'Twas Two Weeks Before Christmas - Live from the Nieuw Statendam, Dec. 10 - 17, 2023

[POA1]

Bar service was uniformly good. Even when we were seated in the Ocean Bar's far seating area. One of the servers in the Billboard / Rolling Stone Lounge area was crazy good. His name is John Lee, but Johnny On The Spot would have been more appropriate. We used the Let Us Know feature in the app to give him a shout out. You can find Let Us Know under the Connect tab/icon/button in the Navigator app.

 

You can also use the Let Us Know function to point out service issues. Traveling in the Bubble of Awesome, we don't find ourselves needing to do that. However, we do wind up using it for Attaboys pretty often. If someone goes above and beyond for you, use the app to pay them a compliment. It will get back to them. They will appreciate it.

 

[POA1]

1 hour ago, POA1 said:

We are able to follow along with the Rotterdam'a dinner menus in now since that is our next cruise. I kind of like seeing real menus from the ship. I don't know exactly what we're going to do with it, but we did put the two 9 day sailings before ours in our calendars. I'm theorizing that those menus will track with ours.

 

Of course, the burning question is: Will we get the Wiener Schnitzel?

Michelle just pointed out the typos in this post. I told her to post, making fun of me. 🤪 She didn't want to, but she has me under close observation.

[wdw1972]

1 hour ago, POA1 said:

We are able to follow along with the Rotterdam'a dinner menus in now since that is our next cruise. I kind of like seeing real menus from the ship. I don't know exactly what we're going to do with it, but we did put the two 9 day sailings before ours in our calendars. I'm theorizing that those menus will track with ours.

 

Of course, the burning question is: Will we get the Wiener Schnitzel?

Are you sure?  My last cruise was Eurodam late November, next cruise Rotterdam early March.  On the app when I check for the various dining, Rudi's does not appear (it's on Rotterdam, not on Eurodam).  When I checked the Lido dinner menu on Rotterdam's first night it just said "good evening" - not "steak dinner".  So, I'm thinking I'm still getting information from my previous ship vs upcoming ship. My itinerary shows correctly though.

 

Sue/WDW1972

[0106]

6 minutes ago, wdw1972 said:

So, I'm thinking I'm still getting information from my previous ship vs upcoming ship.

Try logging out and then logging back in.  Worked for me to get menus for different ship sailing in a different region.

[wdw1972]

5 minutes ago, 0106 said:

Try logging out and then logging back in.  Worked for me to get menus for different ship sailing in a different region.

Wow - thanks!  That did the trick!  I see Rudi's, Club Orange, and the Lido dinner menu is different than it was before I logged out/in.

 

Sue/WDW1972

[POA1]

Yes, the menus have been updating. (Vacariously following and waiting for the various holiday menus.) Rudi's appears on the app. Screen shots below.

 

 

I'm keeping an eye out for the Morimoto night to appear. There are no reservations available for Tamarind one of the nights, and my guess is that will be the night for Morimoto.

 

Here are the menus for the CO dining room today.

 

 

[POA1]

Question for someone who is not booked into Club Orange - do you see the CO dinner menus? We do, but we have da Club on the upcoming cruise.

[VMax1700]

5 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Question for someone who is not booked into Club Orange - do you see the CO dinner menus? We do, but we have da Club on the upcoming cruise.

No sir. We commoners just see the regular vittles. 😉

[wdw1972]

9 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Question for someone who is not booked into Club Orange - do you see the CO dinner menus? We do, but we have da Club on the upcoming cruise.

Yes  - looks like the special entree is duck breast with cherries. I do not have CO on my upcoming cruise.

 

 

Sue/WDW1972

Edited December 23, 2023 by wdw1972

[VMax1700]

17 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Question for someone who is not booked into Club Orange - do you see the CO dinner menus? We do, but we have da Club on the upcoming cruise.

 

9 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

No sir. We commoners just see the regular vittles. 😉

 

8 minutes ago, wdw1972 said:

Yes  - looks like the special entree is duck breast with cherries. I do not have CO on my upcoming cruise.

 

 

Sue/WDW1972

Haha! Different answers, same cruise line 🫣

Our booking is for Nieuw Statendam in April 2024. Non CO.

@wdw1972 by any chance did you have CO on your last cruise?

[wdw1972]

9 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

 

 

Haha! Different answers, same cruise line 🫣

Our booking is for Nieuw Statendam in April 2024. Non CO.

@wdw1972 by any chance did you have CO on your last cruise?

Nope - I've never had CO (never felt the need for it).  We'll have it in May 2025, but only because it comes with the aft neptune suite I booked for that cruise.  Typically I'm sailing solo and don't do neptunes when solo.

 

Sue/WDW1972

[VMax1700]

3 minutes ago, wdw1972 said:

Nope - I've never had CO (never felt the need for it).  We'll have it in May 2025, but only because it comes with the aft neptune suite I booked for that cruise.  Typically I'm sailing solo and don't do neptunes when solo.

 

Sue/WDW1972

Us too!  

I just wondered if that was the reason you could see the CO special but I could not. 

[Haljo1935]

51 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Yes, the menus have been updating. (Vacariously following and waiting for the various holiday menus.) Rudi's appears on the app. Screen shots below.

 

 

 

I'm keeping an eye out for the Morimoto night to appear. There are no reservations available for Tamarind one of the nights, and my guess is that will be the night for Morimoto...

I will check to see if Tamarind is also listed for same night and report back.

 

Here's a screenshot of everything listed,  but there is more than 1 date, so follow up is in order.

Apologies for lack of cropping - that can be a lot of work for someone on vacation...

[POA1]

17 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

Us too!  

I just wondered if that was the reason you could see the CO special but I could not. 

Thanks to all of you for looking into this. I don't think we have a definitive answer, but now we have more information.

 

I could see setting a flag on a booking and using the flag to toggle display of CO menus. That would be good program design - which really seems like something they would not do.

[POA1]

Thanks for the screen caps, @Haljo1935

 

We're on for Easter next. I don't know if that rises to anywhere near the level of Christmas or New Year's, but we will see.

[Haljo1935]

3 hours ago, POA1 said:

Thanks for the screen caps, @Haljo1935

 

We're on for Easter next. I don't know if that rises to anywhere near the level of Christmas or New Year's, but we will see.

Let's hope. I've not done Easter at Sea, so I will definitely be following.

Hey - 2 mornings in a row there's been a daily special for MDR breakfast. Both a take on French Toast, but still a special. As this is now the 2nd ship I've seen this on, I think we've happily stumbled upon a new "thing "

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by Haljo1935
Typo

[POA1]

Thanks for posting the breakfast specials @Haljo1935

 

They do not show up in the Navigator app when I look at the MDR breakfast menu. That could mean that the Rotterdam isn't doing specials at breakfast. Or, it could mean that they don't change out the breakfast PDF file in Navigator. No one is live blogging from the Rotterdam as far as I know, so I'll put it in the mystery category until we can check in a few months.

 

The specials look great, but we generally avoid high carb breakfasts. They tend to make us sleepy, particularly me. That's why I tried to order a small portion of bread pudding. It was only came in one size though. I hated to waste it, but I didn't want to be in need of a nap right after getting up for the day.

 

 

[POA1]

Poohby Joe's Guide to Cabana Living - 2023 Edition

 

 

Due to inclement weather, my schedule for the Guide got a bit messed up.  I planned to take my pictures on our last sea day and get everything posted when the ship was in Half Moon Cay.

 

Fortunately, we had enough photos between the two of us to cobble something together.

 

There is no pricing because HAL hasn't released a new price sheet yet. (I checked with a few authoritative sources, including Ships' Services in both the US and Philippines, and they are simply quoting prices based on the voyage.)   Not that I don't love you guys, but I wasn't about to call Ships' Services and hold over and over to build a pricing table.  Near as I can tell, cabana costs are up around 40% over the old price levels.  I can't really complain because there was no price increase since 2016 - or possibly earlier.

 

The maps below show the layouts of the cabanas on all the ships that have them.

 

 

We're only touching on the Pinnacle Class ships in this post, but we'll do a more in-depth report in April 2024 for the 10th Anniversary of Poohby Joe's Guide to Cabana Living.  Here's a bigger version of the map for the Nieuw Statendam.  We had Cabana #3.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by POA1

[0106]

I hate the Lido cabanas on the Eurodam & NA.  Doesn’t seem fair that they take up valuable real estate by the Lido pool.

 

Anyway… thank you for all your wonderful posts.  Merry Christmas

🤶🎅🎄

[POA1]

Update on the pricing. A reliable source tells me that the increase was 60% on a 12 day sailing.

 

That's getting up there. There's a list of "improved amenities" for the Retreat, but there was no change to the amenities on our sailing.

[Crew News]

2 hours ago, POA1 said:

Due to inclement weather, my schedule for the Guide got a bit messed up.  I planned to take my pictures on our last sea day and get everything posted when the ship was in Half Moon Cay.

 

Fortunately, we had enough photos between the two of us to cobble something together.

 

There is no pricing because HAL hasn't released a new price sheet yet. (I checked with a few authoritative sources, including Ships' Services in both the US and Philippines, and they are simply quoting prices based on the voyage.)   Not that I don't love you guys, but I wasn't about to call Ships' Services and hold over and over to build a pricing table.  Near as I can tell, cabana costs are up around 40% over the old price levels.  I can't really complain because there was no price increase since 2016 - or possibly earlier.

 

The maps below show the layouts of the cabanas on all the ships that have them.

 

We're only touching on the Pinnacle Class ships in this post, but we'll do a more in-depth report in April 2024 for the 10th Anniversary of Poohby Joe's Guide to Cabana Living.  Here's a bigger version of the map for the Nieuw Statendam.  We had Cabana #3.

 

After spending time with Ship's Services, I have compiled a cabana price list:

 

Cabana Price List 2023/24

Edited December 24, 2023 by Crew News

[POA1]

I should point out that my reliable source emailed me with, " I think your bubble of awesome calculator might be busted..." She is absolutely correct.

Our 9 Day in Spring is not up nearly as much, percentage-wise, but there are weird break points in the cabana pricing.

 

There are weird break points in other places as well. For example, the 14 day Club Orange cost is less than the 10 day outlay. If you look at the pre-cruise liquor purchases, you can even find instances where the cans of soda have a negative price, deceasing the cost of a liter of booze.

[POA1]

21 minutes ago, Crew News said:

After spending time with Ship's Services, I have compiled a cabana price list:

 

Cabana Price List 2023/24

Thanks, Roger! Your list does not appear to have the Rotterdam Retreat Area. It's listed on the diagram, but not on the price table. Also, unless something has changed, the Noordam is still the only Vista without a retreat area.

 

Thanks for taking the time to ask about all the permutations of pricing.

Edited December 24, 2023 by POA1

[POA1]

2 hours ago, 0106 said:

I hate the Lido cabanas on the Eurodam & NA.  Doesn’t seem fair that they take up valuable real estate by the Lido pool.

 

Anyway… thank you for all your wonderful posts.  Merry Christmas

🤶🎅🎄

We never saw the appeal of the Lido cabanas, but someone obviously likes them. They definitely take up a chunk of Lido pool area real estate.

 

Merry Christmas to you as well!

[POA1]

BTW - If you are on the Pinnacle class ships, there's an area with plenty of chairs on Deck 14, forward. You can take the forward elevators or the stairs from 12 to 14. There is no Deck 13.

 

This area was empty pretty much all cruise. You're one deck up from the Crow's Nest (drinks, light snacks, coffee) and one deck above the nearest restroom. (Drinks and snacks - out.)