Blues Cruise Jan 17-24/16 on the Nieuw Amsterdam

[sun~]

I got off the Nieuw Amsterdam on Sunday.

 

Just a few notes.

 

Noro reared it's ugly head on or about Friday. It looks like about 60 people on the LRBC facebook page got hit, so no telling what is the full number. I have a suspicion that folks picked it up in Tortola. There were hundreds of us blues cruisers at Cane Garden Bay at Myette's. Others thought it may have been the lobster in the MDR. Either way, it wasn't a healthy ship Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. It will be interesting to see how this week's cruise went. Hopefully healthy!

 

The food was awful. Loads of folks complained. I have no idea why there was only an endless supply of chicken legs. Weird.

 

I think there was a new food and beverage manager, one for certain who has never done a charter cruise. They made silly decisions. Like stop breakfast at 10:30am...folks on the blues cruise only get up after that! After the first day, it was resolved to have breakfast til 3pm. However, they closed the cafeteria after that, only bagged sandwiches and limited salad bar was available. Terrible. Folks on this charter eat lunch at around 4. HAL has done loads of blues cruises, experienced F & B folks know to time shift. This person didn't. Awful. So many complaints about the chicken legs....sigh...

 

When a show would finish at say 3:30, the only options were to have a 45 minute wait (or more) for a dive in burger (huge line ups), hard as rock pizza or room service. Room service was overwhelmed. Not good.

 

Yep, toilets broken again. The whole starboard aft on deck 8 broken right from day 1. Sigh...this is the third year in a row. After speaking with about seven other folks from cabins around us, I thought I am not calling maintenance (they all did), I went to the front desk.

 

Apparently an officer or two came up to smell the lovely stench of sewage that hangs around the aft section. More folks in the beige outfits working away at fixing the problem. What is up with this section of the ship. After the "fix" our toilets only malfunctioned a couple of times afterwards.

 

The retractable roof. Last year it was broken. Oh my. It was supposed to have been fixed in dry dock.

 

The first sea day (day 3), it was hot and sunny. I asked why isn't the roof open. I was told 1. It might rain 2. It might be windy 3. It's broken!

 

Poor woman at the front desk when I asked what's up. Did it get fixed in dry dock or not? Magically, 10 minutes later, the roof was open. ***? Sigh...

 

HAL really dropped the ball on this LRBC. They only answer we were getting is "that next year it will be the brand new ship!". We all paid thousands of dollars to be there. At the very least we expect a functioning ship and food service to meet our needs. From what I gather, we are the most profitable ship that HAL sails.

 

I love the LRBC charters. The line up was awesome. Seeing lots of friends is fantastic. The weather was good.

 

I am still on the fence about 2017, I have pre-booked. I want to see what sort of reviews the new ship gets when it has been in operation for a few months. Hopefully it has functioning everything and no chicken legs!!! :D

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for your review.

Sorry that your Blues Cruise wasn't as good this year as in previous years -- food and ship wise.

Most of the ships have changed to all pre-made sandwiches -- which I don't like. No longer is there anyone to make a sandwich of your choice.

We noticed on our last cruise that the salad bar has cut back on item choices.

[sun~]

Thank you for your review.

Sorry that your Blues Cruise wasn't as good this year as in previous years -- food and ship wise.

Most of the ships have changed to all pre-made sandwiches -- which I don't like. No longer is there anyone to make a sandwich of your choice.

We noticed on our last cruise that the salad bar has cut back on item choices.

 

Actually the food and ship condition really aren't much different, sadly. The hours were not compatible with our charter cruise. Who the heck wants chicken legs every freakin' day! It became a joke :rolleyes:

 

It is too bad about the Noro Virus. I do hope this week is better and all are healthy on board.