Amsterdam (III)
When this ship floated out at the 7th of january of the year 2000, she broke tradition. As a true sistership to the 1997 built Rotterdam, she was the first sister ever to a ship named Rotterdam for the Holland America Line. After her floatout, Rotterdam also had to tollerate her as a second flagship, because both ships were called flagships of the fleet from then on. In between the ships, named after the two biggest cities in The Netherlands, two other sisterships were built, but they differ in exteriour to the other sisters because they were built with just one normal funnel. These ships were the Volendam and Zaandam, both built in 1999.
Amsterdam was slightly bigger then her older sister, measuring 60.874 tons. Small differences are to be noticed in the exteriours of both ships, especially aft. The ship is 237,80 meters in lenght, she is 32,25 meters wide and her draft is 7,80 meters. Both sisters have 12 decks available to her passengers, of whom a maximum of 1872 can be carried. On the basis of the lower berths, Amsterdam can take on 1380 passengers. Also, there is space for 615 crewmembers. As her sister, the ship is pretty fast, her normal speed is around 25 knots, several knots faster then most modern cruiseliners. It was meant for the ship to be registered in The Netherlands, like the rest of the Holland America fleet, but because there was a small problem with paperwork getting ready on time, she had to be registered at the Bahamas in her first months of service, and she got Nassau as her homeport. This was not the only problem though, because there was already a ship named Amsterdam registered at Nassau. Holland America Line solved the problem by naming her Amsterdam 1 for the time being. The ship offers her passenger a very clssic and sophisticated interiour, designed by the Dutch VFD Architects, based at Utrecht. As a central piece, within the central atrium, an astrolabe measuring three decks in height is placed. This astrolabe took some 15 years to design!
Amsterdam was named in Boston in october 2000 and made her first cruise on the end of that month from Fort Lauderdale to Costa Rica. Within a few months time she was ceremoniously reflagged as a Dutch ship and her homeport of Rotterdam appeared on her stern. She was struck by some norwalk-virus outbrakes throughout her carreer, but aren't most cruiseships?
In february of 2005, Amsterdam hit the news to show how the most modern cruiseliners and their passengers can still suffer from bad weather. When the ship was anchored near Port Stanley on the Falklands the weather became so bad that she had to lift anchor and seek shelter away from the storm. Because of that, some hundreds of people were not able to get back to the ship and had to stay overnight in Port Stanley. Because of the limited amount of hotelspace on the island, some passengers and crew were invited to stay at residents homes and also, the residents cared for enough food for the hungry guests. The next day, the weather was calmed down and the cruise could be continued, but it was a memory worthwile for those people.
