Back from 28 days on the Statendam

[Floridiana]

April 1 - 29th, Fort Lauderdale - Panama Canal - San Diego and back to FL

What I liked:
-The layout of the ship, its large library; our stateroom was spacious with plenty of storage, a nice long leather sofa and a balcony deep enough for a lounge chair.
-Nick from the Exploration Team offered daily Tai Chi classes; Chris Fisher, the author of Holland America's informational program was on board himself. He is a very dynamic speaker.
-Captain Tim Richards gave daily information on the position of the ship, gave us the feeling of "knowing" him. We also went to his interesting talk/interview in the theater.
-With any time dining, we met many interesting passengers that had travelled all over the world.

What I did not like:
The food. Too bland. (Many passengers seemed to prefer it that way.)Uneven execution. Repetitious desserts. Lido buffet served the same food every day.

The ports:
I found all of them fascinating with Antigua (Guatemala) and Cartagena (Colombia) special highlights for history buffs. For birdwatchers: The guide (Holland America tour) in Huatulco (Mexico) is excellent.
The Mexican ports were all interesting in different ways. My personal favorites were Huatulco and Puerto Vallarta. Cabo was under the onslought of three cruise ships and Acapulco is like Mexico City with a beach. Its bay is lovely, however.

[aliaschief]

Thanks for the review as we seldom see many about the MS Statendam.

[kazu]

Thanks for your review - I never noticed the Lido serving the same food every day (except breakfast). Mind you, we often get the salads and the sandwiches if we go to the lido, so that might explain it.

Food is subjective, but next time, if you like it spicey, ask your waiter for some of their Sambal (I think I spelled it right). It goes from spicey to verrrrrrrrrrry spice (my husband likes the latter).

Glad you had the great lecturer aboard :)

[MICHARCH]

Was on the SD-FTL leg of that cruise in March ( 14 day) and agree with your review. One correction tho~Captain Tim Richards ~ should read Tim Roberts. We had breakfast with him on the Lido one AM early in the cruise (he had a small box of corn flakes and milk). Really nice guy.

[Himself]

Thanks for your review of this senior of the "S" class ships.

[portofrome]

Thanks for the review.

[Krazy Kruizers]

welcome home

thanks for reporting in

you will find a lot of food bland on hal -- the older people get -- more medications -- a lot of people can no longer have spicey food -- lots of reasons

hal desserts have not been good the last few years -- JMO