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…

Day 10 already and it's hard to believe we’re wrapping up the final port of this 12-day Caribbean run on Holland America’s Rotterdam. We’ve hit some incredible spots over the past week and a half: Half Moon Cay, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Tobago, Barbados, Guadeloupe… and now we’ve arrived at…

Day 9 already, and this cruise is flying by. So far on this 12-day Rotterdam sailing, we’ve checked off Half Moon Cay, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Scarborough (Tobago), and Bridgetown (Barbados). Today brought us somewhere completely new for me: Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. This is our second-to-last port before San Juan, and…

Today is Day 8 of this 12-day Caribbean cruise on Rotterdam, and we’re spending it in Bridgetown, Barbados.  We’re docked at the Port of Bridgetown Cruise Terminal, which is both a major cruise hub and a working freight yard. This is one of the larger cruise ports in the Caribbean…

Day 7 on Rotterdam brought us to Scarborough, Tobago, where we pulled up to the pier right around 8am and started disembarking shortly after. On the previous evening, the captain made an interesting announcement — the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, would be in the area…

Day 6 on Holland America’s Rotterdam and today we are visiting the island of St. Lucia, pulling into Castries right at 10am. This is our third port on this 12-day run — after Half Moon Cay and St. Maarten — and after two full days staring at nothing but ocean…

Day 5 on Rotterdam and today we’re finally off the ship and docked in St. Maarten — our second stop on this 12-day Eastern Caribbean cruise. After Half Moon Cay back on Day 2 and then two full sea days, I was ready to touch land again. Don’t get me…

Day 4 on Holland America’s Rotterdam, and we’re spending it at sea as we make our way toward our second port of call on this 12-day Eastern Caribbean cruise — St. Maarten. So far we’ve only visited one port, Holland America’s private island Half Moon Cay, back on Day 2.…

Day 3 on Holland America’s Rotterdam was the first of two back-to-back sea days as we make our way toward our next port of call, St. Maarten, where we’ll arrive on Wednesday. Personally, I love a sea day — no rushing, no tender tickets, no “be back onboard by 2:30pm,”…

Day 2 on Holland America’s Rotterdam brought us to our first port of call: Half Moon Cay, HAL’s private island in the Bahamas. We arrived a little before 10am, and tender operations began shortly afterward. This visit was a bit unique because we weren’t the only ones there — two…