Rotterdam

Some ships carry a name; Rotterdam carries a dynasty. She is the seventh Holland America vessel to wear it since 1872, renamed from Ryndam mid-construction in 2020 specifically to keep the oldest name in the fleet alive — and in 2022 she marked the line's 150th anniversary by recreating the original Rotterdam's maiden crossing to New York, a route first sailed three years before the telephone was invented.

At 99,935 gross tons she is the largest ship Holland America has ever operated, yet deliberately half the size of the mega-resorts: the Pinnacle class bets on space per passenger and live music instead of waterslides. Her entertainment district, the Music Walk, runs from a Billboard piano bar through a B.B. King's blues club to the Rolling Stone Rock Room, all feeding the World Stage — a theater wrapped in a 270-degree LED horizon.

Princess Margriet of the Netherlands christened her in the city she is named for in May 2022 — the fifth Holland America ship the princess has named, a run stretching back four decades. Dutch-flagged and Rotterdam-registered, she is that increasingly rare thing: a flagship whose registry, name and heritage all point at the same place.