Holland America Nieuw Statendam 3/12/23

[awesomefat]

This is our second time on this ship (first time was in 2019).  We cruise a lot and tend to chase specific new ships rather than specific brands although we do like Princess the best currently with their medallions and ability to summon food and drinks to wherever you are.  In any case, we had won a free cruise playing bingo the last time we sailed Holland America, so here we are.  We did upgrade the room to Club Orange in a veranda since the Bingo free cruise is the cheapest inside state room category.  I just wanted to give a quick good/bad of our experience so far in case others can benefit.  Let me know if you have specific questions and I’ll try to answer them.

 

Good:

- room is fairly nice and balcony is a good size.  Room overall is on the small size, but adequate.  The shower is larger than most with a sliding glass door and the best water pressure I have had on a cruise ship.

 

- food quality has been good in both the buffet and club orange dining rooms

 

- wine selection is good in the dining room with Silverado Napa Cab being their best cab by the glass.  Plenty of nicer wines by the bottle.  I am on the quench non-alcoholic package as I want flexibility with the wine I drink rather than be locked into a by the glass list.  

-PRO Tip: I’d say I regret getting the quench package and should have just gotten the soda fountain package.  The greater non-alcoholic options are not worth the price difference especially given the crowded bars.  Save your money for extra wine and save time by filling your own Coke Zero at the machine.  They have a daily happy hour at Billboard on deck 2 that is 25% off all drinks if you want to try something interesting.

 

Bad:

- the most kids I have seen on Holland America

-ship feels very crowded with long waits for drinks at most bars and the drinks feel like they are rushed when they finally are made.  We had a 30 minute wait for dinner last night at the private club orange dining room at 630pm, which boasts about no waits.  The food was good in the end and breakfast in club orange this morning was not a problem and it comes with complimentary mimosas (no drink package required)

-ship is small compared to many (100,000 tons compared to newer ships being in the 150k - 170k tons and the Oasis class ships tipping the scales at nearly 250,000 tons).  This translates into a ship where you can get around quickly, but there are limited areas to explore and everything feels squeezed in from furniture to events.  Last night they asked us to wait in the nearby lounge which was getting ready to host a PRIDE event.  Not our cup of tea, but regardless, was very busy with zero seating available.

-staff seems friendly, but overworked as is the trend on most ships.  Our servers in the dining rooms have been extremely good while bar service has been more hit and miss.

 

Summary

ill post some more if I have additional comments as the cruise continues, but we likely will not sail Holland America again.  I think we mostly felt that way after the first time in 2019, but we had a free cruise to use 🙂. I will say that jn 2019 one of the major perks for me was no kids which offset some of these other comments, but that isn’t the current situation.  

[awesomefat]

Just wanted to add some additional observations now that we are nearing the end of the week.  One thing the captain said at one of the events this week really rings true for me.  Some cruise lines, like Royal Caribbean, focus on making the ship the destination while Holland America focuses on the actual destinations.  We have found the ship to be fairly boring compared to other larger ships we have sailed from Princess, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian.

Here are some additional good and bad things observed during the week.  Notice that some reiterate previous comments or amend them:

 

The bad:

- you spend too much of your day waiting in line…even is advertised priority lines for Club Orange.  

- it seems common that the bartenders are not service oriented.  I don’t want to throw them under the bus as I know they have hard jobs and have to put up with a lot of crap from people and work hours that I could not work myself.  Having said that, it is still the job they have and too often I’d be standing at a bar and there are 1-3 bartenders/waitstaff standing there doing nothing while another one makes a drink and rather than taking an order or at least acknowledging they they will be with you in a moment, stand there chit chatting and seemingly ignoring you.  It is a common theme in threads to talk about how understaffed, over worked, and underpaid these workers are to which I am sympathetic, but as paying customers, it is not unreasonable to expect good service.  If the cruise lines need to charge more to deliver good service, so be it, but what I have seen is an increase in cost and a decrease in service across the board.  For example, no lobster night in the dining room.  This is a long time cruise tradition that in and of itself isn’t the end of the world, but is just one of many things like that that all add up.  At least there were up charge options on the breakfast/lunch/dinner menus to get lobster or an elevated steak.  The price was like $15 for two lobster tails and $15-$20 for steaks from the steakhouse, and $12 for the lobster eggs Benedict at breakfast.  I think these are all reasonable up charges for the elevated menu items.

-untrained workers in the buffet…just giving an example, we were in the ice cream line and the couple in front of us asked if they had coconut ice cream, the guy pointed at one and said yes and then served them.  When we were next and a different guy was helping us he scooped us butter pecan from the same container.  The other folks returned and said that what they got was not coconut and the worker said that the other guy didn’t know what he was doing.  While this likely was not a major deal in this exact instance, to be so cavalier with food ingredients can be dangerous.  Obviously the passenger has to take the responsibility for serious allergies etc…, but in general, it was common to run into crew members who did not seem to know very much about their job.

 

- not enough entertainment options… unless you are into live rock and roll and blues music your options will be limited.  We are not load music folks so I’d estimate that 70% of the available entertainment was lost on us.  We did enjoy the live orchestra music when it was available and went to the few comedy shows.  There really were not production shows as seen on other cruise lines and overall the world stage felt under utilized for the technology it has.  The multimedia show that featured a movie across the many screens with the live orchestra playing was a highlight.  I do want to point out that I did speak with several people who really do enjoy the loader live music and these people seems very happy with the entertainment.  So I guess ask yourself what you like and decide if this ship is for you.

 

- crowded or out of service elevators…this kind of speaks for itself, it was the worst on around arrival and on board time on port days and basically all day on sea days.  You would sometimes wait 10 minutes for an elevator only to have a completely packed elevator open when one arrives.  It became common practice to just take the stairs.  Not the end of the world if only going a few flights for us, but many people can’t do stairs at all and this would be a miserable part of their trip.

 

The good-ish:

- I can’t really speak to the main dining room, but the club orange dining room was mostly good.  The staff were friendly and we only had a wait that very first night.  My wife really did not like the decor or that some of the tables are high top tables.  I personally did not mind.  While the menus were the same, club orange has its own kitchen and most of the time they prepared your food there.  I feel like this translated into a bit of a better experience when it came to customizing etc.., but it was not amazing or anything.  The service really should have been better in club orange as well.  It was common for wine glasses to sit empty for awhile before being offered another drink.  It wasn’t bad, just lacked the polished touch expected in the suite class dining room.

 

- the captain seemed entertaining, his English was very good

-the shower was a very good size with incredible water pressure…very rare find on a cruise ship

 

- the room stewards were very efficient…whenever we left the room in the morning it was always made up by the time we returned and the same thing at night.  Whenever we needed anything it was promptly done.  While we did not have a ton of interactions with these guys, their work ethic was obvious.

 

I can say with good confidence that we would not choose Holland America again simply on the basis of the ship being boring for us.  The line as a whole was above average quality with above average food, and frankly fairly reasonable drink package prices compared to other lines.  Hopefully this helps you make a decision if Holland America will be a good line for you.

[PACD_JG]

1 hour ago, awesomefat said:

- the captain seemed entertaining, his English was very good

The Captain is Irish...and since the majority of Irish can't speak Irish (Gaelic), it's a fair assumption that English is his first language.

[VMax1700]

9 minutes ago, PACD_JG said:

The Captain is Irish...and since the majority of Irish can't speak Irish (Gaelic), it's a fair assumption that English is his first language.

I think the Irishman (Noel O'Driscoll) rejoins the ship tomorrow (March 18th), I believe the master until then is Eric Barhorst, a Nederlander.

[PACD_JG]

15 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

I think the Irishman (Noel O'Driscoll) rejoins the ship tomorrow (March 18th), I believe the master until then is Eric Barhorst, a Nederlander.

Captain Noel has certainly kissed the Blarney Stone!

 

As far as the rest of the OP's review...really not a lot to disagree with.

[Bonnie Renee]

On 3/12/2023 at 3:11 PM, awesomefat said:

This is our second time on this ship (first time was in 2019).  We cruise a lot and tend to chase specific new ships rather than specific brands although we do like Princess the best currently with their medallions and ability to summon food and drinks to wherever you are.  In any case, we had won a free cruise playing bingo the last time we sailed Holland America, so here we are.  We did upgrade the room to Club Orange in a veranda since the Bingo free cruise is the cheapest inside state room category.  I just wanted to give a quick good/bad of our experience so far in case others can benefit.  Let me know if you have specific questions and I’ll try to answer them.

 

Good:

- room is fairly nice and balcony is a good size.  Room overall is on the small size, but adequate.  The shower is larger than most with a sliding glass door and the best water pressure I have had on a cruise ship.

 

- food quality has been good in both the buffet and club orange dining rooms

 

- wine selection is good in the dining room with Silverado Napa Cab being their best cab by the glass.  Plenty of nicer wines by the bottle.  I am on the quench non-alcoholic package as I want flexibility with the wine I drink rather than be locked into a by the glass list.  

-PRO Tip: I’d say I regret getting the quench package and should have just gotten the soda fountain package.  The greater non-alcoholic options are not worth the price difference especially given the crowded bars.  Save your money for extra wine and save time by filling your own Coke Zero at the machine.  They have a daily happy hour at Billboard on deck 2 that is 25% off all drinks if you want to try something interesting.

 

Bad:

- the most kids I have seen on Holland America

-ship feels very crowded with long waits for drinks at most bars and the drinks feel like they are rushed when they finally are made.  We had a 30 minute wait for dinner last night at the private club orange dining room at 630pm, which boasts about no waits.  The food was good in the end and breakfast in club orange this morning was not a problem and it comes with complimentary mimosas (no drink package required)

-ship is small compared to many (100,000 tons compared to newer ships being in the 150k - 170k tons and the Oasis class ships tipping the scales at nearly 250,000 tons).  This translates into a ship where you can get around quickly, but there are limited areas to explore and everything feels squeezed in from furniture to events.  Last night they asked us to wait in the nearby lounge which was getting ready to host a PRIDE event.  Not our cup of tea, but regardless, was very busy with zero seating available.

-staff seems friendly, but overworked as is the trend on most ships.  Our servers in the dining rooms have been extremely good while bar service has been more hit and miss.

 

Summary

ill post some more if I have additional comments as the cruise continues, but we likely will not sail Holland America again.  I think we mostly felt that way after the first time in 2019, but we had a free cruise to use 🙂. I will say that jn 2019 one of the major perks for me was no kids which offset some of these other comments, but that isn’t the current situation.  

Appreciate all your comments. I’ve only sailed HAL once and it was so long ago I don’t totally remember ship’s amenities. We gage a veranda and have it all plan but it’s not clubborange. Didn’t want anymore extra expenses 

[Banditswife]

we sail on NS next Sat-3/25 & were on her last Nov/Dec.  We did not have many kids on our 2-7day cruises, so I would attribute your number of kids to spring break in a lot of the USA.  I agree that the "World Stage" could be utilized a lot better & more often, the technology available there is not used well at all.  I also felt that the big movie screen on deck 9/10 is not used enough.  We had awesome cabin stewards on deck 1, hoping that is ship wide, we have deck 6 next week.  I agree about the loud music, it kind of degrades the cruising experience for us, but if that is what you are in to, you will love it.  We had a different bar experience, we had great bar service except in the casino where we had no service at all.

Thank you for your comments

[awesomefat]

We are on deck 6, the room service has been very good.

[albingirl]

Thanks for your review. I can understand when it gets crowded. It gets frustrating but I  think that's how it's going to be going forward. But, you said you won this cruise playing bingo. That would be a huge plus for me. I doubt I  would have many complaints due to that. I thought club orange staff was exceptional a few weeks ago. People want different experiences and I  certainly respect that. 

[awesomefat]

Yes we won the cruise playing bingo and then paid a significant amount to upgrade to a suite for club orange in hopes that it would improve the overall experience.  I agree that if this was a 100% free cruise then we really can’t complain about anything, but given we spent an additional $6000 plus the cost of all the bingo when we didn’t win lol, I think my expectations are reasonable when they advertise club orange as a “skip the line” experience etc…. If I book the cheapest inside room then the trade off is that I may have some waiting, but when the cruise line advertises their elevated products as a “ship within a ship” etc… my expectations increase.

[Florida_gal_50]

Unfortunately the skip the line seems to be a myth.  I’ve had club orange on my last few cruises.  The line has been much, much slower at the front desk and also with shorex.  I’ve also waited to get into club orange for breakfast most days.  Some days the length has been fairly long.

[VMax1700]

25 minutes ago, awesomefat said:

Yes we won the cruise playing bingo and then paid a significant amount to upgrade to a suite for club orange in hopes that it would improve the overall experience.  I agree that if this was a 100% free cruise then we really can’t complain about anything, but given we spent an additional $6000 plus the cost of all the bingo when we didn’t win lol, I think my expectations are reasonable when they advertise club orange as a “skip the line” experience etc…. If I book the cheapest inside room then the trade off is that I may have some waiting, but when the cruise line advertises their elevated products as a “ship within a ship” etc… my expectations increase.

I have never seen Club Orange advertised as "ship within a ship". Nor have I seen "skip the line" promoted.  The current promotional pdf is attached and it states "Priority Access" and "Priority Line".

$6000 seems like a lot of money for an upgrade from the cheapest inside stateroom to the lowest level of a verandah stateroom plus the additional Club Orange.

Club_Orange_Benefits.pdf

Edited March 18, 2023 by VMax1700
forgot to post the pdf

[awesomefat]

We did not have an issue with club orange dining after the first night.  We were able to get in with no wait and usually could get a low top table which my wife prefers.  Starting tomorrow we are on the celebrity beyond in an aqua sky suite in the retreat.  I would think that among “big brands / big ships” this should be as telling as anything as to whether “Skip the line” or a “ship within a ship” is possible.  I’ll report back with my findings on that, but I do have high expectations. 

[Florida_gal_50]

3 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

I have never seen Club Orange advertised as "ship within a ship". Nor have I seen "skip the line" promoted.  The current promotional pdf is attached and it states "Priority Access" and "Priority Line".

$6000 seems like a lot of money for an upgrade from the cheapest inside stateroom to the lowest level of a verandah stateroom plus the additional Club Orange.

Club_Orange_Benefits.pdf 413.25 kB · 0 downloads

I hadn’t seen that either but it’s always a possibility that I have forgotten.  I believe the op upgraded to a suite, not a veranda.

[VMax1700]

 

Just now, Florida_gal_50 said:

  I believe the op upgraded to a suite, not a veranda.

 

In post #1 he says he upgraded to a veranda.

 

On 3/12/2023 at 8:11 PM, awesomefat said:

 We did upgrade the room to Club Orange in a veranda

[Florida_gal_50]

2 minutes ago, awesomefat said:

We did not have an issue with club orange dining after the first night.  We were able to get in with no wait and usually could get a low top table which my wife prefers.  Starting tomorrow we are on the celebrity beyond in an aqua sky suite in the retreat.  I would think that among “big brands / big ships” this should be as telling as anything as to whether “Skip the line” or a “ship within a ship” is possible.  I’ll report back with my findings on that, but I do have high expectations. 

I suspect that your experience will be much better with the dining on celebrity.  Is the price the same?  I would think the celebrity price would be much higher but I really don’t know.

[Florida_gal_50]

2 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

 

 

In post #1 he says he upgraded to a veranda.

 

In post 10 the op said they were in a suite.  Maybe the op can clarify that because $6000 does seem high especially if its usd.

[awesomefat]

4 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

I have never seen Club Orange advertised as "ship within a ship". Nor have I seen "skip the line" promoted.  The current promotional pdf is attached and it states "Priority Access" and "Priority Line".

$6000 seems like a lot of money for an upgrade from the cheapest inside stateroom to the lowest level of a verandah stateroom plus the additional Club Orange.

Club_Orange_Benefits.pdf 413.25 kB · 0 downloads

We also added drink packages and some other things that did not come with the base room since the “have it all” promotion did not apply.  In any case, I am speaking in generalities in that Club Orange seems to be Holland America’s answer to other lines more exclusive experiences.  Perhaps, as you said, it doesn’t promise all of the bells and whistles that some might, but at the very least Priority Access and Priority Line (which does at least imply skip the line) were not noticeable perks in our experience.  All in all, I am not knocking Holland America.  We had a nice time, the ship was just not for us and I wanted to share with the community our experience so they could decide if the ship was for them.  As I said in a previous post, folks who seemed to really be into live music seemed to really enjoy it.  For us the ship was too small which I think automatically leads to more crowded areas and there were too many young people which is typically a perk of lines like Holland America for us.  There is nothing wrong with young people and it’s great to see young families cruising, it is just not the atmosphere we prefer.  The previous time we were on this ship there was 1 kid on board and the average age was maybe 65.  We liked that.  Some people won’t and that is why we have different brands for different experiences.  I was simply underwhelmed with the club

orange experience.  As you implied, maybe I had false expectations.

[VermeulT]

16 hours ago, awesomefat said:

it seems common that the bartenders are not service oriented.  I don’t want to throw them under the bus as I know they have hard jobs and have to put up with a lot of crap from people and work hours that I could not work myself.  Having said that, it is still the job they have and too often I’d be standing at a bar and there are 1-3 bartenders/waitstaff standing there doing nothing while another one makes a drink and rather than taking an order or at least acknowledging they they will be with you in a moment, stand there chit chatting and seemingly ignoring you.

There are bar waiters that take orders and then bartenders.  The waiters are not bartenders - they either don't know or aren't allowed to make drinks.  I don't even think they can hand you a soda without the bartender getting it.  An on land comparison is at your pharmacy - the person that checks you out isn't the person that dispenses the pills into the bottles.

I was on the NS the week before you and yes - the wait for drinks was insane.

 

It otherwise seems that HAL isn't the cruise line for you.  Which is fine.  We all have our preferences.  I hope you enjoy your future cruises.  I'll be on HAL.

[PACD_JG]

34 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

 

 

In post #1 he says he upgraded to a veranda.

 

 

Okay, now I have to take this entire review with a grain of salt.  $6000 for a 7-night cruise in a Verandah, where the inside room was "free?  HAL isn't a luxury cruise!

 

For reference, I was on this exact cruise over Thanksgiving.  Cost was $4030.  For a Vista Suite.  For 2 adults, 2 teens.  Included HIA and crew appreciation for the adults.  Even if I was pound foolish and paid for Club Orange, it would have been over $1200 less than what the OP paid.  And I didn't have a casino offer.  Sigh.

[albingirl]

2 hours ago, awesomefat said:

Yes we won the cruise playing bingo and then paid a significant amount to upgrade to a suite for club orange in hopes that it would improve the overall experience.  I agree that if this was a 100% free cruise then we really can’t complain about anything, but given we spent an additional $6000 plus the cost of all the bingo when we didn’t win lol, I think my expectations are reasonable when they advertise club orange as a “skip the line” experience etc…. If I book the cheapest inside room then the trade off is that I may have some waiting, but when the cruise line advertises their elevated products as a “ship within a ship” etc… my expectations increase.

Curious. How did you spend 6 thousand dollars on a free cruise?

[AFNavigator]

51 minutes ago, PACD_JG said:

 

Okay, now I have to take this entire review with a grain of salt.  $6000 for a 7-night cruise in a Verandah, where the inside room was "free?  HAL isn't a luxury cruise!

 

For reference, I was on this exact cruise over Thanksgiving.  Cost was $4030.  For a Vista Suite.  For 2 adults, 2 teens.  Included HIA and crew appreciation for the adults.  Even if I was pound foolish and paid for Club Orange, it would have been over $1200 less than what the OP paid.  And I didn't have a casino offer.  Sigh.

In a later post, the OP stated they upgraded to a suite.  If you paid 4,030 for a Vista Suite, perhaps the stated $6,000 upcharge was to a Neptune Suite.

[albingirl]

3 minutes ago, albingirl said:

Curious. How did you spend 6 thousand dollars on a free cruise?

Never mind. He's not being specific. It does seem like a lot of money for upgrades tho.

[terrydtx]

2 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

I suspect that your experience will be much better with the dining on celebrity.  Is the price the same?  I would think the celebrity price would be much higher but I really don’t know.

HAL has its good and bad points, but nothing they offer in Neptune and higher suites comes close to the Retreat amenities offered by Celebrity even in their lowest level Sky Suites. HAL in their newer ships offers better values in the non-suites over the terribly conceived non suites IV cabins on Celebrity E Class ships. If you want a truly elevated suite's ship in a ship experience, Celebrity has the huge edge over HAL. Celebrity is doing their best to price most of us out of the retreat by elevating Sky Suite prices ridiculously high for future cruises.

Edited March 18, 2023 by terrydtx

[terrydtx]

28 minutes ago, AFNavigator said:

In a later post, the OP stated they upgraded to a suite.  If you paid 4,030 for a Vista Suite, perhaps the stated $6,000 upcharge was to a Neptune Suite.

I wonder from reading the OP posts, if he is thinking Club Orange means you are in a suite? What he stated in one post contradicted what he states in another.