“Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it.” ― Irving Berlin

Sailing with any given cruise line can produce a variety of impressions, intended or not.  Activities, entertainment, ship features, onboard programming and more can bring best-ever lifetime quality memories without getting off the ship.  Add a diverse itinerary packed with interesting ports of call and off we go into the wonderful world of cruise vacations.  The single most important goal we have here is to give readers an idea of what it is like to sail on a particular cruise line or specific ship.  To do that, we skip the brochure descriptions and other information easily found with a simple Google search.  Sailing with Holland America Line on new Koningsdam over the next week, we hope to do that, albeit a bit differently than in the past.

 

I’ll focus on ship features, venues, shipboard life and more as usual.  But taking a bit different approach on this sailing I hope to share impressions from fellow passengers, tour operators, crew members and more.  Why?  My thought: It’s one thing for Chris to describe ‘what it’s like’ but that’s Chris… and Chris loves cruises.

How about tapping some of the thousands of other people involved in the experience? Passengers of all ages, hailing from countries around the world.  Some experienced cruise travelers, others first-timers.

Tour operators and local people at each port of call who are there long before the ships arrive and remain long after.  It’s favorite thing Lisa and I do that we have not really shared before.
Crew who do this every single day, sailing after sailing.  What do they really think about us?

 

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Today we sailed away from Rotterdam in the Netherlands.  That was not the original plan which had us beginning and ending this trip in Amsterdam.  High winds would have made getting through the locks just before heading into the North Sea quite dangerous.  Instead, Holland America Line chose to depart from Rotterdam, about an hour away by land.  A nimble transfer system and operating infrastructure in place, moving thousands of people from one embarkation port to another was surprisingly easy.  Just a lovely drive through the countryside was all it took.

It was not all that long ago when we sailed from Rotterdam, exploring the history and local commitment Holland America Line has here for a few days.  Picking up where that story left off, perhaps we should review what we know about the Holland America Line of today first.  Since tomorrow is a day at sea, the timing could not be more perfect.

That’s next.

REVIEW- First, let’s back this up a bit to review recent posts that brought us here:

• On Similar Paths: Rotterdam, Koningsdam and Holland America
• On A Similarly Different Path To Excellence- New Blood
• Koningsdam Promises New Florida Cruise Experience
• Dutch Royalty Christens Koningsdam
• Koningsdam Arrives In Rotterdam [PHOTOS]
• Holland America Today: Start Here
• Holland America Christening Proves: They Get It About Us
• Holland America Christening Highlights Broader Focus
• Koningsdam Arrives In Rotterdam [PHOTOS]

PHOTOS- consider these Flickr Photo Albums created prior to this sailing:

• A Brief Tour Of The Hotel New York– the cheap seats on the tour bus got this rendition
• Hotel New York Tour– with the hotel general manager, we went deep into the history of what was once the headquarters of Holland America Line
• Hotel New York And The History Of Holland America Line– the connection is pretty hard to overlook/miss.
• Koningsdam Christening Tour– What we did on a very full day of christening activities
• Seen At Koningsdam – Celebrities on the scene
• Koningsdam Christening– images from the ceremony
• The Queen Departs- I watched from my balcony as Queen Maxima left the scene, engaged adoring subjects
• Christening Sailaway- Many of those same adoring subjects of Queen Maxima lined the riverbanks as ms Koningsdam headed to the North Sea
• Christening Fireworks- further down the itinerary on that first night’s sailaway, fireworks celebrated the occasion.