Statendam AU/NZ Cruise Review Dec 18 - Jan 5

[filadin]

My family of 6 (two adults and four children) took the 18 day Statendam cruise from Brisbane to Auckland. We had a very nice time on the cruise, but were somewhat disappointed that HAL's reputation for service and elegance did not live up to its reputation. I will not go into great detail about the ports. You can read about them elsewhere, as they have been written about repeatedly. We embarked in Brisbane, traveled to Sydney (two days), Melbourne, Burnie (Tasmania), Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Picton, Bay of Islands, and disembarked in Auckland. All were amazing, but we particularly enjoyed Dunedin. I highly recommend touring with Arthur's Tours in Dunedin. He was a marvelous, gregarious, and informative host who took us to the Albatross Center, the Penguin colony, and Larnach Castle. He also took us on a nice tour of the city, including the railroad station and "steepest street in the world." Don't miss him or Dunedin.

The ship itself had just come out of drydock and was in good shape. Nothing was worn or frayed, giving the ship the look of a much newer vessel. There were some occasional minor plumbing problems - but nothing significant given the length of the cruise. On the Upper Promenade several bathrooms did not function for about half of the cruise and for this half there was a pretty terrible sewage smell on a portion of this deck. In addition, several public bathrooms on the ship reeked of urine and had dirty floors. Given the number of bathroom attendants that I spotted, this surprised me.

The food on the Statendam ranged from good to poor, with the exception of the Pinnacle Grill that was uniformly excellent. The dining room food was satisfactory, with the occasional very good dish. We were disappointed that the bread was almost always served at room temperature, soups were often not hot enough, cold desserts were served at room temperature, and hot desserts were not hot. Service was spotty, depending on your steward and how crowded the dining room was. For example, I would have to often repeatedly ask for ice tea before it was served, and coffee or teas was rarely served at the same time as dessert. In fact, at times dessert was not served at the same time as dessert, i.e., pie a la mode being served pie first and ice cream 10 minutes later.

Food in the Lido was pretty good, but we wished that it would offer menu options different from the dining room at dinner. We liked the white tablecloths in the Lido at dinner time, as well as having the entree brought to your table hot after ordering. Breakfast in the Lido was very good, but those serving you from behind the counter were always unfriendly and occasionally surly. Not the way that you want to start the date. Those servers working to assist in handing you your tray and seating you were always friendly and courteous.

Our room steward Budi was wonderful, and the best that we have ever had on a cruise. He seemed to invisibly clean up the rooms, but was always available when needed. Marvelous.

In addition, the wait staff and casino staff were also top notch, with nobody pushing or selling you anything.

Fritzy at the Piano bar was top notch, and we spent most of our evening entertainment with the friendly passengers who gathered there.

We really enjoyed the Explorer's library area. It was a comfortable, quiet place to play a game or read a book and watch the ocean roll by out of the picture window. The library is huge, with no real need to carry on your own books. In addition, it has the biggest DVD library that I have seen, with only a 3 dollar charge to rent a DVD. They never assessed the late fees either. Very kind.

Club HAL for kids was below par. While the ship had just recently come from drydock, much of the electronics in the kids area was nonfunctional. For example, the juke box in the teens area and the one in the kids area did not function. The movie setup in the kids area did not work, so on movie night the teens lost the use of their area to the younger kids. There was insufficient staffing of the kids area, and often the younger and older kids would have to be mixed together. This resulted in the older kids being naturally bored with the activities that had to be geared toward the younger ones.

Would we cruise HAL again? Yes. We loved the size of the ship and the fewer number of passengers. The good outweighed the bad, but the sad part was the bad was so easy to fix. We had a very nice time, choosing to focus on the positives and ignoring the negatives.

[garydm]

Doug-after a number of nice trips on Statendam, we sailed in late 2006 and had a similar experience as you did. Very disappointing. I had hoped it had improved. Our recent cruise on Ryndam was close to perfect.

 

Gary

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome home.

 

Thanks for your review.

 

We sailed on the Statendam in 2006 - no problems anywhere for any anything.

[hammybee]

Thank you for making the time to share your adventure and percpetions with us. I am sorry you were disappointed in some aspects although you certainly appear to balance it well.

 

This may be the first time I have read of anyone prefering a different menu in the LIDO. Most people seem to prefer the same menu in a more causal enviornment. I am with you, that it would be swell to have some variation.

[Juanita462]

We have sailed on the STatendam 3 times and had problems every time - noro every time, sewage smells every time (once for 11 of the 17 day cruise and over most of the ship) very bad food on one cruise. DH refuses to set foot on that particular HAL ship again.

[filadin]

I am really torn.

 

We want to take the same cruise route again next Christmas, but the options are limited. HAL really has the best itinerary, and next year is taking the Volendam down there. Will I have a better experience on that ship?

[garydm]

No telling. By then, the whole crew will have changed. You could have a Frits Gehner (sp?) type hotel director who is widely respected by staff and turns out an exemplary product or Mr. X who treats the staff like crud and they reflect that on to the passengers. One thing to consider is to wait until 75 days out from the cruise, read the reviews, and make a decision then. At that time, the remaining cabins will open up, and in my experience, you can make the best deal.

 

After two negative experiences on Statendam, Ryndam was our decision point as to whether to ever do HAL again. We had a great time, and as stated there is nothing they could have done better.

 

Gary

[localady]

In all honesty, I might suggest you also look at the Celebrity Millinneum. It is one of their 'M' class ships and is really quite nice. In many ways Celebrity is as nice as HAL and if I had to choose between the 2 vessels, I would probably choose the Millinneum. I have cruised on the Millinnium once, and the Volendam twice.

[cands]

I am really torn.

 

We want to take the same cruise route again next Christmas, but the options are limited. HAL really has the best itinerary, and next year is taking the Volendam down there. Will I have a better experience on that ship?

 

Please don't make your decision based on one bad review. (Not that this one is particularly harsh or negative). I have read at least one very positive review of the same cruise.

 

Also, the cruise reviewed was straight out of drydock, and the first cruise (I think) with AYW dining.

We had a fantastic experience on Statendam in 2006 and hope to again in just over one week's time.

 

Cheers,

Steve.

[cruz chic]

I'm going on a fairly long cruise on the Statendam later this year so I am hoping for the best. I've never sailed this particular ship but have sailed on many of the others. Maybe I'm just missing threads/reviews but it seems that I don't hear to much about the Statendam.

[eh2zed]

We were on the Statendam the cruise before drydock in Brisbane. It was fine. We were quite impressed with all aspects including the food. Maybe there was some new staff that came in after the 2 week drydock.

[filadin]

I guess that it is really all just a matter of opinion. I think that my problem could have been expectations that were a bit too high. HAL promotes itself as something special and charges accordingly. If that is the case - no problem. But when I found that their food, certain service, and entertainment were not as good as my past experiences on Princess, NCL, or RCI, then I was of course disappointed. I did not mean for my review to be all bad, after all the embarkation, disembarkation, room steward, Explorations Cafe, Piano Bar, and itinerary were all excellent. As I said, on the whole we would use HAL again. An likely will in about a year unless I can find another line with a similar itinerary. But next time, I will lower my expectations accordingly.

 

In general, I think that there has been a decline in cruising service and food quality since I started cruising in the mid 1980's. For example, the best food that I have ever had on a cruise was on the Carla Costa from Costa Cruises back about 20 years ago. And that was an inexpensive low market cruise. Also, at that time I was living in Miami and had always heard about how upscale HAL was. So, therein lies the disappointment.

[Rina's Mom]

We were on the Statendam in September in Alaska and Budi was our room steward. He was fabulous! He's got to be one of the best ever.

 

Barb

[Copper10-8]

How is/was Captain Frrrrrrrrrans Consen?;) Any "rolling" of the R's going on?

[filadin]

The Captain is doing Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat on the "beautiful and elegant Shtatendaam."

[Live4cruises]

We are going on the Statendam for the first time VERY soon, so I've been keeping a close eye for any comments on her.

When I read a review of any ship just coming out of dry dock, it seems that there are more negative comments - not flaming, honest critique - and most of those center on uneven dining room food and service. Does that match others' observations and experience? I'm assuming that dry dock is a logical opportunity to turn much of the staff, and the first cruise out is something of a shakedown. So, Miss Optimist says they will have it all ironed out by the 26th of March!

I know, this doesn't explain the plumbing issues! :eek:

[CruisinKiki]

Given the title of this thread, I was disappointed to see virtually no information about Australia and NZ (thanks for the note about Arthur). I am planning a trip there and would love to hear more of your experiences in ports, weather, etc.

 

Food/service experiences, while helpful to hear about, seem so individual to me. It could be that someone on the other side of the dining room would say that the service was awesome and all the food served at the correct temperature. That doesn't discount your experience (with which I too would be frustrated and disappointed) but the next cruiser is likely to have a totally different experience.

 

To the poster who recommended the Millenium for Aus/NZ. I thought about that but heard so much about the pod problems that I would not risk missing ports because of ship difficulties. It would be such a shame to go so far, on what may be the trip of a lifetime, and miss ports because of known mechanical issues. Sounds like you have been on her before so maybe you know more?

[filadin]

Dear Cruisinkiki,

 

Let me tell you a bit more about our opinions on the ports -

 

Sydney - We could have spent two weeks here alone. We took the hop-on / hop-off bus, which is a great value. We mostly did some walking, went to the amusement park on the other-side of the Sydney Harbor Bridge (neat old-fashioned 1930's amusement park where you pay by the ride with no entrance fees), and went to Bondi Beach. Bondi is beautiful, easy to get to by bus, and you can rent boogie boards and surf boards. There is also a pretty good burrito place across the street from the North end of the beach.

 

Brisbane - pretty medium sized city on the water. We did a brief bus tour of the city and went to Lone Pine Koala park. At Lone Pine, you get to hold a Koala and pet Kangaroos. Kids love it, and adults too,.

 

Melbourne - we went to the Blue Dandenongs, which are mountains overlooking the city. I think that it is probably a temperate rain forest. There are loads of tropical birds, nice village towns to walk around and shop.

 

Tasmania - We were in Burnie, and there is not much to do there. So we took a bus to an animal farm there as well to see the usual host of Australian animals, plus the Tasmanian devil. Seeing the devil eat is not a pretty sight. If we would not have had kids, we would have gone to Cradle Mountain - which is listed, I think, as one of the 100 places to see before you die. Other cruisers that went loved it.

 

Fyordland National Park - Awesome scenery. We had quite a bit of rain, which is the norm, so we could not see it all. The upside is that there were many, many waterfalls with heavy flows.

 

Picton - We did a sheepfarm and garden tour. It is amazing to see the dogs work the sheep. Very entertaining and informative. Gardens were also marvelous and I got some great photos.

 

Christ Church - Another one of our favorite stops. We took the bus into the city from the port and spent the day on our own. We spent most of the day at the Art Center and at the public gardens (Domain). The Art Center is in a former university campus and has many art shops with work by local artists for sale. If you are there on a Saturday, there will also be street vendors and performers. We could have spent two days in the gardens, even the kids liked it.

 

Wellington - You can't miss the Te Papu Museum of New Zealand. Amazing. It should take most of the day. Otherwise, it is just a big city. Beware that the weather in Wellington is quite windy and can be very cool.

 

Bay of Islands - We had a grey day, so we stayed on the ship.

 

Tauranga - We spent a day seeing Rotura and Te Papa. Amazing natural geothermal scenery and nice look at native culture.

 

Auckland - Nothing special. We heard good things about Kelly Tarltons Antarctic Adventure, but found it expensive and not too good.

 

Be aware that at least on our trip in late December / early January, the weather was much cooler than we expected.