Holland America 2027 2028 Hawaii Cruises Announced

Holland America Line has opened bookings for a 2027 to 2028 season of nearly three dozen voyages covering Hawaii, Mexico, the Panama Canal, and the Pacific Coast. The lineup targets winter sun and shoulder season coastal cruising, using four ships, Koningsdam, Eurodam, Nieuw Amsterdam, and Zaandam, across a schedule that runs from October through April. For travelers, the immediate planning move is to decide whether you are optimizing for fewer sea days to a warm weather region, a longer itinerary with more port time, or a short Pacific Coast sailing that works as a repositioning trip or a quick getaway.
Holland America is leaning into longer time in key places as a differentiator, especially in Hawaii, where select Circle Hawaii sailings include overnight and extended calls in Honolulu. The announcement also puts structure around the season's operational footprint, because these voyages depart from five North American homeports and concentrate demand into holiday weeks and winter peak periods when flights, hotels, and transfers tighten first.
Who Is Affected
Travelers shopping Hawaii and Mexico cruises for late 2027 through early 2028 are the most directly affected, because these itineraries can be hard to replicate later at the same price or with the same cabin and dining inventory once the best sailings begin to sell through. Longer itineraries, especially 14 to 22 day Panama Canal voyages, tend to attract planners who are also coordinating longer time off work, travel insurance decisions, and flight plans that may include one way air to different embarkation and disembarkation ports.
West Coast cruisers will see the broadest set of practical options. The season includes multiple roundtrip San Diego sailings for Mexico, longer Circle Hawaii voyages that may add a Mexico call such as Ensenada, and Pacific Coast trips that can function as a lower commitment way to sample the product. Pacific Northwest travelers, including those based around Vancouver and Seattle, also gain access to one way coastal sailings and the return of the Great Bear Rainforest itinerary in 2028, which is one of the more niche wildlife and wilderness focused options in this announcement.
Loyalty members and travelers who typically buy bundled onboard inclusions should pay attention to the promotion framing. Holland America is pairing these openings with an offer that ties added value to its Have It All package, and it also notes an early booking bonus for Mariner Society members, which can change the effective cost comparison across cabin categories if you already plan to purchase beverages, specialty dining, Wi Fi, excursions, and crew gratuities.
What Travelers Should Do
If you are considering one of these 2027 to 2028 sailings, start by locking down the trip structure before you chase the lowest fare. Pick your region first, then choose whether you want roundtrip convenience or an open jaw plan where you fly into one port and home from another. The goal is to avoid building an airfare and hotel plan that only works for one specific sailing time, because long itineraries and repositioning cruises can see schedule tweaks that ripple into transfers and same day flight connections.
Use a clear decision threshold for rebooking versus waiting. If your must have is an exact holiday departure, a particular ship, or a specific cabin type such as a midship balcony, it is rational to book earlier and treat later price moves as a bonus, not a plan. If your must have is simply a warm weather week and you are flexible across nearby dates, ports, and even ship choice, waiting can be reasonable, but only if you accept that the best cabins and dining times tend to go first, and that later availability can force compromises that cost more than a small fare difference.
Over the next 24 to 72 hours after you place a deposit, monitor the parts of the plan that actually break trips when they drift. Watch your cruise booking for any itinerary notes, verify that any package or loyalty benefits you expected appear on your invoice, and keep your pre cruise and post cruise hotel strategy flexible until you see your final flight schedule. If you are adding independent tours in ports like Honolulu, San Francisco, or Cabo San Lucas, keep them refundable or easy to move, because port times and sequencing, not just port selection, drive real world touring outcomes.
For Panama Canal itineraries in particular, treat canal day timing as a variable, not a fixed appointment, then build your flights and transfers around that reality. If you want context for how canal operations can influence schedule drift on the day, see Disney Adventure Panama Canal Transit Sets Record. For Holland America pricing strategy context and how limited windows can shape inventory behavior, see Holland America Caribbean Cruise Sale Ends Feb 9.
Background
This announcement is best understood as a deployment and demand shaping move, not just a list of ports. Holland America is putting four ships into a tight October through April window, then distributing them across homeports that can be reached with relatively straightforward air service from North American origin markets. The first order effect is simple, more itineraries open for sale, and travelers can secure specific dates, ships, and cabin categories far in advance. The second order effects are where planning friction shows up.
On Hawaii sailings, longer Honolulu stays change the touring math. More time in port can let you plan early morning starts and late night cultural programs without the same pressure to be back aboard after a short call, but it also increases the temptation to book nonrefundable activities that assume a precise arrival time. On Mexico itineraries, the Sea of Cortez focus and the mix of short and longer sailings creates a split market, some travelers want a quick warm weather break, while others want deeper Baja and regional exploration, and those two groups create different peaks in demand for certain weeks and cabin types.
Panama Canal voyages have an additional system layer. Canal transits involve lock scheduling and operational choreography that can stretch or compress the day, then the ship's revised timing can cascade into later port calls, tender windows, and the pace of the rest of the itinerary. That is why long itineraries can have outsized impacts on the travel system around them, because a small timing slip at the canal can turn into later tour compression, higher misconnect risk for travelers meeting the ship, and added hotel nights when a same day flight plan is no longer prudent.
On the Pacific Coast side, short one way sailings between Seattle, Vancouver, and San Diego look simple, but they sit on a different operational layer, repositioning and seasonal redeployment. That is why these cruises can be attractive for travelers who want fewer sea days and lower complexity, while still carrying a predictable planning risk, port arrival times and disembarkation flows are often early, and any change can create airport peak pressure and tighter hotel inventory in the embarkation city.
Sources
- Holland America Line Opens Nearly Three Dozen 2027-2028 Voyages Across Hawaii, Mexico, Panama Canal and Pacific Coast
- Holland America Line Opens Nearly Three Dozen 2027-2028 Voyages Across Hawaii, Mexico, the Panama Canal and the Pacific Coast
- Holland America Line Opens 2027/28 North American Voyages
- 7-DAY GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST Cruise Itinerary