Which were your 3 favorite Holland America cruises and why ? Please post photos .

[scubacruiserx2]

 One of our favorite cruises was a B2B on the Zuiderdam in 2019 . It sailed from Copenhagen and went 10 days to the Baltic and 14 to Norway , Scotland and Iceland .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RuthC]

The first two are easy: 

ss Statendam NYC to Bermuda and return. It was this cruise that got me started---got me hooked! Without it, I might never have fallen in love with the sea the way I did, and have used those seas to see the far corners of the world. 

MS Ryndam Rio to Santiago, via Antarctia. By this cruise I had sailed a lot, both alone, and with my husband. Also by this cruise I was alone again, but coming back out into the world. The air, the scenery, the fellow passengers, were the best anyone could ever hope for that cruise. It was a special reentry into becoming myself. Perfect setting to visit Antarctica. 

The third favorite? The rest have all been so great, it's hard to choose. Perhaps it was the Cruise Critic group cruise organized by RevNeal on the Zaandam round trip from San Diego to Hawaii. Wonderful group of people, many of whom became life-long friends and travel companions. 
There are other contenders for the title, but this is definitely right up there with the best of times. 

[Greysandy]

1. 2 Week Alaska cruise to Kodiak, Sitka, Homer (along with the common AK ports). We like this 2 week itinerary much more than the half land based and half cruise tour. We are booked on the 28 day Alaska June 2024 (already sold out).

 

 

2. 20 day Mediterranean including Santorini, Athens, Monte Carlo, Corfu and so many more, only one sea day. The Big reason this one tops the list is that we booked it after the Italian Captain sank the Costa ship, and bookings were down, so we got a Veranda for 20 days for $2,000pp.

3. Mexican Riviera on the Koningsdam, every year. We can take the Amtrak train 2 hours to the embarkation. We don't care about the ports and mostly spend all day in our cabana, then have a specialty dining dinner, then listen to great music.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Greysandy
pictures

[rafinmd]

I hope I'm not accused of cheating on this. 

At Number 3 I'll say a 2014 World Cruise segment on Amsterdam, Cape Town to Fort Lauderdale.  I hadn't really been looking for this but I had booked a pair of Crystal Cruises, from Bali to Cape Town.  Years earlier I had flown to Cape Town and back and I was really dreading the idea of doing it again, so I looked to see what was available and found the Amsterdam leaving Cape Town just 3 days later.  While not what I was looking for it was a great cruise.  One of the highlights was the port call at St. Helena.  I climbed a long stairway, "Jacobs Ladder".  This is the view from the top and the stairway

 

Number 2 is the 2019 Prinsendam Grand South America.  While there were MANY highlights from this cruise one that is unique is our visit to Grytviken, South Georgia Island, normally open only to much smaller ships than the Prinsendam, and we only got final permission a few days before our arrival.  We saw lots of wildlife as well as Shackleton's grave.  Here's the museum building with a lot of historic equipment out front:

 

Number 1 is not exactly a cruise.  It's what I call my 2018 "Grand Alaska".  It started on MS Volendam 3 days Vancouver to Skagway and then overland via Denali to Anchorage, and finally MS Westerdam back to Vancouver.  I turned 75 that summer and my brother decided to make it a birthday celebration, joining me from Vancouver to Anchorage.  That year he itineraries were set up with a minimum of port duplication.  The only port in common was Juneau but we took the small boat tour up Tracy Arm and had minimal time there.

 

Westerdam did her Glacier viewing at Glacier Bay and stopped at Haines instead of Skagway.  Here's the point where we crossed over to the Yukon:

 

Sadly, Roger had died within 3 years.

 

Roy

 

[OlsSalt]

1. Tie: Rotterdam - Grand Asia-Indonesia - London to Singapore plus 2 weeks in Indonesia; & Rotterdam RT Voyage of the Vikings

 

2 . Tie: Maasdam -  first In Depth - FLL - Papeete - via Easter Island; &  Maasdam last In Depth (for us) - SF to Tokyo across Alaska, Russia Far East - 2 weeks Japan

 

3. Tie: Zaandam Antartica & Prinsendam Black Sea-Barcelona to Athens

 

(I honestly tried to pick just three, but my fingers would not let me. Nor do my amazing memories of other grand HAL cruises,  who whimper to also be included. Thank you, HAL.)

[whogo]

I've loved them all.

Tied for First Place:

 

Noordam: 38 days, Vancouver to Aukland.

The longer the better. Great ports, lots of fun Australians aboard. Finally crossed the equator by ship. Sea days were as much fun as port days. Itinerary: Vancouver, Canada; Honolulu, Hawaii; Kona, Hawaii; Apia, Samoa; Suva, Fiji; Dravui Island, Fiji; Lautoka, Fiji; Lifou, New Caledonia; Mare, New Caledonia; Sydney, Australia; Melbourne, Australia; Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; Milford Sound, New Zealand; Dunedin (Port Chalmers), New Zealand; Akaroa, New Zealand; Picton, New Zealand; Wellington, New Zealand; Napier, New Zealand; Tauranga, New Zealand; Aukland, New Zealand. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2592005-live-the-grouch-on-the-noordam-for-38-days-to-new-zealand-sept-30-2018/

 

Prinsendam: 30 days, Athens to Fort Lauderdale.

The longer the better. Had a blast. My sister was aboard with cousin Mimi, who kept us amused with tales from the smoking area. Smokers seemed to lead more interesting lives.  Athens, Greece; Larnaca, Cyprus; Ashdod, Israel, Haifa, Israel; Rhodes, Santorini, & Crete, Greece; Valletta, Malta; Messina, Naples, & Civitavecchia, Italy; Barcelona, Cartegena, Malaga, & Huelva, Spain; Lisbon & Funchal, Madeira, Portugal; Fort Lauderdale. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2329674-live-the-grouch-on-the-prinsendam-october-20-2016-for-30-days/ Every port a winner except Huelva.

 

[scubacruiserx2]

On 5/3/2023 at 6:00 PM, rafinmd said:

I hope I'm not accused of cheating on this. 

At Number 3 I'll say a 2014 World Cruise segment on Amsterdam, Cape Town to Fort Lauderdale.  I hadn't really been looking for this but I had booked a pair of Crystal Cruises, from Bali to Cape Town.  Years earlier I had flown to Cape Town and back and I was really dreading the idea of doing it again, so I looked to see what was available and found the Amsterdam leaving Cape Town just 3 days later.  While not what I was looking for it was a great cruise.  One of the highlights was the port call at St. Helena.  I climbed a long stairway, "Jacobs Ladder".  This is the view from the top and the stairway

 

Number 2 is the 2019 Prinsendam Grand South America.  While there were MANY highlights from this cruise one that is unique is our visit to Grytviken, South Georgia Island, normally open only to much smaller ships than the Prinsendam, and we only got final permission a few days before our arrival.  We saw lots of wildlife as well as Shackleton's grave.  Here's the museum building with a lot of historic equipment out front:

 

Number 1 is not exactly a cruise.  It's what I call my 2018 "Grand Alaska".  It started on MS Volendam 3 days Vancouver to Skagway and then overland via Denali to Anchorage, and finally MS Westerdam back to Vancouver.  I turned 75 that summer and my brother decided to make it a birthday celebration, joining me from Vancouver to Anchorage.  That year he itineraries were set up with a minimum of port duplication.  The only port in common was Juneau but we took the small boat tour up Tracy Arm and had minimal time there.

 

Westerdam did her Glacier viewing at Glacier Bay and stopped at Haines instead of Skagway.  Here's the point where we crossed over to the Yukon:

 

Sadly, Roger had died within 3 years.

 

Roy

 

 

  Thank you for sharing and we are sad for the loss of your brother . We also like to stay extra days when we do cruises before or after the cruise ,  especially if it's from a distant port . We saw this sign on one of our 3 favorite cruises also , the last Alaska cruise on the New Amsterdam before a canal transit to Ft. Lauderdale , our home port .

[scubacruiserx2]

   Earlier that year was our best cruise and land stay . It began in Buenos Aires with a 3 hour light to Patagonia for 8 days before joining the Zaandam near Santiago to Antarctica . We landed in El Calafate but went south to El Chalten in a 50mph crosswind .

 

Rush hour traffic

 

http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p629/scubax2/Antarctica/IMG_6943_zpsavvntyry.jpg

 

http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p629/scubax2/Antarctica/IMG_7013_zpsqwliuuzo.jpg

 

Where we spent the night

 

http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p629/scubax2/Antarctica/IMG_7164_zpsjw8ed03p.jpg

 

Back to El Calafate . 3 hours and no gas stations 

 

http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p629/scubax2/Antarctica/DSC03263_zpsawminf8f.jpg

 

The Perito Moreno Glacier near El Calafate with a calf the size of a semi truck

 

 

 

Its hard to tell the size of the glacier so its 3 miles wide , 240 ' tall and 19 miles deep

 

http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p629/scubax2/South%20America%20cruise%202013/IMG_0111-002_zps25cde17a.jpg

 

This large chunck of blue ice floated up from underwater and dwarfs this boat with 100 people on it 

 

http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p629/scubax2/Antarctica/IMG_7746_zpsbiurbvwd.jpg

 

We had a day long multi glacier cruise planned for the next morning 

[scubacruiserx2]

Photobucket will not allow me to upload my photos but I can see the review here :

 

 

I can see it , can you ?

[rafinmd]

33 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

Photobucket will not allow me to upload my photos but I can see the review here :

 

 

I can see it , can you ?

I can.  I think Cruise Critic only allows links that start with httpS to bring up photos.  Interesting, when I copied and pasted the link, it came up with https like this one:

 

 

Roy

[JoC2024]

25 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

I can.  I think Cruise Critic only allows links that start with httpS to bring up photos.  Interesting, when I copied and pasted the link, it came up with https like this one:

 

 

Roy

it can be seen Roy.  thanks for posting.  seems Google had an issue with many webpages/sites due to security and that https thing was part of it, especially if the page didn't have it (and in some cases even if it did).  we did a similar cruise back in 2017 also on the Zaandam, from east to west without the Antarctica bit. I do up webpages on our family homepage of our overseas trips, and if the link works, it can be seen here - https://www.joc.id.au/joc2017odyssey.htm
must admit to a bit of chuckle with your taxi experience in BA and the traffic jam, however our experience was more friendly with the help of local currency and Google Translate... the cabbie and myself had a very informative conversation during our ride back to our hotel.  all the best, cheers

[0106]

1 hour ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

I can see it , can you ?

I can see it, thanks for posting!  I will be doing 22 days on the Oosterdam beginning in Buenos Aires in January. What was the best experience on the cruise?  Any advice.  I’ve already booked Volunteer Point and bought a new pair of binoculars for scenic cruising.

[OlsSalt]

We also enjoyed visiting the full size replicas of Magellan's and Darwin's ships in Punta Arenas, Chile if you are staying in town. 

 

Sobering to see what passed for "cruise travel" in those days, that opened up the world to what we enjoy today. 

[scubacruiserx2]

16 hours ago, rafinmd said:

I can.  I think Cruise Critic only allows links that start with httpS to bring up photos.  Interesting, when I copied and pasted the link, it came up with https like this one:

 

 

Roy

 

 Thanks Roy . We only keep our Photobucket account because if we don't our plder photos will disappear . We now go straight to CC from our computer as  we use cameras with SD cards .

[scubacruiserx2]

16 hours ago, 0106 said:

I can see it, thanks for posting!  I will be doing 22 days on the Oosterdam beginning in Buenos Aires in January. What was the best experience on the cruise?  Any advice.  I’ve already booked Volunteer Point and bought a new pair of binoculars for scenic cruising.

 

   Congratulations ! This may be a once in a lifetime cruise and we would recommend a Neptune suite , the aft corner if you can affort it . Please take spare chargers , batteries , SD cards and soft cleaning cloths for you photo equipment as they have limited supply on the ship and the cold weather really drains batteries . We really liked being able to go in and out of the room for a drink , food or the bathroom . Sunglasses and sunscreen . My wife spotted the whales , orca and penguins on the move with the binocolars to help me spot them with the telephoto lens and she got some good photos too .

  We loved Antarctica , the Falkland penguins and the Beagle Channel/Glacier Alley from the ship . We've been to Alaska a couple of times and Iceland but what we saw in the south blew them away .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This video is so hypnotizing that it didn't look real

 

 

This glacier in Glacier Alley has it's own waterfall !

 

 

 

 

We hope that we have helped and that you have the best trip ever  .

Edited May 8, 2023 by scubacruiserx2

[bennybear]

On 5/2/2023 at 4:10 AM, Mary229 said:

1. Maple syrup taffy

2. old Quebec City, a European town on the frontier ditto Montreal

3 anything that far north

4. I am French Acadian by heritage - it feels right

5.  Fascinating maritime history of the Canadian maritimes

6. Bay of Fundy

7. Mussels in PEI

8. add Newfoundland and Labrador - you are in for a treat, those lands are as exotic as anything in the world .  Yes, I know exotic is not the first word people think of when discussing eastern Canada but they are remote, scenic and take a special people to call home

9. Lobster

If only they would find something other than Sydney I would go every year

So agree about Newfoundland, you know you’re still in Canada but it’s otherworldly in a great way!  We weren’t even always able to understand the dialect! And the music was incredible and the food!  

[bennybear]

I also need to add one of my other favourite cruises,  a long Mediterranean. We’ve done three of them,  21 days on the Noordam,  24 on the Nieuw Amsterdam in a Neptune and 23 on the Koningsdam.

 

The Neptune wrap was hopefully not a once in a life time experience,  the stateroom made it special,  cocktail parties,  dinner with linens on the balcony, watching the Pleiades Meteor shower off Kefalonia, and making some lifelong friends.    We enjoyed sailing into Venice on the Grand canale,  visiting Istanbul and those sublime aft views. And they still had the chocolate extravaganza and deck barbeques.
 

Also sailing again with some of those friends on the Koningsdam was sublime. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by bennybear

[0106]

@scubacruiserx2Thank you for your advice and the videos.  I read and watched your entire trip report last night.  Fantastic!  We have booked an aft balcony in deck 8.  I thought I could run up to the Seaview pool if I needed for better viewing.  I have taken upsell offers in the past.🤞🤞🤞

[ottahand7]

20 hours ago, rafinmd said:

I can.  I think Cruise Critic only allows links that start with httpS to bring up photos.  Interesting, when I copied and pasted the link, it came up with https like this one:

 

 

Roy

Roy where was this photo taken?    

[ottahand7]

On 5/1/2023 at 11:22 PM, iflyrc5 said:

Grand South America 2020 - 4 days in Antarctica

Thanks for these lovely photos of Antarctica with some sunlight.  We had about 3 minutes of sunlight in Antarctica on GSA.   Between views like that, missing the Falklands and not being able to go to Torres del Paine I will definitely book GSA again as soon as it is offered after Christmas.   

[ottahand7]

@scubacruiserx2 thanks for starting this thread.   Great photos and great ideas for future cruises.  Nancy 

[rafinmd]

45 minutes ago, ottahand7 said:

Roy where was this photo taken?    

I didn't take it.  All I did was change @scubacruiserx2;s http to https in the link.

 

Rouy

[scubacruiserx2]

1 hour ago, ottahand7 said:

@scubacruiserx2 thanks for starting this thread.   Great photos and great ideas for future cruises.  Nancy 

 

 You're welcome Nancy . The photo that Roy copied was Mount Fitz Roy in El Chalten , Argentina . I will try to sent another one which is Torres del Paine in Chile very close by but involved a double border crossing . We had a guide that took care of the driving and paperwork .

 

http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p629/scubax2/Antarctica/IMG_7026%201_zpsrxxsfyac.jpg

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by scubacruiserx2

[ottahand7]

35 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

 You're welcome Nancy . The photo that Roy copied was Mount Fitz Roy in El Chalten , Argentina . I will try to sent another one which is Torres del Paine in Chile very close by but involved a double border crossing . We had a guide that took care of the driving and paperwork .

 

http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p629/scubax2/Antarctica/IMG_7026 1_zpsrxxsfyac.jpg

 

 

 

Torres del Paine was sold out so quickly that I never had a chance.   Thanks for sharing your photo.  We have a very active Volendam 74 day group on FB but I don't think anyone was one of the few that got to visit.  N 

[scubacruiserx2]

On 5/8/2023 at 1:42 PM, 0106 said:

@scubacruiserx2Thank you for your advice and the videos.  I read and watched your entire trip report last night.  Fantastic!  We have booked an aft balcony in deck 8.  I thought I could run up to the Seaview pool if I needed for better viewing.  I have taken upsell offers in the past.🤞🤞🤞

 

 The aft view is our favorite view and hopefully upsales will become available . Being in Antarctica the prices tend to be and stay steep unfortunately . We went up top when we were on the wrong side of an iceberg that was 7 miles long ! Amazing !