Parents celebrating 50th wedding anniversary are taking their three children and their spouses on the 7 day eastern Caribbean cruise on the Holland America Zuiderdam. Cruise was booked with a travel agent in Littleton Colorado for all four couples.

Travel agent handled cruise booking only. Hotel on eve of embarkation was booked by my father in law online using hotel stay points. Airline was booked by individual couple. We flew via United and Frontier. The hotel provided transportation from airport to hotel, as well as hotel to ship dock. We did have transfer service booked by our travel agent for ship to airline on our last day for all four couples.

Embarkation: We had heard from many different cruising travelers of long lines in the sun, and should anticipate lots of standing and people processing time. It had been suggested not to try to check in early as we would start our cruise on a sour note. However checkout time at the hotel was 11:00 and we didn't have a convenient place to wait with our luggage so we just bit the bullet and decided we would check in as soon as we were allowed. Read more