ms Amsterdam
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ms Amsterdam
The MS Amsterdam is a Holland America Line ship offering world cruises, transatlantic crossings, Alaska cruises, Mediterranean cruises, Northern Europe cruises, Panama Canal cruises, Asian cruises, and Antarctic cruises, within a luxury cruise framework. The onboard experience includes all-inclusive elements, gastronomic dining, and wellness-focused amenities, along with organized excursions. The ship is equipped with bicycles available on board, an outdoor swimming pool, an open-air cinema, a fitness center, a hair salon, and Wi-Fi included, supporting both leisure and connectivity at sea. This type of cruise is well suited for travelers seeking long itineraries with diverse destinations combined with onboard comfort, cultural exploration, and comprehensive shipboard amenities.
Itineraries of the ms Amsterdam
Price and Availability Notice
Prices displayed are provided for informational purposes only. They reflect the rates in effect at the time of their most recent update and are shown in Canadian dollars, per person, based on double occupancy, unless otherwise specified.
Supplier rates, exchange rates, taxes and fees, room or cabin categories, and promotions are subject to change at any time. The applicable price is the one confirmed by a travel advisor at the time of booking, subject to availability. Only the confirmed price shall be considered valid.
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Technical specifications
- Classe: Rotterdam Class
- Tonnage: 62735
- Speed: 22.5 knots
- Passengers: 1380
- Decks: 10
- Length: 238 m
- Width: 32 m
History
- 30 octobre 2000: Voyage inaugural
Frequently Asked Questions
Gross tonnage of 62,735, a beam of 32.25 m, a length of roughly 238 m and 10 guest decks. She was the largest of the five R-class ships, ahead of Zaandam at 61,396 gross tons and Volendam at 61,214. She carried about 1,380 guests at double occupancy. Her Azipod propulsion drove her at 25 knots, two more than her elders, and that speed is precisely what made her the world-cruise ship.
Not with Holland America. The ship left the line in the summer of 2020 and appears in none of its itineraries. Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines has run her since as Bolette, under Bahamian registry at Nassau. The confusion arises because many sites keep her listing online as though she were still on sale. A guest asking for "the Amsterdam" really wants either Bolette at Fred. Olsen or one of her two surviving sisters at Holland America.
Size and speed. Amsterdam closed the R series and outgrew it by more than a thousand gross tons, with Azipod propulsion good for 25 knots where her sisters hold 23. That gap matters enormously on a world cruise, where long distances separate rare ports. Holland America made her the flagship of its Grand World Voyage, a role she held for more than fifteen years before it passed to Volendam.
As Bolette, for Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, mainly out of Dover, Liverpool, Newcastle and Southampton toward northern Europe, the Canaries and the Azores, with some Greenland fly-cruises from Reykjavik. In 2026 she completed a 99-night world cruise from Liverpool. In August 2026 she was running a ten-day round trip from Liverpool to Norway.
She stays on Fred. Olsen's UK program, which obliges a Montreal guest to fly transatlantic to London or Manchester, then transfer overland to the embarkation port, usually with a hotel night before departure. The contrast is stark: her sister Volendam boards in Montreal with no flight at all from May to October. For a guest who specifically wanted Amsterdam, the first question is what they loved about the ship, not its name.
She carried the same grid as her sisters: interiors, ocean-views, Vista Suites with verandah, Neptune Suites with Neptune Lounge access and a single Pinnacle Suite. The closest match today sits on Volendam and Zaandam, where those categories survive under the same names in the same places. A guest who loved a promenade-deck stateroom will find the experience again in Volendam's twenty-one lanai staterooms, a layout Amsterdam also carried.
The classic R-class layout: a two-level main dining room, the Pinnacle Grill, Canaletto, the Lido Market and Explorations Café doubling as the library. The bars were the Ocean Bar, the Explorer's Lounge, the aft Sea View Bar and the Crow's Nest perched forward. To those add the Greenhouse Spa, a pool covered by a sliding glass roof, and a teak promenade encircling the entire hull. Fred. Olsen has renamed several of those spaces since 2020.
The move to Fred. Olsen changed the experience more than the hull: a largely British clientele, entertainment, dining and timings set to the new owner's habits, and departures from the UK rather than Florida or Seattle. Mariner Society credits earned aboard Amsterdam stay with Holland America and do not follow. And the ship is now 26 years old, with the tight staterooms and scarce power outlets of her generation.
On Volendam or Zaandam, the base fare covers the stateroom, meals in the main dining room, Lido Market and Dive-In, Mainstage shows, the fitness centre and the youth program. Have It All adds a shore excursion credit, the Signature beverage package, specialty dining nights at the Pinnacle Grill or Canaletto scaled to voyage length, and Surf Wi-Fi. None of that applies to Bolette, whose inclusions follow Fred. Olsen's own terms.
Yes. Volendam and Zaandam add a daily per-guest amount to the onboard account, higher in a Neptune Suite than in an interior stateroom, and that charge sits outside Have It All. A separate service charge applies to every drink served at the bar. It is the same mechanism that applied aboard Amsterdam before 2020, and a former guest will recognise it without explanation.
The principle is unchanged. The Signature Beverage Package, included in Have It All, covers wines by the glass, beer, spirits, cocktails, soft drinks and specialty coffees up to a capped per-drink price, with a limit of fifteen alcoholic drinks a day and the service charge included. It works at the Ocean Bar and the Crow's Nest on Volendam and Zaandam, exactly where Amsterdam had hers. The Elite package raises the ceiling.
Considerably. Amsterdam left the fleet before modern satellite connectivity rolled out, and a 2019 guest remembers slow service billed by the minute. Volendam and Zaandam now offer a Surf plan included in Have It All for email and social media, and a separately sold Premium plan for video. Dead zones persist in the fjords and in the middle of the great oceans.
Volendam and Zaandam run a youth program for ages 3 to 6, 7 to 11 and 12 to 17, with nothing for children under three, exactly as Amsterdam did. The winter grand voyages carry almost no children. The summer departures, Montreal for Volendam and Vancouver for Zaandam, are the most family-heavy. A guest who wants a genuine family program should look at a Pinnacle-class ship instead.
Yes, with Holland America. Days sailed aboard Amsterdam before 2020 remain on the record and count toward the 30, 75, 200 and 500 cruise-day tiers, including the doubled days if the voyage was taken in a suite. Those credits do not follow to Fred. Olsen, whose loyalty program is independent. A former Amsterdam regular therefore keeps their standing intact by booking Volendam or Zaandam, and loses it entirely by booking Bolette.
The R class behaves like a 60,000-ton ship with stabilisers: fine in sheltered water, noticeable in a built sea. Amsterdam handled exactly that way, and so do her two surviving sisters. The St. Lawrence and Alaska's Inside Passage stay calm; the Gulf of Alaska, the North Atlantic in autumn and the Drake Passage do not. A midship ocean-view stateroom on a low deck remains the best choice.
