Day nine aboard Holland America’s Rotterdam finally brought the moment many people booked this cruise for in the first place: our partial transit of the Panama Canal. If you’ve never experienced the canal before, it’s one of those things that’s hard to fully appreciate until you actually see it happen.…

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.…

Day 9 on Holland America's Rotterdam and this marks the final day of my 21 days onboard. This 9 day segment, which wraps up today, was preceded by a 12 day cruise on the same ship, so if you’re just getting here and want the full experience, you can start…

Day 8 on the Rotterdam was the second of our back-to-back sea days, and it’s that point in the cruise where reality starts tapping you on the shoulder saying, “Hey… this is almost over.” After 21 days onboard it finally hit me that tomorrow is our last port of call,…