Nieuw Amsterdam question

[maggiev]

I am looking for thoughts/reviews from anyone who has said her this summer in Alaska.

Is anyone on her this week?

We are looking at a balcony cabin & wondering if you feel one deck is better than another.  I think an aft view would be great.

While in Glacier Bay, can you hear the naturalists comments over the PA system?  Being on my own balcony away from crowds would be nice, but I do not want to miss any good info (yes I want it all 🤓)

What are you’re thoughts on the food, & the ship in general?

Also wondering what anyone who has sailed this summer felt about the land portion
 

Thanks

Maggie

[Denise T]

I was on Nieuw Amsterdam this past May/June. It was my first sailing with HAL. I loved it. We had cabin 7094 which was a verandah cabin. I thought it was in a good location. While on the balcony, we could hear the naturalist from the speakers on the Lido deck which was two decks up. We had difficulty with hearing announcements in our cabin. Sometimes we would hear and sometimes we would not. In Glacier Bay, we did go to the bow of the ship and walk around the promenade deck. It was raining heavily. We went to our cabin which is covered. The captain turned the ship around so all sides of the ship could view the glacier. 

 

I thought the food was wonderful. It was delicious and filling. We had anytime dining but we made reservations and did not have to wait for a table. Overall, I really enjoyed the ship. We did a lot of trivia which was fun. We went to the casino and played bingo (I actually won the jackpot at bingo). I love these smaller ships. We are going on the sister ship, Eurodam in 2025. 

 

I did not do the land portion. 

[oakridger]

On 8/30/2023 at 5:21 AM, Denise T said:

I love these smaller ships

 

@Denise T I agree with your comments about Nieuw Amsterdam but had to laugh about your comment about her being a "smaller ship"!!!  I love NA but I would not call her smaller!  😉

 

(Yes, NA is smaller than the Pinnacle ships and of course all the really huge 5000 passenger ships out there)

 

~Nancy

[Ineke]

We were on the Nieuw Amsterdam in May - 14 day Alaska from Vancouver. Verandah cabin 8113. It was great. We could hear the announcements on our balcony. We spent far more time there than we had expected, great weather. The ship was very well maintained, food wonderful. We werd so glad we were able to resume cruising. We had a little bit of noise from the Lido above, but views were great, so was the location.

[Denise T]

7 hours ago, oakridger said:

 

@Denise T I agree with your comments about Nieuw Amsterdam but had to laugh about your comment about her being a "smaller ship"!!!  I love NA but I would not call her smaller!  😉

 

(Yes, NA is smaller than the Pinnacle ships and of course all the really huge 5000 passenger ships out there)

 

~Nancy

To me, the smaller ships are not those ships with all the slides and stuff on the top and have more over 4000 people. It is the perfect size for me. I would also travel on ships even smaller than the Nieuw Amsterdam. 

[OlsSalt]

11 hours ago, oakridger said:

 

@Denise T I agree with your comments about Nieuw Amsterdam but had to laugh about your comment about her being a "smaller ship"!!!  I love NA but I would not call her smaller!  😉

 

(Yes, NA is smaller than the Pinnacle ships and of course all the really huge 5000 passenger ships out there)

 

~Nancy

 

 

Had the same reaction, a small laugh ourselves.

 

NA is as big as we will ever go now on HAL ships.  It is nice ship, but miss the onboard intimacy and ease of the real HAL ships, down the food chain. Never do another Pinnacle, that is for sure.

[PHXscuba]

We were on NA last week and visited Glacier Bay. The bow-camera TV channel in our cabin had the announcements so we left that on all day.

We had a forward port-side cabin (6014) and it was nice to mostly watch from our balcony, but also walk 30 feet to go onto the open bow on that level (although it did make the hallway chilly with the forward door open a lot).We could sort of hear the bow-speaker announcements from on our balcony and usually just ducked our head into the cabin to hear what they were saying. Very convenient.

 

PHXscuba

[2Long2NxtCrz]

We just got off the NA in Whittier on the 3rd of September and thoroughly enjoyed our cruise. Our land portion was amazing, but we did not do that through HAL. This was our first HAL cruise after many RC and X cruises. We would definitely (and are) cruise with HAL again.

 

We were in a Signature Suite, #6113, on the starboard side since this was a northbound cruise. It was wonderful to have such a spacious room. The bath had two sinks, a jetted tub, and a separate shower. Because this cabin was at the point on the ship where it widens, we had a large slanted balcony.

 

We watched a lot of the scenery from our balcony, but always went forward when the bow was open to get those views as well. As someone else pointed out, you can hear the naturalist inside your stateroom if you turn the tv to the bow camera channel.

 

We loved Deck three where we could stroll around the entire ship. We did that many times and quite often I would go down to three to walk outside to go forward to get to the coffee shop. Even when it was cold and windy, that just felt better than walking inside because there were almost always gorgeous views.

 

Our room steward informed us there is only a single service a day, we chose morning and that worked out just fine. I do admit I would have liked my ice bucket refreshed twice a day, but never really saw my steward to request that.

 

The ship was in good repair. I'm not one to nitpick rust or a bit of wear, both are unavoidable, but everything worked perfectly.

 

As far as the food, which is always subjective, I enjoyed the breakfast and lunch buffet. I was glad it was not self-serve and didn't mind the lines. But those things really got to my husband. He didn't feel like there was as much variety and there were lines everywhere. There were but they moved quickly. We did have to hunt for a table fairly often, but turnover seemed to be fine with the staff bussing empty tables quickly.

 

Room service was prompt and I actually liked the frittata better from room service than the MDR.

 

We had anytime dining and wanted to sit alone, but rarely had much of a wait even without reservations. The food was good. Some of the bread was very good, but most were just okay. I did like that the portion sizes were small (they weren't but Americans are so used to huge portions most would call these small) so I was not stuffed when leaving the MDR.

 

We went to Pinnacle Grill on embarkation night. Since we were celebrating hubby's birthday, we went all out, starting with the table side G&T, two appetizers each (because I knew about it in advance it did not bother me, but I do prefer that they raise the price and not charge, it feels to me that it "cheapens" the experience) because hubby wanted both soups and I wanted the crab cakes and the candied bacon. Everything was delicious, though I was a bit disappointed in the wine selection (if I had known they had Conundrum white at Tamarind at the time, I would have asked for it). Hubby got the Delmonico and I had the tenderloin with lobster dumplings. Everything was amazing, but far too much to eat so dessert was "to go" and neither of us finished our steaks. Honestly, as good as they were, I could have eaten just appetizers and been happy.

 

We also ate at Tamarind and that was fabulous! I wish that we'd gone earlier in the week so that we could have tried to go twice. Lovely, attentive service with an incredible array of Asian flavors. I have to say I think Tamarind is now one of my favorite restaurants at sea.

 

As I said earlier the wine list was underwhelming and the cocktails were pretty standard. I did enjoy the novelty of a G&T served over glacier ice and hubby liked the smoked old fashion, but I mostly drank Aperol Spritz because we didn't find anything particularly inventive. We pretty much stuck to Ocean, Pinnacle, and Tamarind bars so you can decide for yourself.

 

Lastly, the entertainment was disappointing. Don't get me wrong, the musicians in BBKings and the group in Ocean Bar were great, but there just wasn't enough of it. I'm used to live music in multiple venues all day long so was disappointed at the limited hours for it. We did enjoy the enrichment talks, but noticed the lack of classical music. I know HAL is working on that, but they could at least hire a classical trio to play during the day without having to contract with Lincoln Center.

 

Sorry this was long, but I wanted to give you my honest impressions. If you have questions, just let me know!