Hello Folks,
Myself any my wife spent last week on the Nieuw Statendam sailing to the Southern Caribbean. This was our first cruise post COVID and my 8th cruise, 3rd on Holland. This will be a short review, just some bullet points to how we enjoyed our trip and if anyone has any questions, I'll do my best to answer.
To start, we had a Verandah booked, category VE. Four days before sailing we received an upgrade off for an Vista Suite for $300.00 more, I called to see what rooms they offered and the one I took was an AFT view Vista Suite category AS. (The day before I was emailed an offer to upgrade to an Neptune Suite for $898 more, I passed).
The Vista Suite was nice and the AFT view was amazing, but I do not see the extra money justification if it wasn't AFT facing. Personally I would not pay extra for a VS over a Verandah again. Cabin stewards were great but still offered only once per day service, we picked morning service. (I was hoping since gratuities were higher for suite guest we would have seen something extra, but nothing extra) I am sure we could have pushed the stewards and gotten both, but I know they are overworked as is.
We had the HIA package, once onboard I upgraded our drink package to Elite as I have seen mixed messages about how they handle drinks over the package price.
We upgrade to Elite before we had any drinks and we asked at one of the tables upon boarding that offered the drink packages. (this was $82.60 each)
Each drink we got, we had to sing a slip showing the price of the drink and a spot to add an extra tip. The drink was then zero on the statement and a line for Additional Tip.
There are signs at most of the bars stating "Have a Beverage Package? Order any cocktail or glass of wine and now only pay the difference on drinks that exceed your package price limit."
I did inquire with one of the bartenders about if she could tell how many drinks I have had and she said, no the system doesn't keep track, I would need to check with guest services if I lost count myself. I asked what happened if I exceeded the 15 as part of the package, she said we would be charged full price for the drink. I never reached the 15 so I could not test it.
(If doing the trip over, I would not have upgraded to Elite)
Also with the HIA package was internet, I did not even try to use the internet that came with the package and selected to upgrade to the better plan for $40 for both mine and my wife's phone ($80 in total). Even with the better plan, I would call the internet access sketchy at best, while I could access all the sites I tried it was painfully slow 99% of the time. I was up at 4am on morning and it was moving along pretty good.
Food... I do enjoy a good meal but I would not call myself picky. Overall the food at the lido and the main dinning room was very bland. We wanted to try the specialty dinning options and ate at 3 of the 4 on the ship.
1. Pinnacle Grill - Very good meal, service was a bit slow. We booked it for the first night of the cruise, we both enjoyed the meal and the view. (Extra appetizer was a charge)
2. Canaletto - Again, another great meal, service was the best of the 3 specialty dinning.
3. Tamarind - Beautiful restaurant, good was very enjoyable, service was a bit slow as well.
(if doing the trip over, I would pay the extra for all 3 of these again)
We only went to the main dinner room one night, dragging a meal out for 90plus minutes for "OK" food, not our way that we wanted to spend out time. The other nights that we didn't have specialty dinner, we at the lido. Pizza was pretty good, fresh stir fry was my favorite. While the food was good from the Dive-In, it closed at 6pm. Using the app was a great away to reduce the time waiting in line for pizza or burgers.
The ship was beautiful, laid out well, and the crew were great. I believe the ratio of crew to guests needs an improvement, waits at the bar, guest services, dinning were my only complaint.
Will I sail Holland again? Yes, but they are not my only option.
Let me know if anyone has an questions, I will do my best to answer.
