The Good & the Bad - Statendam 12/22/06 NZ to Australia

[mike35]

As we start our third day aboard the MS Statendam, I thought I might share our initial New Zealand to Australia cruise experiences with my fellow CC’ers.

 

We departed LAX on Air Pacific (Fiji’s national airline) on Tuesday evening, December 19, 2006. After a flight of about 11 hours in one of the most jam-packed 747’s we’ve ever flown (absolutely zero leg room), we arrived at Fiji’s Nadi airport at 5:30 a.m. – two days later (weird feeling – what ever happened to Wednesday??). Three hours later we were on our way to Auckland, New Zealand, aboard an equally jammed 737 aircraft.

 

How can I describe our initial impression of New Zealand other than the friendliest, most helpful folks we’ve ever encountered? This impression has lasted throughout our first four days in “Kiwiland”.

 

We stayed at the Rendezvous (previously the Carlton) hotel in Auckland – a friendly and reasonable 5-star property in a great downtown area. After freshening up, we walked to Auckland’s Sky Tower and rode to the top, where one can get incredible photos of Auckland’s harbor and the surrounding areas. We watched folks bungee jump from the top of the tower – a truly frightening-looking experience. We then walked back to our hotel and crashed for a couple of hours of jet-lag recovery. Thursday evening we ate at the Hilton Hotel’s “White” restaurant – Fodor’s top-rated and VERY expensive restaurant. Wonderful food and atmosphere with incredible views of the harbor! The Hilton sits a few yards from where the Statendam docks, and folks we have met who stayed there absolutely raved about this property.

 

Embarkation day we arose early and toured Mt. Eden and the Auckland Museum. Especially if one is interested in Maori culture and performances, this is a must-do while in Auckland. We then went to Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater Experience – a terrific aquarium and Antarctica exhibit with many, many penguins! We arrived at the dock at 4 p.m. and found no lines at all to embark – very efficient and friendly. We proceeded to our cabin – 107 – and found all five of our bags waiting for us.

 

A few words about cabin 107. It is on deck 9, located close to the very front of the ship, and it has a large verandah. Directly below this cabin on deck 8 is the Ocean Bar. Why is this something I would mention? Because the band in the bar plays at a level that can only be described as 30 db above the threshold of pain, and this racket goes on into the wee hours. The sound waves from the electric bass actually move our sheets!! So much for trying to sleep!!! Despite numerous attempts to obtain another room – ANY ROOM – all we’ve been met with is “we’ll talk to the band to ask them to lower their volume”!! Yeah, right! On another subject, DW was thrilled to find that our bathroom has a combo spa tub and shower. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the tub “stopper” won’t close. Several requests of our room steward and the front desk to please resolve this issue have been for naught. The one really positive aspect of our room is our bed – exceptionally comfortable! And I suppose one could classify the evening “towel animals” as positive, although I thought we had left this “shtick” behind on the mass-market (RCCI, NCL, Carnival) lines.

 

Food has been of good quality with a terrific variety. Dining room service has been efficient, with little in the way of recommendations, follow-ups, etc. The Lido has been just fine for breakfast. We haven’t tried the Pinnacle Grill yet, and I’ll report on it when we decide to make our reservations

 

I know the issue of traditional versus anytime dining has been discussed ad infinitum, but I would like to add my two cents worth. We’re big fans of anytime dining a la Oceania cruise lines. Since this isn’t available on the Statendam, we opted for 6:15 p.m. The first night, we were the only ones sitting at our table-for-six. The second night, which called for an informal dress code, our table mates were a Russian family of 4 who spoke extremely limited English. Papa bear arrived in jeans with suspenders and was seated next to DW. So much for dress code enforcement. Mama bear was dressed beautifully, as was teen-aged daughter. But 3-year old “baby bear” was totally out of control (was that a “666” we saw beneath her beautiful hair)? The next morning I met with the maitre’d, who informed me that the 6:15 seating was totally sold out. He switched us to 5:45, and we met our new, totally delightful table mates, on our third dinner. Our preference remains – dine around 7:00 – 7:30 p.m. with whom we want!

 

More later on our port experiences, which have been outstanding in every respect. We always book independent tours, and we wholeheartedly recommend Mount Classics tours (Ian Holroyd) for any excursion in New Zealand.

 

Mike

[hammybee]

Looking forward t hearing more about this cruise. Keep em coming, please.

[Copper10-8]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to write a review while onboard! Sorry about the noise issue by the band. No fun especially if you are early sleepers. How 'bout going down to the Ocean Bar and/or Crow's Nest to do some dancing and have a cocktail? If you can't beat them, join them;) On other cruises/ships, the band in the Ocean Bar plays 'till midnight. Looking forward to reading more, New Zealand sounds awesome!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for taking the time to report in.

 

Look forward to more of your report.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Thanks for reporting from the ship:) That is too bad that the band in the Ocean Bar is so loud. Hopefully they will tone it down. So glad to hear that your second set of table mates worked out well. If you are in the shops on board say "Hi" to Julie the shops Manager from Lisa and Tom.

[boards]

Some friends of ours were in that cabin on the Nov. 24 cruise and they never complained about noise. Of course they could have been heavy sleepers, whatever that means, and didn't hear the noise. Another possibility is there was two days when the sea got to them and they didn't feel very good and probably didn't care about the noise. Sorry to hear it bother you though. Like Copper suggests might have been an idea to have followed his suggestion. Just teasing you a little. It was a great cruise, ours was from Auckland to Sydney.

[mike35]

Staff has been quite apologetic, even going so far as to write a note and send us a bottle of wine. The noise, however, continues to bang away. We're early snoozers and light sleepers - probably a terrible combination, but it has never been an issue on our previous 16 or so cruises.

 

Entertainment has been excellent, especially the Australian cabaret singer Annie Frances - she's a knockout! Food has been excellent as well. We're not used to all-male servers and stewards; our cruises on all other cruise lines have had a mix of male and female, Asian and Eastern European, but HAL emphasizes the Asian side of the world. With that being said, however, service has been prompt, efficient, and somewhat impersonal.

 

I'll write a review of the reports in a future posting. Suffice it to say that all of the ports have been wonderful, with warm, friendly folks.

 

Mike

[Chivalrygirl]

Entertainment has been excellent, especially the Australian cabaret singer Annie Frances - she's a knockout!

 

Apparently she is not to everybodies taste, other threads on here have berated her, but we think she is just the GREATEST. In fact on our cruise down from Vancouver on the whole all the best acts were out of Aussie. They are all first class entertainers. You are so lucky to have Annie on board, no sign of Black Tie, I don't suppose, my god are they good :)

[roberts2005]

Mike

 

Thanks for the report. We are getting on the Statendam on January 5th. The day you are getting off. Both your report and Cands has whetted my appetite. We too are doing all independent. Hope you have time to post some info on the ports

 

Robert