Holland America Line has embarked on the “most ambitious guest experience update” in its 153-year history, investing more than $500 million to complete extensive bow-to-stern revitalisations on six of its 11 ships.
The multi-year renovation project, carried out in collaboration with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri, will cover the brand’s four Vista-class ships – Oosterdam, Zuiderdam, Westerdam and Noordam – and two Signature-class vessels, Nieuw Amsterdam and Eurodam. The brand aims to expand bar and restaurant options, add new suite and stateroom categories and “bring the best” of the Pinnacle-class vessels onboard. It will also introduce experiences and venues that are new to the fleet.
“We’re elevating our Vista- and Signature-class ships by bringing in features guests already love on our Pinnacle class,” says My Nguyen, senior director of design and innovation at Holland America Line and Seabourn. “This will allow us to enhance the guest experience in a meaningful way while ensuring the fleet continues to feel relevant and compelling for years to come.”
The “focused investment in comfort, choice and experience” has been “strongly informed” by both guest and crew feedback, says Nguyen. “We listened closely to which spaces guests gravitate towards, how they use them, and where there were opportunities to expand choice.”
Holland America Line will complete the refurbishments ship by ship, starting with Oosterdam, which will return to service fully revitalised in autumn 2027.
During Oosterdam’s refit, Holland America Line will add 76 new staterooms and suites, giving guests more choice and flexibility, while increasing the ship’s overall capacity. New accommodation options will include 30 rooms purpose-built for solo travellers, each with a private balcony and dedicated workspace, as well as 24 Vista suites with seating areas, oversized windows and private verandas. There will also be 900-square-foot Bridgeview suites with separate living and sleeping areas, wraparound balconies and panoramic windows offering 180-degree views. Both suites will be situated in the ship’s forward section, giving guests the same view as the captain sees from the bridge. The highlight will be the 1,550-square-foot Pinnacle Suite, which will be the largest stateroom ever introduced on a Vista-class ship. It will offer a bedroom, a living room, an en-suite bath, a powder room, a walk-in wardrobe and a private balcony.
Another notable addition is the Grand Dutch Café, a signature Pinnacle-class venue inspired by the brand’s Dutch heritage and European cafe culture. It will be located on the lower decks near the atrium. “For now, we are only confirming some of the changes for Oosterdam, but will share more extensive details for this vessel and the others soon,” says Nguyen.
The Grand Dutch Café, currently located on the Nieuw Statedam, Koningsdam and Rotterdam ships, is one of many new additions that will be added onboard Oosterdam
While elevating the guest experience is Holland America Line’s priority, it will also focus heavily on reducing the overall environmental impact of the ships – both in terms of how they operate and the products used to refresh the interiors. In addition to investing in technical upgrades to improve energy efficiency and lower long-term operational carbon intensity, the brand aspires to follow a circular design approach and reduce waste by prioritising upcycling and reusing materials where possible.
“Throughout the renovations, sustainability will remain an important element of the updates – our focus will be on revitalising the fleet while improving efficiency,” says Nguyen. “As we develop these designs, we aim to select materials thoughtfully, work with partners who are willing to explore circular strategies with us and look for practical ways to reduce waste during refurbishment.
“When sustainability is considered at the beginning of a project, it opens up more opportunities for innovation, scale and practical solutions. During both refurbishment and newbuild projects, there is scope to think circularly and treat materials as resources rather than waste. For example, if multiple ships are in dry dock at the same location over a short amount of time, there is potential for shared thinking around logistics and materials reuse. The more coordinated these conversations become across the industry, the easier it will be to turn innovation into the new normal.”
As part of its commitment to designing sustainable interiors, Holland America Line has “intentionally structured” its team and appointed both a sustainability coordinator and a procurement manager.
My Nugyen and her team are working with partners like Dansk Wilton to find ways of reusing or repurposing waste materials
“They report directly to me and work alongside our designers and project managers,” says Nguyen. “This creates stronger alignment on specifications and clearer accountability with partners. We are still in early phases, so I can’t make specific commitments yet, but sustainability is a constant in our design discussions. Working with the right partners and communities can lead to legacy materials being reused or upcycled, which reduces waste. Meanwhile, thinking ahead circularly can help us make the best material choices and bring exciting new interiors to life.”
Despite being steadfast in her commitment to prioritising sustainability wherever possible, Nguyen acknowledges it will be difficult to achieve during such a large-scale renovation project.
“Time is always a challenge, particularly when innovation needs to happen at scale and within fixed dry dock schedules,” she says. “While there are strong sustainable products in the market today, the industry needs more variety and availability. It can also take time to change mindsets when it comes to topics such as waste management. Real impact happens when all key stakeholders are willing to champion innovation and develop unique solutions to approach familiar processes in slightly different ways.”
According to Nguyen, the solution to overcoming these barriers lies in taking a broader view of sustainability.
“When evaluating materials and solutions, we look at sustainability holistically rather than through a single metric while considering factors such as durability, maintainability, regulatory requirements, material transparency and opportunities for reuse or recycling at end of life,” she says. “Cost and transportation impacts are part of those conversations as well, and often the best solutions come from balancing multiple priorities rather than optimising for just one. Our goal is to continue building partnerships that allow us to test, learn and evolve these approaches in a practical, scalable way.”
Nguyen predicts cross-sector collaboration will help the industry to innovate. “I’ve seen first-hand that innovation accelerates when partners across design, sourcing and manufacturing share common sustainability goals,” she says. “When everyone at the table has a stake in the outcome, challenges such as costs, logistics or material constraints tend to turn from barriers into new opportunities for collaborative problem solving.”
Holland America Line’s partnership with Danish carpet manufacturer Dansk Wilton is a “small but meaningful” example, says Nguyen. “Together, we’ve repurposed carpet waste into branded coasters that we sell to our guests. It’s not a large-scale solution on its own, but it demonstrates how creative thinking can turn waste into something purposeful, financially viable and engaging for both our guests and partners. We’re interested in taking lessons from examples like this and applying them at a larger scale where possible.”
As an ardent advocate of circular design and environmental sustainability, Nguyen hopes this project will encourage other passenger shipping operators to follow in Holland America Line’s footsteps when working on their own newbuild and refurbishment projects.
“To me, success is embedding sustainability into the full design and development process, from early concepts through material selection, sourcing and long-term maintainability,” says Nguyen. “This approach naturally drives innovation and raises expectations in the market. My hope is that sustainable interior design can demonstrate what’s possible, and that criteria such as beauty, compliance with International Maritime Organization regulations, maintainability, affordability and sustainability can increasingly become standard expectations.”
While Nguyen wants the industry to take note of Holland America Line’s sustainability achievements, her aim is for guests to feel as though it has been woven authentically into the brand.
Holland America Line will expand accommodation options with new suite and stateroom categories
“The guest experience will always come first,” she says. “We want guests to step onboard and immediately feel an elevated ambience that is unmistakably Holland America Line; beautiful art that tells a story, layered colours and textures and an overall sense of elegance that feels authentic to the brand. I want them to sense we have created spaces that feel welcoming and familiar yet refreshed and more elegant – like a home away from home. I hope they will be impressed by the elevated feel of the interiors and the way sustainability is thoughtfully integrated into the design.”
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