The Last Voyage (Part 1)

If you have seen previous posts of my Blog, you know we love to take cruises.  We just finished what is our "Last Voyage" in May.  My husband and I sailed on a transatlantic cruise from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Rotterdam, The Netherlands May 12-28, 2023.  

Our itinerary

 

I say the last voyage because traveling far from home, on a ship or airplane, and travel in foreign countries has become very challenging as we age. We had planned the trip since October, 2022.  It was to include a flight to Ft. Lauderdale, FL from our home in Albuquerque, a 16 day transatlantic crossing with 8 ports of call, two nights in Rotterdam, a flight to London and 6 nights in England before a flight home from Heathrow June 5th.  Ambitious and exciting? Yes! Challenging? Yes!

Ron and I in the port of Le Havre, France

 

 

 

Our trip started May 11 with a flight from Albuquerque via Houston to Ft. Lauderdale using Southwest Airlines.  That flight was great with the assistance of the airlines.  We planned short reunions with friends while in Ft. Lauderdale. We were greeted by friends Bob and Sharon who now live in Florida and have been long time friends and travel companions for many previous trips.  We spent the night in a two room suite and enjoyed catching up with them.  Ron's friend for more than 40 years, German, drove up from Miami to share lunch with us. This time with dear friends who we may never see again was sweet but too short.

Bob and Sharon dropped us off at Port Everglades and returned to their Florida home a few hours north.  We embarked on the MS Zuiderdam about 5PM and enjoyed the Sail Away Party from the Sea View Pool, meeting two new friends, Vic and Cathy from Yuma, Arizona whose company we enjoyed throughout the cruise. They loved to travel and were going to go on to Lisbon, Portugal and Morocco after this cruise.  Our dinner companions in the formal dining room were lovely: Bunny and Jodie (mother and daughter) from Salem, Oregon and Charlie and Sally from Pensacola, Florida.  Making friends on this 16 day cruise is one of the joys of travel. 

Charlie and Sally with us at the Brooklyn Cafe in Tramore, Ireland near Waterford

Our cabin was small as we had an Ocean View stateroom on Deck 1.  This is the first time we had anything less than a Verandah Stateroom on a Holland America cruise.  In booking it, we assumed there would be many empty staterooms and we would be offered an upgrade as we have many times before.  But this cruise was packed.  I was told it was 97% full. This is different from our previous experience with transatlantic cruises which usually were only about 80% full. Since Covid, it seems there is a pent-up desire to cruise and travel and this cruise was full of people happy to cruise abroad once again.

Without a balcony, we frequently went to the Crow's Nest on Deck 10 in the bow end of the ship with comfortable leather lounge chairs and expansive views of the ocean without the wind and cold of the outside decks. 

Relaxing in the coveted leather lounge chairs facing forward toward the sea

 I had bought a Drive Nitro Duet Rollator/Wheelchair earlier in the year especially for travel on this trip.  This allowed Ron to use a walker for short walks and a wheelchair for longer walks.  This all-in-one device seemed like the perfect solution for Ron's mobility issues.  Crossing thresholds on the ship (elevators, sections on the ship, etc.) were difficult for this wheelchair, often the front wheels would turn upon contact with the threshold and the metal was repeatedly stressed upon impact. We had problems in the wheelchair by the 3rd cruise day.   The front left wheel fork bent and the wheel was now out of alignment and unusable.  I had to rent a wheelchair from the ship's guest services for the remainder of the cruise and order a new wheelchair on-line from a Holland medical device company to be delivered to our Rotterdam hotel.  Happily, we got the new wheelchair and were able to navigate Rotterdam safely.

 We had 8 straight days at sea until May19 when we reached the Azores (Portugal) for our first port of call at Praia da Vitoria on Terceira Island.  We had been to the Azores once before on a previous transatlantic cruise to Rome in 2019.   The Azores are an archipelago of 9 volcanic islands in the North Atlantic covered in green.  The Azores are a major port of call for many boats as they cross the North Atlantic. The main industries are farming, ranching and fishing.  Tourism is becoming another major source of income. This was our first time on Terceira.  A U.S. Airforce Base is here:  Lajes Field. Vic from Yuma had been stationed here in the Airforce and he was very familiar with Terceira. He and Cathy had booked an ATV tour.  We took the free shuttle bus into town from the port.  Praia da Vitoria is a pretty seaside town with cobble stone streets and walkways with steep hills.  We walked with Ron in the wheel chair for a little ways but it was too difficult to navigate so we sat on a bench and I took a few pictures of the distinctive mosaic streets and white houses with red tile roofs.  I bought some local olives and cheese from Sao Jorge Island which we thoroughly enjoyed with wine aboard the ship.

 

We returned by shuttle bus and taxi for dinner at O Pescadore which had good reviews especially for its fresh seafood.  We had a leisurely 2 1/2 hour dinner with fresh bread and butter, a bottle of local Azorean wine, fried calamari, Garlic Shrimps, Swordfish, and Octopus Salad. 

The front patio of O Pescadore

Steep street - definitely not wheelchair-friendly

The taxi let us off in front and we squeezed through the front door but could not get through the narrow door into the main dining room

 

 

Main Dining Room

So we sat at one of the tables by the bar just inside the restaurant:

Fried Calamari and Garlic Shrimp

A wine from Pico Island, Azores

Octopus Salad and Swordfish

At the end of the dinner, the restaurant tried to call a taxi for us so we could get back up the hill to the shuttle bus to port.  But no luck.  The owner and his son took Ron and I and the wheelchair back up the hill to our shuttle bus.  I offered him 10 EUR which he refused so we gave it to his teen aged son. 

The next day we went to Ponta Delgada on São Miguel Island. We had been here before in 2019 so we stayed on ship and did not go ashore after all we went through in Praia da Vitoria.

The Port of Ponta Delgada

 

In two more sea days, we would arrive in Ireland.  Please go to Part 2 of The Last Voyage for more.