Here are some of the highlights of the last few days.

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

We cleared Immigration in San Juan and had two final sea days before we arrived in Fort Lauderdale. Clearing Immigration in San Juan speeds up our disembarkation as we won’t have to clear Customs or Immigration in Fort Lauderdale.

GUEST TALENT SHOW

We arrived in San Juan at 2 p.m. Earlier in the day, the Guest Talent Show was presented on the World Stage. Fourteen acts consisting of individuals and groups were ready to go at 11 a.m. Kimberly introduced each act, and the guests performed on the stage, unlike last year when they were forced to stand in the seating area directly in front of the stage. Here is a video with short clips from each performance.

FINAL SEA DAYS

We spent our final two sea days packing, wrapping up loose ends, and attending several traditional end-of-cruise events.

CREW TALENT SHOW

The highlight of our first sea day after San Juan was the Crew Talent Show.

Nine acts from the Zuiderdam Crew were featured on the World Stage in the Crew Talent Show on May 9th, 2024. After the show, the guests voted by secret ballot. Over 600 ballots were submitted.

1. Christian from guest services sang .. Go the Distance (First Place)
2. Benja & Terrapon from Thailand danced to a popular song from their homeland
3. Julius, a Sommelier & HAL school teacher in the Philippines, – sings Journey’s Faithfully with images of his family in the background
4. Paramita, Rusdayani & Arti, from Bali – from the dining room (Ochi, Oki & Jeni) – dance in costume to a native song — Sekar Jagat Dance and one other song – Third Place
5. Richard from the tech department – from the Philippines – sings I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing
6. Alif from housekeeping – traditional song
7. Dhesery Balisi has been with HAL for 8 years .. she’s a masseuse from the spa who sings I Have Nothing – Second Place
8. Ipsita from Security – from India .. she danced to several tunes from India
9. Filipino Castanet Dancers – 6 women and 6 men .. La Jota Moncadeña – Castanet Dance

FAREWELL PRESENTATION

The highlight of our final sea day was the Farewell Presentation on the World Stage. This consisted of the City and Sea Presentation, hosted by Cruise and Travel Director Kimberly Wells, followed by the crewmember parade. Hundreds of crewmembers from all the departments filled the stage with the sounds of Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family” playing in the background.

While waiting for the presentation, they showed a slide show featuring photographs from the entire cruise. They also played the entertainer highlight reel I put together, shown below.

PACKING

Many people start packing on the transatlantic crossing and finish by the time they go to dinner on the last day. We aren’t in that group and are usually up past Midnight on the final evening.

Before the cruise, we sent eight suitcases and one box with Luggage Forward. We could fit everything into the eight suitcases and didn’t need the box. We ended up checking 5 bags on our flight home. One tip Judy uses to get a little more in each suitcase is to let the suitcase stand up for a couple hours after the initial packing which allows the contents to settle opening up some more space at the top.

LUGGAGE FORWARD

Luggage Forward is convenient now that you don’t have to retrieve your bags in the terminal and carry them through Customs yourself. While waiting for the crew talent show to start, Kimberly announced a glitch with the luggage forward service over the PA system. The preprinted luggage tags never made it onto the ship due to an “unfortunate incident” in San Juan. The exact nature of the “unfortunate incident” was never disclosed but I speculate that the rep had them stolen from his hotel or rental car. Guests in Neptune suites would get tags reprinted but there were too many for everyone else, so we were given special paper tags with our name to attach to our luggage. Luggage Forward would attach the real UPS tag in the warehouse ashore.

We put Air Tags in all our bags, which helped give us peace of mind that everything was moving in our direction.

NOTE: As I write this on 21 May, we now know that all our bags were tagged and are moving in the UPS system. The “unfortunate incident” added another five days to our luggage return time.

BIRTHDAY DINNER

On our last evening’s dinner, Table 89 celebrated our final birthday of the cruise, and we retired the Big Hat. The Hat was starting to get a little yellow after two years, and our waiters said they would put it to good use on the next cruise when they expected hundreds of children onboard with plenty of Birthdays. Tonight’s menu was labeled “All-Time Favorites” and included Surf and Turf, Escargot, and more. You can download the menu HERE.

Our waiter, Andi, assisted by Al Rey and Denny, was outstanding and enhanced our cruise experience. We always select fixed seating, so we have the same waiters every evening, which enhances our dining room experience.

LEAVING THE SHIP FOR THE LAST TIME

Unlike almost every other cruise line, Holland America allows you to stay in your cabin until you are ready to leave the ship. This makes your final day more pleasant as you don’t have to wander around the public areas until your debarkation time. Most people tend to leave their rooms early anyway, so there are plenty of empty cabins to keep the room stewards busy until everyone is gone by 9:30 am.

The ship didn’t assign debarkation times. Everyone selected their own time by visiting a kiosk by the front desk and selecting a colored baggage tag corresponding to their desired debarkation time. We had a late flight and selected the last possible time which was 9 am to 9:30 am.

The ship arrived and was cleared in Port Everglades at 6:55 am. Guests who didn’t have any luggage handled by the ship could leave immediately. The first group, Purple One, was called at 7:12 am. Subsequent colors were called every 10 minutes until 9 am when they announced that every color had been called and it was time for everyone to head ashore.

As we headed down the gangway we spotted the numerous baggage cages on the dock waiting to be processed thru the Customs and Border Patrol mobile unit before being loaded into the Luggage Forward’s 40 foot tractor/trailer.

We were off the ship around 9:15 a.m. At the end of the gangway, we said goodbye to the officers: Hotel GM Henk and his wife, Christel, Cruise and Travel Director Kimberly, Guest Relations Manager Maja, and Food and Beverage Manager George.

Being one of the last people to leave the ship makes your bags easier to find. Porters were in short supply, but we could fasten our Tach Luggage together and roll it out of the terminal ourselves without assistance.

CUSTOMS

Since we cleared Immigration in San Juan, we didn’t have to stop for any clearance here. A single customs agent was sitting in his booth, but he waved us through without asking any questions. If you have something to declare, you must seek out the Customs people on your own.

Once we left the terminal, a small table staffed by Security would return all items confiscated during the cruise. This is where we retrieved the chef’s knife we bought in Tokyo.

THE LAST MILE

Taxis are easy to find outside the terminal, and we quickly went to the FLL airport. I recommend taking a cab instead of the HAL transfer because the HAL transfer will probably drop you off between terminals at FLL, which will require you to walk a couple of hundred yards to your terminal or take the shuttle bus to other terminals. We found out later that several people who took the combined excursion with airport transfer were disappointed that they were dropped off between terminals and then discovered that luggage carts or porters were unavailable.

BACK HOME

Our flight to San Diego via Atlanta was uneventful. Everything was on time, and we walked in our Condo at 9 pm.

Living in a condo simplifies things as we don’t have any yardwork or exterior maintenance. The refrigerator was empty but was working fine. We turned on the icemaker and hot water heater. We removed the plastic wrap covering the toilets; their level was almost normal. The HVAC wasn’t cooling correctly, and we need to replace it. I disconnected the batteries on our cars, and after reconnecting the batteries, they started immediately. Our neighbor collected our mail, but we would go through that big pile in the next few days.

The cruise was now complete – we were back home. I will write up my final thoughts soon. After that I will continue to write up the various ports that I didn’t cover during the cruise. Many people use my posts has a reference and completing a detailed port visit post takes more time than was available during the cruise on many occasions.