27 Feb. 2020; Willemstad, Curacao.

And thus I arrived on board the good ship Rotterdam (VI) in Willemstad, Curacao. Since 1997 when she was new, she carries the designation of the flag ship of the company although in 2000 it was decided that she would share that title with the ms Amsterdam. The flagship always used to be the newest (and biggest) ship of the company, where the Commodore would sail on and as he flew his own flag, it was called the flagship. Those days are long gone, the Rotterdam is by far not the largest ship anymore and now we have times where one of the more junior captains sail on the biggest and newest ship. But I still like to use the title as it gives a bit of a historical credential to the whole happening.

Flying into Curacao is never dull, at least not for me, I have never arrived here without something happening. This time it was no different. It started already in Miami airport where the Lady at the Gate was adamant that we all had to fill in an Immigration Form on line, otherwise we would not be allowed into Curacao. I am normally quite up to speed with these sorts of things and I had never heard of it, especially as it had been in force since October 2019. But one always bows to superior knowledge so I pulled out the phone and filled out the form. And with a sigh of relief I was now in compliance. Once on board the plane, the stewardess was as adamant that we all should fill out a paper immigration form. By now we all (e.g. the non-Curacao Residents) where totally confused but again who are we not to comply?

The current Panama Canal cruise of the ms Rotterdam (VI)

Once in the arrival Hall, the immigration Lady just stamped my immigration paper. Never looked in her computer, as a matter of fact she not even acknowledged my presence through the whole process. So hopefully one day in the future it will all be revealed: Is Curacao digital or not? Then getting my suitcase was another experience. For reasons only known to those in baggage handling they only had one luggage cart in use, for 300+ people. So the process used was, start conveyor belt.  Go to plane and load cart. Return with cart. Stop conveyor belt. Put 20 suitcases on conveyor belt. Start conveyor belt. Return to airplane, get next 20 suitcases, return, stop conveyor belt, put suitcases on belt, start conveyor belt. Ad infinitum until all suitcases were out. My suitcase came out as almost the last one, so I got a very good insight in the whole process. Then we all had to put our suitcases through the scanner, for agricultural check. Very good, only the scanner was manned by just one man pushing the button, one lady who was to look in the suitcase if the scanner did beep, and one person who was the supervisor and was thus busy……supervising. So it took a while, especially as the elderly were not helped with putting on and taking off their big suitcases from the machine. When I was finally out, my driver had forgotten that I was coming in, so she was not there. Luckily there are always taxi drivers around, looking for stranded people. But my hotel has been pre booked courtesy of the wonderful people in Holland America Line Air/Sea Reservations so all was alright in the world.

Captain Bas van Dreumel, Master ms Rotterdam

The Rotterdam is under command of Captain Bas van Dreumel, who has featured before on this blog (see his biography on the website under Current Captains and their schedules), and who is very happy to be on this ship. He only joined a few days ago when the cruise started back in Fort Lauderdale and he will take the ship now on a Panama Canal Cruise to San Diego and then back again, with Yours Truly on board. After that there will be a lot of different cruises to Europe etc. so it will for all on board a very interesting season.

Today the ship is in Willemstad Curacao and docked right in front of the Queen Juliana Bridge. This is possible as the Rotterdam is just low enough to go under it, turn around in the inner harbor and then dock nose out alongside. The two mega piers outside the port were taken up by two mega liners. The guests are then right in Otrabanda and even if they want to go to the other half of Willemstad, Punta, the Queen Emma pontoon bridge is right in front of them.  The ship arrived at 10.am this morning but makes up for the (scheduled) later arrival by staying until 23.00 hrs. tonight. Then it just has to go around the corner to dock on time in Oranjestad Aruba tomorrow morning. The distance is not more than 60 nautical miles, even if you take the long road.

Weather: Partly Cloudy with 83oF / 28oC and the regular Trade Wind blowing.

See Below.This is a stock photo from my port database. Where you can see the various cruise ship docks. The Rotterdam is docked here inside the port, same as we did today, but today she was nose out. For that the ship sails into the port goes under the bridge, swings around in the Schottegat and then comes back to the dock. Easy for the guests to get into town.