AKP Phnom Penh, November 18, 2025 --

The Holland America Line cruise ship MS Westerdam docked at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port on Tuesday morning, delivering 1,850 passengers from 43 nationalities during its third visit to Cambodia in the 2025-2026 cruise season.

The vessel measures 285.22 metres in length, 32.20 metres in width, and has a draft of 8.1 metres. It arrived from Vietnam at 06:20 and is scheduled to depart for Thailand at 20:00 the same day.

On board were 1,850 passengers — including 992 women — representing 43 nationalities, along with 804 crew members of 39 nationalities, 156 of them women.

An additional 46 passengers (28 women) from three nationalities boarded in Siem Reap to join the voyage.

During the day-long port call in Preah Sihanouk province, visitors explored several interesting sites.

The Westerdam previously made global headlines in February 2020 when, amid COVID-19 fears, several regional ports refused entry to the ship. Cambodia, under the leadership of then-Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, allowed the vessel to dock at Sihanoukville.

The Prime Minister personally welcomed passengers on Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14) with roses and ensured their safe onward travel, an act widely praised as a demonstration of Cambodian humanitarian spirit and international solidarity.

By K. Rithy Reak