Btimmer's Blog of the Nieuw Statendam Inaugural Voyage

[Jimbo59]

Is there a man with the chimes to announce dinner? This is from Nieuw Amsterdam:

 

[Btimmer]

I've not seen the chime man, and we've eaten in every venue except club Orange.

[ski ww]

Looking forward to following along on this next segment. 

[scluvsrain]

I never saw a chime man either!!! It didn’t even occur to me until you asked the question. 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Looking forward to your next 4 days of reports.

[puppycanducruise]

Looking forward to more.

Thanks.

[Btimmer]

Christmas lights went up last night.

[puppycanducruise]

Love the lights.

Thanks for posting the pictures.

[Btimmer]

World Stage production of Stages.  Exquisite!  We didn't know until the day before that they would be able to present this show due to one dancer's injury.

[Btimmer]

And then there was a late night dessert offering.  It was the first time all cruise that we went to the 10:30pm buffet after watching the last set with Nate and Debbie.  Dueling pianos was probably my favorite music venue along with the string quintet on Lincoln Center Stage.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Great pictures.

 

I am surprised to see so much going on so late on the last night of the cruise for many of the passengers.

[Btimmer]

Having a World Stage production show on the last night of the cruise (totally packed) was a first for us.  Typically there's just a movie which for this cruise was White Christmas.  But the reason for the last night performance was due to the cast member injury that delayed the performance a few days.

 

The dueling pianos couple received a deserved standing ovation at the end of their last set.

[VMax1700]

8 hours ago, Btimmer said:

the last set with Nate and Debbie

 

Hi, that looks like a Yamaha Grand Piano - a proper acoustic style (hammers and strings) piano?

On Koningsdam they have electric pianos with very poor sound characteristics.  

Are the pianos proper Grand pianos?

 

[Btimmer]

1 hour ago, VMax1700 said:

 

Hi, that looks like a Yamaha Grand Piano - a proper acoustic style (hammers and strings) piano?

On Koningsdam they have electric pianos with very poor sound characteristics.  

Are the pianos proper Grand pianos?

 

Electric pianos.

[Btimmer]

Using the voyage log we received last night I computed that the NS gets 95 feet per gallon of fuel consumed.  That is almost twice that of the Maasdam.

[freestyling]

Thanks for taking the time to let us “sailalong”. Enjoyed your blog and your postings here. Have a great next 4 days onboard

[Btimmer]

The emergency drill is over (continuing passengers were exempted).  Onward!

 

I just saw a giant ray leap out of the water alongside the ship (way too fast and unexpected to photograph).

 

Visted with a cruising friend, Larry, today.  Great time seeing the local area north of FLL.  A large container ship just backed out next to us and sailed out.

[Btimmer]

The Captain just announced a delay in departure until 8pm tonight for late passengers and provisions.

 

The Caribbean Princess just left.

Edited December 19, 2018 by Btimmer

[Btimmer]

Ths average age for this cruise dropped an average of 20 years to 50ish.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Great pictures.

 

How long did you have to wait to get back on the ship?

 

How did dinner go?

[Btimmer]

1 hour ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

Great pictures.

 

How long did you have to wait to get back on the ship?

 

How did dinner go?

We got back to the ship around 2pm and boarded immediately using our intransit Pass.  It seemed as if most passengers had already boarded.

 

Dinner in the Lido was good although a bit more crowded.

 

It's  rather fun observing the noobies walking around like they are deer in the headlights.

 

The improv comedian tonight was rather funny.

[Btimmer]

When we got back to our room after 7pm, there was a letter in our mail slot indicating we had not attended the lifeboat drill and needed to attend a makeup drill at 6pm in the Hudson Room or we would be subject to being put off the ship.  This was contrary to the instructions we received in our in transit letter which indicated we did not need to attend the drill.  

 

Armed with both  letters I went down to the Front Office and explained the predicament and pointed out the error.  The clerk didn't seem to appreciate the gravity of the threat and tried to whitewash it saying we were 'on the manifest ' and needed to be there.  I countered with the original letter which stated we didn't need to attend.  HAL knew we were continuing passengers and we were exempt from attending.  No letter needed to be sent to us!

 

A few minutes later we ran into another continuing couple and they didn't go to the drill and didn't get a letter.

 

In any event, the NS left at 8pm in the dark and we're still on board.

[Martezz]

Glad you got to meet up with Larry in FLL.  We have enjoyed your blog about the New Statendam.  Is the ship spoiling you for the return to the Massdam next summer?

[Btimmer]

29 minutes ago, Martezz said:

Glad you got to meet up with Larry in FLL.  We have enjoyed your blog about the New Statendam.  Is the ship spoiling you for the return to the Massdam next summer?

No it won't.  We are looking forward to boarding the Maasdam in January in Singapore.

 

But we really do like the ship! 

[Krazy Kruizers]

With all the departure time changes and all the inspections that had to be done, some of us were wondering when people actually started to board the ship.

 

Glad it worked out for you.

 

Typical that HAL can't keep tract of who should attend and who shouldn't attend the lifeboat drill.

 

Looking forward to your reports.