Our Anniversary cruise on the Nieuw Statendam : Is the honeymoon over ?

[Krazy Kruizers]

We found that the PS balconies on the Nieuw Amsterdam and Eurodam were slightly smaller than on the Vista class ships.  

 

I wonder how much small the PS balconies are on the Koningsdam and Nieuw Statendam?  Those ships have only 1 PS each.

 

It seems like all the cruise lines want smaller cabins, thus more people and more revenue.

[3rdGenCunarder]

The Eurodam NS balcony looks pretty much like the one I had on the K'dam. I remember that I had to sort of "squish by" the table and chairs to get to the lounge chairs. 

 

[3rdGenCunarder]

2 hours ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

We found that the PS balconies on the Nieuw Amsterdam and Eurodam were slightly smaller than on the Vista class ships.  

 

I wonder how much small the PS balconies are on the Koningsdam and Nieuw Statendam?  Those ships have only 1 PS each.

 

It seems like all the cruise lines want smaller cabins, thus more people and more revenue.

 

And people not staying in cabins or on balconies, but out in bars and by the pool, ordering drinks and upcharge food. That is, IF you can find somewhere to sit by the pool. That's why I get a balcony. I hate walking around the pool where all those magazines/books and tote bags are using all the loungers.

 

From what I see on the deck plans, the PS balconies are still very long, but they are as narrow as the NS balconies.

 

Edited March 22, 2019 by 3rdGenCunarder

[scubacruiserx2]

On 3/22/2019 at 9:23 AM, 3rdGenCunarder said:

The Eurodam NS balcony looks pretty much like the one I had on the K'dam. I remember that I had to sort of "squish by" the table and chairs to get to the lounge chairs. 

 

 

Speaking of  "squishing by"we found that the area where the corner shelf is has a about foot of room between the bed corner and the shelf resulting in a few bashed knees in the dark .

 

 

The bed and pillows were comfortable but we think think that this cabin would benefit from rounded corners like the Celebrity Eclipse has .

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Those cabins are too small for my comfort.

 

JMO

[rkacruiser]

4 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

Speaking of  "squishing by"we found that the area where the corner shelf is has a about foot of room between the bed corner and the shelf resulting in a few bashed knees in the dark .

 

 

The bed and pillows were comfortable but we think think that this cabin would benefit from rounded corners like the Celebrity Eclipse has .

 

 

I agree that that the area where the corner shelf is near the bed is "tight".  And, having the tray with the ice bucket, which does not fit the space the tray is on, compounds the issue.  (But, it is minor, I think.)  At least, HAL did not install those storage cabinets above the bed as Celebrity did.  To fully utilize Celebrity's, one would have to stand on the bed to do so.

[scubacruiserx2]

2 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I agree that that the area where the corner shelf is near the bed is "tight".  And, having the tray with the ice bucket, which does not fit the space the tray is on, compounds the issue.  (But, it is minor, I think.)  At least, HAL did not install those storage cabinets above the bed as Celebrity did.  To fully utilize Celebrity's, one would have to stand on the bed to do so.

 

The primary concern was being able to walk at night through a narrow space to use the bathroom without banging old knees .

 

Using the overhead storage on the Eclipse was optional but we choose to place our life preservers there instead of under the bed to free up that space for our suitcases . 

 

 

At the foot of the bed on the NS were 2 drawers which were used by the crew thus reducing usable storage space for the passengers below the bed . We felt more comfortable on a longer Transatlantic , Baltic and Southern Caribbean cruise on the Eclipse than we did on our week long Caribbean cruise on the NS . Sometimes newer isn't always better .

Edited March 23, 2019 by scubacruiserx2

[scubacruiserx2]

We would like to summarize our cruise in 3 parts . What we liked , what we didn't like and the  Club Orange experience . 

We love being with each other and traveling . We thought it would be nice to spend our 41st anniversary  on a cruise ( our 45th cruise ) . We were married in 1978 in Fort Lauderdale , bought our first house and honeymooned there , so we have many good memories from there . We were looking forward to being on HAL's newest ship The Nieuw Statendam  . We booked on a spur of the moment without knowing a lot about the ship but we have enjoyed our previous cruises with HAL so why not go for it ? No Neptune Suites were available so we booked the aft balcony , our favorite view . We heard about Club Orange and thought that it would enhance the cruise even at the $ 750 price tag . The boarding experience was efficient and good allowing us to eat a nice lunch in the MDR where the service and food were very good . We like the bed and pillows and the room service was mostly good even allowing us to to have an enhanced menu and a limited Tamarind/Dive-In/Pinnacle Grill meal delivered to our room . We self disembarked using our Global Entry and it was a breeze .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4

[scubacruiserx2]

 

We had a few issues with the NS . We were not impressed with the dinning behind glass experience .

 

 

 

The interior reminds us of  diner not an upgrade cruise line

 

 

Rudi's looked much nicer and was more quite 

 

 

Or the Pinnacle on the Eurodam

 

 

I don't remember worse service on any of our 46 cruises than we received the first night in CO . The room service was pretty good but phoning for the pickup of the tray usually required several calls and an hour to pickup .

 

The room's balcony was tiny , the room was lively from a mixture of constant draining water , squeaking from the shimmed doors , noisy bathrooms and loud music from above transmitted through the balcony door and wall . 

If you use the love seat's armrest to rest your arms, lean against them or tried to stand, they would usually snap off causing a loss of balance  and almost causing a fall.

 

We didn't much care for the modern art preferring the traditional art of the Dutch masters as on the Eurodam 

 

 

 

And while  cruise lines can't always control it's passengers behavior , this cruise had the feel of a spring break cruise on  a Carnival ship . On the last evening my wife and I took the elevator down 2 floors to go to the customer service to make change . As we entered the elevator a woman reached her arm out first across my wife's chest and then mine to move us toward the wall and said  " let me out of here " . She then turned and giggled to her friend and the other passengers and said " she knows what I mean " . We still don't know .

 

 

 

 

[ASIWISH]

I loved this! THANK YOU

[scubacruiserx2]

15 hours ago, ASIWISH said:

I loved this! THANK YOU

 

You're welcome .

[boards]

• Wow - I am not impressed with the thought of cruising on the NS.  We were on the Konginsdam and experienced the same problem with the love seat, but I just passed it off and tried to fix it (actually almost every time I sat on it).  We did not experience any noisy problems of any kind in our cabin (VH4033), large balcony.   Thank you for you review.

[scubacruiserx2]

22 hours ago, boards said:

• Wow - I am not impressed with the thought of cruising on the NS.  We were on the Konginsdam and experienced the same problem with the love seat, but I just passed it off and tried to fix it (actually almost every time I sat on it).  We did not experience any noisy problems of any kind in our cabin (VH4033), large balcony.   Thank you for you review.

 

I see on the deck plan that your balcony looks larger . Could you hear the World Stage programs at night ?

[Krazy Kruizers]

Catching up.

 

That is not good about the Love Seat.  I now have to use the arms of chairs, etc. to lower and uplift myself.

 

I also don't like the looks of Club Orange and always facing inside the ship.  It appears that you can't really see outside.

[boards]

3 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

I see on the deck plan that your balcony looks larger . Could you hear the World Stage programs at night ?

NO. We not hear music sounds from the World Stage or BB King either.   However we must admit we were usually at the performances or elsewhere.  We never had any noise problems in that cabin at any time of day or night.  Also we did not realize how far forward we were until after the cruise.  We did not experience any motion problems either.  We did have a fairly calm cruise though.

 

[rkacruiser]

4 hours ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

That is not good about the Love Seat.  I now have to use the arms of chairs, etc. to lower and uplift myself.

 

I need to do the same most of the time.  Yes, the round, somewhat soft, type of arms on the small sofa exist, I had no difficulty in using them as an aid to stand.  (My opinion based upon my experience:  just like the "extremely negative reviews of the changes in the Crow's Nest" we read, this "issue" is "much ado about little".) 

[scubacruiserx2]

18 hours ago, boards said:

NO. We not hear music sounds from the World Stage or BB King either.   However we must admit we were usually at the performances or elsewhere.  We never had any noise problems in that cabin at any time of day or night.  Also we did not realize how far forward we were until after the cruise.  We did not experience any motion problems either.  We did have a fairly calm cruise though.

 

 

In my career as a firefighter we had to get up early to commute 75 miles to work in Miami return and home the next . As a paramedic we were up and down all the time for 24 hours . Unfortunately , even after retirement , I'm still an early bird and a light sleeper . So we do look for the quite spots on the ship to sleep .

[boards]

2 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

In my career as a firefighter we had to get up early to commute 75 miles to work in Miami return and home the next . As a paramedic we were up and down all the time for 24 hours . Unfortunately , even after retirement , I'm still an early bird and a light sleeper . So we do look for the quite spots on the ship to sleep .

I am sure you would enjoy this cabin, we certainly did.  Thank you for this great blog that took us on this cruise.  We will never be able and so enjoyed the moments with the penguins, watching the sea lions and so much other moments.

Thank you.

[scubacruiserx2]

Did Club Orange deliver on it's promises ?

 

 

Yes , on the exclusive dinning area . But we didn't care for the room and the service was worse and so we didn't go back . I wonder if it made a difference because we were only an Orange card instead of a Gold card this trip ? We did like that they included the ship's phone number on the new card .

 

 

 

Orange Pass Priority

 

- Check- in  Was great

 

- Tenders ashore in selected ports  Worked in HMC but not in Grand Cayman because security didn't know about it 

 

-  Guest services desk   It was a mat on the left side of guest services . Worked once and didn't work 2 times

 

-Shore excursions desk  We didn't use it

 

- Specialty Restaurant Reservations  We didn't need the card

 

- Disembarkation  We did it ourselves with our GOES card

 

- Premium in-room breakfast dining menu  How is this different ?

 

 

-Dedicated Concierge Hotline  We never reached a Concierge after several calls but we did get the service desk

 

- Exclusive CO tote bag

 

 

- Welcome glass of Sparkling Wine at dinner on embarkation day  Between one quarter to one third full 

 

-Premium Bath Robes  They were the same size generic orange stripe . We prefer the robes that we used on the Zaandam . Like us they are individuals .

 

 

 

We have concluded that we prefer the S,R or V ships and not on spring break and that CO is not for us or worth the money . We found this one day on our balcony .

 

 

We think that it was turkey so maybe it flew there .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[3rdGenCunarder]

Two comments on the Orange thing. 

 

I don't think your "lower" status compared to suites mattered. Service was odd on the K. too. It's the "team" approach the Pinnacle uses, so you never feel like you have a primary waiter. There's someone for pastries, someone for coffee, someone who takes your order, someone who delivers it...

 

The room service menu is "premium." It's the same menu the Neptune and Pinnacle suites get. For other cabin categories the menu is different. I think the "additional selections" are either missing from that menu or have a charge. 

 

Question--would you pay the $50 per day again?

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for showing us pictures of the "bag" you got for club orange and explaining what all you got for the $50 per person per day.

 

No way would I pay for it.

[scubacruiserx2]

41 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

Two comments on the Orange thing. 

 

I don't think your "lower" status compared to suites mattered. Service was odd on the K. too. It's the "team" approach the Pinnacle uses, so you never feel like you have a primary waiter. There's someone for pastries, someone for coffee, someone who takes your order, someone who delivers it...

 

The room service menu is "premium." It's the same menu the Neptune and Pinnacle suites get. For other cabin categories the menu is different. I think the "additional selections" are either missing from that menu or have a charge. 

 

Question--would you pay the $50 per day again?

 

 

We don't mind the team the team approach as long as someone shows up in a reasonable amount of time . The CO service was the worse that we have experienced in all of our cruises . Service in a premium dining should be better than the MDR , that's what you pay for .  No we will not pay for CO again instead we will look for a NS that doesn't have CO .

Edited April 1, 2019 by scubacruiserx2

[3rdGenCunarder]

26 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

We don't mind the team the team approach as long as someone shows up in a reasonable amount of time . The CO service was the worse that we have experienced in all of our cruises . Service in a premium dining should be better than the MDR , that's what you pay for .  No we will not pay for CO again instead we will look for a NS that doesn't have CO .

 

I was able to opt out of dinner in the CO and regain my original booking of fixed dining in MDR because I wanted to be at a large table, so I didn't experience dinner service there. But I got very good service at breakfast, probably because I used the concierge to make the change in dining arrangements, and I told her that I did not like the whole CO thing. So the staff at the CO must have known how I felt. They made a point of asking me if everything was all right. Usually FOUR different people interrupted my breakfast to ask me. The whole "team," I guess. 

 

Last year, the "team" service at the Pinnacle breakfast on the K was a debacle--OJ spilled on me, errors in orders, one order not arriving at all. The only cruise where the "team" arrangement was so bad. It had been fine at breakfast on previous cruises on the Vistas. So in that sense, CO was an improvement for me. 

[scubacruiserx2]

We never drew our conclusions on this review because we were planning a B2B on the Zuiderdam . We went to the Baltic and Iceland and Norway in a NS and we were much happier . As for Pinnacle Class ships  we don't care for them . We prefer the Princess Royal Class or the Celebrity Solstice Class if we want a busy ship . We cruise HAL for a smaller , quieter and mature experience . This cruise on the New Statendam was like a Spring Break in the Caribbean with a bunch of old goats acting like they were still spring chickens . Never again .

[Caribbean Chris]

We’re all different in our preferences.

 

We booked a Neptune Suite, cruised in the Caribbean in April, enjoyed Club Orange dining room, received our 100 day medallion, and loved the Nieuw Statendam. The Music Walk was great. Would cruise the ship again anytime.

 

(Preferred it to Celebrity Solstice class ships, and  the N Stat was vastly more comfortable in every way than the Celebrity Edge which we cruised in January on same itinerary.)