Darlirious

I had saved this for my Mom’s cruise - she’s on the Westerdam right now. 

My first HAL cruise was in 2000 when I was 25.

I don’t know when I became a 2 or 3 star Mariner but I believe my first 4* Mariner cruise happened in March 2020 on the Nieuw Statendam. So I was 45 when that happened.

On the way to Kinsale (my excursion).

Cobh, Ireland this morning.

A break in the rain

Bergen

More Bergen, before it started raining this morning.

Bergen this morning

Godafoss Waterfall this morning on tour.

I will be on this cruise as well. Coincidentally, I was on the Zuiderdam back in February (11 day Panama Canal Sunfarer). She’s one of my favorite ships!

I just returned from the Baltic today (the cruise ended Saturday in Rotterdam).

HAL never kept our passports. We needed them whenever we left the ship only in St. Petersburg. Every other port all we needed was the ship card and a photo ID (I had my driver's license). Obviously, if the only photo ID that you have is your passport, you should take it. My passport resided in my stateroom's safe for the majority of the cruise. I did not like having to have it with me in Russia because it made me nervous about losing it!