Holland America Rotterdam 9-Day Southern Caribbean Cruise Review – Day 7: December 4, 2025

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 so you know how we got here, what I ate, and how many times I complained about people not washing their hands.

Sea days always come packed with activities, and today’s no exception. On Holland America that means trivia, pickleball, cooking demos, art auctions nobody asked for, and of course the main event tonight, the Orange Party, when HAL celebrates their Dutch roots and everyone looks like a Creamsicle. More on that in a bit.

But since this sailing is a casino slot tournament cruise, and I’ve talked about my own… losses, now feels like a good time to give a breakdown of how Holland America’s casino program actually works, because it’s one of those things people always ask about and the official explanations are about as clear as the water in the Lido pool at the end of a sea day.

Understanding Holland America’s Casino Program

First things first – even though HAL is its own brand, the casinos onboard are run by Carnival Corporation’s Ocean Players Club, just like Carnival, Princess, and P&O. But, and this is a big BUT, your casino status does not carry over between the brands. So your big baller status on Carnival means absolutely nothing once you board Rotterdam. You start from scratch, just like everyone else.

How You Earn Points

• Slots: 1 point for every $2 played (coin-in)
• Video poker: 1 point for every $5 played
• Table games: Points based on your average bet, time played, and the type of game

These points accumulate throughout the cruise and unlock various perks onboard, like free drinks in the casino once you hit around 1,500 – 2,000 points (not guaranteed, and varies by sailing – longer voyages sometimes don’t offer it).

If you use any of your points for free play, the number on your machine drops immediately. So unless you memorized your total beforehand, good luck figuring out how many you actually earned.

CBS Offers

Like most cruise lines, HAL offers players a CBS — Come Back and Sail — offer.  This is a printed casino offer placed in your stateroom on the last full day of the cruise. It’s separate from email casino offers and is usually more flexible, and is often valid on a wide range of sailings.  If your cruise is between 4–12 days, the CBS offer can be good, although some players are being really vocal right now about these offers being WAY less generous than just a few months ago.  If you gambled a lot and didn’t get one, ask.  Sometimes they get lost in delivery, misplaced by the steward, or picked up by someone strolling by.

Yes, that actually happens, but they are tied to your Mariner Society number and can’t be used by anyone but yourself.

Make Sure You’re Getting Follow-Up Offers

The CBS offer is separate from any email offers you may get after the cruise.  Post-cruise email offers are sometimes equal to or better than the CBS offer, so you want to make sure you’re opted in to receive these after the cruise.  To do that:

1. Log into your account at hollandamerica.com
2. Go to Profile
3. Open Preferences & Notifications
4. Make sure marketing emails are ON

Now, here’s where things with Carnival Corporations casino program gets muddy.  There is no transparency or published list of what points will get you.  So, you don’t know if 3,000 points are going to get you dinner at Pinnacle Grill, or… nothing at all!  Will racking up 50,000 points get you a CBS offer that includes a suite and $1,000 in free play?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  It may give you an inside with no free play!  There’s no “rules” for what points and play will get you.

So, in a nutshell, if you gamble on Holland America, or any Carnival Corporation brand:

• Points add up fast on slots, slower on video poker
• Perks vary from player to player, cruise to cruise, ship to ship
• If you didn’t get a CBS offers, check with the casino
• Email follow-ups offers require you to opt-in
• There are no published rules / thresholds for perks
• And yes… sometimes the machines feel looser on one cruise than another. Just saying.

Let’s Talk Laundry!

Now it’s time to talk about something onboard that we all take completely for granted – the folks in the laundry. These are the men and women who spend their days (and nights) washing the endless piles of towels, napkins, tablecloths, crew uniforms, and yes, even our own clothes when we hand over that little bag.

If you’ve ever taken a behind-the-scenes tour on a ship, chances are you’ve seen the laundry operation – and if you haven’t, picture this: it’s several decks below the waterline, tucked into the hottest, steamiest part of the ship, where industrial machines run nonstop and the temperature is equal to a hot day on the equator.

It’s not glamorous… at all. But it is absolutely essential.

The laundry team works in an environment that most of us would last maybe ten minutes in, yet they do it day after day with incredible pride. They’re among the “invisible crew” – the people you may never meet, never see, never interact with, but without them your cruise would fall apart fast. Think about it: no laundry team means no clean sheets, no fluffy towels, no napkins in the dining room, and definitely no nicely pressed shirt you send out because you didn’t feel like ironing on vacation. These crew members are literally unsung heroes.

Now, when you send out your laundry on Holland America, it does not get tossed into the same industrial machine that washes 600 pounds of towels at a time.

A behind the scenes look at the laundry on ZuiderdamGuest laundry is handled separately in dedicated machines, washed, pressed or folded by hand, and returned neatly wrapped.

HAL offers several options: the “all you can stuff into the bag” wash-and-fold special, the wash-and-press bag, unlimited laundry packages (prices vary by cruise length), and of course à la carte items and dry cleaning for when you spill wine on yourself.  No judgement.  It happens.

A huge perk on Holland America is that Four and Five-Star Mariners get unlimited wash and press, which I absolutely take advantage of.

And here’s the small but meaningful touch I love: when your laundry comes back, it often includes a little handwritten note from the crew member who took care of it. On this segment it came from Lulu. It’s such a simple gesture, but it’s a reminder that there are real people below deck working incredibly hard to make sure your cruise feels effortless.

If you get one of those notes, mention that crew member in your post-cruise survey or the feedback section of the HAL app. Those comments matter. And if you send laundry out again during the cruise, slipping in a small thank-you note, or even a gratuity, is absolutely appropriate and very much appreciated.

Orange Party Night!

Now let’s talk about the big moment everyone looks forward to on a Holland America cruise – Orange Party Night. If you’re new to HAL and wondering what the Orange Party is, here’s the scoop: orange is the national color of the Netherlands, thanks to the Dutch Royal Family – the House of Orange-Nassau. Holland America has Dutch roots, so once per cruise, guests are invited to dress up and celebrate like… well, the Dutch!

And people take this seriously.

You’ll see folks dressed in orange outfits, orange glasses, orange boas, neon orange blazers, orange shoes, and really anything that has a splash of orange in it. Now, you don’t have to wear orange – but if you don’t, you’ll feel a little left out. Orange and white is fine. Orange and blue is classic. Anything with a pop of orange works. Just don’t show up in all black.

It isn’t just the attire that gets the Dutch treatment, the food does too. The Main Dining Room and Lido Market both roll out a special Dutch-themed dinner menu.

Lido Market Dutch Night Dinner Menu

Main Dining Room Dutch Dinner Menu

On Rotterdam, the Orange Party was held in B.B. King’s Blues Club on Deck 2, and it was packed. Wall-to-wall people, the B.B. King’s band on stage absolutely crushing it, and the dance floor was packed for the entire party. The band played for over an hour straight – no breaks, no slowing down.

The bars around the ship offered special orange cocktails and for those who wanted to pre-game, HAL offered a for-a-fee bar hop earlier in the evening. A host leads you to several bars around the ship, each stop featuring a different cocktail to get you “warmed up” before the main event.

Orange Night is one of those things that really differentiates Holland America from other lines.  After all, EVERY line has a White Party but, only one has an Orange Party!  Even if you’re not the type who dresses up, it’s pretty hard not to take part in the fun.   And honestly?  It’s always a blast.

By the time the Orange Party wrapped up, I took a look at the time and instantly realized something. I stayed out way past the closing time for the Main Dining Room and all the specialty restaurants. So… dinner was going to be improvised tonight.

No problem, right?   New York Deli & Pizza on Deck 10 was calling my name.

So up I went. Apparently, everyone else had the exact same idea. The wait for a custom pie was about 20 minutes, which under normal circumstances is perfectly reasonable. But it was late.

I spotted some grab-and-go square slices under the heat lamp. I figured I’d grab a couple of those plus some wings and call it a night. Easy.

Except… not so easy.

I was politely directed to the menu, where the wings section was covered with a piece of duct tape.

“No wings tonight?”

“No, we’re out.”

Out. Of. Wings.

So I took my sad little square slices, and headed back to my stateroom. Unfortunately, those slices had clearly been under that heat lamp long enough to legally drink.  Looking back, I should have waited the 20 minutes for a fresh pie.  So that was dinner.

Tomorrow we’ve got one more sea day before arriving at our final port of call, Half Moon Cay on Saturday. As always, thanks for following along… and may your late-night pizza always be softer than mine.

Daily Schedule

Personal Day-By-Day Rotterdam Cruise Review: