Transatlantic (Part 2) - July and August 2026

I'm finally getting back to my blog after several months away. With six weeks of travel, there are many photos and lots of possible content to share. I'll try to be succinct. This cruise, roundtrip from Boston to Europe, included stops in both directions while crossing the North Atlantic.

In case you're wondering how I'm recalling port details almost three months after returning home, I maintain a daily journal during our trips. This journal is essential as it is too easy for me to forget travel details.

Source: Holland America

Boston and Portland

We embarked and disembarked on this cruise on Holland America's Zuiderdam in Boston. We arrived in Boston at the beginning of our trip two days before embarkation. We stayed at the Seaport Hyatt Place, located about a ten minute walk from the hotel to Flynn Cruiseport. Other than location, the hotel amenities were limited and rooms adequate - nothing fancy. Recent news about the port include criminal arrests of 87 crew members for child exploitation and continuing disruptive renovations. 

This is an older cruise terminal and, for our sailing, was not very organized. The confusion was more apparent when we disembarked at the end of our cruise. Taxis were in short supply and terminal staff gave conflicting instructions on the location of taxi lines. Adding to the confusion, some terminal baggage handlers simply ignored the taxi lines and allowed some departing guests to jump the line. We ended up walking two blocks away from the cruise terminal and arranged for an Uber pickup to Logan Airport.  This was not our favorite cruise port.

We had dinner at Moxie's on our first night in Boston and Ocean Prime for our second-night dinner. The Lobster Bisque was delicious at Ocean Prime.  

Our only port stop before leaving the US was in Portland, Maine. We took a ship excursion that took us through downtown Portland and to Kennebunk. We stopped at HolyDonuts in Portland and tried a maple donut and maple-bacon donut. Both were made with potato flour, which resulted in a rather dense donut. 

In Kennebunk, we drove by the Bush compound and stopped for lunch at the Crab Shack. We shared a lobster roll, stuffed with lobster, and served with fries for $45. After lunch, we had time to stroll the downtown area and visit the many small shops.

Cape Elizabeth, Maine

Kennebunk Crab Shack

Our port stops in Canada included Sydney, Corner Brook, St.Johns and St.Anthony and Halifax. With the exception of St.Anthony, we've visited these ports during previous cruises. 

Sydney: We enjoyed an independent walk at this port. We stopped to visit several homes and a church from the late 1700s, The Cosset House, Jost House and St.Patrick's Church. 

Corner Brook: We walked from the port to Glynmill Inn. From the Inn, there is a nice walk along ponds, marsh and brooks. The property is owned and maintained by the local paper and pulp mill and open to the public.  

St.Anthony: From the pier, we walked to the Grenfell House Museum (note - cash only entry). This is the residence of Sir Winston Grenfell, a physician that served the local community in the early 1900s.  He worked to improve life in St.Anthony and was a philanthropist. From the Museum, we walked two miles to Lighthouse Point. In addition to the terrific views, the former house of the light keeper is now a cafe. We stopped for lunch and the seafood chowder was excellent (the fish and chips were ok).

St.Johns: We enjoyed a ship arranged residential walking tour that provided views and information about the "rainbow colored" houses, Government House, Colonial House, and Bannerman Park. We also learned about the 1842 fire that destroyed much of the downtown area and left 11,000 residents homeless. 

Halifax: This was our last port stop on the six-week itinerary. The Immigration Museum, located near the cruise terminal, was a highlight for us. The excellent displays and images provided an understanding of immigration issues, displacement of indigenous people, racial discrimination, travel challenges and immigrant success stories.  

We were told that Nova Scotia has wonderful blueberries. We missed having blueberries with breakfast, as our Holland America ship had run out at this point of our trip. In the afternoon, we walked 1.5 miles in very warm sunny weather to a local organic food store that offered the feresh berries. We decided to Uber back to avoid the walk back to the cruise terminal. It was a long walk and a pint of berries was more than needed to last two breakfasts.

Corner Brook Walk

Sydney Fiddle

Grenfell House, St.Anthony

St.Anthony Lighthouse

St.Anthony Cemetery Overlooking the Sea

Walk from Grenfell House to Lighthouse

Government House, St.Johns

Colorful Houses, St.Johns

Bannerman Park Bench

Final Canadian Port Stop in Halifax

Greenland

This trip provided a return visit to Greenland. A few years ago, we explored Greenland's Scoresbysund, a 200 mile long fjord, on an expedition ship. The itinerary on this trip included stops at Paamiut, Nanortalik, and Qaqortoq. As these were small villages, we needed to tender from the ship to shore. 

The population of each village ranged from 1,000 to 2,500 inhabitants. We participated in ship arranged walking tours, led by a local resident. In my perspective, Greenland villages are not tourist destinations but rather a way to learn about Greenland culture, history, communities and life. Each of our walks passed through small houses, churches, markets, community centers and recreational areas.   

As our ship sailed to each stop and through Prince Christian Sound, we were rewarded with spectacular views of towering mountains, waterfalls, small icebergs and glaciers. Observing these views from a 1,900 guest cruise ship was a rare opportunity but I couldn't help wondering about the environmental issues raised by such cruises. Greenland's government has recently asked for voluntary compliance by cruise operators to avoid sailing through sensitive fjords and narrow waterways to protect wildlife and local communities. 

Our ship made a brief stop in the middle of Prince Christian Sound. Tenders were loaded with 2 tons of fresh produce and food to share with a small village of 80. This was certainly a feel-good moment for all.  

Tender to Paamiut, Greenland

Paamiut, Greenland

Paamiut Danish Church

Paamiut, Greenland

Qaqortoq Stone Carvings

Qaqortoq Stone Carvings

Qaqortoq Fish Market

Nanortalik Danish Lutheran Church

Church Interior

Nanortalik Fish Market

Nanortalik, Greenland

Open Air Museum, Nanortalik

Nanortalik, Greenland

Aappilattoq Village Receiving Perishables

Transatlantic (Part 1) - July and August 2026

Sharing experiences from a 35 day transatlantic cruise is somewhat challenging. There is a lot of content to consider. We embarked in Boston and this cruise included stops in Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and then reversed back to Iceland, Greenland, Canada and, finally, a disembarkation in Boston. The original schedule of Holland America’s Zuiderdam included 20 port stops (one was missed due to weather) and 15 at-sea days. During one of the at-sea days, the ship was positioned to observe a total eclipse off of Iceland.

This was our longest cruise, our first on Holland America and, after many years of sailing on ships with 300-900 passenger capacity, a cabin on a 1,900 guest ship.

My plan is to describe highlights of our cruise and some observations about cruising on Holland America’s Zuiderdam. First, a little about our sailing on Holland America.

Holland America’s Zuiderdam

Understanding that we would be on the Zuiderdam for 35 days encouraged us to book a larger “Signature Suite” exterior cabin. This junior suite style cabin has about 380 square feet, with a large sofa, wide balcony and bathroom with two sinks, tub and separate shower. This cabin is among the larger accommodations, except for full-size suites or penthouses. In comparison, a standard exterior cabin is around 200 square feet. Overall, we found our cabin comfortable and well-maintained

Bushnell 10x42 binoculars were available for guests in “Signature Suites” or higher level cabins. These were fine for general purpose viewing, though some guests have reported that their in-cabin binoculars were mis-adjusted or damaged. If bird or sea life observations are important for you, bringing your own binoculars may be best. 

Staffing Ratio One observation was that the Holland America Zuiderdam “front of house” (or guest visible) service staff to guest ratio seemed a little thin. Our room steward indicated he was assigned 32 cabins which seemed high to us. Zuiderdam cabin and dining service staff were very busy -  trying to keep up with many tasks in a timely manner. Particularly on at-sea days, we observed that after guests  departed a breakfast buffet table, the table could remain uncleared for a prolonged time (making finding a clean table difficult for new diners). The limited number of breakfast attendants were trying to dual task - taking and delivering beverage orders as well as clearing and cleaning tables. 

At-Sea Days With 15 at-sea days, there were many opportunities to attend a lecture on history, science and/or cultural themes as well as hands-on activities. Holland America did a great job offering a variety of content for guests. I attended several lectures but also enjoyed reading time and watching videos on my iPad. 

All of our recent cruises have been on ships without interior cabins, We noticed that a high number of interior cabins may lead to seating contention in public spaces. That said, it is understandable that guests in interior cabins look forward to leaving their cabins whenever possible and enjoy seating in larger common areas of the ship. Guests in larger suites can always relax in their cabins or find a comfortable public area location early in the day.

We attended several lectures in the World Stage venue. This three-floor entertainment space was comfortable but tall structural columns hindered stage sighting from several seats. In addition, from third floor seating, a view of the upper and deeper section of the stage was largely obstructed by the structural frame of the stage. Placement of strategically placed video screens could help alleviate stage sighting issues. It is recommended for Holland America’s Vista class ship guests to select theater seats in the first or second floor tiers.

Dining on the Zuiderdam One practice we liked was that buffet selections were generally served by staff rather than guests serving themselves. This seems to help, to some degree, portion management and keeping the buffet area healthy. Meals in the Zuiderdam Dining Room offered a wide variety of selections. Meals were similar to what could be expected from a medium-range hotel restaurant. The meals featuring fish dishes and pasta were some of our favorites. Dining Room service seemed better organized than breakfast and lunch buffet dining. For most evenings, we were seated for dinner at 5pm and our appetizer and main course were served by 5:30pm.  

35 Days and Laundry Due to the extended length of this cruise, many guests were retired (including us) as well as repeat Holland American cruisers (not us). This repeat experience was helpful as many returning Holland America guests qualified for free laundry - a nice benefit as there were no self-service laundry rooms. We enrolled into the optional laundry package ($367 for 35 days) which permitted us to submit one-bag of laundry per day. There was also a “wash and fold” option for guests to submit a single daily filled laundry bag for $40. 

Excursions In general, there were many ship excursion choices at each port. We selected and paid in advance for our ship excursions. Typically, we register for excursions that start between 9 and 10am. We were surprised when checking our excursion times once on board the Zuiderdam, that a few were moved to 8am even though later start times were available. We were able to modify our excursion reservations to later times. A good recommendation is to confirm your excursion start times when you arrive. It is not unusual for individual excursion start times to change and your actual reservation time may not be moved near your original and preferred start time.

A good idea for all cruisers is to consider excursion alternatives. Sources, such as ToursByLocals, Viator, GoWithGuide and GetYourGuide often have licensed tour guides with similar tours at competitive prices. However, if your return to the ship is after the scheduled departure time, the cruise lines will not wait for guests on private tours.

Upcoming Drydock The Zuiderdam was placed into service in 2002. It is scheduled for revitalization during 2027-2028. Cabins and public spaces reportedly will receive substantial attention. It would be great if the World Stage was also included in this work. For a 24 year old cruise ship, the Zuiderdam was in good shape though some areas, such as exterior automatic door mechanisms and teak promenade decking could benefit from additional attention.

Total Solar Eclipse Viewing Many guests gathered on the fourth deck bow to observe the total solar eclipse. The cloudy weather made viewing difficult and solar glasses were hardly necessary as the sun was obscured. When we reached total solar eclipse, the sky turned as dark as night for about two minutes. It was an amazing experience - even with the clouds.