Having issues on Niieu Statendam

[stephencarr5]

Wow this ship is amazing! We’re on the 7 day holiday cruise / 3rd sailing for the ship. Still has the nice new ship smell ‘!

 

there are only 2 negatives! And not sure if these are fleet wide....

 

Having big issues with beverage package every day. Apparently there is issues with the system, but each day we have had to visits guest services to try and remove charges that are inconsistent with the package....  now down to about $50 dispute...  no consistency in where or when the charges are applied. spoke to F&B manager today who says this is effecting around  300 stateroom accounts, and every effort on land and sea is being made to fix it, but still no offer of a partial refund to compensate for the inconvenience of visiting guest services every day. Apparently no one on ship is empowered to make such a decision! Not even the captain! 

 

Unfortunately also had to raise the issue of poor services in the pinical last night... slow service, glasses / plates not cleared ...  food too salty to eat (we were offered alternative dishes , but with the terrible service starting to ruin our Christmas evening turned it down.

 

i appreciate that these points

may sound trivial, but have to admit, this is our 12th cruise and 5th Christmas cruise we’re going to head back to Celebrity again next year. Which is a shame as this ship is amazing! And hopefully HA will wake up and realise this is not the start the ship deserves.

 

any other guests having issues with drinks packages ?   And remember - don’t leave it until the last day to check your bill!

[canadianbear]

I’m wondering if being a new ship and staff, they are still working out all the kinks.   However, we recently got off a 10 day cruise in the Eurodam and it took them forever to credit our bill appropriately and we had to visit the front desk every day.

 

Hope you will give HAL another try one day.  We are trying Celebrity for the first time in March and looking forward to it.

[Crusin-Suzan]

We sail both X and HAL!  On our last cruise with X they too charged us for drinks that we sgould not have been charged!!!  They fixed it after the cruise but this can happen!!!     My favorite used to be X but coming back to HAL has been a welcome change!!  Do like my elite drinks tho but no when they charge it!!!  Lol 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sorry you have having problems.

 

A number of years ago we had problems over getting our loyalty (5 star) discounts refunded to us on a couple of ships.  The worst was on the Zuiderdam.

 

Never had problems with the drink package -- but we had it only on 2 cruises.

 

Service in the Pinnacle -- I am worried about it going downhill since it is no longer used for the Pinnacle and Neptune Suites.  I am also wondering where these workers are during breakfast. 

 

I always request my food without salt and other spices.  It can be too salty in all areas of the ship.

 

I hope the you enjoy the rest of your cruise.

  

[Nymich]

2 hours ago, stephencarr5 said:

Wow this ship is amazing! We’re on the 7 day holiday cruise / 3rd sailing for the ship. Still has the nice new ship smell ‘!

 

there are only 2 negatives! And not sure if these are fleet wide....

 

Having big issues with beverage package every day. Apparently there is issues with the system, but each day we have had to visits guest services to try and remove charges that are inconsistent with the package....  now down to about $50 dispute...  no consistency in where or when the charges are applied. spoke to F&B manager today who says this is effecting around  300 stateroom accounts, and every effort on land and sea is being made to fix it, but still no offer of a partial refund to compensate for the inconvenience of visiting guest services every day. Apparently no one on ship is empowered to make such a decision! Not even the captain! 

 

Unfortunately also had to raise the issue of poor services in the pinical last night... slow service, glasses / plates not cleared ...  food too salty to eat (we were offered alternative dishes , but with the terrible service starting to ruin our Christmas evening turned it down.

 

i appreciate that these points

may sound trivial, but have to admit, this is our 12th cruise and 5th Christmas cruise we’re going to head back to Celebrity again next year. Which is a shame as this ship is amazing! And hopefully HA will wake up and realise this is not the start the ship deserves.

 

any other guests having issues with drinks packages ?   And remember - don’t leave it until the last day to check your bill!

Just got off the NS and had no wrong charges and Pinnacle was awesome the night we ate there.   I even mentioned it in my review that CC has not posted yet.  Sorry to hear you are having problems.   

[Wishing on a star]

I appreciate the truthful comments/opinion about the food being over salty. (too salty to eat)

I recently had this issue, in a very serious way, with most of the dining on the Regal Princess...  (along with possible MSG, etc...)

If we do actually board the N. S.,  I will def. note on our booking and meet with the head of dining to request an adjusted low/no salt menu.  

 

 

[Himself]

When a ship is brand new there are usually kinks to be worked out.

[stephencarr5]

10 hours ago, canadianbear said:

I’m wondering if being a new ship and staff, they are still working out all the kinks.   However, we recently got off a 10 day cruise in the Eurodam and it took them forever to credit our bill appropriately and we had to visit the front desk every day.

 

Hope you will give HAL another try one day.  We are trying Celebrity for the first time in March and looking forward to it.

Hope you enjoy x - both many pros and cons to both lines. Think we have some thinking to do back home...  

 

3 hours ago, Himself said:

When a ship is brand new there are usually kinks to be worked out.

Appreciate that, but we were on celebrity in October on the infinity and there was a mass of training on board for the edge. The way it feels on HAL is the even almost 5 weeks in the staff are not fully trained and there is a Managment failing on the ship...  but still say wow! It’s an amazing ship! 

 

5 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

I appreciate the truthful comments/opinion about the food being over salty. (too salty to eat)

I recently had this issue, in a very serious way, with most of the dining on the Regal Princess...  (along with possible MSG, etc...)

If we do actually board the N. S.,  I will def. note on our booking and meet with the head of dining to request an adjusted low/no salt menu.  

 

 

 

9 hours ago, sueleekey said:

We sail both X and HAL!  On our last cruise with X they too charged us for drinks that we sgould not have been charged!!!  They fixed it after the cruise but this can happen!!!     My favorite used to be X but coming back to HAL has been a welcome change!!  Do like my elite drinks tho but no when they charge it!!!  Lol 

Agree with the nice change, in a way it is. Had an amazing Meal in canelleto last night. Fod choices seem slightly less than I remember.

[EDLOS]

17 hours ago, canadianbear said:

I’m wondering if being a new ship and staff, they are still working out all the kinks.   However, we recently got off a 10 day cruise in the Eurodam and it took them forever to credit our bill appropriately and we had to visit the front desk every day.

 

Hope you will give HAL another try one day.  We are trying Celebrity for the first time in March and looking forward to it.

Once being part of a Convention Planning committee for a National Business Organization needing multiple hotels in a city, we made it a rule to never use a hotel that had not been open 6 months i.e. 4 elevators with only two working, etc.,etc.

We read here about construction crews still finishing parts of new ships on initial voyages. Staff still in training..... Just can't understand why anyone would book any of the first few months on a new ship and not expect these occurances 

[DeeniEncinitas]

Here’s my analogy!

we have learned example a new car first out of production to wait first year to see if all the bugs are worked out before buying that car! We did this once 😳 and need I say more we should have waited.

With the inaugural NS there are going to be many hiccups too! Things get straightened out but I see your concerns.

Denise😊

[Vict0riann]

We (and others) definitely had problems with the accounting system on the NS inaugural cruise.  Multiple daily trips to the Front Desk.  We mentioned it in our surveys.  I bet a lot of people complained!

[Fouremco]

As we had booked on the Koningsdam for its first Caribbean cruise, and have booked on the Nieuw Statendam for next June, I've closely followed the reports on their inaugural and following cruises. It seems to me that the NS, while not trouble-free, is actually doing very well in comparison.

[trixiee]

30 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

As we had booked on the Koningsdam for its first Caribbean cruise, and have booked on the Nieuw Statendam for next June, I've closely followed the reports on their inaugural and following cruises. It seems to me that the NS, while not trouble-free, is actually doing very well in comparison.

Other than a hostile guest services clerk, I believe the cruise went really well.  I did not notice any glitches worth mentioning. 

[Stratheden]

We are currently on the Noordam and our food is also very salty.  I think it is fleet wide. 

 

I am interested to know if the cheese boards are all served with 2 cellophane packets of saltine crackers (mostly broken).  Saltine crackers are,  as the name implies "salty".  Crackers that you serve with cheese have no salt.   Apart from that,  at a supposed Gala evening, serving crackers in a cellophane packet looks terrible.  They have boxes of them the Lido - i expected a bit more upmarket in the MDR.