BARCELONA, SPAIN

THE GRAND MEETUP!

Volendam – Zuiderdam

& Barcelona Rolls!

Friday, April 25, 2025, 6 AM, Temperature 61 Degrees, 69% Humidity, W – N 2.3 mph

Barcelona is the capital and largest City of the autonomous community of Catalonia and is located on the northeastern coast of Spain. It has a rich history of arts and architecture. Today, it is a major cultural, economic and financial center of southwestern Europe. It is the primary biotech hub in Spain. It is also one of the principal airports in Europe and one of its busiest cruise ports. Barcelona didn’t disappoint; it’s a beautiful, amazing city but the real star of this visit was the “Grand Meetup” with Zuiderdam’s sister ship the Volendam!

Barcelona Rolls (better known as Panama Rolls) as we came into port! Probably our last ones – maybe Puerto Rico, we’ll see!

Our 124-day Grand World Cruise started in Fort Lauderdale on January 4, 2025. The Volendam started its 133-day Grand Cruise: Pole to Pole three weeks later January 26, 2025. This is the first (and probably last time) HAL will offer two long Grand cruises simultaneously. There is usually a Grand World Cruise and another special cruise (long but not as long as a Grand World Cruise). These two cruises seemed to “compete” with each other for passengers. Enticed by the itinerary, a number of regular World Cruisers (you’d be surprised how many people do this every year) went over to the Pole to Pole. Each broke their cruise into (and sold) smaller segments than usual (usually there’s just a full or half-length cruise). More than 500 people who started with us in Fort Lauderdale, got off in Sidney, Australia but just as many came aboard. That’s the way it’s been in Singapore, Cape Town, and Athens – no more embarkation for the Zuiderdam until we get home to Fort Lauderdale. Both “Grands” met up in Barcelona – a first for Holland America with lots of special activities.

First, we “parked” stern to stern in the busy Harbor in Barcelona. We had special permission to be as close as possible (John says it as approximately 120 feet apart). We stood out on the deck to watch the Zuiderdam slide sideways into its spot. We were so close, our mooring lines overlapped. Our open aft decks faced each other (which was important for the big party later that night). We had an opportunity to visit back and forth between ships. Many people on Zuiderdam had friends from previous World cruises on the Pole to Pole Volendam. The Volendam will be the ship for the next two World Cruises (all that has been announced so far) so people who have already booked or are thinking about booking either Cruise were very interested in seeing the ship and their potential cabins. The Volendam is a slightly smaller version of the Zuiderdam; 1400 passengers to our 1900+. Its one of the two smallest ships in Holland American’s fleet (the Zaandam is the other). It’s the oldest ship as well but has recently been refurbished for the World Cruise and looks great. Its smaller size will enable it to go place we couldn’t, like Bordeaux in France during the 2027 World Cruise. It had everything we liked about Zuiderdam, just a smaller version. The layout is very similar to the Zuiderdam so we felt right at home and found our way around pretty well. We really liked it smaller size and were impressed – so impressed that we have booked a 28 day cruise in November 2025, to the Amazon! It’s in and out of Fort Lauderdale and we’ll be home for Christmas!

The Zuiderdam hosted an Afternoon Tea Party for both ships. We made reservations for this event and received our invitation with an assigned attendance time. No one actually looked at our invitation, I think it was primarily for Dining Room scheduling - over 600 attended! There were fresh flowers, traditional 3-tiered trays of sandwiches and sweets and tea. They also served slices of chocolate and red velvet cakes. There was classical music as well, very nice touch. A fun event that we finished just in time to go to dinner! (literally less than an hour between). We should have passed on dinner all together, we had just eaten so much at the Tea, but Surf and Turf was one of the choices for dinner so we just had the Caesar Salad and a lobster tail.

Later that evening, there were parties on the open aft decks of both ships! There was live music and unlimited free alcohol (some people may not have remembered much about the party the next day). There were shouting competitions between the ships to determine which was the “best” Dam Ship (all Holland America’ ships names end with “Dam”). We watched the action from the deck above – got the libations and could watch the action from above the fray!

At 9 PM there were remarks from the Zuiderdam’s Captain, Frank van der Hoeven and Beth Bodensteiner, the new President of Holland America. She started with HAL as a contract worker 23 year ago, handling the invitations for the Zuiderdam’s christening – quite a full circle moment! After the remarks, the highlight of the celebration – an amazing drone show with over 500 drones! The narrative had been recorded ahead by the Cruise Directors from each ship. There was the Holland America logo, the names of the ships and highlights from each Grand Cruise (ours were Easter Island, Sydney Opera House and the Pyramids), plus much more. Evidently the word was out on the drone show because the next day one of the security people told me the adjacent parking lot was full of cars of “locals” who had driven to see the show. There were also passengers from a cruise ship further down the pier who walked up and stood in the parking lot to watch the show. It was a once in a lifetime show for all lucky enough to be there! The last surprise was when we returned to our cabin, there were two wooden presentation boxes on our bed. Each box contained an enameled lapel /hat pins which said GRAND MEETUP 2025 Volendam-Zuiderdam!