Today, we went uptown and stopped at the Expedia Cruise Ship Centre. Whereas we have not used a physical travel agent for a decade, we still enjoy going up to see Arlene. We check online initially but let her do the final cruise bookings. She is older than us and likes travelling too. She always manages to give us a perk or two over the best deal we find anywhere.
She was able to book a Holland America Line sojourn for the middle of next summer. I do enjoy having a birthday that falls during the peak point in the summer of the Nothern Hemisphere. Arlene threw in a free birthday dinner for two in the specialty 'Pinnacle Grill' on the MS Nieuw Statendam.
In 2019, on my 60th birthday, we were aboard a local, HAL cruise. On July 23rd, in Skagway, AK, Jay and I jumped into a helicopter that flew us to the top of Meade Glacier. That was surely an exciting, one-of-a-kind present.
These last two years have not been kind to the cruise industry. However, we are happy to know that for my 63rd, we'll again be on a new and different sea adventure.