Photo Review of our Spring Break Aboard the Nieuw Statendam!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sounds like you had a lovely sea day.

 

We just go to the front desk or our concierges to get ones -- thus we don't have to carry that bulk while traveling.

[jbhcw]

Enjoying your review...your children are adorable!  We have cruised with the grandkids and kids several times...it's always wonderful...Thanksgiving is a great time for multi generational cruising!  It's been a few  years since we've been to Grand Turk but I can remember my adult son...getting up and out early to snag a good location at M-Ville....the pool was amazing and was very nice back then..especially early before a lot of people got there!!

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for the info. 

[Judyrem]

On 5/1/2019 at 10:35 AM, sailawaybellaluna said:

Back to day 1...

 

After exploring the ship a bit, we headed back to our cabin and were pleasantly surprised to find our luggage there. We do NOT travel light, so it was great to be able to quickly tuck things away in the closet and drawers before the muster.

 

I will say, as small as the cabin was, there was plenty of storage. Lots of drawers and tons of hangers in the closets!

 

The muster (for us) was in the Rolling Stone lounge. It was pretty straightforward and not too chaotic. This is the first time on a ship where the majority of the safety information was actually on the tv inside your stateroom. Later in the week we were trying to access the room service menu and couldn't do anything to change the channels on the TV. Apparently this was because we hadn't fully watched the video, so it was going to stay on until completion.

 

After muster we headed back to our cabin to watch the sailaway. Now, one thing I did NOT expect on a HAL ship was tons of noisy kids screaming and banging balcony doors. 😞 Gah. We went out on our balcony to find the three cabins to the left of us had all removed their balcony door barriers and were one large family traveling together, with lots of kids. Perhaps this is a weird complaint since I always travel with my kids, but we've really stressed teaching our kids to be polite travelers. They know not to shout on the balcony in case someone in the cabin next door is reading. They know not to step on the chair and peek around to see who's next door. And they definitely know NOT to constantly slam the balcony door! Do they mess up and forget sometimes? Of course, they're little. But we're always right there to keep them on track. Ack. Our sailaway was like being in the middle of one of those terrible mall jungle gyms. I was REALLY stressed about how the week would play out with the constant screaming and door slamming...

 

Our neighbors did manage to wake us around 6:30am every morning with their yelling/door slamming, but thankfully we only encountered them a couple more times on the balcony. Each time the kids were standing on chairs looking into our balcony and waving. 🙂 My husband jokes with me that I'm going to be a hot mess when I'm 80. Probably one of those grouchy people yelling at the kids to be quiet. And he's probably correct! Haha. (I will say, it was probably before 5pm when I called Guest Services and requested they have a word with the neighbors. Not only due to the noise and door slamming, but it was concerning seeing little kids pulling the chairs and table right up next to the railing and standing on them...I'm assuming they may have had a word, because it wasn't terrible the next six days). 

 

Here's a few pics of our sailaway...

 

 

 

 

As you can see, we had a beautiful day! I was so thankful for this! I had been tracking the weather for weeks, and our sailaway day was consistently showing rain and clouds. We got lucky!!

Hot mess?!!!!!   LOL  me too!

[1of4]

I haven’t been on this ship so I’m really enjoying your review, whatever the order!  Thanks for doing this.  Too funny on the bottoms...ugh...people just don’t think until you do the same to them!

[sailawaybellaluna]

Thanks everyone for reading along!

 

We went to Afternoon Tea at the Dining Room, and it was lovely! It is served from 3 - 3:45pm every day (except embarkation day). I loved the proper white tablecloths, tiered tea stands, and the waiters even poured with a white glove! The entire experience felt so special. The tea was served piping hot, constantly refilled, and there wasn't an attempt to upsell us on a fancier brand of tea (as they do on Carnival)...

 

A few pics from our first Afternoon Tea:

 

 

 

More to come...

[sailawaybellaluna]

Once Afternoon Tea was finished, we wandered around the shops a bit before heading back to our cabin to get changed (yet again) for gala night! And my husband wonders why I have to pack so much when we cruise...!

 

It was nice having a gala night on sea day,  so we weren't in a rush to wash the sand off and get dressed up!

 

Here we are all dressed and ready for dinner!

 

 

 

 

I love how HAL does the special Gala menus!

 

 

You can see my daughter was busy touching up her lipstick when I took this photo! Haha.

 

 

 

More to come...

[sailawaybellaluna]

 

On this night, I ordered the truffled mushroom risotto and it was PERFECT!

 

 

The service was excellent as usual in the dining room. Often when we sail, I find the dining room extremely chaotic on gala nights because no one typically "skips" in favor of the buffet or room service. Therefore, it can sometimes be busier than normal and slower service. We had no problems like that on the NS. It was great!

 

Following dinner, we headed up to the Lido Poolside deck to meet the Officers. Captain Noel O'Driscoll gave a speech, and seemed like a really engaging and humorous guy! They generously passed out champagne and a fruit flavored bubbly as well. People were all dressed up, and it's how I imagine felt in decades past...

 

 

On this particular night, we went and put the kids down and my mom sat in the cabin with them knitting (she's really creative with needlework and such!), and my husband and I went to listen to some music and play $20 (or...$120, whatever!) in the casino. The nightlife had a great vibe on this ship! Much more vibrant than our cruise last year on the Rotterdam! There were lots of people out and about, tons of live music, and it really was fun!

 

Around 10pm we decided we were hungry, so we headed up to the New York Pizzeria on Deck 10. They have late night snacks that include a variety of warm pretzels with dipping cheese (yum!), popcorn, etc. We sat there eating for a bit and watching Crazy Rich Asians on the big screen. I loved the vibe up there! If we didn't have little ones to get back to, I could have hung out there every night! So fun!

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Wonderful reports.

 

Your children looked adorable all dressed up for Gala night.

 

Great pictures.

[sailawaybellaluna]

5 hours ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

Wonderful reports.

 

Your children looked adorable all dressed up for Gala night.

 

Great pictures.

Thanks so much, more to come!!!

[Saphire]

Enjoying your review, we were on the same cruise. Wasn't the weather perfect? You have a lovely family!

[erewhon]

Great reports.

You all looked very smart on gala night.

Edited May 5, 2019 by erewhon

[sailawaybellaluna]

On 5/4/2019 at 2:41 PM, Saphire said:

Enjoying your review, we were on the same cruise. Wasn't the weather perfect? You have a lovely family!

Oh how fun! We did have perfect weather! I hope you loved the week as much as we did! Thank you for reading along...

[cat shepard]

Your children’s personalities just shine in your pics! What a great pic of the six of you!

 

Enjoying your review. Thank you for sharing.

[akeka]

On 5/2/2019 at 8:28 AM, sailawaybellaluna said:

The New York Deli & Pizza overlooks the pool on Deck 10, and has a variety of made to order personal pizzas, as well as sandwiches, salads, chips and pretzels. Our family really enjoyed having lunch here on a couple of days! Service takes about 20 - 30 minutes, but you're given a beeper and the food comes out piping hot and delicious. This is all at no additional charge.

 

Hi,  my husband and I were on the same sailing; what a wonderful cruise!  We originally had the obstructed veranda cabin but jumped on the upsell offer and ended up on an aft balcony.  

 

P.S.  Love the review and thought the pizza was the best I've ever had at sea.

[sailawaybellaluna]

Continuing on to our next day...San Juan, Puerto Rico!

 

We didn't dock until 1pm, and all aboard was at 10:30pm. So, there was plenty of time to explore San Juan!

 

We had a leisurely morning in the cabin on this particular day - room service and watching a little TV. Later we strolled around, exploring a bit, before settling in at the Grand Dutch Cafe for some lunch. I thought this was one of the cutest venues on the ship! I loved the windows and the vibe of the whole place! The menu was unique, with traditional Dutch food (free) and beer and coffee (surcharge).

 

 

We had been to San Juan a few times prior. In fact, during our 2011 cruise we rented a house in the Old Town for 5 nights! So, we didn't feel the rush to hurry off and see everything...

 

More to come...

[sailawaybellaluna]

After lunch we got off the ship around 1:15pm or so and started wandering over towards the Old Town. Only two ships docked today in OSJ.

 

 

First stop was a little coffee shop, and then we headed to El Morro Fort. We had extensively toured the fort on a previous trip, so this time we bought the kids kites. The vendor outside was sending them for $7 each, and the kids loved flying their kites for an hour or so! The views were beautiful!

 

There is a free trolley that has a couple of lines running throughout San Juan. We didn't ride it on this trip, but I did grab the map. Here's a bit about El Morro and its history:

 

 

More to come...

[sailawaybellaluna]

We enjoyed walking around Old San Juan, and ended up passing by the street and the old house we had rented back in 2011!

 

 

I have this exact picture below framed in our home, but our little girl wasn't born back when we took it, so we had to take a new one!

 

 

I'm a huge Madam Secretary fan, so when I saw this building, I had to pose for a quick photo outside of it!

 

 

I love all the colors and architecture in OSJ!

 

After flying our kites and wandering around, we decided to pop into the courtyard of El Convento. El Convento is a gorgeous hotel in the center of Old Town, with a rich history. Here's a bit from their website:

 

The timeline

• 1646 - Construction began on the Carmelite convent, through a petition by King Phillip IV of Spain.
• July 1651 - The convent was inaugurated as the Monastery of Our Lady Carmen of San José -- and was situated across the street from San Juan Cathedral, the Western Hemisphere's oldest cathedral.
• Dec. 9, 1903 - The convent was closed by the Archbishop of San Juan.
• 1959 - Under the auspices of Operation Bootstrap, Robert Frederic Woolworth - heir to the Woolworth fortune - began converting the convent into the El Convento Hotel.
• Jan. 27, 1962 - El Convento Hotel opened.
• 1990s and 2000s - The property was renovated again and rechristened Hotel El Convento.

It has a lovely little restaurant in the courtyard where we sat and chatted with a gentleman who worked there, while drinking some classics!

 

 

Before our food was served, we got to experience something very special...Coming up!

 

[sailawaybellaluna]

We noticed in the hallway at El Convento that there was a set of large wooden double doors with a sign above it and handpainted script all around it. We asked what this was?

 

The very kind restaurant hostess explained to us that this was a room for private dinner parties which also happened to house many works of art by the famous Puerto Rican painter, Antonio Martorell. Martorell was born in Puerto Rico in 1939. He studied diplomacy at Georgetown before moving to Madrid to work on his painting skills. He now resides in Puerto Rico, and has a couple of studios there in addition to a workshop in NYC.

 

The hostess came by about 20 minutes later with a key and asked if we would like to take a look inside the room! What a treat! It was gorgeous in there. They had just set the table for a private dinner party that tnight, and it looked lovely. We saw several of Martorell's pieces of art, and they were stunning!

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was such a fun experience to get this private little tour. We really appreciated that the hostess went out of his way to share this piece of history with us! Upon leaving I made sure to speak with the management and let them know how much we enjoyed our time, and what a great employee they have!

[sailawaybellaluna]

After our yummy food and drinks at El Convento, we continued walking around a bit. My husband popped into some of the leather shops where they craft laptop bags and men's shoes, and he enjoyed browsing through some of those items.

 

We made our way over to Fortaleza Street to take a picture with the famous hanging umbrellas! We were told they had switched them all to pink in honor of breast cancer awareness.

 

 

We looked in a few more shops, bought the kids some turtle necklaces from a street vendor, and headed back to the ship around 7pm!

 

 

After getting back on board, we headed up to the Lido deck and got the kids ice cream. We sat by the pool, just enjoying the ship and the evening lights from San Juan.

 

We were all a bit tired, so we went back to the cabin and got the kids ready for bed. We hung out on our balcony reading, and watching the sailaway that evening at 11pm.

[sailawaybellaluna]

The next day we were docked early in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas!

 

The weather was looking quite precarious when we docked. We made it off the ship around 8:45am and there were some dark clouds and rain. Fortunately, it cleared up and we enjoyed a gorgeous day!

 

We quickly considered renting a car to drive to Magen's Bay, but one place was sold out, and the other wanted $130 + carseat rental. We opted not to do that, and instead headed towards the taxi queue.

 

Taxis on St. Thomas are a standard $8/person to Magen's Bay. No negotiating, and you won't find a better price walking out of the port area.  Fortunately, we found a lovely driver who had a mini van, and she had us parked at Magen's Bay in about 20 minutes. We had to pay the $5/person entry fee (free for children), and we were soon scoping out where we wanted to sit! Important to note: the entry fee to Magen's Bay and the taxis only accept cash.

 

We arrived to gorgeous white sand, turquoise waters, and hardly anyone there! That's one reason I wanted to arrive early and get some pictures before the crowds arrived! On this particular day, only the Nieuw Statendam and the Konningsdam were in port, so I don't think it was as chaotic as it sometimes is. Note: none of the photos below have been edited or have any filters. That's really how gorgeous this place was!

 

 

 

 

We rented chairs and umbrellas. I believe they were $8/each and required a $35 deposit. Fortunately, they accepted credit card in case you didn't have cash. My husband was a champ, and carried these all the way to the outer edge of the beach so we would be away from the crowds.

 

While we were there, my son and I headed towards the rocky shore to snorkel! There were tons of silver fish, but not the best snorkeling. As it had been storming earlier in the morning, the water was a bit rough the further out we went.

 

After our snorkeling adventure, we decided to get some drinks and food at the beach bar located right there near the chair rental area down the beach. We got a big cheese pizza for the kids ($22), I had some wonderful frozen mixed drink, and my parents tried some local Caribbean bear. The mixed drinks were $9, Cokes were $2.50 and I believe the beer ranged in price from $4 - $6. Credit card minimum charge was $15. The view however was priceless!

 

 

 

It was such a gorgeous day! We all really enjoyed it. There were some palm trees to provide shade, public restrooms conveniently located right on the beach, and it was easy and quick to get to.

 

On this particular day, all aboard was at 4:30pm, and we decided to head back around 3pm. Back at the pier I grabbed this picture of my kids with grandma and grandpa!

 

 

More to come...

[cruise47]

To the OP, thanks for sharing your TA review. Also, thanks for sharing are those beautiful photos of your family members & your cruise experiences. Outstanding!

[sailawaybellaluna]

We got back onboard in St. Thomas and cleaned up just in time to watch a gorgeous sailaway.

 

The Konningsdam was trying to engage us in a little horn war, which was fun. I have a video of it, but I'm not sure how to post it here?

 

We headed to dinner at 5:30pm but it seems I didn't take many photos that evening?! After dinner, we headed to the Lincoln Center Stage for their 7pm performance called "Classics Favorites". Again, it was wonderful!

 

Following the performance, we put the kids down and I believe I went to the casino for a bit. I don't think I won so I traded places with my husband while he tried to recover my losses! 🙂

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The next day, Friday,  would be a DAY AT SEA. We were excited to relax in the cabin a bit and just be lazy this morning!

 

It turned out to be a GORGEOUS day! Check out that blue water!

 

 

My son wanted to head up and shoot some hoops, so I ended up spending a little over an hour up on Deck 11 at the Sports Court! It wasn't too long before a couple of teenagers joined him, and they had fun playing basketball together!

 

 

 

The Sports Court is set up really nice. You can play tennis or volleyball there as well. As you walk around deck, you'll also find lots of built in exercise equipment you can use!

 

After my son was finished playing basketball, I snuck about 45 minutes alone out on deck to read and enjoy the view. It was hot out there though, so I messaged my husband on the HAL app (free!), and suggested we meet at the pizzeria for lunch.

 

 

We really enjoyed the lunch and salads again at the New York Pizzeria on Deck 10. After lunch we headed back to the cabin to freshen up. 

 

During the afternoon we took the kids up to play checkers in the Explorations Cafe before heading down for Afternoon Tea in the dining room. They loved the selection of sweets today! There was a chocolate cake with gold glitter on it!

 

 

Tonight would be our second gala night, so we got dressed up for our dinner at 5:30pm. Everyone was dressed very nicely, but I didn't notice people dressing as formal as I have seen on other ships. On one sailing I took with my mom out of Southampton, England, nearly every man onboard was in a tuxedo during formal night! I guess the Caribbean is naturally just a more relaxed sailing...

 

 

I'm sorry I didn't take many photos this evening...I did absolutely love my Surf n' Turf at dinner however! And as usual, I found the dining room service to be excellent.

 

 

As with our previous evenings, we hit up the Lincoln Center Stage after dinner to enjoy the 7pm performance called, "All American"! It was a great show!

 

More to come...

[Himself]

I love your pictures.

[Dulciana8]

What a great review of Old San Juan! The El Convento is one of our favorites, too— beautiful hotel, and a great place to stay. I know sometimes folks can be very critical of OSJ, but we’ve always loved it, and especially now that we have a child— he loves visiting El Morro and playing in the grassy parade field next to it. Last year there were re-enactors and costumed interpreters and to our four year old, he thought that was the coolest thing to see! Especially with drums and canon fire, lol! Thanks for continuing your gorgeous photo review. Keep it coming!! 😊