I frowned and requested, “Say that again. What is our cruise ship’s name?”

My daughter Tammie, who plans, organizes, schedules and purchases tickets for all our vacations, repeated and explained, “It’s called the Eurodam. The ship belongs to the Holland America Cruise Line.”

We had never taken a cruise for a vacation before, so I didn’t know what to expect. I doubted the experience would be like the 1980’s television show “Love Boat,” and I hoped it wouldn’t be like some of the cruise stories I’d had people tell me about: the ship being one huge, non-stop floating buffet.

Tammie and I started to explore the possibility of taking a cruise vacation because I like traveling and visiting different places, but dislike packing and unpacking as we move from one hotel to the next. I wanted a vacation where I could visit several cities while staying in one place. Our cruise to Alaska and back through the inside passage checked all the boxes on my ‘want list.’

Our cabin in the Eurodam matched a typical hotel room: well-appointed and stocked with everything we would need. Unlike a hotel room, our cabin also came with a cabin steward. The steward seemed to materialize out of thin air shortly after we stepped into our cabin. He introduced himself and asked if we needed anything.

 Cabin stewards clean and service the cabins assigned to them. It was like having a guardian angel watching over us. We never had to ask for extra towels, and on more than one occasion we found them on the bed, folded to resemble an animal such as a dog or elephant. While smoothing the wrinkles out of the bed sheets, he occasionally left chocolate candies on the pillows. Each morning, he left that day’s activity itinerary and dining room menu in the mailbox next to our door.

Instead of packing and unpacking while the ship carried us from one city to the next, we attended presentations, activities, and recitals. When we wanted to relax, we took advantage of a small library and lounge chairs in the ship’s Crow’s Nest Lounge.

My fears that I would have the temptation to eat nonstop while on the cruise never happened. While the food bars on the Lido deck were open all day, and passengers can eat as much and often as they wanted, my daughter and I preferred to visit the dining room for breakfast and the evening meal.  In between those times, if we wanted, we visited the Lido deck for tea and lemonade (an Arnold Palmer) and a small serving of whatever looked good.

I loved the Eurodam’s dining room because of the respectful way we were treated as well as the high quality of the food. Although the portions were small, I always left the dining room feeling completely sated because we ate slowly and were relaxed while experiencing several unfamiliar dishes.

 Tammie and I enjoyed our cruise to Alaska so much that I told her I wanted to go on another cruise this year. I ordered, “This time I want to see the East Coast where we can follow the Atlantic Ocean to Canada. Maybe we can visit Prince Edward Island!” My daughter was instantly interested. As schoolgirls she and her sister Niki loved the television series, “Anne of Green Gables”. The story of a red-haired orphan based on the classic novels by Canadian author, L. M. Montgomery, takes place on Prince Edward Island.

It didn’t take long for Tammie to use her reference librarian magic to research options and present me with different cruise packages from which to pick. Serendipitously, that week I received a letter from the Holland America Cruise Line which offered a deal because this year the company was celebrating America’s 250^th anniversary. If we bought two tickets before the end of April, the third and fourth passengers in the cabin didn’t have to pay! The offer wasn’t entirely free, of course. The small print announced that taxes and gratuities must be paid for the two extra passengers. That still seemed like a great deal to me. I suggested to Tammie, “We should invite Niki to join us.”

Curious about the Holland America Cruise Line, I looked it up in the computer. Since 1989 its headquarters have been in Seattle, Washington. It has eleven ships, and every one of them has a name that ends with dam. Apparently, the word dam in the Netherlands is a place name suffix, like burg is in the USA. For example: Harrisburg, Greensburg and Bloomsburg.

Once Tammie purchased the cruise tickets, she announced, “The ship we will be sailing on this time is called the Zuiderdam”

I smiled and quipped, “I knew we would sail on another dam ship.”