Day seven aboard Holland America’s Rotterdam and we’re inching closer to the highlight of this cruise: our partial transit of the Panama Canal tomorrow. But before we get to Panama, today brought us to Cartagena, Colombia, where Rotterdam docked right at 7:00 a.m. Plenty of guests were up bright and…
Day six aboard Holland America’s Rotterdam brought us another sea day as we continue making our way toward our next port of call, Cartagena, Colombia, where we’ll spend a few hours exploring the city on Saturday. Sea days are always a good opportunity to talk about topics that come up…
Day five aboard Holland America’s Rotterdam brought us to Willemstad, Curaçao, the capital of this Caribbean island that happens to be part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. If you’ve cruised the southern Caribbean before, you’ve probably heard the term ABC islands, which refers to Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. Those…
Day four was another sea day on Holland America’s Rotterdam as we continue heading south toward our next port of call, Willemstad, Curaçao, where we’re scheduled to arrive at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday. After Curaçao we deeper into the Caribbean before reaching what many people, myself included, consider the highlight…
Today is the start of two back-to-back sea days as we make our way south toward our next port of call, Willemstad, Curaçao. Sea days are always a good opportunity to slow down, explore the ship a bit more, and in this case, talk about the ship itself. Since I'm…
Our first port of call on this Panama Canal journey was Holland America Line’s private island in the Bahamas, Half Moon Cay. And before we go any further, I need to address something. Carnival Corporation recently decided that Half Moon Cay should now be called “RelaxAway, Half Moon Cay.” I…
Some ships feel familiar after you've been on them once and start to feel like home after you've sailed on them a few times. And that's definitely the case with Holland America Line’s Rotterdam, which I just stepped off in November after three weeks wonderful sailing her around the Caribbean.…
It’s our final day aboard the Disney Magic as we head back to Galveston. Spending a sea day is always my favorite way to conclude a cruise. It gives that wind-down time before rediscovering dry land and that reality check of everyday life. For the most part, it was an…
Day 4 brings us to what I’ve been waiting for, arriving in Progreso, Mexico, and a trip to Chichén-Itzá. We have a fairly long day in port, as we were cleared to go ashore at 10:30, with all aboard scheduled for 7 p.m. This would normally be more than enough…
We’ve hit the midway point of this 5-night sailing as we pull into Cozumel, Mexico. As I often mention, this is not one of our preferred ports. Combined with a later arrival time, with clearance to go ashore at 11:00 AM and all aboard at 6:00 PM, along with overcast…
