{"id":70597,"date":"2023-06-01T10:04:33","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T17:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/?p=70597"},"modified":"2023-06-01T10:11:47","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T17:11:47","slug":"a-birthday-wish-decades-in-the-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/whats-new\/a-birthday-wish-decades-in-the-making\/","title":{"rendered":"A Birthday Wish Decades in the Making"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leonard Wood was surprised and delighted with a special day aboard the Zaandam.
\nPhoto courtesy of the Port of Charlottetown.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Cruise Ship Fan Receives Surprise After Admiring Vessels for More than 80 Years<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>

Since Leonard Wood was a little boy, he always admired cruise ships from afar. In fact, he has taken a picture in front of almost every cruise ship that docked at the Port of Charlottetown in Canada. Intrigued by their size and design, he wished he knew what was happening on the inside. Melissa Batchilder and Haley Zavodivker, family friends, reached out to Holland America Line<\/a> to ask if we could make his wish come true for his 87th<\/sup> birthday. We were delighted to do just that.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

On May 31, our crew welcomed Leonard, his family and friends aboard the Zaandam for a ship tour, visit to the bridge and a surprise party at the Pinnacle Grill. The excitement and awe-inspiring wonder he and his family shared were palpable.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"View<\/span><\/div>

Captain Ane Smit shows Leonard the bridge and its many controls.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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“Ever since I was little, I used to love to draw planes and big ships,\u201d he said. \u201cI loved seeing pictures of ships and was always excited to see them in port. Getting to see the size of one up close, to know firsthand what it’s like to board a ship that size is, well, more than exciting.”<\/p>\n

Leonard can\u2019t get over how large these vessels are; how they\u2019re able to sail around the world; and all the talent and skills behind the scenes to make it happen between the captain and crew.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

His daughter, Robin John, was thrilled beyond measure to see her father\u2019s wish come true.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means the world to us that Dad (aka Grampie) has this opportunity,\u201d she said. \u201cEverything that Zaandam has offered Dad is beyond amazing. I’m overwhelmed by everything. I’m just so thankful Dad gets this whole experience.”<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Father<\/span><\/div>

Leonard Wood shares a dance with his daughter, Robin John, in the Ocean Bar on the Zaandam.
\n<\/em>Photo courtesy of the Port of Charlottetown.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Leonard\u2019s excitement and passion for cruise ships seemed to pass down to his grandchildren as well. With so many memories of him admiring the vessels, his grandchildren began pointing them out whenever they docked, noting that \u201cGrampie\u2019s ship is in.\u201d And to this day, no matter how grown they\u2019ve become, they still refer to them as Grampie\u2019s ships.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Birthday<\/span><\/div>

The Zaandam crew baked a very special ship-themed cake for Leonard\u2019s birthday.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Learn more about Leonard’s story by checking out some of the local news coverage*<\/a> by Saltwire and The Guardian highlighting this special event.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Leonard, thank you for sharing your passion and excitement with all of us. We wish you a very happy birthday!<\/p>\n

*By clicking this link, you will be leaving the Holland America Line website and navigating to a third party website that is not owned, operated, or controlled by Holland America Line or any of its affiliates.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1984,"featured_media":70598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,40],"tags":[4208,4191],"class_list":["post-70597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-whats-new","category-whats-new","tag-best-of","tag-cruise-ship"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1984"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70597"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70617,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70597\/revisions\/70617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}