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,…
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…
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…
