At 10:00 a.m. on June 20, 2025, the 1,964-passenger Westerdam formally crossed into the Arctic Circle.
Visitors onboard are at the moment having fun with a 28-night Alaska Arctic Circle Solstice cruise, which arrived on the Arctic Circle on the Summer season Solstice within the northern hemisphere.
In the course of the longest day of the yr on this explicit location, the solar doesn’t set, giving passengers the coveted alternative to expertise the midnight solar.
To commemorate the event, passengers had been invited to assemble and have fun on the bow of the ship because it entered the Arctic Circle.
Throughout this celebration, the vessel’s horn was sounded, and the entire company had been allowed to take a photograph whereas on the bow.
Past that, passengers additionally acquired an opportunity to mingle with each the crew and the ship’s officers — and even acquired a commemorative certificates to recollect the event.
“As we crossed into the Arctic Circle beneath the infinite summer time sky, it wasn’t only a line on a map—we hope will probably be a reminiscence for our Holland America Line company that shines as brightly because the midnight solar,” shared Westerdam‘s Captain, Eric van der Wal.
Navigating the ocean safely to enter the Arctic Circle comes with its justifiable share of challenges, largely as a result of excessive climate that may considerably affect ocean situations.
Captain Eric van der Wal labored intently together with his workers, making fixed real-time choices via the interpretation of shifting ice patterns and cloudy satellite tv for pc pictures in an effort to make the passage attainable.
Whereas issues had been wanting shaky for some time, the ice situations improved sufficient at the very best time attainable to permit Westerdam to proceed heading in direction of the Arctic Circle.
Having departed from Seattle again on June 8, 2025, this voyage is providing company a possibility to witness the fantastic thing about Alaska’s wilderness whereas additionally giving passengers the prospect to see a full day of daylight on the longest day of the yr.
This scenic cruise additionally consists of viewing alternatives of the Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay and calls on a number of ports in Alaska, reminiscent of Nome, Dutch Harbor, Kodiak, Haines, and Sitka.
Visitors will disembark when the vessel returns to the Pacific Northwest on July 6, 2025.
The place is Westerdam Deployed This Summer season?
Presently, the 82,348 gross-ton Westerdam is homeporting in Seattle, ceaselessly doing 7-night itineraries round Alaska.
These voyages primarily name on Juneau, Tracy Arm Fjord, Sitka, and Ketchikan in Alaska, in addition to Victoria, Canada.
When Westerdam arrives in Seattle on July 6 to disembark company from the present 28-night solstice crusing, it’ll resume its shorter 7-night voyages later that very same day.
There is just one extra 28-night cruise accessible on Westerdam departing from Seattle, which is scheduled to depart on August 31, 2025.
In contrast to the solstice crusing, this voyage is targeted on glaciers and volcanoes, first calling on ports in Alaska after which Hawaii, all earlier than heading again to Seattle one final time.
Learn Additionally: What’s the Finest Time of Yr to Cruise Alaska?
After that voyage concludes, Westerdam is ready to depart on September 28, 2025, for a 29-night repositioning cruise which can arrive in Tokyo on October 27.
Westerdam will then spend the remainder of 2025 into early 2026 homeporting in Yokohama and Tokyo in Japan, in addition to in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Whereas the ship will return for extra Alaskan sailings out of Whittier in 2026, there aren’t any plans for the vessel to homeport in Seattle anytime quickly.
For these cruisers fascinated with happening one in every of Holland America Line’s summer time solstice cruises in 2026, Nieuw Statendam might be providing company the chance to benefit from the solstice whereas in North Cape in Norway.
Noordam may even be doing a 2026 summer time solstice voyage departing from Seattle, the place it’ll cross over the Arctic Circle on the day of the solstice, simply as Westerdam has executed this week.
Whereas Westerdam might be departing from Seattle in September, it’s clear that Holland America Line has no intention of stopping its Alaskan voyages or summer time solstice choices anytime quickly.
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