World cruises have become popular, but this one has an extremely unique offering.
Most world cruises bob around the world near the equator. This one crosses it twice in transit between both the Arctic and Antarctic—on the same voyage.
Sailing onboard MS Volendam from January 2025 to June, Holland America Line’s (HAL) 133-day Pole-to-Pole Grand Voyage will touch both polar regions during periods of the year when cruise travel is actually feasible—and of course, all the fascinating ports of South America, Africa, and Europe that lie between. It’s like a world cruise turned on its side, spanning the globe “up-and-down” rather than “side-to-side”.
Planning the voyage—one of the longest in HAL’s history—was no small feat, according to Paul Grigsby, Vice President of Deployment, Revenue and Analytics and Holland America Line. “These cruises are heavily researched,” he told Fodor’s. “We conduct surveys to find out what ports our guests like longer cruises are interested in.”
Grigsby also noted that many of the guests onboard HAL’s longest sailings are exceptionally well-traveled, and want to visit ports they haven’t seen yet. Some cruisers on the Grand Voyages have also cruised on previous Grand Voyages with HAL, so they’re also looking for something new and distinctive compared with the already-exceptional itineraries they’ve sailed on in the past.
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HAL regularly sails in South America each year, but several of the ports on the itinerary haven’t had a call from one of their ships in several years, so they’ll be new to many of the cruisers onboard. Santa Marta, Colombia; Arica and Antofagasta in Chile; and Maceió, Brazil, are among the ports Grigsby has characterized as distinctive for this particular voyage.
An Epic Itinerary
Distinctive is certainly what the team also came up with for the rest of the itinerary. The roundtrip Fort Lauderdale sailing cruises the Caribbean, crosses through the Panama Canal, bounces down the West Coast of South America before doing some scenic cruising in Antarctica during the southern summer (the ship is too large to disembark passengers on excursions in Antarctica).
The northbound return calls at the remote Falkland Islands, tracing the east coast of South America and up the Amazon River, crosses the Atlantic, calls in West Africa and Western Europe, up the Norwegian Coast to North Cape near the end of the northern spring when the weather is milder. North Cape is the northernmost point in Continental Europe, and the northernmost call on the voyage. The cruise continues to Iceland, Greenland, and Canada before sailing south again toward Fort Lauderdale.
Travelers who don’t want to commit to the full 133-day sailing can purchase segments focusing on particular portions of the itinerary. From Fort Lauderdale, they can elect to sail only as far as Buenos Aires (47 days) or continue to Ijmuiden/Amsterdam for a 100-day sailing. Travelers can embark at Buenos Aires and sail to Barcelona (42 days), Ijmuiden/Amsterdam (53 days) or Fort Lauderdale (86 days). For those wanting to join the ship in Europe, they can do so for the remainder of the journey to Fort Lauderdale from either Barcelona (44 days) or Ijmuiden/Amsterdam (33 days).
In Barcelona, the ship will rendezvous with the MS Zuiderdam, which will be on her own East-West Grand Voyage.
An Elevated Onboard Experience
For these long voyages, Holland America Line puts extra attention into keeping passengers entertained. Grand Voyage cruisers are typically seasoned sailors, and many of them are longtime HAL guests who know the product inside and out, making them a good pilot audience for new shows.
HAL has introduced 15 all-new onboard production shows on this voyage and the concurrent Grand Voyage onboard MS Zuiderdam.
“Holland America Line has never introduced this many shows at one time,” said Bill Prince, vice president of entertainment for Holland America Line. “The Grand Voyages are the longest itineraries we offer and it’s important to keep the entertainment fresh for our returning guests.”
In MS Volendam’s restaurants, the focus will be on what HAL is calling “Port-to-Plate” cuisine, and they’re also promising to “seldom repeat” a menu. Just as with local entertainers, local guest chefs who specialize in the cuisines of their regions will also join the ship at strategic locations, offering cooking demonstrations, culinary chats, and exclusive dinners in the Pinnacle Grill, one of the ship’s specialty restaurants. The guest chefs will also oversee preparation of their regional dishes for the main dining room while onboard.
Restaurant menus will also match theme parties on nights when they’re planned (such as the popular Masquerade), and the dining rooms will also continue to offer a very well-patronized brunch on sea days.
Impressive Statistics
The sailing will cover some 31,000 nautical miles, dwarfing the actual circumference of the Earth at the equator (21,639 nautical miles). The ship will call at 68 ports across 28 countries and five continents. The ship will call overnight at eight ports: Fuerte Amador, Panama; Callao (Lima), Peru; Buenos, Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Barcelona, Spain; Lisbon, Portugal; and Reykjavik, Iceland.
HAL first offered grand voyages in the 1950s with a 110-day roundtrip New York sailing onboard MS Staatendam. At the time, HAL was a Netherlands-based passenger shipping company. In 1989 the company reorganized as a cruise line, based in Seattle, offering sailings worldwide. The ships continue to be registered in The Netherlands.