We only have one sea day on this cruise, so make the most of it!


There are swimming pools, hot tubs, spas, beauty centers, sports, fitness centers, shopping, a casino, and loads of other things to do.


If you do want a thermal spa treatment or a beauty treatment (hair cut, etc.) on sea day, try to make your reservation the day we board the ship as the reservations fill up very quickly!

Check out the Deck Plans, or read up on the Activities and Entertainment and Venues (bars, disco, etc.) to plan your day.

Me? I plan to obey the signs.


Next stop: Nafplion, Greece!

All of HAL's ship are "Dam Ships" - Westerdam, Oosterdam, Nieuw Amsterdam. You'll get used to it.

If you are interested in seeing loads of photos of our ship since her completion, go to Dutch by Association. Also, be sure to check out the review by John Heald written during and after her maiden voyage. John is the Senior Cruise Director for Carnival Cruise Lines and he has a pretty good sense of humor.

The photo taken by Rick Duval can be seen here at the Holland America Line Nieuw Amsterdam Blog.

Our ship is 100 Days away from her maiden voyage! She even has her very own website! You can see her progress on the Holland America Blog or here at Dutch by Association. Both sites feature some interesting facts and great photos of our ship.



I was able to find this photo of a side-facing balcony on the Eurodam, the sister ship of ours. Our stern balconies will be a bit deeper, but you get the idea.





These are photos of the Deluxe Suite on the Eurodam. I imagine the decor will be slightly different on our ship, and our 2 suites will have the wrap-around balconies, but otherwise the layout will be the same.

I found a funny Youtube video of a tour of the Eurodam corner suite equivalent to ours (it will be 6164 on our ship). The guy directs his wife and bickers, but it shows the cabin and balcony quite well.

As we get closer to our cruise, I will be posting on the individual ports of call pages.  Look for the best places to shop, yummy things to eat, eye pleasing sights, and even some offbeat things to do in every port.

Please explore the links on the left for all sorts of helpful general information relating to our vacation.

You may have noticed a link under By the Labels (bottom of the link list to the left of this page) to Cruise Critic. CC is a forum, discussion board, and resource center for new and old cruisers alike.

From CC's main page you can read about cruise styles, destinations, ports, and reviews, or you can go to the "Boards" to post questions, or browse through various categories such as "Holland America", "Ports of Call", "Cruise Fashion", or any other topic you might find of interest.

An important part of the Cruise Critic Board is the Roll Call section. This is where fellow cruisers on a particular sailing can meet, arrange port tours together, exchange ideas about hotels, and generally get to know one another before boarding the ship. It is very early to start a Roll Call for our cruise, but I have. Okay, call me compulsive. Entrance to the Roll Call section of the forum is restricted to registered users only to protect privacy. I have set up a generic account just for us so if you are interested you can take a look before deciding to join. Membership is free, I get no spam from them (aside from an e-card on my birthday), and all they want is your birthdate, a user name, and a password. No real names are used in either the sign-up or on the boards.

To check out the Cruise Critic Roll Call for our sailing, the User Name is WannaBNSun The password is stsimons You can find the Roll Call under Roll Calls, Holland America, Nieuw Amsterdam, or easier yet, click this link to join in the discussion of our Sept. 12, 2010 - Mediterranean Tapestry .

View A September to Remember Cruise in a larger map

This is an interactive map I created for our cruise. You can zoom in, zoom out, or move around on the map. Clicking on the pins or balloons gives a bit of information for each location. If you would like to see the map in a larger version because you've misplaced your reading glasses, click the link under the map.

Our embarkation port, Barcelona, is marked with a green pin. Ports of call are marked with yellow pins and nearby points of interest have blue balloons. Our disembarkation port of Venice is noted by the red pin.

Oh, and for you curious types, that's our house with a purple pin sticking out of the roof.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Ed for coming up with the idea for a group cruise to the Mediterranean.

I'd also like to remind him that by Executive Order signed by President Obama, "What happens on the ship, stays on the ship" will henceforth be rendered more precisely as "What happens on the ship, stays on youtube ad infinitum".

To see some hilarious cruise photos click here for Ian Hughes' Loveboat Gallery.

It may seem like a long time in the future, but this cruise will happen before we know it.