Inside Holland America's new Rotterdam ship

Jun 13, 2023

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The vibe has shifted and the glory days of cruising are once again docked in NYC.

Holland America’s newest ship Rotterdam arrived in New York City on Oct. 26 on its maiden call, after a 12-day cruise, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the cruise line’s first transatlantic crossing.

On board, it was easy to slip back in time.

Every day, I saddled up at the bar for a throwback happy hour where Dutch 150s (gin, sparkling wine and lemon) and other classics are served for just $0.25. Some days I splurged and ordered the G&T for $0.50.

In the main dining room, Roaring Twenties menu items include royal rib of beef a la Medici, Holland duckling and arctic char a la Normande.

But it was seeing the pearly whites of the roughly 1,000 crewmembers that felt positively fin de siècle: for the first time in two-and-a-half years they no longer have to wear masks.

Holland America’s OG Rotterdam was a 1,700-ton iron steamer and she first set sail for New York in 1872. Our Rotterdam is a 99,800-ton luxury cruise liner. Passengers on the first Rotterdam slept on disposable straw mattresses in dorms with six to 12 bunk beds. They couldn’t even bring their own bedding to prevent the spread of diseases. Men and women, even married couples, were separated because it was hard to tell back then who was legally married (scandal!), according to Rotterdam’s resident historian Bill Miller.

Back in the cruise line’s early days, there were also cows, sheep, chickens and a duck or two on board most journeys — after all, they needed fresh milk, meat and eggs for the passengers.

Meanwhile, the only animal on my voyage was Joska, a Dutch seeing-eye dog with platinum status for having sailed more than 700 days.

But retro has its limits, and like the rest of the lucky 1,950 passengers on board, I slept on a pillow-top mattress with 500-thread-count sheets and no fewer than eight pillows. And should I want to take the drummer in the ship’s jazz band back to my room after one too many Dutch 150s, no one would stop me.

By early 1900, 5,000 immigrants, all in steerage, were arriving in New York Harbor every day. Many of them came on Holland America who had six liners servicing New York weekly.

Our voyage departed 150 years to the day after the first Rotterdam departed its namesake city in the Netherlands, bound for the Big Apple. That voyage would take 21 days. Ours took 12 days.

I know we weren’t going full throttle because a fellow passenger complained that Cunard’s Queen Mary II passed us at one point.

I wasn’t exactly in a rush, but I couldn’t afford for this transatlantic crossing to take any longer. What money I saved drinking quarter cocktails I spent at the ship’s spa. While getting $400 worth of Dysport (basically the new Botox) injections in my forehead, the medspa doctor tried to upsell me on a $4,000 non-surgical facelift. I told her I’d think about it.

Still, historically speaking, the cruise is a great deal.

A ticket on the original Rotterdam started at around $120 in 1872. That’s about $1,890 in today’s money. Passage in first class, where you were referred to as ladies and gentlemen, not just males and females, would have set you back $36. That’s about $3,400 in today’s money. Today, the crossing on the new Rotterdam starts around $1,000 per person for an interior cabin and goes up to $15,000 per person for the 1,290-square-foot Pinnacle Suite.

Note: Those rates don’t include Wi-Fi. I paid an additional $279 to stay connected on board, but in keeping with the throwback theme, the Wi-Fi didn’t exist half the time.

“They count on people not complaining,” an older American woman next to me at breakfast said one morning as I struggled to see what was trending on TikTok.

Still, I remained entertained. The ship even boasts a museum at sea. It’s located on the 12th deck in the Crow’s Nest and contains historical photos, old menus, programs, promotional items and memorabilia. There’s a lot to see. Over the last 150 years, Holland America has carried approximately 12 million passengers — many of them people immigrating to the US via New York.

One name on a passenger manifest from 1962 jumped out at me. It’s Edward Van Halen. Yes, the Eddie Van Halen.

He was born in Amsterdam and immigrated to the US via New York City with his family on a Holland America ship. He didn’t come over in first class, but at least he was allowed in.

That’s all that really matters, right?