Excited to leave Eagle Mountain's 20 degrees, we headed East for some warmer weather for cruise #27 in the Eastern Caribbean.
This time we booked with Holland America Line, best known for catering to the over 70 crowd, but also known for pretty fancy and posh ships and service. According to the all-knowing google, "Holland America is a mid-luxury cruise line that offers a moderately upscale experience. It's known for its high-quality service, delicious food, and entertainment."
This was our last of 3 free cruises so we wanted to make the most of it! No silly 5 days for us, we could have booked any 10 day cruise, so we opted for almost that - 9 days in the 80 degree Caribbean along with Jacob and Aubrie as well.
Yep, they were pretty much the youngest ones on the entire ship except for about 7 kids.
Google was not wrong. We sailed on the Rotterdam, Holland America's newest ship and considered the "flagship" of the line. It's a medium sized ship coming at 99,935 tons but with a relatively low passenger count - just under 2000 with just under 1000 crew. We're used to sailing on ships with 6000 passengers so this was very uncrowded.
The ship was fancy. Detailed and ornate. Food was very good and entertainment was pretty good with singers and dancers that could actually sing and dance! But the most impressive was the service by the crew members. It was amazing. Crew was always happy, energetic, talked to us, and someone was always there to help with anything.
We enjoyed it so much, we would totally consider another Holland America cruise. Due to their age demographic, there are no water slides, no ropes courses, roller coasters, bowling, bumper cars, flow riders, sky bikes, 10 story dry slides or extensive kids areas. But we still had no problem finding things to do in the 9 days we were on board. We had 5 stops and several sea days.
Our room for the next 9 days
The main pool area had a retraceable roof which was nice, as when we left Miami, it was cold and rainy, but not in here!
Shelley made a new friend
Our "obstructed" balcony cabin view
The dining room had tablecloths at every meal, even breakfast, which Jacob loved.
The ship had large bouquets of FRESH flowers all over
The stairs going up to the casino were littered with gold coins!!!
The main theater was different as there were no poles in the way and no balcony. And they had huge floor to ceiling LED screens around about 3/4 of the entire theater
Most ships have done away with a lower deck that wraps around the entire ship you can walk on. Not Holland America!
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They had made to order crepes on the buffet - they were really good!
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Obligatory Room video:
There was a pretty large game room at the top of the ship
The night's show was a super star violinist who supposedly is one of the best in the world. She was pretty good!
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And the biggest library we've ever seen on a ship
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Jacob was doing some light reading
One afternoon we went to a cooking demonstration with the head chef
VIDEO: It was just a tad breezy out at the front of the ship
The food was just as pleasing to the eye as it was to the mouth
After two full days at sea, we arrived at our first stop, Antigua. It's been some time since we've been here and we were excited to go back.
We took an island tour with "Lawrence of Antigua" who was a pretty good tour guide
This is Lawrence, which his colorful vest of Antigua's national colors
It just so happened that day the "World's Toughest Row" was completed and ended in Antigua! It's a cancer charity fund raising event that is done yearly. It starts in the Canary Island in Spain and crosses the Atlantic and ends in Antigua rowing 3000 miles over 40 days in a 30 foot boat with 5 crew. They row unsupported, 2 hours on, 2 hours off, 24 hours a day. It's considered the world's most challenging rowing competition and race. The race had ended earlier that morning.
We ended up at Ffryes (yep, that's how it's spelled), Beach, which was beautiful and not very crowded
Our next stop was St. Thomas - it'd been a while since we were here, so we were excited to be back. We went to Sapphire beach and spent a few hours relaxing. It was beautiful.
Not sure what holding my hand out does, but everyone was doing it so why not.
There were a lot of super yachts in the harbor next to our cruise ship - this one was the biggest. It was built in 2014 and is considered one of the world's largest and powerful luxury "super yachts". It has a helicopter pad on the front. It has 36 crew members on board 24/7 and can have up to 12 guests. It's owned by Shad Khan (owner of the Jacksonville Cougars basketball team) who bought the yacht for $360 million.
But guess what? YOU can charter the yacht for your next vacation! It's only $3 million a week! And look what you get:
No cruise would a real cruise without Jacob's famous poses
Our next stop was Tortola and we haven't been back here since 2010 so we were really excited to go back and visit "The Baths" on Virgin Gorda again.
We got off the ship and had to walk about 8 minutes to catch a ferry to Vigin Gorda (30 min ride) and it was a little cloudy. Half way to the station, a huge downpour came in like 25 seconds. Luckily, we were close to this shed building that had a small overhang we could duck under waiting for the downpour to stop, which it did in about 5 mins and then was sunny the rest of the day
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At the ferry station, we got a good view of our ship
After a 30 min ferry ride, we arrived at Virgin Gorda, a small island which boasts "The Baths" - a very unique walk through sand, dense brush, cactus and huge boulders. Most of the Caribbean islands, including Virgin Gorda, were formed by volcanic activity. However, in this one part of this island, and the only place in all of the Caribbean, a small boulder field of granite (some of the boulders are 40 feet in diameter), formed and includes tide pools, tunnels, arches and grottos that you hike through, under and over to get to a beautiful beach.
We got there early, first ferry over, and it was great. No crowds during the hike. About an hour later, some people on the beach said it wasn't even fun hiking over because it was so crowded, just a long line of people. We had nobody around us when we hiked through - it was amazing
During high tide, areas like this can be waist deep in water that you walk through
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On the other side, we spent time on the beach and snorkeling
Arriving back - it was a good day!
When arriving back to the ship at each port, there is a resting station if you need it, and as you approach the ship, crew members are there with cold water, lemonade and cool face towels
The made to order pizza on board was pretty good!
The Blue's Club was always busy with live entertainment each night
That night there was a very unique party - a Carnival! We've never had a carnival before on a cruise! They had all kinds of normal carnival games, where you would win tickets and at the end they had a raffle giving away spa treatments, dinners and other things. We did not win anything so it must have been rigged. They did have all kinds of treats, ice cream, candied apples, popcorn, sliders, corn dogs, it was like a real carnival! We enjoyed it.
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This game was a little dangerous with everyone walking by
Our next stop was Puerto Rico - we hadn't been there in a while so it was good to go back. We didn't do any tours but just walked around, went to the Castillo San Felipe del Morro (El Morro castle) and enjoyed Old Town San Juan. El Morro was built to protect San Juan from attacks by sea and protected Spain's access to the New World for over 300 years and was built in the 1500s.
This huge wall surrounds all of Old Town San Juan
On the way to the castle, we passed several churchs
This unique cat giraffe statue was the place of a geo-cache. We found geo-caches in every port we stopped in
After about a 30 minute walk, we made it to the castle. The grounds are HUGE and green
VIDEO: (Thanks to Jacob for this video)
We walked by the "Pigeon Park" - so many pigeons! They had a sign saying DO NOT FEED THE PIGEONS yet they were selling pigeon food for you to buy ha ha.
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They had an "Orange Party" as the national Dutch (where Holland America is headquartered) national color is Orange. You can tell those who have sailed on Holland America before as they were all prepared with their orange clothes
Even the crew senior officers got into the party. The captain and his officers did a dance to a famous Dutch song. We've never seen the captain interact with passengers as much as we did on Holland. He was at the ports to welcome us as we got off the ship, was saying goodbye as we disembarked the last day, and even danced! It was so fun to see him so happy and welcoming.
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It's hard to remember what day it is, when knowing the day doesn't really matter, like when you're on a cruise. So the elevators always have a reminder when you step in - they swap these out at midnight
Our next day was our last day at sea, which meant relaxing, eating, napping, reading, eating, and doing as little or as much as we wanted.
Watched some Deal or No Deal
We went to a presentation of "behind the scenes" and it was very good!
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They had an afternoon "cake buffet"
Ah yes, there were LOTS of scooter parades on board. It was the transpiration of choice.
Not sure why we didn't take the pic before we ate - seems to always happen this way
Our last stop was a private island where we spent time at the beach and a huge BBQ lunch. This was our only day of cooler and not-so-sunny weather.
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All in all, it was a great cruise! We would definitely go on Holland again for a more upscale experience. Maybe you will come with us?
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