Today kicks off the first of two back-to-back sea days as we head toward Fort Lauderdale and wrap up not only this 9-day segment, but my full 21-day stay onboard Rotterdam. If you’re just joining, you may want to rewind and check out the start of the previous 12-day leg…

Day six on the Rotterdam kicked off our second full day in Aruba, with an all aboard time of 4:30 pm and plenty of sunshine to finally make up for the soggy mess we dealt with the past few days. Today we were joined in Oranjestad by two new neighbors…

Carnival Cruise Line has quietly rolled out price increases to both its WiFi packages and onboard service charges effective December 1, 2025, and while the changes may seem subtle at first glance, they can make a noticeable difference over the course of a cruise, especially for families or anyone who…

Day five on this 9-day southern Caribbean cruise found us visting one happy island — Aruba — bright and early, with Rotterdam docking in Oranjestad just after 7am. The “all clear” to head ashore came a little before 8, which meant the shore day parade of beach bags and fellow…

Day four brought us to our first port of call on this 9-day segment of my 21 straight days on Rotterdam. If you’re just joining — this is the second half of a back-to-back. A whole lot has already been covered in the previous 12-day cruise, and instead of rehashing…

Day three of this 9-day Southern Caribbean adventure was spent at sea as we make our way toward our first port of call, Willemstad, Curaçao. If you’ve been following along since the Day 1 of this 21-day Rotterdam marathon, you already know the previous 12-day segment was filled with warm…

Here we go again! Day 2 of this cruise — and Day 14 of my full 21-day Rotterdam voyage — was spent at sea as we make our way toward our first port of call on this segment, Willemstad, Curaçao, where we’re scheduled to arrive Monday right at noon. If…

Time to kick off round two — the continuation of this adventure, but now as an entirely new cruise: a 9-day Southern Caribbean sailing on Holland America Line’s Rotterdam. For this journey, I booked two completely separate reservations: one for the 12-day segment that just wrapped up this morning, and…

Today marks the final day of this 12-day segment of my latest adventure aboard Holland America Line’s Rotterdam. While most passengers are packing up and getting ready to disembark tomorrow morning in Fort Lauderdale, I’m doing the exact opposite — I’m staying put, although I will be changing rooms. Once…

Day 11 already — how did that happen? We’ve covered a lot of ocean since boarding Rotterdam last week: Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Barbados, Pointe-à-Pitre, and last night’s late-night stay in San Juan. With all that port hopping, the schedule finally slows down…