Nieuw Statendam - slowed?

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

On 4/21/2023 at 7:07 AM, Balliett said:

The Nieuw Statendam cruise itineraries are being revised, it appears, from now until drydock in November.  These revisions result in less time in ports and more time at sea. Some ports are missed altogether.  Excursions are canceled because the date for the port changed.   The cruise review by Jsom98 details this experience in March.  HAL says "operational difficulties." I believe that the NS can't sail at her usual speed due to mechanical difficulties which can't be repaired until they cancel a cruise or two.  

     For our own situation, we were booked on the Aug 9 cruise, 14 days.  Due to the revised itinerary we couldn't visit Cork, and changing our planned excursions was not always possible due to shorter port times.  We were offered $100 for our inconvenience.  We had refundable air arrangements. so we canceled the trip without penalties.  

     My complain here is that HAL has not been transparent about the problem, and that the inconvenience compensation is inadequate.      I will say that HAL was quick to refund our deposit and payments we had made for excursions,  Club Orange, and premium meals.

Thanks for sharing.

[Native Floridian 26]

We just got off the April 8th Transatlantic crossing to Barcelona this morning. We followed our original itinerary to the minute and as mentioned sailed at full speed 20-21 knots when needed. The captain was a wonderful communicator and would have let us know if there was any problem. Presumably the issue from the April 1 or prior sailing was fixed albeit it may be a temporary fix. He gave us daily reports that explained everything about speeds needed, tugs, winds and why we docked there way we did. He was great. Loved the cruise and booked her crossing for next year to Rotterdam.

Edited April 22, 2023 by Native Floridian 26

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

1 hour ago, Native Floridian 26 said:

We just got off the April 8th Transatlantic crossing to Barcelona this morning. We followed our original itinerary to the minute and as mentioned sailed at full speed 20-21 knots when needed. The captain was a wonderful communicator and would have let us know if there was any problem. Presumably the issue from the April 1 or prior sailing was fixed albeit it may be a temporary fix. He gave us daily reports that explained everything about speeds needed, tugs, winds and why we docked there way we did. He was great. Loved the cruise and booked her crossing for next year to Rotterdam.

Thanks.

[Banditswife]

It is good to read that the transatlantic cruise had no issues.  But I understand people's frustration when a major itinerary change occurs.  Most people book for the itinerary & it seems HAL should be more transparent about reasons for the changes.

 

The captain did mention issues with speed on our NS 3/25 cruise, so maybe that problem was repaired.  I agree that our captain was very good about making announcements when there were issues, even when the issue had to do with weather, he made announcements every day.  

[ukpylot]

Ship had no issues leaving Barcelona, we left the dock sideways, went backwards for  but and then rotated around the aft to bring the front forward and off we went.

 

On our way to Nice, Captain not reporting anything but fine sailing ahead.