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LIVE: 11/2 Nieuw Amsterdam transatlantic - TravelingWithTheJones

travelinjones

By travelinjones,
in Holland America Line

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SilvertoGold

SilvertoGold

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We will be on the NA in a couple weeks. Looking forward to it. Does the Lido still have the sandwich made to order area? Thanks for all of the info. Enjoying your review.

 

Great to hear that!

 

Will you be doing one of your excellent blogs?

 

Have a wonderful cruise!!

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seapals2

seapals2

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Another LIVE thread for those who enjoy sailing along and getting a real insight ...

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2275258

 

This thread has photos too ... is it more difficult to post photos from HAL?

 

We cruise out of Vancouver on this ship in July with our son and his wife. It will be our first ever with HAL and hoping to get a glimpse from your thread.

How do you rate this ship against other cruise lines? We have sailed with Princess, Cunard, P&O and recently Celebrity.

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travelinjones

travelinjones

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Where in the heck have the Jones been?

 

Well, we’ve settled into shipboard life quite nicely. And it’s busy. There are a lot of interesting folks on board.

 

Our sea days have gone something like this:

 

-Wake up. Head to Explorations Cafe for coffee (with an extra expresso shot for Mr. Jones.)

 

-Head to the Queen’s Lounge. Every day at 9 am, Cruise Director Mario interviews someone different from the ship, and then the audience gets to ask questions. The guests have included the Hotel Manager Rene Tuinman, the Executive Chef and the Food & Beverage Manager, the Beverage Manager (who has a new, much longer title,) the staff Chief Engineer, the female officers and today’s: a group of crew members from various departments. (Mario only does these special events on transatlantic cruises, but he does host a similar chat with the Captain on every cruise.)

 

-10-12 noon — attend a lecture, read, or work. (It’s tough for both of us to “go dark” on work for two weeks, even when we are on vacation.) And, with ship-speed internet, work tasks take longer. We also tend to make repeat trips to the Explorations Cafe for more coffee.

 

-Lunch - either in the main dining room, or burgers from the Dive-In. We’ve also enjoyed the Pinnacle Grill lunch twice (fabulous), and have tried the new New York Pizza spot at the back of the ship. It is much-improved thin crust, made-to-order pizza.

 

-In-between events, we always tried to fit in a lap or three around the promenade deck. Getting at least 10,000 Fitbit steps is a little more challenging on sea days, while in port we were easily getting in 15,000-19,000+ a day.

 

-After lunch, we typically read, attend an event or activity, do more work (only 1 of us can be online at a time.) Often this results in a nap, or sunning activity on a quiet out-of-the-way spot somewhere.

 

-Between 4-5, we head to the Crow’s Nest to grab a table and another coffee or a cocktail. It’s generally packed for happy hour between 4-5 pm. We start a daily card game (3-13) with our friends around 4:30-5pm, which usually finishes around 6ish.

 

-We head out for an evening walk — most folks are at dinner or cocktail hour. Around 6:30 pm is the perfect time for uncrowded laps around the promenade - each lap is about 700 steps. There have been some spectacular sunsets. Only a few evening walks have been hampered by rain.

 

-Next we dress for dinner and have a pre-dinner cocktail. It’s hard to choose between Rene in the Ocean’s Bar, Arnold in the Silk Den, Tony in the Crow’s Nest, or Roger in the Pinnacle Bar. We adore all of them. Yes, we bought the Signature Beverage Package for this cruise (we repurposed our ‘shore excursion’ shipboard credit to help fund this.)

 

-We have late seating dinner in the Main Dining Room, where we’ve enjoyed a couple of fantastic dinners. But because we booked our cruise under the “DINE AROUND” promotion, we received complimentary dinners for the Pinnacle Grill, the Tamarind, and the Canaletto. Plus we pre-booked the Le Cirque and one extra dinner in the Pinnacle. Between the promotion, and a large number of 4- and 5-star Mariners onboard, the specialty restaurants are packed. There were two Master Chef table events in the Pinnacle, but because we waited until day 3 to inquire, they were fully booked. All of the dining has been good; the Le Cirque dinner last night was exceptional.

 

-After a leisurely dinner, we often head to the Queen’s Lounge to catch part of the BB King Show (Joey is also an outstanding bartender.) Mr. Jones might catch a sports update in the sports bar. Or, we have a drink with Tony in the Crow’s Nest which is really quiet since there is no entertainment.

 

-We generally finish our evening in the Northern Lights, which is really busy between 10 - 11 (late night happy hour), but has a fairly light crowd by 11:15- 11:30 pm most nights. Show host Joel plays hits from the 70s and 80s. Bartenders Ronel and Chris are lots of fun.

 

- Back in our stateroom, we wind down to reruns of “Law & Order” on demand through the new interactive televisions. We are happy that we’ve 6 extra hours of sleep as the clocks have been set back 1 hour during 6 of the 8 sea days.

 

-While we've failed to post here regularly, we have taken lots of photos and made notes, and will share more in-depth when we are back to our fast internet. But meanwhile, we will try to answer any ship-board questions that you post here in our 1.5 remaining days on board the Nieuw Amsterdam.

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travelinjones

travelinjones

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I've just finished reading two books from the Nieuw Amsterdam library about shipboard life while working for Holland America Line.

 

"Where the Waves Take Me" and 'Sand in My Stilettos' are 2 books written by Shaughnessy Brookes, the pen name of a Holland America shipboard librarian. Both are fun reads as she shares notes on ports and ship life during several years on cruise ships, including HAL's 2013 World Cruise.

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travelinjones

travelinjones

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Notes on the Koningsdam from Future Cruise Consultant Sara's presentation

 

We realize there has been lots of information shared on theirs board regarding the Koningsdam. Yesterday, Sara, the terrific Future Cruise Consultant currently on the Nieuw Amsterdam made a presentation on the new ship. These were some of the take-always that we found interesting:

 

-BB King will play 2-3 shows nightly in the next two-level Queen's Lounge. After those shows, the space will become a late night dance club.

 

- There is only 1 Pinnacle Suite (the 1351+ sq ft penthouse), and it is sold out throughout the Mediterranean season.

 

- The first "premier" cruise is April 8th but the ship will not be named until the end of the May 9th 13-day "christening cruise" in Rotterdam.

 

- The Koningsdam's Baltic sailing will depart out of the port in downtown Amsterdam, rather than the Ijmuiden port than the Prinsendam has been using for Amsterdam departures for the past few years.

 

- the 14 single staterooms are sold out for the Mediterranean season.

 

- the ocean view family cabins sleep 5 (a king, a double sofa bed, and a single bed that pulls out of the ceiling with 2 bathrooms. These are 222-231 square feet.

 

- no bathtubs except Signature Suite and higher.

 

- Every stateroom has bedside plugs and USB ports - HOORAY!

 

- Billboard Onboard entertainment area has 2 pianists, but also a guitarist and DJ for different musical options

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travelinjones

travelinjones

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We will be on the NA in a couple weeks. Looking forward to it. Does the Lido still have the sandwich made to order area? Thanks for all of the info. Enjoying your review.

 

 

ImageUploadedByForums1447523221.798213.jpg.81f1c9b9bf0e7dc680000810d14c7540.jpg

 

We don't go to the lido very often but have attached a photo of today's lunch menu. On this ship it appears that the sandwiches are pre-made and bagged.

 

The salad section seems much improved: you order a featured salad or tell the attendant which ingredients that you want and they prepare it for you as you are watching. This keeps people from touching the salad bar ingredients. The same for the Asian section and others -- you are served rather than touching the buffet bowls of food.

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cruz chic

cruz chic

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[ATTACH]368615[/ATTACH]

 

We don't go to the lido very often but have attached a photo of today's lunch menu. On this ship it appears that the sandwiches are pre-made and bagged.

 

The salad section seems much improved: you order a featured salad or tell the attendant which ingredients that you want and they prepare it for you as you are watching. This keeps people from touching the salad bar ingredients. The same for the Asian section and others -- you are served rather than touching the buffet bowls of food.

 

Not a fan of them making my salad. Thx for that info.

 

Thank you also for the info on the koningsdam. I just read the other day about showers only in most cabins. Sure hope they are bigger than the princess showers.

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Lizzie68

Lizzie68

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[ATTACH]368615[/ATTACH]

 

We don't go to the lido very often but have attached a photo of today's lunch menu. On this ship it appears that the sandwiches are pre-made and bagged.

 

The salad section seems much improved: you order a featured salad or tell the attendant which ingredients that you want and they prepare it for you as you are watching. This keeps people from touching the salad bar ingredients. The same for the Asian section and others -- you are served rather than touching the buffet bowls of food.

 

I like that idea with the salads. I used to love lunch in the MDR on RCI as they had a special salad bar there where you picked your ingredients and they mixed it for you. There was tons to choose from. That way, multiple people are not handling the tongs, either.

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travelinjones

travelinjones

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We did early disembarkation and were in a taxi to the airport by 8:05 am. Lines were long and congested to get off the ship but immigration /customs moved quickly.

 

One great improvement, there is a Global Entry line now, but it's not totally functional yet. Today it was used for the crew as the entire ship has to clear since it was a first entry into the US for the season.

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