Looking to cruise to the Panama Canal?

Holland America Line is adding more cruises to the Panama Canal, the cruise line announced this week.

Holland America will be sending eight ships and 19 cruises to the Canal between fall 2017 and spring 2018.

In addition to full transits, the line’s ms Zuiderdam will offer two Southern Caribbean and Panama Canal Sunfarer cruises that include a partial transit through the canal.

The transits range from 14 to 23 days.

“The Panama Canal is among the greatest engineering feats of our time, and its easy access from a U.S. home port makes it one of the most popular longer itineraries we feature,” said Orlando Ashford, president of Holland America Line. “There’s no better way to become more immersed in the world than by experiencing something like the Panama Canal, where history comes to life as you witness up close what it took to connect these two oceans. Everyone should transit the Panama Canal at least once in their lifetime.”

From September 2017 through May 2018, ms Amsterdam, ms Eurodam, ms Maasdam, ms Nieuw Amsterdam, ms Oosterdam, ms Westerdam and ms Zaandam will make 19 transits between the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean from five departure cities. Guests can set sail from Boston, Mass.; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; San Diego and San Francisco, California; and Vancouver.

The post Holland America Adding More Panama Canal Cruises appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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By Alexander Britell

Before you read any further, know this: the Baha Mar is open in the Bahamas. And it is an impressive thing.

It is remarkably built, wonderfully modern and tastefully executed. It is a class above what you’re used to in the Caribbean.

Whatever you may have thought about it, it will exceed your expectations.

If you’re not familiar with the Baha Mar resort project, the largest in the Caribbean, it first broke ground on Cable Beach in Nassau back at the beginning of 2011.

As it grew over the years and its infrastructure transformed the Cable Beach area of Nassau, it became a large question mark: what was this project all about? How would it draw visitors when Atlantis was just a few miles away?

Of course, that was before the years of legal troubles, the bankruptcy, the ownership change and the developer-government battles, before Rosewood’s parent company, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, acquired the property last year. And while those stories dominated the conversation about the project, they omitted something important: what the resort would actually be like.

The Baha Mar officially welcomed its first guests in the spring to the property’s first hotel, the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, which has opened several hundred of its total 1800 rooms, where we stayed and which will be one of three hotels — along with Rosewood and SLS, both of which are scheduled to open within the next year.

The rooms at the Baha Mar are elegantly designed, the food at the restaurants that have opened already (there will be 42 in total) is excellent – and the service is vigilant — there has been training here, and it shows (as does the sheer scope of the employment benefit to the country).

The lovely Cafe Madeleine, where the macarons are a must.

As I walked around the property, though, the answer to the biggest question became clear.

What is this place? What is it all about? What’s the point of the Baha Mar?

This is Las Vegas.

This is meant to be the Caribbean’s Las Vegas, the Caribbean’s Macau — a high-level luxury resort complex anchored by a 100,000-square-foot casino (nearly twice the size of Atlantis), the kind of property the Caribbean has never seen, with a world-class offering that just isn’t in the Caribbean.

The terrific Churchill’s Cigar Lounge.

It’s something that becomes clear as you walk around — the quality of the shops, the jazz lounge, the cigar bar, the light shows, the imposing, massive waterfalls at the entrance of the resort — even the direction signs in the casino look identical to the ones you’d find in the Venetian.

Of course, that’s not to say there isn’t a Bahamian identity. This is not blind to its location by any stretch — from details like restaurant and bar names like The Swimming Pig Gastropub and The Lynden (named for the country’s first Prime Minister) to Graycliff cigars at the bar to a massive Bahamian art component, among others.

And it’s all done beautifully, clearly targeting a wealthy, serious, entertainment-seeking visitor — and, perhaps most crucially, not just from North America, either.

Most importantly, this isn’t meant to take away visitors from Atlantis, a decidedly more family-friendly, Disney-like place.

A room at the Grand Hyatt.

This place can legitimately draw visitors who would usually fly to Las Vegas for the meetings or their gambling trips, and instead take a significantly shorter flight to Nassau. (Yes, there’s an 82,000-square-foot convention center).

This is the kind of resort that can increase the size of the Caribbean’s tourism pie, when everything is firing, when the place is completely open.

If they can pull it off.

It’s Las Vegas with sandals, Las Vegas on a beach. And that’s pretty hard to beat.

See the video at the top for more.

Video by Guy Britton and Alexander Britell.

The post VIDEO: Baha Mar: The Caribbean Las Vegas appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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European low-cost carrier Norwegian’s strong summer continued in July with a 15 percent increase in passengers, according to the company’s latest report.

Norwegian carried just under 3.36 million passengers last month, a 15 percent jump compared to July 2016.

Total traffic growth increased by 23 percent, while capacity growth rose by 24 percent.

Load factor was 94 percent network wide, the company said.

“We are very pleased that an increasing number of passengers choose Norwegian for their travels, not least intercontinentally. It is also satisfactory that even with a strong capacity growth our aircraft are full. This proves that travellers in Europe, the U.S. and Asia appreciate low fares, new aircraft and friendly service.”

Norwegian has been rapidly expanding in the Caribbean, with a wave of new flights to both Martinique and Guadeloupe in the French Caribbean out of several major U.S. cities including New York, Providence and Fort Lauderdale.

— CJ Staff

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By Alexander Britell

On an island like Martinique, one with an immense tradition of rummaking and the world’s only AOC designation for rum, a new distillery isn’t very common.

That’s what made it so wonderful to see last year’s debut of the ultra-boutique Rhum A1710 distillery in the Le Francois section of Martinique, the brainchild of Yves Assier de Pompignan, a rum lover who spent years trying to build a boutique distillery on the island.

While the brand began with a trifecta of agricole blends from other producers, late last year the company debuted its first single-estate rum, an expression distilled from sugarcane grown at the property: A1710 La Perle.

This is a high-end, premium white rhum agricole, aimed at transcending what is an already-robust collection of white rhums from across both Martinique and Guadeloupe.

I first tasted it before it was officially launched, but recently obtained a bottle at a store in St. Barth.

So what is it like?

Well, it’s bottled at 54.5 percent ABV, a bit high for a white rhum though by no means unusual when you consider expressions like those from Guadeloupe’s Pere Labat and Martinique’s Neisson, for example.

The robust aroma has floral notes of mostly fresh sugar cane.

The flavor profile is marked by hints of tropical fruit, citrus, coconut husk and even a hint of banana and cane juice.

The finish is unsurprisingly strong, but smooth, pure controlled power.

This is simply a superb white rum. While it’s of course perfectly at home in a ti’ punch, like the best white rhum agricole varieties, it can even be enjoyed neat on a cool summer evening.

Rum Journal Rating: 93 Points

The post Rum Journal: Martinique’s Rhum A1710 La Perle appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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By Alexander Britell

Panama has long flown under the radar as a rum power, something that has begun to change in recent years thanks to marques like Don Pancho (the brainchild of former Havana Club blender Don Pancho Fernandez) and Ron Abuelo, the latter the country’s flagship brand.

The country has typically produced fuller-bodied dark rums typically joined together by a unique, somewhat dry finish.

It’s that, let’s call “unique” finish, that has been, to me, the achilles heel for some top-level Panamian rums — and something that seems to have been answered directly by a new release from Abuelo.

Its called the Finish Collection, and it includes a portfolio of three expressions, each taking rums aged in oak casks and finishing them in either former sherry, cognac or tawny port casks.

The result is the classic, robust Ron Abuelo with a very different finish.

And it’s rather good.

I tried the Tawny Port Cask Finish, a dark amber rum with an aroma marked by a strong note of caramel, revealing a whisper of black cherry and candied fruit and a hint of oak.

The flavor profile has a hint of spice, enveloped by notes of dark chocolate, candied fruit, brown sugar, vanilla and, not unsurprisingly, a strong note of port wine. As you sip, you can begin to rediscover that classic dry Panamanian finish — but it becomes a small note in the symphony.

This is a very tasty, sweet rum that has the character you expect from Abuelo with a rounded, velvety finish. It also makes for a terrific digestif.

Rum Journal Rating: 92 points.

— Alexander Britell, who founded Rum Journal in 2012, is one of the world’s top experts on Caribbean rum. 

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