About Holland America

Holland America Line was founded in 1873 as the Netherlands-America Steamship Company (NASM), a shipping and passenger line. Headquartered in Rotterdam and providing service to the Americas, it became known as the Holland America Line (HAL). The company's first ocean liner was the Rotterdam, which sailed its maiden voyage from the Netherlands to New York City on Oct. 15, 1872. The one-way voyage took 15 days.
By its 25th anniversary, Holland America Line owned a fleet of six cargo and passenger ships, and also provided service between Holland and the Dutch East Indies via the newly constructed Suez Canal. The line was a principal carrier of immigrants from Europe to the United States until well after the turn of the century, carrying 850,000 to new lives in the New World.
In 1895, the company offered its first vacation cruise; its second leisure cruise, from New York to the Holy Land, was in 1910. In 1971, with the onset of the jet age, HAL suspended its transatlantic passenger trade and offered cruise vacations full time.
In 1989, Holland America Line Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of Carnival Corp.
Today, with 135 years of experience in ship travel and carrying more than 10 million passengers from Europe to North America, HAL’s fleet of 14 ships* offers more than 500 cruises to 314 ports of call in 97 countries, territories or dependencies.
Holland America Tours
The company's Holland America Tours subsidiary, serving Alaska and Canada's Yukon, was founded in 1948 in Fairbanks as Arctic Alaska Tours to arrange tours and operate from Seward and Valdez by rail and bus to the interior and by air to the Arctic. Westours, as the company became known, became a subsidiary of Holland America in 1979.
Now known as Holland America Tours, the company also owns Gray Line of Alaska, Gray Line of Seattle and several other Gray Line memberships. The company also owns Westmark Hotels, the largest hotel group in Alaska and Yukon Territory with 11 hotels in ten communities. In May 2006, Holland America Line completed a new 135-room lodge in Denali as well as the renovation and expansion of the Westmark Fairbanks.

*Holland America Line’s Five-Star Fleet

Ship Name Delivery Passenger Capacity
Nieuw Amsterdam 2010 2,106
ms Eurodam 2008 2,104
ms Noordam 2006 1,918
ms Westerdam 2004 1,916
ms Oosterdam 2003 1,848
ms Zuiderdam 2002 1,916
ms Prinsendam 2002 793
ms Amsterdam 2000 1,380
ms Zaandam 2000 1,432
ms Volendam 1999 1,432
ms Rotterdam 1997 1,316
ms Veendam 1996 1,258
ms Ryndam 1994 1,258
ms Maasdam 1993 1,258
ms Statendam 1993 1,258