It’s been a year since Holland America rebooted its cruise schedule with sailings on Nieuw Amsterdam back on July 24, 2021.

Surveying the state of cruising today, Gus Antorcha, president of Holland America Line, said, “The emotions and excitement from a year ago still resonate today as destinations around the world open and we persist in fully getting back to cruising. We are grateful to our guests who returned to sail with us, to our team members who came back to sea, to the ports that welcomed us, to our partners who stood by us and to all of our shoreside employees who got us back in the water.”

Over the past year HAL has operated more than 240 cruises, with hundreds more sailings on the horizon.

Courtesy of Holland America LineNieuw Amsterdam was the first Holland America ship to resume sailings after the pandemic.

10 ships sailing the seas

 Since last July, 10 remaining HAL ships resumed operations in a variety of destinations. In addition to Alaska, its ships are sailing travel to Canada/New England, the Caribbean, Hawaii, Mediterranean, Mexico, Northern Europe, Pacific Coast, Panama Canal and South Pacific. And by year’s end,  the ships will return to Australia/New Zealand and South America/Antarctica.

The line will also offer a trio of  grand voyages: a 71-day odyssey in Africa in October 2022, a 128-day Grand World and 74-day Grand South America and Antarctica voyages in January 2023. Asia itineraries are due to resume in February 2023.

Fascinating facts and figures 

If you're into stats, facts and figures, below are few from HAL’s return to the seas.

• Since last July the line operated 242 cruises and hit 169 ports.
• Total nautical miles sailed were 502,565 (577,950 miles), enough to travel to the moon and back two-and-a-half times.
• It did 122 glacier visits.
• Around 12,287 passengers from 98 different nationalities were on board.
• Unique shore excursions operated: more than 2,000
• Funds raised for On Deck for a Cause: $210,000
• More than 6.5 million meals were served (wow).
• And along with the chow, 700,000 specialty coffee drinks were poured.
• Not to mention 1,117,306 beers were imbibed and 3,235,855 sodas, water and juices went down the hatch.
• As for entertainment, there were more than 25,000 performances and 76,000 trivia questions posed.
• People love flowers and sent more than 60,000 floral arrangement to passengers fleetwide on Holland America's ships.

All in all, those numbers add up to a slow and steady return to cruising for the grand Netherlands-based line, which turns 150 next year.