The 2025 Caribbean Escape Cruise

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

It is that time of year again. Time for our annual "get out of winter" cruise. Lord willing, a week from today we will be stepping onto the Holland America Eurodam for 21-days of warmth and sunshine in the Caribbean. Booked last August, the cruise is what Holland America deems a "collectors cruise". That is a fancy way of saying it is really just two back to back cruises booked as a single itinerary. 

Our original itinerary included the island of St. Lucia, a port that we had previously visited thirteen years ago and loved. But...in October we received word that St. Lucia was being dropped and replaced with a stop in Guadeloupe...a new port for us. This adjustment to the itinerary also caused the order of several other ports to be shuffled around. 

We invited our good friends, Jon and Michelle, to join us but never imagined they would accept. Jon is still working full time AND is in the process of finishing their home that has been under construction for the past few years so having them agree to cruise for three weeks didn't seem likely. But I was wrong...they said YES! The four of us had a great time cruising together last spring and I am sure this cruise will be equally as fun.

To make the cruise a little more affordable, we each booked a guaranteed obstructed oceanview cabin on the Eurodam. I have a hard time handling the cave-like inside cabins and even if we don't have much of a view we will still have natural light in our room. Also the oceanview cabin categories (and above) all have a couch, something I appreciate on our longer cruises. 

Yesterday we finally received our cabin assignment and although we didn't get an amazing upgrade, we are happy with where we ended up. Our cabin #4060 will have a wonderful view of the side of a lifeboat 😉 but I am happy because the location seems OK and Jon & Michelle will be close by in #4061. Although the cabin numbers makes it seem like we should be right next door, the odd and even rooms are down two separate hallways. Still we will be close enough to make it easy to meet up for meals, etc. 

Our original booking included free gratuities but in October I was able to re-fare and get a much cheaper rate...but without the free tips. In the end we still came out ahead and our large sum of onboard credit will cover the gratuities we lost. By taking advantage of some AMEX credit card offers I was also able to get several hundred dollars in credit when making our cruise payment.

I am the planner for our group and I have independent tours booked for many of our ports with a handful of shore excursions booked through Holland America (HAL). I spent the afternoon today printing off confirmation emails and other "notes" that I have gathered to optimize our time at each port.

Here is the weather forecast for our little town in Minnesota for tonight. It is easy to see why we are looking forward to warmth and sunshine for the next few weeks!

Come along with us as I blog our way through the Caribbean over the next few weeks! I will write the blog posts in real time daily while we are on the cruise, but will not publish them until we return. That gives me time to sort through the many photos that we (and our friends) will take and add them to the written posts.