Whenever we — and we suspect others as well — set out to a warm-water, previously unknown island destination, in our mind’s eye we envision designer sand and smiling, beautiful local faces greeting us in a perfectly clean yet interestingly lived-in town. We’ve been setting out on these kinds of journeys for many years, and…   read more of “Postcards from the…”

Anthony Garofalo is a crew purser for Holland America Line. The crew purser is the on-board representative of the Seagoing Human Resources Department. Among other things, the crew purser is ultimately responsible for the general welfare and on-board life of the crew on each Holland America ship. At the age of 9 Anthony went on…   read more of “Meet Crew Purser…”

Last month the guests and crew of the ms Volendam had the pleasure of an overnight in Thailand. After hearing so much about the country, I was confused about what to expect, but I have to say that what I found was truly enchanting. Day 1: I woke up early and went on an all-day…   read more of “Postcards from…”

During the dry-dock of the Veendam we are not only building new cabins and upgrading facilities, we also do a lot of maintenance on the already existing machinery. One of the essential systems is the lifeboat davits. Every dry-dock a selection of davits is taken apart completely and inspected. After inspection the davit is put…   read more of “Veendam Dry-Dock:…”

Yesterday we were at Maputo, Mozambique. It’s our maiden call there, and most of the crew and guests were at the downtown area. We enjoyed the city and surprisingly it was a nice call. The city was better than we were expected. Nice people and also a beautiful city. Komang, right, with Yan Yan, a…   read more of “Postcards from…”

Guest Karen Wiles sent us a couple of gorgeous photos taken at the Cuna Village in the San Blas Islands during her recent Statendam cruise.

For planning your trip to Stockholm, read The Avid Cruiser’s Special Stockholm Guide for insider advice on how to spend Two Perfect Days in the Swedish capital or just a few hours while in port. Clicking on the link above or here will launch a new window featuring the special guide in digital format. Once…   read more of “Special Stockholm…”

Greetings from your birthplace and home port Rotterdam! Ben van Zeijl