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Travel: Holland America celebrates 150 years

It’s high season for milestones on the high seas.

A flood of coinciding historical dates has many cruise lines riding a two-year wave of round-numbered anniversaries. For an industry that fears catastrophic weather, this perfect storm is quite welcome. As cruise companies navigate around the revenue-hitting remnants of a pandemic, nearly a dozen with well-timed milestones have a natural tie-in for limited-time deals, merchandise and itineraries, and for their pleasure-seeking passengers and smiling crews, another reason to make merry.

In what sounds like something straight out of “Ripley’s Believe It or Not,” Carnival, Disney, Celebrity, Holland America, MSC, Oceania, Paul Gauguin, Regent Seven Seas, Royal Caribbean, Viking and Windstar all have major milestones on the calendar. Even sweeter, their dates are beyond the dark cloud of COVID-19. Not as fortunate was one esteemed cruise line; Cunard missed a boatload of pomp and circumstance having its 180th anniversary come about in the fourth month of what became a 15-month industry shutdown. Poor Sir Samuel Cunard, who established the first regularly scheduled transatlantic mail and passenger service with the maiden voyage of Britannia that departed on July 4, 1840.

As for this year’s anniversaries ending in 0 or 5, the grandest has to be Holland America Line’s 150th. The third-oldest major cruise line (after P&O and Cunard) was founded in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on April 18, 1873. Holland America, or HAL for short, commemorated its sesquicentennial with reverence by having the fleet’s current flagship, the 2-year-old, 2,650-passenger MS Rotterdam, arrive in its namesake city 150 years to the day of the company’s founding. Princess Margriet of the Netherlands participated in a commemorative bell presentation at the Hotel New York that, in a prior life, was HAL’s headquarters from 1901 to 1977. Back on the ship, the seventh in the fleet christened “Rotterdam,” cruise line President Gus Antorcha toasted to the special occasion and the next day’s voyage that would sail to Oslo, Norway, and Copenhagen, Denmark, before docking in Amsterdam, the flagship’s home port for the rest of spring and the entire summer.

On this side of the pond, the 12-deck Rotterdam will sail out of Fort Lauderdale from October through March, returning to the South Florida port again in October 2024 for six more months of Caribbean cruising.

The West Coast market is certainly not without its own anniversary specials. Holland America (hollandamerica.com) is bringing some of its upper-premium-class ships to the Pacific for a new category of extended cruises called Legendary Voyages. Ranging from 25 to 56 days, these cruises will take passengers deeper into a particular region than on a traditional itinerary. Roundtrips from San Diego include the 51-day “Tales of the South Pacific” that goes to Fiji, French Polynesia and Hawaii in September 2024. Out of Seattle that same month, the 53-day “Majestic Japan” will cover Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, a full circle of Japan, a pass-by of Midway Island and then an overnighter in Hawaii before returning to the Emerald City.

Among the more unique and shorter roundtrips from San Diego, HAL’s only Southern California embarkation port, are 14- and 22-nighters that will be perfectly positioned near Mazatlán to view the April 2024 solar eclipse. Eclipsing that itinerary is one we should mention for kicks — unless you have the time and money to sail with Holland America for a recently announced 133-day “Pole-to-Pole” roundtrip in January 2025 that enables cruisers to visit five continents on a journey that travels south to north.

Back to HAL’s 150th anniversary, nods across the fleet include throwback happy hours which roll back time with select potent potables priced as low as 75 cents. In a way, these cheap drinks pay homage to Holland America inventing the “booze cruise” in 1920 at the start of Prohibition. Back then, once a ship crossed into international waters, the U.S. ban on alcohol didn’t apply. That loophole allowed the cruise line to offer inexpensive overnighters with unlimited drinks through 1933.

Today’s Holland America doesn’t do booze cruises — even four-night trips are rare from the Seattle-based cruise line — but plenty of imbibing still goes on at the fleet’s comfortable bars and lounges. Thanks to the line’s 150th, even more passengers are getting in the spirit with spirits. In addition to the limited-edition HAL Pils, a pilsner beer made in partnership with the Seattle-based Pike Brewing Company, Holland America is debuting an exclusive-label gin. Affectionately named De Lijn, Dutch for “The Line,” Holland America’s first produced liquor bears notes of orange, rose, elderberry, lemon verbena, lemon, raspberry and, of course, juniper. The new signature spirit is featured in three new cocktails onboard: The Dutch 150 is a twist on a French 75 with sparkling wine and lemon juice; the 150th Martini is shaken or stirred with Noilly Pratt vermouth; and the 150th Gin & Tonic is exclusively crafted tableside at the Pinnacle Grill, which rivals Celebrity’s Murano as the best steakhouse at sea.

Reception to these commemorative cocktails has been so favorable, we’re told they’ve already earned their way onto HAL’s permanent drink menu fleetwide. Good call as all three are quite quaffable.

Whether bellying up to a bar or grabbing the knife and fork, a Holland America cruise is loaded with Dutch treats. Some are as simple as the conveniences of a coffee carafe left on the dining table and a list of what’s being served at the end of each buffet station. No need to hunt down a server for a refill of joe or play search the smorgasbord on a HAL cruise. Even their afternoon tea is made more pleasurable by abandoning the agonizingly slow cart or item-by-item waiter service in favor of a tantalizing tower of finger sandwiches and fancy sweets presented upon being seated. The wait staff is still given refill duties on the tea, which, being more elegant than coffee during the quintessentially British 4 p.m. ritual, is appropriate.

From tea bags to a mixed bag, that’s what the entertainment and activities are on a HAL cruise. On the plus side, clever scheduling allows three music acts — rock, blues and by-request piano — to play the cruise line’s popular Music Walk in the evening without drowning each other out. The multimedia “Origin Story” in the two-deck World Stage auditorium is an edutaining history lesson on Holland America’s first 150 years. Also in the big theater are performances by the Step One Dance Company, a talented troupe of six hoofers, but three shows a week without a song-and-dance production show thrown in can get tedious.

The overall onboard daily program also can use a makeover and a six-pack of Red Bull. For a premium-category cruise line the range of activities is small, the options are sleepy, and too many on the schedule require a fee. Upcharge or no upcharge, the mix is lacking compared to competitive cruise lines including those that also draw an older demographic. Port days are traditionally thin on things to do on the ship, but on sea days, especially, waking hours shouldn’t be centered on eating.

That said, Holland America has some of the best-tasting and best-plated cuisine afloat, and that includes what’s served on more pricy ultra-luxury lines. Pedestrian as this may seem, HAL certainly has the best gourmet hamburger on sea or land: the Pinnacle Burger, kissed with bacon jam and garlic-chipotle aioli, is only served at lunch in the specialty steakhouse, and so worth the $15 upcharge. The fare-inclusive grub also impresses. For the 150th anniversary season, dinner menus in the main dining room feature classic dishes from Holland America’s historic sailings. The retro “chopped sirloin steak with Robert sauce” tastes better than it sounds.

As noted, HAL isn’t the only cruise line with a milestone anniversary in 2022-24. A year ago, Viking’s (vikingcruises.com) 25th anniversary was commemorated with a first-ever convoy of its three classes of ultra-luxury ships; river, ocean and expedition vessels met in Amsterdam for a news-making ceremony. Also in 2022, Regent Seven Seas (rssc.com) celebrated 30 years of ultra-luxury cruising with a curated collection of unique pearl anniversary voyages on five continents that continue through this year. Even more momentous, Carnival (carnival.com) turned 50 in 2022, and celebrated in true “Fun Ship” style on every mainstream-category cruise of its golden anniversary year.

On to the present: Disney (disneycruise.com) is celebrating 25 years in the premium cruising business with “Silver Anniversary at Sea” experiences this summer that include special entertainment and merchandise on select summer sailings. Royal Caribbean (royalcaribbean.com) has big plans of its own for the 25th birthday of the mainstream line’s Crown and Anchor Society loyalty program. Members can expect enhanced benefits starting this year. Paul Gauguin Cruises (pgcruises.com), which sails exclusively in the South Pacific, is offering air credit on 25 select premium-category voyages this year and next as part of its 25th anniversary. Oceania (oceaniacruises.com) is celebrating No. 20 with this month’s launch of its newest luxury flagship, Vista, along with shipboard credit of up to $800 per stateroom. Premium-category Celebrity (celebritycruises.com) and mainstream-class MSC  (msccruises.com) each turns 35 this year, but, surprisingly, neither company seems to be making a big splash. Looking beyond, Windstar (windstarcruises.com) turns the big 4-0 in 2024. The luxury cruise line is keeping mum so far on any “over the hill” — make that “over the wave” — party plans.