Spring 2023 Transatlantic
Our next cruise is aboard Holland America’s Nieuw Statendam. Melissa and I will be doing a day to day journal to share to this blog he experience of a transatlantic voyage. We have already connected with 100+ of our fellow passengers via Facebook and Cruise Critic. We are sure to make some new friends on this trip!
Our itinerary: 6 consecutive sea days on the front end, a stop in the Azores, 2 more consecutive sea days, then 5 days in a row in a port (Gibraltar, Cadiz, Malaga, Alicante and Barcelona). The initial six sea days will eat up the bulk of any “jet lag” as we will lose an hour a day on 5 of those days without the worry of setting an alarm clock. Last year, we did a Rome to Tampa transatlantic, and because we lost so many hours on the flight, it took most of the 5 days we spent in Rome to acclimate to the time change. Then, BOOM, we were on a ship and having to readjust to time changes every other day. We think that the east bound trip will be the easier of the two. I guess we will soon find out!
Why didn’t you go out of Tampa again
There are size limits to the ships that sail out of Tampa because they have to fit underneath the Skyway Bridge. Generally speaking, the ships sailing out of Tampa are older and smaller. We wanted to try the Pinnacle class ship on Holland America. We were not disappointed. Well worth the 3.5 hour drive to Fort Lauderdale.