The Rotterdam is quite appropriately the flagship of Holland America Line; it is beautifully appointed and seems to have been assigned an outstanding captain. The cabins are spacious and the appointments are excellent, including a bath tub in our rather low-category cabin. Despite some rough seas (15-18 ft swells in the Drake Passage), the ship was remarkably stable and she maneuvered wonderfully in the sometimes very tight channels around the Antarctic Peninsula.

Holland America handled the air reservations and the air to ship, and ship to airport transfers professionally and with minimal trouble for the traveller. In addition, we were surprised that we got quite good seats on both flights. (The overnight schedule on Delta from and to Atlanta, to Rio and from Santiago, is a bummer on a heavily loaded 767 that is not particularly comfortable, but there is nothing Holland America can do about that.) We had no pre or post stayovers, so no hotels were involved in our trip.

This is an incredible itinerary. My wife and I are not real fond of big cities when we travel, so the Rio, Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Santiago aspects of the itinerary were not so special for us, but seemed to be real hits with virtually all of our shipmates. They were also the only "hot/warm" spots on the itinerary, the rest of the time we were cruising or docked in rather cold (35-45degrees F) climes. There are just no words to describe the beauty and spectacular scenery of Antarctica, so i won't try. Holland America, however, did its best to make sure that the passengers could take full advantage of being in the last wilderness. The Antarctic Experience Team on board gave excellent lectures on the flora, fauna, sights, sounds and likely scenery of the Antarctic. From an expert on albatrosses, whales and penguins, to a geologist who had spent most of his career in the Antarctic studying the formations and its history, to an "ice pilot" with decades of experience guiding ships through the dangerous ice, the team was amazing, and approachable to boot. (One side note: In our opinion, the itinerary needs to be seen from east to west as we did on this cruise, hitting Elephant Island first was amazing, but would likely have been anti-climactic if it had come last as the west to east itinerary would do. The cruising around the Antarctic Peninsula was simply amazing. And when weather threatened to obscure the experience, the captain, aided by the "ice pilot" avoided the bad weather and found another location of amazing beauty and significance.) Read more