evening of April 15th, I had gone back to out stateroom while Ron went to the Casino to play Back Jack.  I was watching CNN and was shocked to see that the Cathedral of Notre Dame was on fire.  Ron and I had visited Notre Dame in May, 2018 when we were spending a week in Paris.  I rushed down to the Casino and told Ron Notre Dame was on fire.  He thought I was talking about the American University of Notre Dame.  He stopped playing and moved to the bar which had a TV.  We felt sick about the awful tragedy and we spent the next couple of hours watching the disaster on TV.  We were pretty insulated from worldly news but there was a TV in our room with CNN and BBC.  The next night, we passed through the Strait of Gilbraltar in the early hours of the morning.  I was constantly having to change my time as we had gone through 8 time zones since we had left Albuquerque, New Mexico.

I got up and saw the bright lights of Tangiers, Algeria off our starboard side and then went back to bed.  We arrived in Málaga, Spain in the early morning of April 17th.  I had booked an excursion to La Alhambra, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Granada.  More on this and our other Ports of Call in Spain, Malaga, in Part 2 and Cartagena in Part 3.  I will cover our 5 days in Rome in Part 4.