Our review of the July 26, 2023 Norse Legends on Nieuw Statendam

[Zukini]

Buckle in, this is a long one.  I'll also be posting it to the cruise reviews section.

 

BACKGROUND

This is coming from the perspective of a couple in their sixties who used to cruise quite a bit (Royal Caribbean, Princess, even 1 Carnival cruise (ugh), up until we caught norovirus during a Princess cruise which included Egypt back in 2011 and swore we would never cruise again. This is a review of the 7-day Norse Legends cruise departing July 26th.

 

We booked the Nieuw Statendam specifically for the Norwegian Fjords itinerary, since we know that Norway is starting to clamp down on large cruise ships coming to the fjords for environmental reasons.  Initially, this cruise included Eidfjord, Geirangerfjord, Alesund, and Bergen. Some months prior to sailing, Bergen was dropped, Gothenburg, Sweden was added (not exactly a "Norse Legend"), and the order of the itinerary was shuffled around.  We considered cancelling at that point, since Gothenburg did not appeal to us at all, but because airfare was already booked we decided to go ahead with the cruise.

 

PRE-CRUISE
We spend a couple of days pre-cruise at the Scandic Norreport in Copenhagen. I think this hotel is underrated in favor of the more popular Scandic Palace, but we found it to be a really idea location, right on the metro line and very centrally located to a lot of sites in Copenhagen, especially if you're a walker as we are. On arrival day, we dropped our bags at the hotel and ventured forth, eventually finding ourselves in Nyhavn. It was drizzling a bit, but we decided to take the Stromma canal boat tour.  Note that two competing companies run canal tours, and the other one is 1/2 the price of Stromma, but we found the multi-lingual pre-recorded narration to be quite informative, and we thoroughly enjoyed the tour.

 

For lunch, we found ourselves in Torvenhallerne, not far from our hotel, where I enjoyed a Danish hot dog, and my wife had some Argentinian empenadas, washed down with beer from a craft brewery. As soon as our room was ready we retired to it and crashed until the next morning. Note: if your hotel advertises air conditioning or air cooling, it is likely NOT what you would expect. Cooling is provided by a water cooling system without a forced fan, so it will take your room quite a while to cool down. While this normally wouldn't be anything worth mentioning at all, we happened to get some pretty warm weather, and our southern-facing room did heat up during the day. Once we closed the blackout curtains and exercised a little patience, the room cooled down nicely.

 

The next day, we walked down toward the city center, and spent quite a few hours at the Danish National Museum. This was quite well organized, tracing the history of Denmark and it's colonies and explorations from the stone age to modern times in a very easy to follow room-to-room fashion. The lunch spot here was great, offering Carlsberg 1883 Lager, a beer brewed from the original yeast strain found in an old bottle of Carlsberg beer.

 

BOARDING
On our final day, we took a cab to the port using the DANTaxi app.  Although we arrived earlier than our assigned time, we found boarding to be smooth and simple.  We were at first confused at not receiving our cruise cards at check-in, as we were not familiar with the practice of having the cards waiting for you outside the room.

 

We found our stateroom, a VB on deck 11 starboard to be quite well laid out. Plenty of storage, a much larger than expected shower in the bath, and a small but functional balcony.  A mini-fridge was provided, stocked with for-pay items, no kettle or coffee maker, but that was not unexpected. We headed up to the Lido for our first lunch, and were impressed with the size and variety, but a bit frustrated that the dishes were not adequately labeled, and the procedures for obtaining beverages was not quite clear (we had the Have-It-All package, with included gratuities).  We enjoyed a decent lunch, but were not extremely impressed. We learned that it's best to find a table and sit down, wait until someone shows up to take a drink order, and only then head to the food stations.  Hand washing stations were prevalent, but not often used by patrons, and sometime were either out of soap or out of paper towels for extended periods of time.

 

One of the items that annoyed us throughout the cruise was the way tables were cleared in the Lido. Frequently, a server would setup station at the end of one of the table rows, and begin gathering plates from surrounding tables, scraping them and stacking them. This was rather nauseating, seeing piles of uneaten food from multiple tables being scraped off of plates within our visual orbit. Kind of gross while trying to eat.

 

MAIN DINING ROOM
We ate in the main dining room on our first night. While our servers were quite nice, we felt that the meal service was optimized to rush you out of the dining room as quickly as possible. Your entire meal, from appetizer to dessert was ordered at the very start, which seemed peculiar, and the courses were brought whether you were ready for them or not. The dining room had no ambiance, and was quite noisy.  We didn't enjoy the dining room experience, and didn't go there again through the cruise.

 

LUNCH VENUES
We found ourselves most often grabbing lunch from the Dive In burger joint. Food prep was usually pretty quick. You were given a beeper to let you know when your lunch was ready for pickup. Orders were filled correctly, and food was well prepared. We tried the Lido several times but there seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to which side and stations would be open at any given time, and many tables were taken up with guests using them to play card games rather than eat. We had the same frustrations identifying what food was available at any given station due to inadequate labeling, and drink service was difficult to obtain.

 

SPECIALTY RESTAURANTS
We ate at Cannaletto one evening, paying extra for the privilege.  While the food was fine, and our server was an absolute delight, the food ambiance was certainly not what you would expect in a specialty restaurant.  It's really just a sectioned-off part of the main Lido, so it felt like you were eating in the Lido. It was loud, and people traipsing by the restaurant in bathing suits and robes really made it feel like a somewhat less than premium experience. Incidentally (and this goes for all of the venues) if you're a wine drinker, you won't be happy with the standard wines, especially the reds. They are harsh and reflux-inducing, and I'm not a wine snob by any stretch.

 

Our specialty dinner at Tamarind, the Asian-fusion venue, was MUCH nicer and more like we would have expected, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

LIDO MARKET (Dinner and Breakfast)
Aside from the other issues I've already mentioned about the Lido, we were continuously puzzled by trying to determine what stations would be open at any particular time. During what seemed to us to be prime hours, entire sides of the Lido Market would be mostly closed down, with isolated stations open. We would have to make several circuits of both sides of the ship to determine what was available to eat, and fighting the crowds for the open stations was frustrating.

 

DUTCH CAFE
The much-hyped Dutch Cafe was a frustration at any hour. Long lines, poorly prepared foods, and no place to sit. I ordered a triple berry Pannekoek one day...instead of a warm pancake with berries, it was ice-cold, as if it had been refrigerated. After waiting on line for 20 minutes to order it, it was a big disappointment.

 

PORT TALKS
The cruise director, Clare, held informative talks, usually at rather inconvenient times. Incomprehensibly, these talks were never repeated on the TV in the stateroom, with the excuse that it would violate copywrite. Thus, if you weren't present in person for the talks, tough luck. That, to me, was a major issue.

 

PORTS - EIDFJORD
Eidfjord was a wonderful port stop, if not a little too brief.  We really wanted to experience the step-bridge at Voringsfossen, which is not visited on any of the HAL excursions, so we pre-arranged a taxi with a 30 minute stop. We had hoped to pay the driver extra for a longer stay at Voringsfossen, but that was just not possible. The taxis are shared and on a very strict pre-booked schedule, so a longer stay is just not possible, no matter what you are willing to pay. The step bridge was breath taking, but our time there was too short to truly appreciate all it had to offer.

 

PORTS - GEIRANGER
We used the floating SeaWalk pier at Geiranger, eliminating the need to tender. My understanding is that Geiranger does not want large ships mooring with their engines running in the fjord and is requiring the use of the SeaWalk. Here, we had pre-booked a RIB tour of the fjord with FjordGuiding at literally half the price that HAL was asking for the same excursion and tour operator.  After suiting up in survival suits, the tour was exhilarating and breathtaking, with up-close views of the Seven Sisters and the Suitor waterfalls, as well as explanations about the various historic mountain farms. Only thing I'll say negatively is that the survival suits could use a little spritz with a deodorizer. I felt like I needed to return to the ship to shower and change my clothes after we returned.  Afterward, we walked up the long stairs along the Fossefandring waterfall to a magnificent viewpoint near the Union Hotel.

 

PORTS - ALESUND
Here, we opted for an "Art Nouveux Kayak Tour" with Uteguiden, booked independently. This was both disorganized and overbooked. While the sights were beautiful, and the kayaking was fun, the guide left a lot to be desired, often racing ahead of the guests. These are sea kayaks, including spray skirts and rudders, and were quite difficult for the older/stouter folk (me and my wife) to board and exit from.  When we returned to the dock, my wife had great difficulty exiting the kayak to the considerably higher dock, and would probably be still stuck there were it not for the assistance of a fellow from a Disney cruise who helped me uncork her from the kayak. Much thanks to this nameless individual!  

 

I'll also note that we visited on a Sunday, so the majority of shops and restaurants in Alesund were closed.

 

PORTS - GOTHENBURG
When we docked in the horribly ugly Arendal pier at Gothenburg, I'll admit that the weather was so grim and the surrounding so depressing that we decided to stay in bed rather than trudge onto a crowded HAL tour bus for the "West Coast Islands and Taste of Herring" excursion.  From photos posted by other cruisers, the city of Gothenburg is perfectly nice, but it is hardly a "Norse Legend" and was a particularly poor choice as a substitute for the scenic walk-off port of Bergen. As it turns out, the Rotterdam docked in Bergen on the day we were originally supposed to be there, so why we were denied that port is a mystery.  To add insult to injury, rather than providing free shuttles to the historic center, HAL thought it wise to charge passengers $20 per person for a round-trip shuttle. 

 

ENTERTAINMENT
This ship featured the Music Walk concept, with BB King's, the Rolling Stone Rock Room, and Billboard Onboard. We very much enjoyed the band in the Rock Room, and were there most every night. This competed with the shows in the main theater, so we never did see Cantare, the Step One Dance Company, or Stephen Barry.  BB King's also featured great musical performances most nights, but Billboard was (in our opinion) the worst sterotype of cruise-ship entertainment, though people certainly seemed to love it.  We enjoyed interacting with the bartenders in the Rock Room, who were two of the best on board, as well as the other patrons.

 

THERMAL SPA
We pre-paid for week long access to the thermal spa.  This seems to be an afterthought as far as the spa personnel are concerned, since it's not making them any money. They don't care that the the electronic lockers don't work, that the keycards don't open the doors, that equipment is broken, or that people are camping out in the area featuring the ceramic heated relaxation loungers for hours at a time, either sleeping or laughing at full-volume TikTok videos on their phones and tablets. It was not a spa-like atmosphere, and the staff had no desire to even enter the area. Equipment, including the horizontal shower, that was reported as broken on day one was still broken on day seven, without anyone even bothering to place an out-of-order sign on it.

 

OTHER OBSERVATIONS
There were far more children and teens on this cruise than I would have ever expected on HAL. They took over the pool area, the sports areas, and the Crow's Nest, making it impossible for adults to either use the pool or relax quietly in the Crow's Nest (which became game-central for the kids). There was a HAL Club on this ship, but I honestly never saw it in use. The staff did little to police their own policies, allowing parents to take infants clad in diapers into the hot tubs and pool, a clear violation of all sanitary policies. 

 

SUMMARY
We enjoyed the fjords immensely, and loved the ports of Eidfjord and Geiranger. Alesund would have been better had we not visited on a Sunday. Gothenburg was a major disappointment. The entertainment on board was great, as were most staff members. Everything else about this cruise had us regretting that we had booked with Holland America.

Edited August 13, 2023 by Zukini
Correcting spelling errors

[ON cruiser]

Thanks for your review. Happy sailing!

[kazu]

Thanks for your review.  Sorry you did not enjoy your cruise 😔 

 

I hear you on children - if you travel on a short cruise when children are not in school you are bound to see a number of them.  I learned that the hard way 😉 

 

 

[ski ww]

We were on the Nieuw Statendam 14 day Norway cruise in July and can relate to some of your points. We also had a lot of kids on our cruise, although few in the Crows Nest. Club HAL was not operating at all, I'm guessing no staff. I agree about the Lido & MDR. The music in the bars was way too loud for my taste, to each their own. Had three changes to our ports of call, no reason given. We enjoyed the cruise because it was different from our normal Med. or Caribbean cruises.  

[portofrome]

Thank you for the review.

[scubacruiserx2]

 Thank you for your fine review . It reminds us of our visit there and is kind of like a free cruise back there . Would you mind if I post some videos of the beautiful port of Geiranger ? I'm a visual person and have been doing this for 10 years or more and I won't post anymore if you don't want me to .  Hopefully it may help others see some of what you saw . Thanks again for your review .

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by scubacruiserx2

[Zukini]

3 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 Thank you for your fine review . It reminds us of our visit there and is kind of like a free cruise back there . Would you mind if I post some videos of the beautiful port of Geiranger ? I'm a visual person and have been doing this for 10 years or more and I won't post anymore if you don't want me to .  Hopefully it may help others see some of what you saw . Thanks again for your review .

 

I'll do you one better. Here's our 12 minute highlights reel.

 

 

[Zukini]

 

Highlights from the RIB tour we took with FjordGuiding in Geiranger.

 

 

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for taking the time to post your comments.

[SilvertoGold]

Excellent, well-balanced review.  The negatives are fair judgements and demonstrate some of HAL's long- term failings.  Good that there were positives to balance out those negatives.  I hope you will try HAL again, a different Pinnacle class ship.

[Zukini]

11 minutes ago, SilvertoGold said:

Excellent, well-balanced review.  The negatives are fair judgements and demonstrate some of HAL's long- term failings.  Good that there were positives to balance out those negatives.  I hope you will try HAL again, a different Pinnacle class ship.

 

Thank you.  In retrospect, some of our dissatisfaction was probably based on overblown expectations vs reality, as well as the sour taste regarding the port changes. Nevertheless, I think there really is room for improvement in the HAL product.  It may be that after spending so many years traveling independently as well as occasionally vacationing at all-inclusive resorts where there are no up-charges, we've simply lost our taste for large-ship cruising (which sounds odd, given that this size ship is hardly huge by modern standards).  Our next attempt will be on the Oceania Riviera next year. With less than half the passenger load and a reputation for good food, it may be more to our liking, though we will miss the entertainment offerings available on HAL.

 

[scubacruiserx2]

2 hours ago, Zukini said:

 

I'll do you one better. Here's our 12 minute highlights reel.

 

 

 

 Thank you for the video which we enjoyed that brought back many memories . Was that the Hardanger Bridge at the 4 minute mark ? We have booked the 21 day Ultimate Viking Explorer on the Nieuw Statendam next August 3 - 24 and we are scheduled to go under it to Ulvik which is a village 35 km. away from Eidfjord and requires a tender . In our experience on HAL , short cruises have more kids than longer ones and this is the time when we could have 3 weeks of kids on vacation . We also named the Nieuw Statendam ( Pinnacle class ) cruise ship as the least desirable of the 5 different HAL ships that we have been on . Too big , too noisy , tiny rooms and tiny balconies compared to the others that we have been on . I guess the expression Forewarned is forearmed  may apply here . 

 

 Since you said that you had to miss Bergen here is a video and some still photos from when we were there in 2019 on the Zuiderdam .

 

 

 

If you would like to see what a different cruise class on HAL which includes our favorite suite looks like you can click on the link below .

 

As you can see it is called Baltic , Norway , Iceland and the U.K. ( London , Scotland and the Shetland Islands ) . It lasted 24 days and began in Copenhagen with a 10 day Baltic cruise ( including St. Petersburg ) before changing cabins in Copenhagen for the Norway and Iceland cruise of 14 days . Thus it is very long with lots of photos .

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by scubacruiserx2

[Zukini]

7 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

 Thank you for the video which we enjoyed that brought back many memories . Was that the Hardanger Bridge at the 4 minute mark ?

 

Thanks for the videos.  Certainly wish we hadn't missed Bergen on this trip.  Yes, that's the Hardanger Bridge on our way into Eidfjord.

[cbr663]

1 hour ago, SilvertoGold said:

Excellent, well-balanced review.  The negatives are fair judgements and demonstrate some of HAL's long- term failings.  Good that there were positives to balance out those negatives.  I hope you will try HAL again, a different Pinnacle class ship.

 

I also thought that most of the negatives are fair judgments and are things that we have also personally experienced on other HAL ships.  Many revolve around dining and we have discovered that the Club Orange dining room solves many of the issues of the MDR and Lido.  

[Roz]

@Zukini, love your screen name!

 

I've had the opposite experience with service in the MDR.  It was never rushed and the whole table had to finish a course before the next one was brought to the table.  

 

I've posted in this forum about the issue with Lido tables being occupied during peak periods by people playing cards and board games, reading, just chatting, etc.  I've been roundly criticized for this opinion and told I'm just jealous of others enjoying themselves. 

 

Sorry you weren't prepared for children onboard.  Any 7-day cruise during summer vacation is going to have a contingent of kids.  

[ChinaShrek]

3 hours ago, Roz said:

@Zukini, love your screen name!

 

I've posted in this forum about the issue with Lido tables being occupied during peak periods by people playing cards and board games, reading, just chatting, etc.  I've been roundly criticized for this opinion and told I'm just jealous of others enjoying themselves. 

 

 

I agree completely with you as well on this point. It is off-putting that I cannot find a table to eat in the Lido but the Lido lizards (as I call them) are sprawled out oblivious to the needs of others. I have not seen this on Carnival or Royal Caribbean cruises. In fact, RC has a loud announcement in the buffet area that repeats stating that as soon as you have finish eating, please vacate the table for others to enjoy. I think such announcements could help move people along to other activities.

[Roz]

Lido Lizards 🦎 .....love it!

[scubacruiserx2]

6 hours ago, Zukini said:

Thanks for the videos.  Certainly wish we hadn't missed Bergen on this trip.  Yes, that's the Hardanger Bridge on our way into Eidfjord.

 

 Thank you for the video of the bridge . 

 You told us thanks for the videos in your post . Did you see the 40 photos and 3 other videos of Bergen that we posted at our link above ? Photobucket will not allow us to post the still photos but they are posted at the link above . I do like many of my still photos including the ones of our ships from the top of the Folibanen 1000' above Bergen and the $100 seafood lunch that we had at the fish market in Bergen . But you can only see these if you click on our cruise critic photo review at the link that we posted beginning with post # 268 . It begins with post # 251 , our changeover day in Copenhagen before we set sail to our next stop of Bergen . Just click on the link below and you can see hundreds of photos and videos .

 

 

 

 If you choose not to view the link you will miss many of our best photos and several countries . We have included 1 more video of us descending the Folibanen and a couple of puffin shots from Iceland that are taken from that link .

 

 

 

 You can see the Nieuw Statendam in the center of the video but our ship the Zuiderdam only appears in the video for about 1 second at the 20 second mark , just to the left of the large green trees on the right . 

 

 

 

Best wishes on your Oceania Riviera cruise next year and we are leaning toward canceling our next scheduled HAL cruise for another cruise and cruise line . It goes to Scotland twice , Norway ( including Bergen ) 3 stops , Shetland Islands , Faroe Islands and ends with Iceland , 4 stops . We plan on staying a week or more in a condo before returning back to London for a couple of days . The reason for the change is the Nieuw Statendam and many of the HAL passengers behavior which is more like the passenger behavior that we saw on Carnival so many years ago in the Caribbean . We love love HAL and it employees , some of the older , smaller ships and some of their itineraries and their Tamarind and breakfast in the Pinnacle . It's the behavior of many of their passengers that we don't much care for . We did do a nice cruise for our 44th anniversary on the Enchanted Princess and they had much nicer passengers and very nice fine dining , much better than HALs . You can read about it as this link below if you click on it . We called it Some Enchanted Evening - A pictorial review of the Enchanted Princess in the Southern Caribbean .

 

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by scubacruiserx2

[Zukini]

21 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

 Thank you for the video of the bridge . 

 You told us thanks for the videos in your post . Did you see the 40 photos and 3 other videos of Bergen that we posted at our link above ?

I did see them, thank you for providing them.

[blakejared]

I was on the same sailing as you, plus the 7-day sailing the week after.  It was interesting to read your thoughts.  There were even more kids the second week and I observed several rounds of tag amidst the scenic cruising.

 

I mostly ate at the MDR in the evenings.  I too was surprised dessert was ordered right at the start, but they did wait for everyone to finish each course before bringing the next.  The Lido food didn't seem too appetizing in the evening.  I was a bit disappointed that in the second week, the MDR menu was almost identical to the first week, so it felt like deja vu.  Ditto for some of the shows.

 

I had been to Gothenburg before, so was disappointed we didn't get to go to Bergen, and then charging almost $20 for the shuttle bus.  I ended up using public transportation though it was confusing.  The second week, they had replaced Stavanger, so we got to visit Eidfjord again.  It was a nice place, but visiting a different place would have been preferable.

 

Overall, the weather was beautiful for most of the 2 weeks (except at the very end, for a rainy day in Flam), so I'm grateful.  

Edited August 16, 2023 by blakejared

[0106]

19 hours ago, blakejared said:

mostly ate at the MDR in the evenings.  I too was surprised dessert was ordered right at the start, but they did wait for everyone to finish each course before bringing the next. 

We always have fixed seating in the MDR.  On the first night, we tell our waiter our preferences, simple things like no bread baskets, full water glasses, we like our food hot, not all courses brought up from the kitchen at the same time and that we won’t be ordering dessert before we finish our entree because we don’t know if we will have room for dessert.  Our requests have always been honored and we tip our waiter at the end of the cruise for providing this excellent service.

 

I appreciate this review; we will be on a 2 week Norwegian cruise on the Rotterdam next year.

[oakridger]

9 hours ago, 0106 said:

we won’t be ordering dessert before we finish our entree because we don’t know if we will have room for dessert

 

I find it so odd that HAL has instructed the waiters to take dessert orders at the beginning of the meal.  It's not standard restaurant protocol in any country I have ever been to!

 

I do as you do and just nicely tell the waiter I will wait until I'm finished with dinner before ordering dessert.  I've never had even the slightest hint of pushback from any waiter on this!!!  🙂

 

~Nancy

[scubacruiserx2]

On 8/15/2023 at 4:11 PM, Zukini said:

I did see them, thank you for providing them.

 

You're welcome , we're sorry that you couldn't see Bergen and we had hoped that if you could see it through another source that it might help . We really hate missing ports and had booked a cruise for our grandson's 20th birthday that went to Grand Turk primarily which is his best friends country of birth and he still has family there . Additionally , it's one of our favorite ports both to eat at and SCUBA dive which we had hoped to do with him . HAL substituted Key West during the Fantasy Fest time which none of us cared for preferring the quite and laid back vibe of GT . 

 When we reviewed it on CC many people from HAL were very mean when we expressed our displeasure . We were told that if we really wanted to go there that we should have flown there and that the port may have been closed due to Covid  . The real salt in the wound was that we were told by several people on CC that the port may have been closed ( it was open)  and a couple of other ships made it there on the same day with no problem . 

[blakejared]

20 hours ago, oakridger said:

 

I find it so odd that HAL has instructed the waiters to take dessert orders at the beginning of the meal.  It's not standard restaurant protocol in any country I have ever been to!

I wonder if the waiters have more tables to oversee post-pandemic.  We were in Anytime dining, so often could not get our usual table (which was also strange, since we were sometimes told it was already booked by someone else, but no one sat there the whole meal), so we experienced several different waiting teams.  They were usually very busy and often did not have time to check/refill water except at the start of the meal.  Not having to come back to take dessert orders would likely have saved some time.

 

 

On 8/13/2023 at 1:13 PM, Zukini said:

As it turns out, the Rotterdam docked in Bergen on the day we were originally supposed to be there, so why we were denied that port is a mystery.  T

I did not know this.  At the Q&A period about the ports on the Sea Day, someone asked why Bergen was replaced with Gothenburg, and the cruise director said the reason was that Bergen, like many other ports, overbooked ships this summer, since this was the first full season of cruising post-pandemic.  I wonder what other ships were in Bergen on that day that took up all the dock spaces?

Edited August 18, 2023 by blakejared

[oakridger]

10 minutes ago, blakejared said:

They were usually very busy and often did not have time to check/refill water except at the start of the meal.  Not having to come back to take dessert orders would likely have saved some time.

 

Sure, coming to a diner's table for anything takes more time, but that's what "service" is all about.  If a restaurant can't provide service, then they shouldn't be in business.  I base my opinion as a former waitress and bartender for several years when I was in school.

 

When I was on the Nieuw Amsterdam and Rotterdam last fall they didn't seem to be particularly understaffed, and I usually ate after the dinner rush, and it wasn't really busy.  They still asked for the dessert order pre meal. (As I'm sure they are instructed to do)

 

It's not a huge deal, just a questionable practice to me.  I still had a good time!

 

~Nancy