Holland America doubles down even more on long and unusual journeys with new ‘legend’ rides
no secret Netherlands USA being in the middle doubles on long and irregular trips – something for which this line has long been known. But starting in the next few years, it will go even further.
The Seattle-based travel brand on Tuesday will announce a new collection of week-long excursions that will take place over the next three years. Trips will last from 25 to 59 nights and feature special programming.
The excursions, called Legendary Journeys, will include both previously offered routes and some brand-new routes — the latter including an epic Japan-focused itinerary that will last longer 50 days.
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The new line of long voyages is designed to complement the even longer popular Dutch collection of Grand Voyages — long trips, often around the world, typically lasting 70 nights or more. go up.
Compared to Grand Voyages, the new Legendary Voyages won’t be as long and will focus more on specific destinations like Japan or Alaska.
“We wanted to dig deeper into certain destinations and regions,” Kacy Cole, Holland America’s vice president of marketing and e-commerce, told TPG in an exclusive interview ahead of the announcement.
Cole says the goal of the new cruise program is to “start creating these… mid-range cruises that allow guests to be able to [visit] a deeper destination.”
Related: 5 best places you can visit on your Netherlands USA travel itinerary
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Cole says the long but not too long nature of the trips is what customers want. Notably, the trips will last about two months at most, longer than the longest trips offered by some competitors but still significantly shorter than some of the route’s longest Grand Voyages. . The longest Grand Voyage currently on Holland America’s schedule is a 128-night round-the-world trip.
“Not everyone has more than six months to do these things,” Cole notes.
The original set of Legendary Voyages will include 17 specific departures between the end of this year and the beginning of 2025.
Trips will focus on a range of remote destinations — including Australia and New Zealand, the Amazon and South America, the South Pacific and Hawaii, Greenland and Iceland, Asia, Alaska and the Arctic Circle — in a detailed manner. details.
But the other way around, most routes will start and end in a North American port, meaning North American passengers can reach far-flung places without boarding an international flight.
This kind of “see the world from your doorstep” journey, as Cole calls it, is something the American Netherlands has long been known for.
Itineraries included in the new Legendary Trip lineup include a recently announced ride brand new Alaska route that would be 28 nights long — four times the length of a typical Alaskan cruise.
Related: An explanation of the 4 types of Holland America ships
Beginning June 9, 2024, she had visits to more than a dozen ports, including an overnight stay in Anchorage, Alaska, and a voyage across the Bering Strait to the Arctic Circle.
The new Japan cruise mentioned above, is a brand new, 53-day route for the route, which will depart from Seattle on September 1, 2024 and include several stops in Alaska before The ship — the Westerdam carrying 1,964 passengers — crossed the Pacific Ocean to explore Japan for several weeks. Dozens of calls in Japan will include the northern port of Kushiro, Yokohama (for Tokyo), Kobe (for Osaka), Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the island of Iwo Jima.
On the way back to Seattle, the ship will pass by historic Midway Island, the site of a turning point in World War II, and stop overnight at Honolulu in Hawaii.
In addition to Seattle, passengers can board the Westerdam for a Japanese sailing cruise in Vancouver, British Columbia, the day after it leaves Seattle.
Other itineraries that will be part of the new Legendary Journey line, all previously offered by Holland America, include:
- Tales of the South Pacific’s 56-day sailings depart from Vancouver on September 27, 2023 and September 25, 2024 (or passengers can board each trip five days later in San Diego). They visited more than a dozen islands throughout French Polynesia and the Hawaiian Islands.
- The 35-day Australian circumnavigation departs Sydney on November 17, 2024, stopping at more than a dozen ports across Australia as well as Indonesia’s Komodo Island — the latter famous as the home of the Komodo dragon.
- Amazon Explorer 27-day trips depart from Fort Lauderdale on February 17, 2024 and February 8, 2025, and include multiple days of exploring the Amazon River along with several Caribbean stops. .
- The 35-day Hawaii, Tahiti and Marquesas routes depart from San Diego on February 17, 2024 and February 15, 2025, and offer multiple stops in French Polynesia and Hawaii.
- The 35-day Viking voyage departs Boston on July 20, 2024 and travels north to Norway and back with stops in Maritime Canada, Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Cole and another Holland America executive who interviewed TPG – Paul Grigsby, vice president of deployment and itinerary planning – suggested that many Legendary Cruise routes Brand new things are in the works, including some new things for the Mediterranean region.
But even the itineraries that Holland America has offered in the past will take on a new feel thanks to the new show, Cole and Grigsby suggest.
New special Legendary Journey
New specials planned for Legendary Voyage will include the same types of themed parties that Dutch America currently offers on the longer Great Voyage, as well as new lectures hosted curated from destination experts.
“We will bring in local and cultural experts who can really speak to the region and the destination,” says Cole.
Cole said the voyages will also feature a new “hyper-focused” food and drink menu inspired by the places the ships are sailing.
Cole noted that not all of the details of the new show have been worked out, as some of the newly announced rides are still a year or two away.
But Cole pointed out that the rides will be included in Dutch American promotions (i.e. sales), which is not the case for the route’s long Grand Voyages rides.
Related: Maximize in-flight perks with Holland America’s loyalty program
In keeping with the focus on in-depth exploration of a particular region, itineraries will include a variety of overnight stays in popular ports such as Hobart, Australia; Moorea, French Polynesia; Reykjavik; and Yokohama (the port of Tokyo), Grigsby noted.
Itineraries allow ships to spend time exploring specific areas, he added. As an example of the 56-night Tales of the South Pacific voyages, Grigsby noted that the ships on the voyage would slowly move between the French Polynesian Social Islands to American Samoa and Fiji as they circled around. Pacific Ocean, with other itineraries. stops include less-visited places like Fanning Island – one of the most remote islands in the Pacific Ocean.
“That used to be the theory [of cross-ocean travel] Grigsby said. “But now we realize that lingering along the way is what guests want to do.”
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