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…

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…