Holland America Line will have two ships sailing in the Australia/Pacific/Asia region for the first time in 2011-12.
The ships Volendam and Zaandam are being deployed simultaneously, providing a series of itineraries ranging in duration from 13 to 26 days.
Volendam will depart from Sydney on nine 14-day cruises to New Zealand between October 2011 and March 2012. Both ships will offer 13 and 14-night itineraries to the South Pacific from Sydney between December 2011 and February 2012.
Zaandam will then operate six 14-day sailings between Singapore or Kobe (Osaka) in Japan and Hong Kong between January and March 2012. The cruises include extended stays in several ports, as well as overnight calls in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing.
Both ships will run trans-Pacific repositioning cruises to and from Asia and the South Pacific region, ranging from 22 to 26 days in duration.
Volendam departs on September 7, 2011, from Vancouver on a 26-day cruise taking in Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji and New Caledonia before arriving at Sydney. The ship returns to Vancouver from Sydney on a 23-day itinerary departing April 10, 2012.
Zaandam sails from San Diego to Sydney on a 26-day crossing via Hawaii and the South Pacific that includes an evening sailing by the Kilauea Volcano.
A 22-day northern Pacific return departs from Kobe to Vancouver on April 1, 2012 covering several ports in Japan before sailing up to Alaska with scenic cruising in Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage.
Announcing the expansion HAL marketing, sales and guest programmes executive vice-president Richard Meadows said: “That part of the world has always been popular with our guests, and that greatly influenced our decision to increase our capacity in the region.
“The entire area has such diverse offerings – from the Great Barrier Reef and fiords of New Zealand to the dramatic landscapes of the South Pacific islands and rich and exotic cultures of the Orient.”