Broadcasting from the Tripinsurance.com studios in Jacksonville, Florida.

This is Cruise Radio.

Hey, what's up?

My name is Doug Parker.

Thanks for checking out this episode of Cruise Radio.

A review of Holland America's Westerdam with Bruce, a seasoned cruiser, and his girlfriend, a first-time cruiser, and also soon-to-be-fiancee. More on that later. Hey, Bruce. Hi, Doug. Where did you sail out of, by the way? Well, it was right down the street almost, actually, about two hours south of where I am in Los Angeles, down in San Diego. Okay, cool, very cool. Well, I'm very excited to talk about

the Westerdam because I've sailed it, I think, a couple of years ago, and I love this ship, so I'm excited to get your thoughts on her. But before we get to the ship, give us some pre-cruise thoughts. What made you want to sail this seven-night Mexican Riviera Christmas cruise? Well, I was kind of forced into it. It ended up being my girlfriend.

I asked her if she wanted to go on a cruise. She'd never been on a cruise. And I said, well, let's go on a

cruise. She was off Christmas week. She works at a university in Los Angeles, and the campus closes

down. So that set the date. So it was Christmas to New Year's.

And then I wanted to stay fairly close because flying all the way to the East Coast would have

blown off a day. So it was San Diego, Holland American Line was sailing out on Saturday,

December 24th. And the timing worked out.

We planned it approximately, oh, two and a half, three months before the sailing and got one of the last cabins available.

It was pretty much sold out when I started looking at it.

But San Diego is just a two-hour drive south of Los Angeles.

It looked like a good experience,

first experience for my girlfriend three days in port, three days at sea. We'd been to all

these ports before as, you know, flying in by air. So seeing them and arriving by cruise ship was

going to be something new.

When you go like two hours to a cruise port from your house, do you normally drive day of?

Yeah. We thought about going down and spending Friday night just for fun, but then Friday night

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