On each world cruise Holland America plans something special. This year it was the “Grand Meetup.” Both Holland ships, Volendam and Zuiderdam, on Grand Voyages met in Barcelona for two days of parties and activities. Holland claims it is the first time two grand voyages have met up. But in 2023 the Zuiderdam and Volendam met in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, transited the Panama Canal side by side, overnighted and spent the next day in the port for Panama City. I posted pictures of the meetup. Other cruisers remembered Grand Voyages intercepting in both Dubrovnik and Calleo in different years. I think this is a case of Holland America’s loyal customer base having better institutional memory than the company brass.

Without a doubt, this is the biggest meetup party and the only one with a drone show. Our ship, Volendam, got in first. We stood on the aft deck to watch Zuiderdam come in.

We docked back to back and needed permission from the port to be as close together as possible.

After docking, Suzi and I took our ramble but were back in time to visit friends at the tea held for both ships on Zuiderdam. We met our friend Jo, a fellow blogger (Writer on Deck) who is on the World Cruise. (To see her blog post on the meetup, click here.) Her sisters, who are in the cabin next to ours, are on our ship for the Pole to Pole. We also met crew members and officers we met on past cruises. This was my first time on Zuiderdam since I was removed with internal bleeding in Mauritius in 2023. Lots of people do the world cruise every year and several people stopped by our table at the tea to see how we were doing. I told them I was doing fine but admitted to a little nervousness about getting back on this ship.

That evening there were dueling parties on the facing aft decks of the two ships. The President of Holland America offered toasts on each ship and then there was a drone show. More than 500 drones in synchronized flying. Here are two clips. I reduced the quality do they would load on this blog. The first is the intro:

The Second clip is the Volendam section of the show

And here are some stills of the show, higher quality.

The next day Suzi and I dedicated to visiting world cruise friends. Both ships were connected by a shoreside walkway, so we did not have to enter the main terminal, making cross visits easy. We spent a lot of time with our friends and tablemates on other cruises, Sondra and Bill. Sondra had been on the whole cruise, as she is every year. Bill joined the ship on Athens for the ride home, and to be part of this party. Several people we knew joined either of the cruises for the last segment so they could be part of the parties.

Sondra is well known to the staff. When we on the Zuiderdam the first day she was off at an event. When I asked to call her room (she does not have a mobile and is not on internet during the cruise) the person behind the desk said ‘Oh, Miss Sondra is ashore right now, but Miss Sondra will be back at 5:30 but has a dinner at 6:30.” We left her a note and voice mail on her cabin phone and spent most of the next day with her, and with other friends on Zuiderdam.

We missed much of Barcelona, but we are scheduled to be back twice in 2026, including on visit with both of our sons, our daughter’s in law and all the grandkids, Insha’Allah.

Oh, and we met again three days later in Lisbon, without the drones.

Here is what we did see of Barcelona, please click here.