Our Nieuw Amsterdam Experience--Nov. 7

[kalliekae]

We are a couple in our mid-50's who just returned from the Nov. 7 sailing aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam This was a great cruise despite being under Code Red the first 3 days. We did not think this situation detracted in any way from the cruise experience. From what we saw and heard, the crew went out of their way for the passengers. Our cabin stewards were very good and they were also exhausted by the end of day one. Every crew member, including the Captain, cleaned the ship prior to embarkation. Our cabin steward said pictures of the Captain cleaning toilets was posted in the crew quarters. We spoke to the Party Planner who echoed the exhausting work that ALL put in before pax arrived. Kudos to HAL!

 

This was our sixth HAL cruise and our first time in an aft suite. Normally, we book an SA in the middle of the ship. This time, we wanted to try something different and went with SB7137 with a wrap around deck.

Although the deck looked nice, it was always too windy to use the side portion. Therefore, we only used the front portion which was equal in size to our previous SA balconies.

 

This suite was quite large and had more closet space than we ever would have used. Just a note that the only real usable drawer space is in the bedside tables where one will find 2 drawers on each side. There is ample space under the bed for your suitcases or plenty of room to store them beside the bedside tables. There are 2 pull-out drawers under the bed that are very inconveniently located and I'm not sure why anyone would use these. They did not have "stops" on them and they kept coming out everytime the ship rocked. We had to move the chairs against them to keep them in place so we didn't trip in the middle of the night.

 

One downside to the aft suite is the far walk to the NL. It definitely cut down on our coffee and tea consumption. On the plus side, you get plenty of exercise walking from the front of the ship to your cabin several times a day. :) Probably the worst thing about the aft suite was the rocking motion. We've been on Caribbean cruises before and we have never experieced seas like we had on this cruise. We certainly felt the motion more in this suite than if we had been in the middle of the ship. I doubt we ever book an aft suite again because of this.

 

The ship is decorated nicely and the colors are great with the exception of the Manhattan Dining Room. I realize that decorating tastes are subjective. However, this dining room is extremely vivid in color and downright garish, IMO. It is mostly bright red with burgundy chairs. The decor certainly does nothing to help one have a relaxing dinner experience. It is also extremely noisy which proved difficult for someone in our group who had a hearing problem.

 

The dining room food was fair to excellent and the service was always great. However, something must have gone wrong in the kitchen on Thursday evening because we saw several people complaining after they had tried the crab legs. One table of 6 next to us even requested the Maitre'd so they could voice their dissatisfaction. A person in our group said the crab legs were definitely not up to standards. I ordered the NY strip steak that evening and it had a strange flavor so I only had 3 bites.

 

We had dinner in the Pinnacle Grill on the first formal night and it was totally outstanding with impeccable service!! Our steaks were the most tender we have had since our last PG experience on the Noordam. The desserts were fantastic, too. Interestingly, the restaurant was not full the entire evening which I thought strange since someone on CC had said they could not get reservations prior to sailing. I hope they were able to get reservations once on board.

 

We ordered room service for breakfast each morning and it was delivered on time and hot each day. We had no problem in the Lido other than "The Great Scavenger Hunt" each day which involved looking for silverware. Apparently, the servers were suppose to hand it to you with the food except that never happened since they didn't seem to have any. So it became a joke among ourselves to find silverware for lunch.

 

Our group ate in the Tamarind on the second formal night. Some of us thought it was great, others were not so impressed. Be prepared to spend 2 to 2 1/2 hours for dinner here. Service was slow and the food varied from poor to great. We all ordered different things and I don't remember each order. However, I will say that dh loved his sushi while my tempura veggies were very greasy.

 

We were unable to get reservations in the Canaletto.

 

For those of you who always wonder about HAL demographics, I heard one lady say that there were 33 kids enrolled at Club HAL the first day. I personally saw 3 infants and one toddler on board the ship. There was a good mixture of ages on this sailing. Every kid we saw was extremely well-behaved.

 

There were lots of activities on board to suit everyone's tastes. Shane, the CD, was excellent. I attended an informative computer session on Windows 7 and the instructor was excellent. Others in our group took advantage of the classes on digital photography.

 

As for excursions, we loved the dune buggy's on Grand Turk. Great fun! In San Juan, we toured the Barcardi factory and on St. Maarten, we took a bus tour of both sides of the island which wasn't great.

 

This ship is much larger than other HAL ships so if you have mobility issues, it might not be the ship for you. Personnally, we liked the size and would sail her again.

 

Joanie, I took pictures of our cabin so if you can use them, let me know where to send them.

 

One note about timing your flight home from FLL. I had read several posts on CC that said not to schedule a flight before noon. Our experience was opposite. We disembarked at 8:15am and would have had plenty of time to catch the 11am flight to Chicago. Unfortunately, we had scheduled a 12:45 pm flight and were unable to switch since both flights were full. Security lines at the airport were long, but they moved fast plus we counted 8 ships in port when we arrived. Perhaps all 8 were not disembarking, but at least 4 were. Next trip, I will schedule an earlier flight.

 

We did not take advantage of Luggage Direct because the front desk told us we had to buy the HAL bus transfer to do so plus we had to disembark by 7:15am. Since we had the later flight, we did not want to sit at the airport that long plus we didn't understand why we couldn't take a taxi to the airport and still use Luggage Direct. Personally, I don't think the girl had the correct information, but she was very insistent so we declined LD. It was really no problem for us to find our luggage and head out to the taxi so LD wasn't an asset after all.

 

 

I think that covers everything. If anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. This was a wonderful cruise and we look forward to future HAL sailings.

[rochelle_s]

Thanks for posting your review. I enjoyed reading it. Sounds like you had a wonderful time. Welcome home!

 

Rochelle

[IRL_Joanie]

Great Review!! I get to see her and experience her in just over 10 days!! I cannot wait:D

 

You can send the photos to mne here: irl_joanie@yahoo.com

 

You have me even more excited than I thought possible:D

 

Joanie

[MauiGirl55]

Thanks for the great review! Counting down the days until we board--18 days and counting!:D

[Himself]

Thank You for a very fine review. I look forward to being on the Nieuw Amsterdam in February. I see you are from Chicago. Did you fly into Midway or O"Hare?

[erewhon]

kalliekae,

 

Thank you for such a positive review.:)

[dot73]

Thank you for your honest review. After reading the last review posted of the same cruise, I was a little worried since I'll be spending 14 days on the NA in December. No cruise is perfect but you seemed to take the small inconveniences in stride and didn't let it ruin your cruise.

[Cristiano]

Hi KallieKae,

 

great review, honest and informative ; not llike some of the others that I saw re the same cruise so well done.

 

Nothing in life is perfect, otherwise it would be very mundane!

 

We board her on April 3 for 27 days and very much looking forward to our cruise.

 

Ciao,

 

Cristiano.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for there view.

 

How was the Mariner Brunch?

[jtl513]

However, this dining room is extremely vivid in color and downright garish, IMO. It is mostly bright red with burgundy chairs.

That's the one thing I would change on this ship. The almost-pink color was hard on my eyes ... but DW liked it! ;)

 

Interestingly, the restaurant was not full the entire evening which I thought strange since someone on CC had said they could not get reservations prior to sailing. I hope they were able to get reservations once on board.

The PGs often do not have enough staff to serve a totally full room in the manner that they wish, and will often refuse reservations even with many empty tables.

One note about timing your flight home from FLL. I had read several posts on CC that said not to schedule a flight before noon. Our experience was opposite. We disembarked at 8:15am and would have had plenty of time to catch the 11am flight to Chicago.

Probably 90% of the time an 11:00a flight is possible ... but it doesn't take much of a delay in the arrival or clearing of the ship ... or a traffic accident on the way to the airport ... or huge lines at the airport because of your fellow 18,000 cruisers from many other ships ... to make you miss your plane. Personally, it's not worth the worry about ending a cruise that way.

[kalliekae]

Thank You for a very fine review. I look forward to being on the Nieuw Amsterdam in February. I see you are from Chicago. Did you fly into Midway or O"Hare?

 

 

We flew American so it was from O'Hare. We are closer to O'Hare so we rarely fly out of Midway.

[kalliekae]

Hi KallieKae,

 

great review, honest and informative ; not llike some of the others that I saw re the same cruise so well done.

 

Nothing in life is perfect, otherwise it would be very mundane!

 

We board her on April 3 for 27 days and very much looking forward to our cruise.

 

Ciao,

 

Cristiano.

 

 

Lucky you!! We can't wait until we can do those long cruises once dh retires. Those days on the NA will fly by!

[kalliekae]

Thanks for there view.

 

How was the Mariner Brunch?

 

 

Wish I knew! Unfortunately, we did not attend to a glitch on our part. We did not ask if they handed out tiles and none were delivered to our room. We should have gone to the NL and asked about it, but forgot to do it.

[scottjeanne]

I agree with the OP on the color scheme of the Manhattan dining room. It is garish. We also found it very loud (vloume, notcolors LOL).

 

Glad to see you had a wonderful trip. I was on the inuagural. I hate to see that in a few short months, norovirus has found its way to this new ship. It goes to show it is the passengers and not the ship or the cruise line that is infected.

[dot73]

On my last two cruises, on the Noordam, I had any time dining in the lower dining room and I also found it very loud, which I did not notice on my previous HAL cruises with set dining in the upper dining room. Perhaps it's the low ceilings. The tables are definitely closer together than on the older HAL ships. On my NA cruise, I will be in the upper MDR, so I'll be able to compare.

[igraf]

I wonder if the increased rocking motion is typical for the Signature Class ships due to the extra weight on the top decks? I was towards the aft on my recent cruise on the Oosterdam and did not notice any undue motion.

 

Are you referring to front to back or side to side motion?

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

....Probably the worst thing about the aft suite was the rocking motion. We've been on Caribbean cruises before and we have never experieced seas like we had on this cruise. We certainly felt the motion more in this suite than if we had been in the middle of the ship. I doubt we ever book an aft suite again because of this. ..

[Lizzie1213]

Thanks for the review I enjoyed reading it.

[jp45atcc]

Thanks for your review. It's comforting since I've booked for Jan. 2, and was getting a little nervous, based on some other comments. Could you tell me, please, if the locker rooms have steam rooms / sauna? Many thanks.

[E-500]

Could you tell me, please, if the locker rooms have steam rooms / sauna? Many thanks.

 

The sauna outside the spa area, near the Lido pool is for use by all passengers for free. (co-ed) The 2 steam rooms and sauna inside the Retreat Spa are fee based.

[outtoseacruise]

Great review, we are booked on the 11/28 sailing. This will be my 6 month old daughters first cruise and the 5th for my 2 1/2 yearold daughters. Great to see you mentioned kids onboard.

Couple of questions since this is our first time on Holland:

1. How does it compare to Royal Caribbean? Food, Service, Quality of Cruise.

2. Do they have FOX News onboard?

3. WiFi can you buy blocks or unlimited?

Thanks

[IRL_Joanie]

Great review, we are booked on the 11/28 sailing. This will be my 6 month old daughters first cruise and the 5th for my 2 1/2 yearold daughters. Great to see you mentioned kids onboard.

Couple of questions since this is our first time on Holland:

1. How does it compare to Royal Caribbean? Food, Service, Quality of Cruise.

2. Do they have FOX News onboard?

3. WiFi can you buy blocks or unlimited?

Thanks

 

outtoseacruise, have you seen our Roll Call for this cruise? http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1188471

 

We have nearly 60 people and more expected. Come on over and meet everyone:)

 

Joanie

[E-500]

Great review, we are booked on the 11/28 sailing. This will be my 6 month old daughters first cruise and the 5th for my 2 1/2 yearold daughters. Great to see you mentioned kids onboard.

Couple of questions since this is our first time on Holland:

1. How does it compare to Royal Caribbean? Food, Service, Quality of Cruise.

2. Do they have FOX News onboard?

3. WiFi can you buy blocks or unlimited?

Thanks

 

1. Subjective, pros and cons to both.

2. No, usually CNN International. HAL passengers call it the Communist News Network.

3. Blocks yes, unlimited, no. Slow, expensive and unreliable.

[Crusier2010]

Thank you for your review. I also have been reading some of the reviews from the Nieuw Amsterdam. We are cruising Jan 9 Eastern Carribean and I am worried based the previous reviews.

[1jade105]

Wish I knew! Unfortunately, we did not attend to a glitch on our part. We did not ask if they handed out tiles and none were delivered to our room. We should have gone to the NL and asked about it, but forgot to do it.

 

Several years ago we did not receive our tiles on board. This was before they instituted the Mariner's brunch and they usually appeared in the cabin. I noted it briefly on the way home, decided they must have discontinued the tiles and forgot about it. Six months later we received a package in the mail with our tiles and a note of apology.

One more reason I love HAL.

[HollDoll]

As a HAL newbie, might I ask - what are "tiles"?