4/14/03 This is our longest cruise to date — almost 4 weeks including arrival in Port Canaveral Florida (the starting port) and a few days in Vancouver BC (the final port). We'll also be overnighting in Portland, OR on the way back, where Scott's brother and sister-in-law live, to connect with them (it simplifies the airfare too).

The Zaandam is a "medium-sized" ship, somewhere between the size of Delaware and that of Rhode Island. It accommodates about 1400 passengers and maybe a thousand crew. Eleven hundred passengers got on in Port Canaveral, some more in St. Thomas and Aruba. The ship seems pretty much full now, although folks have gotten off and on at various ports along the way -- Aruba, Acapulco. Maybe you can only get on at ports starting with "A".

This is an older crowd still versus the mix of people we found on the Celebrity Zenith. Part of this may be the cruise line, but we suspect more has to do with the duration of the cruise — most younger folks may not have the time or perhaps inclination to be away for 3½ weeks. We've met some interesting folks and have grown fond of our table-mates, who hail from the two ends of Canada (Lil, Mary, Jim), plus one each from Texas (Lupe) & Ohio (Bill). Kathy has gotten the opportunity to model her "sparkly dresses" as she calls them, she does indeed wear them well.

The trip down to Orlando was uneventful, which is the best we hope for with air travel these days. The second segment (Newark-Orlando) was a "Mouse" flight which is to say overrun with kids headed for Disneyworld. We were happy to be in First Class, which otherwise might have been a waste of frequent flyer points for such a relatively short set of flights.

Our hotel in Port Canaveral was expensive, but offered  the major benefit of having a rental car drop off and free transfer over to the cruise ship. We arrived at the port around 11:00 and got a good "slot" (the earlier you arrive, the earlier you get on the ship once they start boarding. Anyone that's flown on Southwest Airlines will recognize this approach...). We chatted with our fellow passengers-to-come while we waited until around 1:30 to board.

Here's some about the individual ports-of-call:

(oops... they're gone) sorry. To Be Fixed.