Holland America Line Resumes Egypt Travel

[Phil]

Holland America Line Resumes Egypt Travel

April 5, 2011 - With the recently amended recommendations by the U.S. Department of State for improved travel to Egypt, Holland America Line has reinstated original cruise itineraries for all fall 2011 cruises scheduled to call in Egypt. In addition, ms Prinsendam will resume its original spring 2011 cruise itinerary including Egypt ports and ms Amsterdam included a visit to Safaga, Egypt, on April 2, during its Grand World Voyage. Affected travel agents and guests have been notified. Egypt cruise ports offer attractive cultural activities and profoundly historic sites for our cruise guests to visit. They are popular destinations on longer voyage cruises and we are pleased to reinstate them into scheduled cruises.

ms Amsterdam Grand World Voyage that departed Ft. Lauderdale, FL on Jan. 5, 2011 will maintain earlier itinerary changes but now call at Safaga on April 2. The affected segment of the itinerary is as follows:

Mar. 29 - Apr. 1    At Sea    
Apr. 2    Safaga, Egypt    7:00 am – 7:00 pm
Apr. 3    Aqaba, Jordan    7:00 am – 11:00 pm
Apr. 4    At Sea    
Apr. 5    Daylight Transit Suez Canal    
Apr. 6    Ashdod (Jerusalem), Israel    7:00 am – 11:00 pm

ms Prinsendam 62-day Africa and Mediterranean Grand Voyage that departed Ft. Lauderdale, FL on Mar. 12 will sail the original published itinerary.

Japan Travel Advisory

Holland America Line has made revisions to the April 14th and May 2nd sailings of the ms Volendam as a consequence of the recent events in Japan. While the situation there is improving on a daily basis, there remains much recovery work to be done in the northern region. As such, upcoming scheduled calls to Northern Japan have been canceled including Yokohama (Tokyo) on May 4-5; Hakodate on May 7; and Kushiro on May 8. In their place, we have scheduled calls in Korea and Russia. The new itinerary for the affected segment of the sailing is as follows:

May 2nd:    Kobe (Osaka), Japan    
May 3rd:    Scenic cruising Inland Sea of Japan    
May 4th:    Busan (Pusan), South Korea    Full Day
May 5th:    At Sea
May 6th:    Vladivostok, Russian Federation    Full Day
May 7-9th:    At Sea
May 10th:    Petropavlovsk (Kamchatka),
Russian Federation    Full Day

After May 10th the schedule reverts back to the published itinerary.

Port calls to Nagasaki (April 30th) and Kobe-Osaka (May 2nd) in southern Japan will operate as scheduled. These areas are hundreds of miles southwest of the Fukushima nuclear plant and well beyond the 50 mile precautionary area originally recommended by the U.S. and Japanese governments. While we remain confident in travelling to southern Japan, guests may also refer to the U.S. Department of State website for their most recent statement.

Although we always try to maintain our published itineraries, we believe these changes are prudent in light of recent events. Japan is a large country with many areas that are completely safe to visit. At the same time, there are areas which need more time to recover.

We are confident that our guests will enjoy the interesting and unique new ports on this portion of our revised itinerary. As well, we will handle all arrangements and costs for Russian visas. There is no action required on the part of our guests. No special visas are required in Korea. We appreciate our guests understanding of this situation and patronage of Holland America Line.

To show our solidarity with the people of Japan and assist with their rebuilding efforts, Holland America Line will deliver a check for $25,000 to the Japanese Red Cross during our call in Kobe on May 2.

Holland America Line Replaces Spring 2011 Mazatlán Port Calls

At Holland America Line, the safety of our guests and crew is our top priority. As such, for the remainder of the 2011 Spring cruise season we are replacing Mazatlán on our published itineraries as follows:
ms Oosterdam 7-day cruises departing March 12th, 19th, 26th and April 9th and 16th will now feature two days in Puerto Vallarta with an overnight on day three. The April 2nd departure will instead overnight in Cabo San Lucas on day four.

The 10- or 14-day sailing on ms Zaandam departing April 10th and ms Oosterdam departing April 23rd will now call a second time in Cabo San Lucas on day six.

Affected guests and travel agents are being notified.

Discussions will continue with local authorities in Mazatlán to determine the appropriate time to resume port calls there.

Should future itinerary changes be made, affected travel agents and guests will be notified.