Holland America Line

Anyone who’s been to Half Moon Cay knows it’s a perfect beach day. On this itinerary, we have a rare two-day stop at the Carnival Corporation private island shared by Holland America and Carnival Cruise Line. That means I have the opportunity to try out a few new activities since I have extra time.

One of the hallmarks of Holland America is its music program, especially on its newest ships. As today was a sea day, I decided to explore more of the ship’s musical offerings.

Rotterdam’s first port of call was Bimini, Bahamas, a relatively new cruise ship destination. At first, the port was going to be the exclusive beach club domain of Virgin Voyages, but now several cruise lines are calling at the island. This would be my first visit.

Oh-dark-thirty wakeup calls, malfunctioning ride share apps, and flight delays are not how I prefer to start my trips, but sometimes you have to work to earn your cruise. Today was one of those days. 

It might surprise you, but cruise lines have been debuting new ships during the pandemic, including Carnival’s Mardi Gras, Celebrity Apex, and Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas. Another newcomer, Holland America’s Rotterdam is on its maiden transatlantic crossing right now. On Friday I will board that ship’s first cruise from Fort Lauderdale – a five-night Bahamas sailing -- to give you all a first look at the brand-new ship.

Holland America has announced itinerary updates for 2022, including return-to-cruise dates for Volendam and Zaandam, and the cancellation of its 2022 world cruise. 

“We have been diligently planning and preparing to move our ships back into service, and after an extremely successful restart in Alaska and Europe we are thrilled to have return-to-service dates for Volendam and Zaandam,” said Gus Antorcha, president of Holland America Line, in a company statement. 

Holland America is ramping up its 2021 cruise schedule from U.S. homeports with newly announced cruises from San Diego and Ft. Lauderdale. The line previously opened bookings for summer Alaska cruises from Seattle, as well as Eastern Mediterranean cruises from Athens, Greece. It's another positive move as cruise lines slowly return to cruising from the U.S. and around the world.

Another cruise line has announced plans for a restart outside of the United States.

Holland America Line announced that it will restart cruises from Piraeus (Athens) in August with four departures aboard Eurodam.

The new sailings go on sale beginning May 6, 2021.

Update, 4/11/2021: On October 31, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowed its no-sail order to expire and issued a conditional sailing framework, to which all ships must adhere in order to resume cruising. Since that time, Holland America Line has pushed back its restart date for all ships through June 30, 2021, with sailings to select regions on select ships canceled into August.

All sailings that depart from or return to Canada ports have also been canceled.