"Live from Nieuw Statendam December 8 - 22, 2019"

[Crew News]

Our departure is delayed by one hour so that some of the Nieuw Amsterdam passengers can take our empty staterooms and salvage their vacations.

[sevenseasnomad]

12 hours ago, Crew News said:

 

That is how the Environmental Officer explained it to our tour.  They will buy in bulk and put into small reusable containers for passenger use. 

Well, okay, then.  This is acceptable.  I was envisioning all of us sharing a pot of jam or a bottle of syrup, which would have been less than sanitary IMO.

[sevenseasnomad]

2 hours ago, Crew News said:

Our departure is delayed by one hour so that some of the Nieuw Amsterdam passengers can take our empty staterooms and salvage their vacations.

If nothing else, they'll have a "story" to tell when they return home.  I'm glad NS and K could accommodate some of them.  Crew, how did HAL determine which passengers would come aboard either ship or which would return home?  Is this information anyone in authority would be willing to share?  Really curious.  

Edited December 16, 2019 by sevenseasnomad

[caribill]

22 minutes ago, sevenseasnomad said:

If nothing else, they'll have a "story" to tell when they return home.  I'm glad NS and K could accommodate some of them.  Crew, how did HAL determine which passengers would come aboard either ship or which would return home?  Is this information anyone in authority would be willing to share?  Really curious.  

 

We were told that passengers on the Nieuw Amsterdam were given a choice of taking a cruise on an itinerary they had not planned on or given a refund for the cruise. I do not know how many went on the NS or K or if there was enough space for those that chose that option.

[sevenseasnomad]

Crew, the toots were awesome this afternoon.  Did you hear them?  I largely give you credit, since you wrote a note to the captain, right?  Anticipating doing the same on our cruise.

[Crusinsusan2]

10 hours ago, cat shepard said:

Not sure about the jelly/jam, but on my recent cruise, the Oosterdam had small ceramic dishes (think mise en place size) with butter in them for us to take. One had enough butter in it for at least three of us, depending on what we put it on. That is if we protected it from being removed by the ever zealous Lido staff, eager to remove our empty plates. 

 

Same on the NA for our October Panama. Loved the butter ramikins replacing the foil wrapped. More generous portion and no ick factor that the foil packs may have been previously touched or put back in the community basket. Jelly/Jam/Honey/cream cheese were still in disposable individual packs.   

[Crew News]

33 minutes ago, sevenseasnomad said:

If nothing else, they'll have a "story" to tell when they return home.  I'm glad NS and K could accommodate some of them.  Crew, how did HAL determine which passengers would come aboard either ship or which would return home?  Is this information anyone in authority would be willing to share?  Really curious.  

 

I will gather whatever info  I can.  It would interesting to know how much of their refund they had to surrender to accept the move to NS.

[sevenseasnomad]

4 minutes ago, Crew News said:

 

I will gather whatever info  I can.  It would interesting to know how much of their refund they had to surrender to accept the move to NS.

And if they were downgraded or upgraded in cabin category.  All around, it was a bad situation, but HAL did attempt to "do right" by the passengers, IMO.  Of course, nothing can make up for the vacation they anticipated for months and now missed, at least for the majority of them.  Very sad.

[Crew News]

12 minutes ago, sevenseasnomad said:

Crew, the toots were awesome this afternoon.  Did you hear them?  I largely give you credit, since you wrote a note to the captain, right?  Anticipating doing the same on our cruise.

 

With my camera in hand, I was poised for a 5:00 PM sail away but had to leave for my 6:00 PM PG reservation so I did not hear the horns at sail away.

 

I cannot  take any credit for the horns but I do know that several ship's crew are following this thread.

 

 

[Crew News]

2 minutes ago, sevenseasnomad said:

And if they were downgraded or upgraded in cabin category.  All around, it was a bad situation, but HAL did attempt to "do right" by the passengers, IMO.  Of course, nothing can make up for the vacation they anticipated for months and now missed, at least for the majority of them.  Very sad.

 

As the Captain reported over the sound system, "HAL is a big family and we take care of our own."

[caribill]

I now know why they needed three hours between the start of the 1st dinner seating at 5 PM and the start of the 2nd seating at 8 PM.

 

We did not get out of the first seating until about 7:35 PM. Two hours in at 7 PM, we were still waiting for the dessert menus.

[Crew News]

Embarkation Day was an amazing weather day in Florida.

My “in-transit” day began with being unaware of the early closing of the Club Orange and eating breakfast in the Lido Market with the hundreds of other “in-transit” passengers and a few late-disembarking passengers.  A nice couple asked if they could join my table and we spent the rest of both breakfast and the “in-transit” procedure talking about our Army days.  Several hundred of us gathered in the showroom to await being called to walk through the terminal baggage area to show our passports to two Immigration agents before walking back to the ship.  The whole process took about one hour.  The terminal had only 30 seats for passengers.

In the half hour back on the ship before incoming passengers embarked, I was able to capture photos of various stateroom categories for my collection.  As I ate my bowl of Dutch Café pea soup the Captain emerged from the seating area, recognized me from the previous day’s ship tour, and commented that both of us new the best place for lunch on Embarkation Day.  My ship tour began a few minutes after 2:00 PM for some members of our roll call and we visited all of the public venues.  

The “in-transits” were excused from the Passenger Safety Drill but were still blasted by the piercing alarms.

The ship sailed one hour late in order to accommodate other Nieuw Amsterdam passenger whose cruise had been cancelled when their ship developed azipod issues.
My PG dinner found me sitting beside two seldom-posting CC members and we had a nice conversation over dinner. I invited them to our Meet & Greet on Tuesday.  The PG Manager is another PG waiter being promoted with the knowledge of how to organize an efficient dinner service that minimizes the delays between courses and has you out the door in about one hour.  When I went to the Club Orange to pickup menus at 7:15, it was packed but was empty when I walked by on my way to the PG at 6:00 PM.

Some miscellaneous notes from the past two days include the 3-minute kill switch on the bridge that is no navigation tools are moved or the kill switch pressed every three minutes alarms are sounded, gray water that is returned to the ocean is clean enough to drink (Chief Engineer would not drink it since he knew from where it came), dry cleaning is actually wet cleaning with eco-friendly products, last week the beef supplier provided some inferior steaks to the PG that were pronounced at too tough to eat by passengers with better quality now onboard, all gelato is made on board, all baked goods/bread is baked on board, no changes to the wine package choices in the past year according to Beverage staff, the initial crew (includes room stewards, cooks, bar staff, etc.) for the new Ryndham will report to the shipyard seven months before launch and help to outfit the ship, the bridge is actually at the front of Deck 8, the ship has no rudder, top speed of the is 21 knots, and the ship carries enough fuel and provisions to return to port from any point on the itinerary.

More tomorrow as we proceed to Half Moon Cay.

[cat shepard]

5 minutes ago, Crew News said:

Embarkation Day was an amazing weather day in Florida.

My “in-transit” day began with being unaware of the early closing of the Club Orange and eating breakfast in the Lido Market with the hundreds of other “in-transit” passengers and a few late-disembarking passengers.  A nice couple asked if they could join my table and we spent the rest of both breakfast and the “in-transit” procedure talking about our Army days.  Several hundred of us gathered in the showroom to await being called to walk through the terminal baggage area to show our passports to two Immigration agents before walking back to the ship.  The whole process took about one hour.  The terminal had only 30 seats for passengers.

In the half hour back on the ship before incoming passengers embarked, I was able to capture photos of various stateroom categories for my collection.  As I ate my bowl of Dutch Café pea soup the Captain emerged from the seating area, recognized me from the previous day’s ship tour, and commented that both of us new the best place for lunch on Embarkation Day.  My ship tour began a few minutes after 2:00 PM for some members of our roll call and we visited all of the public venues.  

The “in-transits” were excused from the Passenger Safety Drill but were still blasted by the piercing alarms.

The ship sailed one hour late in order to accommodate other Nieuw Amsterdam passenger whose cruise had been cancelled when their ship developed azipod issues.
My PG dinner found me sitting beside two seldom-posting CC members and we had a nice conversation over dinner. I invited them to our Meet & Greet on Tuesday.  The PG Manager is another PG waiter being promoted with the knowledge of how to organize an efficient dinner service that minimizes the delays between courses and has you out the door in about one hour.  When I went to the Club Orange to pickup menus at 7:15, it was packed but was empty when I walked by on my way to the PG at 6:00 PM.

Some miscellaneous notes from the past two days include the 3-minute kill switch on the bridge that is no navigation tools are moved or the kill switch pressed every three minutes alarms are sounded, gray water that is returned to the ocean is clean enough to drink (Chief Engineer would not drink it since he knew from where it came), dry cleaning is actually wet cleaning with eco-friendly products, last week the beef supplier provided some inferior steaks to the PG that were pronounced at too tough to eat by passengers with better quality now onboard, all gelato is made on board, all baked goods/bread is baked on board, no changes to the wine package choices in the past year according to Beverage staff, the initial crew (includes room stewards, cooks, bar staff, etc.) for the new Ryndham will report to the shipyard seven months before launch and help to outfit the ship, the bridge is actually at the front of Deck 8, the ship has no rudder, top speed of the is 21 knots, and the ship carries enough fuel and provisions to return to port from any point on the itinerary.

More tomorrow as we proceed to Half Moon Cay.

Wow! Just wow! Thank you for this chock full of info post!

 

 

[Crew News]

22 minutes ago, cat shepard said:

Wow! Just wow! Thank you for this chock full of info post!

 

For those who have seen me onboard, I have a small camera in one pocket and a little, green, ringed notepad with pen in another to record observations and answers to CC questions.  I chuckle when I remember bringing an infrared thermometer on a cruise to measure the temps of Room Service food and the minibar to settle a running controversy here on CC.  FWIW:  176 chefs/cooks, 288 food and beverage staff, and 28000 eggs per week.

 

I also learned that unlike ordinary ship, the propellers on the NS pull the ship through the water and not push it.

Edited December 16, 2019 by Crew News

[caribill]

4 hours ago, Parrothead234 said:

This was posted on twitter

 

 

 

[Lizziekris]

We will be in on Nieuw Statendam in March.  I have seen that you have posted kids activities in the past.  Is there anyway you can get a list of the activities in the tween room to see what type of activities are on board?  Just curious.  I have enjoyed reading your posts and look forward to reading about this week as it is the same itinerary that we are doing.

 

[The Beaver]

20 hours ago, Crew News said:

 

The little ramikins hold a bit more than two tablespoons of catsup, butter, salad dressing.  The salt and pepper shakers are grinder now and poorly marked which requires a "test" grind into your hand to discover the content.  These are handled by everyone.

FWIW: I was instructed by a dining room staff on the Koningsdam : the dear and funny Eko who will be on the Veendam next January after his home leave,   to check the ring or circle on top of each shaker: White ring : salt  and Black ring: pepper.  

[Crew News]

1 hour ago, Lizziekris said:

We will be in on Nieuw Statendam in March.  I have seen that you have posted kids activities in the past.  Is there anyway you can get a list of the activities in the tween room to see what type of activities are on board?  Just curious.  I have enjoyed reading your posts and look forward to reading about this week as it is the same itinerary that we are doing.

 

I have copied the Club HAL activities for the entire week for all of the age groups and will post them once I get home.  If you would like me to email them to you, please use the Contact form on my website to send me an email.

 

FWIW one of the teen activities is Poker NIght that will include lessons.

Edited December 16, 2019 by Crew News

[Crew News]

39 minutes ago, The Beaver said:

FWIW: I was instructed by a dining room staff on the Koningsdam : the dear and funny Eko who will be on the Veendam next January after his home leave,   to check the ring or circle on top of each shaker: White ring : salt  and Black ring: pepper.  

 

I will have to confirm that as I have encountered different shaker styles while on board.

[The Beaver]

1 hour ago, Crew News said:

 

I will have to confirm that as I have encountered different shaker styles while on board.

 

It could be that's how those which were on my table that evening were. Usually, we don't use them but on that occasion, our soup tasted bland and both hubby and I didn't know which was which  unless we tried it on the bread plate.

 

BTW: Thank you for the well detailed information you are collecting and describing wrt Nieuw Statendam. Will be on it next May on a Baltic  cruise.  This time I will try  to find the door that leads to the bow of Deck 5 as well as the public sauna on deck 9.  I didn't know about them on the sister ship.

[Lizziekris]

2 hours ago, Crew News said:

I have copied the Club HAL activities for the entire week for all of the age groups and will post them once I get home.  If you would like me to email them to you, please use the Contact form on my website to send me an email.

 

FWIW one of the teen activities is Poker NIght that will include lessons.

Thanks so much.  I sent you a message.  

[Crew News]

My Room Steward reported 100 passenger came over from the NA last evening.

[whogo]

On 12/14/2019 at 10:34 PM, Crew News said:

Noted today were Christmas decorations everywhere and music all around the ship.  “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree” and “Jingle Bell Rock” seemed to be playing sequentially in all venues.

I listen to the local station that plays Christmas music for the short time it takes me to shave each morning. So far I have heard Rocking Around the Christmas Tree nine times and Jingle Bell Rock five times. The other carol that has worn out its welcome, Holly, Jolly Christmas, has been played six times. Yes, I started tallying the songs after Thanksgiving. Programmers must think that is what people want to hear.

 

Thanks for taking the time to do such an information packed thread,  Crew News.

 

 

[puppycanducruise]

44 minutes ago, Crew News said:

My Room Steward reported 100 passenger came over from the NA last evening.

Glad they could accommodate so many and save their vacations.  Too bad they couldn't do more.

Edited December 16, 2019 by puppycanducruise

[Crew News]

2 hours ago, Lizziekris said:

Thanks so much.  I sent you a message.  

 

Tweens activities emailed today.