| VEENDAM |
| HOLLAND AMERICA LINE |
An Interview
with
Captain Albert
Schoonderbeek
of
VEENDAM
(concluded)
with
Captain Albert
Schoonderbeek
of
VEENDAM
(concluded)
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There is more
information and photos
about VEENDAM on the
VEENDAM Profile Page
CLICK HERE
information and photos
about VEENDAM on the
VEENDAM Profile Page
CLICK HERE
VEENDAM and the Holland America Fleet
“Holland America has a very high repeater rate. This last cruise [an autumn Canadian cruise] we had 65
percent. On the transatlantic that I did in April with this ship, we had 92 percent who had made at least three
cruises with Holland America Line.”
“It is something that they like the product, the crew, the ships - - they simply feel at home. The way we do it
is totally different way of operating than let’s say Carnival. On our ships, the guests do what the guests want to do
and there is a program and product that support their interests. So automatically, they can get in their own
comfort zone because they simply get out of the product what they particularly like. It is different than a Carnival
where you are really cruise driven by the program on board. [Carnival] is a great product, nothing wrong with
that, but it is totally different. So, when our guests have done this, they end up going back to [Holland America]
because they know even if they go from the VEENDAM to the NOORDAM, they know it will be the same.
They will get the same sort of crew and the same sort of officers and the same sort of atmosphere onboard.”
Different guests do, however, prefer one class of Holland America ships over the other classes. “It mainly has
to do with the design of the ships. When these ships [the S class] came out, there was one issue that people didn’
t like and that is it is a long way to walk from the aft staircase to the forward staircase. So, when we started
building the R class - - ROTTERDAM, AMSTERDAM, VOLENDAM and ZANDAM -- we put a center
staircase. There are people, especially the less ambulant who really like that extra block of lifts or elevators in the
middle. And there are people, especially the younger ones in the age group 40 – 50, who prefer the Vista class
because there are more amenities.”
Are there differences between the ships within the Holland America classes? “The VEENDAM is a little bit
different than the other three S classes anyway because we were built a little bit later and the interior is a little
darker. It is a tinge darker wood than was used in the other three. So, the ship is slightly different. Also, this was
the first ship of Holland America Line where the Carnival influence was nearly gone. When we built the S class,
Carnival had part of the ships’ interior design by Joe Farcas from Carnival. It took them three ships to figure out
that Joe Farcas is a brilliant designer but not for Holland America Line. Therefore, this ship is slightly different.”
Do these differences serve to give the ships different personalities? “Every ship has its own personality a little
bit. The old ROTTERDAM was a ship like the QE2 that had a very distinct personality. When people stepped
on board, they started to behave in accordance with the way the ship was running. Here, they come on board and
they come into a beautiful hotel that happens to be a ship. So, the personalities are a lot less because there is not
too much quirkiness about ships anymore.”
“When I started with Holland America Line, we had people who would only sail on one ship because they felt
at home over there. The old STATENDAM was totally different than the old ROTTERDAM. And the old
VEENDAM and VOLENDAM that sailed for years from New York, they were totally different again.
Nowadays, if you walk from the VEENDAM onboard let’s say the NOORDAM, okay, the interior is different, it
runs a bit different but it is still the same Holland America Line feeling without anything specially where you say
‘Hey, I miss this because on the VEENDAM, this was so much different.’ That isn’t there anymore.”
Will Holland America follow the industry trend and build bigger ships? “[The ships of] Holland America Line
are not too small, not too big. We are not going any bigger. The Vista class is as big as we will ever go because it
doesn’t go with our product. But for the other ships that are offering what I call the fair and neutral product, okay,
well, bigger is better because you offer more. So, the ships will continue to grow for the mass market companies.
I think for other companies, Holland America Line, Cunard, it will hover around 90,000 tons. Cunard now has
the one big one [QUEEN MARY 2] but that is a one off for the transatlantic. The QUEEN VICTORIA coming
out now, is an adapted Vista-class version. I think that is about as big as they can go because otherwise they
cannot do world cruises.”
“We will see how it works with the [Royal Caribbean] Genesis [class] coming out at 250,000 tons. That is
going to be interesting how that is going to work. There is only so far I think you can go [because of] the flow of
the guests. [Royal Caribbean’s Freedom class demonstrates] you can have a flow of 4,000 people. I don’t know
if it is going to work if you double the size of the ship, will get a flow of 6,000 people. How big does your Ben
and Jerry’s Ice Cream have to go inside the ship to make it workable? I don’t know, we’ll have to see.”
“Is there a limit [on the size of ships]? There are plans out there to build ships of half a million tons which are
floating resorts. I think they will be coming but maybe not destination driven. But a traditional cruise ships set up
of doing a port every day or every other day, I think there is a limit to how big a ship can go because you cannot
simply get the guests ashore anymore in a comfortable way. It will be interesting to see. [Bit] if you had said 25
years ago that Holland America would have a 90,000 ton ship, nobody would have believed it because the old
ROTTERDAM of 38,000 tons, that was a big ship!”
VEENDAM is 55,451 tons but due to the industry trend toward bigger ships, she is now considered a small
to medium-sized cruise ship. Still, Captain Schoonderbeek believes there will continue to be a market for such
ships. “For smaller ships, more niche markets are coming. Like Royal Caribbean is doing with Azamara cruises -
- niche markets, more special things.”
“It is just with a ship this size you are limited in what you can offer. If you have a ship the size of the QUEEN
MARY 2 where you have volume, you can put everything in there that people can think about.”
“[Still,] most of our guests, if they do long cruises, come to the smaller ships because it is more intimate. It
becomes more like a country club atmosphere and the guests themselves are adding to the product. I don’t think
that a world cruise on the EXPLORER OF THE SEAS would ever work. On these size ships, it works very,
very well.”
There is a great deal of variety in VEENDAM’s cruise schedule. For part of the year, she is in Europe, part in
the northeastern United States and Canada, part in the Caribbean and part of the year she is cruising the world.
As a result, the ship must transit a wide variety of seas including the sometimes difficult North Atlantic. “I was a
little bit apprehensive about the crossing myself because she is not the old ROTTERDAM with the long bow that
goes through [the waves]. The old ROTTERDAM was the most perfect sea ship that you could have. In bad
weather you went faster because the bow rode better. The old NIEU AMSTERDAM or NOORDAM that came
over here were horrible ocean liners because they would go into the waves. But, [VEENDAM] rode extremely
well. These ships somehow sit on the wave and then glide over it. It is very, very pleasant. You really have to
have 15 or 20 foot waves with a short amplitude [before] it gets nasty. Otherwise, I was quite pleased with it
when it went across to Europe.”
VEENDAM’s varied itinerary also requires her to get in and out of some difficult ports. “The VEENDAM
is very, very maneuverable. I have got a lot of power and in most ports, I can do everything myself. Even in ports
like [New York], the question is ‘do I have room to drift?’ Do I have a plan B, then we will try it. [In New
York], the tug boats are my plan B because there is nothing else.”
“It mainly has to do with the wind moving in combination with the current. The problem here with New York
is that you come up river, you have the ship under control and you have the ship under control while you are in the
slip because it is an enclosed environment. The danger is the moment you go from the river into the slip because
one moment you have wind and current, the next moment, you have nothing. You don’t control the ship
anymore. You need all the power that you have to do so. If you have that in combination with only about 60 feet
clearance while you make your turn [due to another ship sharing the slip], there is not enough to say I can just go
for it.”
In some less developed ports, there is no place for cruise ships to dock but that does not pose an obstacle for
VEENDAM. “Holland America cruise ships can anchor everywhere. We have these tender operations that we
have down pat. Ships like the CARNIVAL VICTORY or the big ones from Royal Caribbean, they don’t have
any tenders and also their capacity is way too big to operate a tender service. So, these big guys are only coming
[to ports] where there is a nice dock available with a nice town.”
This has spurred many communities to invest in cruise ship terminals and/or suitable piers for cruise ships.
“Slowly and steadily local businesses and local politicians are finding out that the cruise business is good money. It
is a clean business, it is an easy business. The [ships] come in at eight o’clock in the morning and they leave again
at six and there are no worries for a town. And these people come ashore to spend a lot of money. On average,
the average passenger spends $150 just for going ashore. Then, they roughly spend another $150 on a tour. So,
$300 times 1,200 guests just comes in by making sure cruise ships can park and there is an easy approach. It is
good money and they are slowly getting there.”
VEENDAM entered service in 1996 but Holland America has ensured that she remains state-of-the-art.
“Last year, we went through what we call the Signature of Excellence drydock. All the existing ships went through
such a three week refurbishment period adding new things, new gadgets and everything. This ship got $43
million.”
“We put a children’s place on board, which we didn’t have. We don’t have that many children normally
except during Spring Break, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then, we have a lot of big families come on
board where the grandfather brings the whole gang. We have 200 kids and we lock them away in that place there
and they have a great time and the parents can enjoy themselves. It works very well but we did not have it so we
have put it on [the] top [deck] now.”
“The spa and everything related to it gets more and more popular so we doubled the amount of space that we
had.”
“People are going away from little small rooms for things and are more interactive, so we ripped out one side
of the ship and that is now a combination of music, books, library and internet - - very, very popular.”
“We used to have the cinema for church service in the morning and for movies in the afternoon. The rest of
the time it was empty. So, we built a kitchen in there and now our executive chef gives cooking classes. Every
cruise we have people who are dying to get home and take a recipe with them. During a cooking class, they get
the high hat, they get the apron and they get a little teaching about how to make that specific dish. It is very, very
popular.”
“We revamped the soft stuff - - the pillows etc. Everything gets renewed and improved upon. You just
follow the trend all the time as best you can.”
“Holland America has a very high repeater rate. This last cruise [an autumn Canadian cruise] we had 65
percent. On the transatlantic that I did in April with this ship, we had 92 percent who had made at least three
cruises with Holland America Line.”
“It is something that they like the product, the crew, the ships - - they simply feel at home. The way we do it
is totally different way of operating than let’s say Carnival. On our ships, the guests do what the guests want to do
and there is a program and product that support their interests. So automatically, they can get in their own
comfort zone because they simply get out of the product what they particularly like. It is different than a Carnival
where you are really cruise driven by the program on board. [Carnival] is a great product, nothing wrong with
that, but it is totally different. So, when our guests have done this, they end up going back to [Holland America]
because they know even if they go from the VEENDAM to the NOORDAM, they know it will be the same.
They will get the same sort of crew and the same sort of officers and the same sort of atmosphere onboard.”
Different guests do, however, prefer one class of Holland America ships over the other classes. “It mainly has
to do with the design of the ships. When these ships [the S class] came out, there was one issue that people didn’
t like and that is it is a long way to walk from the aft staircase to the forward staircase. So, when we started
building the R class - - ROTTERDAM, AMSTERDAM, VOLENDAM and ZANDAM -- we put a center
staircase. There are people, especially the less ambulant who really like that extra block of lifts or elevators in the
middle. And there are people, especially the younger ones in the age group 40 – 50, who prefer the Vista class
because there are more amenities.”
Are there differences between the ships within the Holland America classes? “The VEENDAM is a little bit
different than the other three S classes anyway because we were built a little bit later and the interior is a little
darker. It is a tinge darker wood than was used in the other three. So, the ship is slightly different. Also, this was
the first ship of Holland America Line where the Carnival influence was nearly gone. When we built the S class,
Carnival had part of the ships’ interior design by Joe Farcas from Carnival. It took them three ships to figure out
that Joe Farcas is a brilliant designer but not for Holland America Line. Therefore, this ship is slightly different.”
Do these differences serve to give the ships different personalities? “Every ship has its own personality a little
bit. The old ROTTERDAM was a ship like the QE2 that had a very distinct personality. When people stepped
on board, they started to behave in accordance with the way the ship was running. Here, they come on board and
they come into a beautiful hotel that happens to be a ship. So, the personalities are a lot less because there is not
too much quirkiness about ships anymore.”
“When I started with Holland America Line, we had people who would only sail on one ship because they felt
at home over there. The old STATENDAM was totally different than the old ROTTERDAM. And the old
VEENDAM and VOLENDAM that sailed for years from New York, they were totally different again.
Nowadays, if you walk from the VEENDAM onboard let’s say the NOORDAM, okay, the interior is different, it
runs a bit different but it is still the same Holland America Line feeling without anything specially where you say
‘Hey, I miss this because on the VEENDAM, this was so much different.’ That isn’t there anymore.”
Will Holland America follow the industry trend and build bigger ships? “[The ships of] Holland America Line
are not too small, not too big. We are not going any bigger. The Vista class is as big as we will ever go because it
doesn’t go with our product. But for the other ships that are offering what I call the fair and neutral product, okay,
well, bigger is better because you offer more. So, the ships will continue to grow for the mass market companies.
I think for other companies, Holland America Line, Cunard, it will hover around 90,000 tons. Cunard now has
the one big one [QUEEN MARY 2] but that is a one off for the transatlantic. The QUEEN VICTORIA coming
out now, is an adapted Vista-class version. I think that is about as big as they can go because otherwise they
cannot do world cruises.”
“We will see how it works with the [Royal Caribbean] Genesis [class] coming out at 250,000 tons. That is
going to be interesting how that is going to work. There is only so far I think you can go [because of] the flow of
the guests. [Royal Caribbean’s Freedom class demonstrates] you can have a flow of 4,000 people. I don’t know
if it is going to work if you double the size of the ship, will get a flow of 6,000 people. How big does your Ben
and Jerry’s Ice Cream have to go inside the ship to make it workable? I don’t know, we’ll have to see.”
“Is there a limit [on the size of ships]? There are plans out there to build ships of half a million tons which are
floating resorts. I think they will be coming but maybe not destination driven. But a traditional cruise ships set up
of doing a port every day or every other day, I think there is a limit to how big a ship can go because you cannot
simply get the guests ashore anymore in a comfortable way. It will be interesting to see. [Bit] if you had said 25
years ago that Holland America would have a 90,000 ton ship, nobody would have believed it because the old
ROTTERDAM of 38,000 tons, that was a big ship!”
VEENDAM is 55,451 tons but due to the industry trend toward bigger ships, she is now considered a small
to medium-sized cruise ship. Still, Captain Schoonderbeek believes there will continue to be a market for such
ships. “For smaller ships, more niche markets are coming. Like Royal Caribbean is doing with Azamara cruises -
- niche markets, more special things.”
“It is just with a ship this size you are limited in what you can offer. If you have a ship the size of the QUEEN
MARY 2 where you have volume, you can put everything in there that people can think about.”
“[Still,] most of our guests, if they do long cruises, come to the smaller ships because it is more intimate. It
becomes more like a country club atmosphere and the guests themselves are adding to the product. I don’t think
that a world cruise on the EXPLORER OF THE SEAS would ever work. On these size ships, it works very,
very well.”
There is a great deal of variety in VEENDAM’s cruise schedule. For part of the year, she is in Europe, part in
the northeastern United States and Canada, part in the Caribbean and part of the year she is cruising the world.
As a result, the ship must transit a wide variety of seas including the sometimes difficult North Atlantic. “I was a
little bit apprehensive about the crossing myself because she is not the old ROTTERDAM with the long bow that
goes through [the waves]. The old ROTTERDAM was the most perfect sea ship that you could have. In bad
weather you went faster because the bow rode better. The old NIEU AMSTERDAM or NOORDAM that came
over here were horrible ocean liners because they would go into the waves. But, [VEENDAM] rode extremely
well. These ships somehow sit on the wave and then glide over it. It is very, very pleasant. You really have to
have 15 or 20 foot waves with a short amplitude [before] it gets nasty. Otherwise, I was quite pleased with it
when it went across to Europe.”
VEENDAM’s varied itinerary also requires her to get in and out of some difficult ports. “The VEENDAM
is very, very maneuverable. I have got a lot of power and in most ports, I can do everything myself. Even in ports
like [New York], the question is ‘do I have room to drift?’ Do I have a plan B, then we will try it. [In New
York], the tug boats are my plan B because there is nothing else.”
“It mainly has to do with the wind moving in combination with the current. The problem here with New York
is that you come up river, you have the ship under control and you have the ship under control while you are in the
slip because it is an enclosed environment. The danger is the moment you go from the river into the slip because
one moment you have wind and current, the next moment, you have nothing. You don’t control the ship
anymore. You need all the power that you have to do so. If you have that in combination with only about 60 feet
clearance while you make your turn [due to another ship sharing the slip], there is not enough to say I can just go
for it.”
In some less developed ports, there is no place for cruise ships to dock but that does not pose an obstacle for
VEENDAM. “Holland America cruise ships can anchor everywhere. We have these tender operations that we
have down pat. Ships like the CARNIVAL VICTORY or the big ones from Royal Caribbean, they don’t have
any tenders and also their capacity is way too big to operate a tender service. So, these big guys are only coming
[to ports] where there is a nice dock available with a nice town.”
This has spurred many communities to invest in cruise ship terminals and/or suitable piers for cruise ships.
“Slowly and steadily local businesses and local politicians are finding out that the cruise business is good money. It
is a clean business, it is an easy business. The [ships] come in at eight o’clock in the morning and they leave again
at six and there are no worries for a town. And these people come ashore to spend a lot of money. On average,
the average passenger spends $150 just for going ashore. Then, they roughly spend another $150 on a tour. So,
$300 times 1,200 guests just comes in by making sure cruise ships can park and there is an easy approach. It is
good money and they are slowly getting there.”
VEENDAM entered service in 1996 but Holland America has ensured that she remains state-of-the-art.
“Last year, we went through what we call the Signature of Excellence drydock. All the existing ships went through
such a three week refurbishment period adding new things, new gadgets and everything. This ship got $43
million.”
“We put a children’s place on board, which we didn’t have. We don’t have that many children normally
except during Spring Break, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then, we have a lot of big families come on
board where the grandfather brings the whole gang. We have 200 kids and we lock them away in that place there
and they have a great time and the parents can enjoy themselves. It works very well but we did not have it so we
have put it on [the] top [deck] now.”
“The spa and everything related to it gets more and more popular so we doubled the amount of space that we
had.”
“People are going away from little small rooms for things and are more interactive, so we ripped out one side
of the ship and that is now a combination of music, books, library and internet - - very, very popular.”
“We used to have the cinema for church service in the morning and for movies in the afternoon. The rest of
the time it was empty. So, we built a kitchen in there and now our executive chef gives cooking classes. Every
cruise we have people who are dying to get home and take a recipe with them. During a cooking class, they get
the high hat, they get the apron and they get a little teaching about how to make that specific dish. It is very, very
popular.”
“We revamped the soft stuff - - the pillows etc. Everything gets renewed and improved upon. You just
follow the trend all the time as best you can.”