At the recent Senior Management Conference on ss Rotterdam in Rotterdam, our chief engineers got to go below deck for a look at the engine room. Chief Engineers Hans Bloks and Willem Dullaert served as chief engineer onboard ss Rotterdam when the ship was in service.

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Holland America Line honored recent (or soon-to-be) retirees at the Senior Management Conference banquet in Rotterdam. We’re sure you’ll recognized some of your favorite faces from our offices and fleet. Congratulations, and here’s wishing them all the best in their retirement!

From left: Johan Groothuizen, Frans Consen, Juul Gehrman, Jaap Wisse, Halle Gundersen and Peter Rijkaart.

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From left: Hotel Directors Bert van Mackelenbergh, Jessica Schumann and Henk Mensink.

We were attending the Senior Management Conference in Rotterdam, and we found a bit of time to run. Every morning we assembled at 5:45 am for a 10k/6M early morning run and when time allowed we did the same thing in the evening.

We wish Jessica lots of luck. On the 25th of May she is running an ultra marathon in Germany: a 72Km/45 mile race. She has been training a lot so we know she will do well.

Myself, Bert, I’m running another marathon on the 26th of May, which will be a good training for my upcoming race in June. On the 29th of June I’m running a 54-Mile ultra marathon in the Mohave Desert. It’s called the ‘Running with the devil” ultra.

Will let you know how that went … but first we will hear from Jessica how she did with her ultra!

Bert van Mackelenbergh is Veendam’s hotel director.

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Here is a photo from an incredible day of crew soccer in Stockholm. For the first game we played against a different ship and won 3-1 and then had a friendly Rotterdam scrimmage.

Julie Seidel is Rotterdam’s human resources manager.

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Kudos to our team for their recognized excellence of service aboard ms Westerdam. And thank you to Susan and Ed Blake for sharing their experience with us.

We would like to take a moment to commend the crew of the Westerdam, especially those in the dining room for their expert and exceptional service. Our dining steward, Ari Saloko, the assistant steward, Yudi Subiyanto, along with Eddy, Dudi, and Robert. We traveled in October 2012 to the South Pacific, amazing cruise, with these gentlemen. To our surprise they were also on our most recent cruise to the Eastern and Western Caribbean during March. Ari and Yudi remembered our preferences for both food and drink. They even remembered my husband’s request for dessert: 1 scoop of vanilla ice cream with a “little bit” of chocolate sauce. I wish the computer would allow Ari’s accent to come through for “little bit.” These two dining room stewards actually made both of our cruises so enjoyable that now we hope they will be on our next cruise. We are taking the 38 day voyage to the South Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand in October on the Oosterdam. Looking forward to seeing our “family” again, hopefully on the Oosterdam. — Susan and Ed Blake

Ari and Yudi

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Here are a few pictures from our Service Award ceremony and New Hire Chat.

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During its South Pacific Crossing, the crew of the ms Oosterdam were treated to a tour of Te Puia in Rotorua, New Zealand, where traditional dances were performed for the group.

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Robert “Nick” Nichols, ms Nieuw Jakarta’s academic director, sent us the following note and photos of the center’s recent classes of graduates. ms Nieuw Jakarta is HAL’s crew training center in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Congratulations to the 175th class and graduates of the Housekeeping/Laundry class and the 40th Clerk class held at ms Nieuw Jakarta. Participants received training on a variety of topics such as English for their job, skills practical training and familiarization with HAL policies and procedures. Well done!

From left, front: Murdiyanto, Ireneus Aditya and Putu Herry Suryanatha. From left, back: Harman Yusiwa, Nyoman Swan Tridarma and Zaki Mubarak.

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