Holland America's Westerdam Cruise Ship Emerges from Dry Dock With New Spaces

Balcony cabin

EXC (former Captain's Lounge of Crow's Nest)

Extra photo of piano bar seating area

cant say how much I appreciate any and all pictures from people aboard westerdam so we can see updates and changes. I tend to like the more neutral palette than some of the cruise ships we have sailed on but one of the reasons we have enjoyed HAL and princess is the more traditional décor. Still don't care for that weird looking atrium piece and still think a lot of public space furniture looks uncomfortable but we will see it first hand in December and conclude our thoughts at that time. Thanks again for all the pictures

Yay, the bar is still there! :')

After "seeing" it, I am totally in the middle. I don't like it, but at the same time, I don't "dislike" either.

It's trendy. I said on another post that it looks like several recently redone Marriott locations. While in Rome, we stayed at a VERY nice hotel in an historic building, but the inside was trendy like this. So I understand HAL doesn't want to be left behind and look "old."

Today's Westerdam, to many, will represent the "good old days."

I booked one of the new balcony cabins on the Observation deck that is behind Crow's Nest. I'll enjoy it.

Saw this on cruiseradio this morning... pretty cool. :)

https://cruiseradio.net/holland-america-ship-gets-new-look/

Saw this on cruiseradio this morning... pretty cool. :)

 

https://cruiseradio.net/holland-america-ship-gets-new-look/

As we feared, however, the Crows Nest appears to have lost a lot of seating, which has been replaced with desks for EXC.

Don't be so sure. Here's HAL's full official batch of photos (appeared as a link at the bottom of their news release). There's A LOT of chairs, and lots of different types of them all throughout the space.

https://www.hollandamerica.com/news/NewsRelease.action?newsReleaseId=1472&showHeader=true&showFooter=true

Can you elaborate a little on this. Seems to be a pretty broad statement regarding the upgrades.:confused:

I have liked HAL's traditional style, although Celebrity's "modern luxury" is more my thing. I guess HAL wants to bring a little "Koningsdam" into older ships, but this is not working for me.

New atmosphere in Atrium and Crow's Nest is definitely "trendy, but to me also lacks fully comfort. Not a hint of the tradition and luxury left. Furniture seem uncomfortable. Crow's Nest has always been my favorite spot, can't imagine spending too much time there after these changes.

Don't be so sure. Here's HAL's full official batch of photos (appeared as a link at the bottom of their news release). There's A LOT of chairs, and lots of different types of them all throughout the space.

 

https://www.hollandamerica.com/news/NewsRelease.action?newsReleaseId=1472&showHeader=true&showFooter=true

Looked at the pictures, so, so. I'll hold my comments until I see for my self. Furniture looks modern, don't know about comfortable. In the past I found the chairs in a lot of the common areas were very uncomfortable, in that the backs were not high enough & cut across the small of my back. Made for smaller people.

Allan

IF in ain't broke don't fix it. Please tell me that the pic showing a dozen or so books displayed on artsy fartsy bookcase is NOT the LIBRARY?

Until we see it in person, we won't really know how comfortable or uncomfortable is the new Crows Nest. And, even then, it is a matter of individual taste. So, till then . . .

IF in ain't broke don't fix it. Please tell me that the pic showing a dozen or so books displayed on artsy fartsy bookcase is NOT the LIBRARY?

Haven't sailed on the ship since the re-do, but, yes, that is the Library is my understanding. And, a negative for me as well.

But, I do like what I see from the photos well enough that I am going to consider a cruise on Westerdam sometime in 2018. I had not planned on doing so before seeing the pictures.

IF in ain't broke don't fix it. Please tell me that the pic showing a dozen or so books displayed on artsy fartsy bookcase is NOT the LIBRARY?

That's some of it. There's a couple bookshelves in the area with the screen and all the chairs as well. Also I noticed that these couches, etc have some book shelves built into them that appear to have more as well. It's all kind of intertwined

I like everything I've seen but the striped carpet in the Rijiksmuseum! I'm guessing the rows of seats in the former Captain's Corner of the Crow's Nest are for enhancement lectures, that would be OK. The sofas in that area on the only ship I ever spent much time there (the Nieuw Amsterdam) were so deep I looked like Edith Ann if I sat with my waist against the back! I do have short legs but just about everyone in the knitting/handwork group said the same things and arriving early hoping for a chair was common! So that would not be missed.

I wasn't so keen on the Lincoln Center from the sound of it (listening to Adagio is high on Dr'spin's must-do list), but it doesn't look as bad as I feared -- at least there are tables interspersed in the chairs.

Where is the library? Are there still newspapers and crosswords? Where Are the computers?

I do needle crafts and need a sofa space instead of a chair to allow me to hold my cross stitch frame on my lap. Those sofas look horrible! I can't imagine sitting there for a couple hours chatting with my new best friends doing their own knitting/crocheting/cross stitching. Very disappointing!:(

Where is the library? Are there still newspapers and crosswords? Where Are the computers?

There are four computers in a nook where the movie theater used to be-- down the hall from the shops and near the meeting rooms. There was also what appeared to be a small coffee bar, but I never saw it open.

Who is Orlando Ashford and what is his address? We are coming back to Florida after a 24 day Med and Adriatic 17 port marathon and I for one was looking forward to a few good reads on the 8 sea days back.

In my opinion, they could jettison some of the HAL themed merchandise if they want to be "lighter".

Do they still have the movie theater?

There are four computers in a nook where the movie theater used to be-- down the hall from the shops and near the meeting rooms. There was also what appeared to be a small coffee bar, but I never saw it open.

While I was OK with much of the previous furniture and decor, I personally do like the "lighter" decor of the spaces pictured the photos above. (Thank you for providing them.)

So, looking at them my first thought was - but will I find them comfortable? Will the majority of passengers find them comfortable? If I could try them all right now, I certainly would have an OPINION, BUT it should mean nothing to others UNLESS a large number of folks also try them now and say yea or nay. In reality you cannot tell by looking at them.

WHY do I say this? Well, while working my facility underwent a major renovation and I was responsible for (among other things) selecting furniture for over 2 dozen conference rooms (both formal ones and casual ones), class rooms, and computer rooms. For each type of space I selected a variety (about 6 for each type of space) of seemingly appropriate chairs. Computer stations required a very different type of chair that an informal conference room versus a lecture hall.

So, I would bring in a 4-6 chair selection of a particular use chair, have cookies and invite over 800 employees to try them out and rate them, primarily on comfort and secondarily on looks. Fascinating outcome. Each option had its strong supporters and some strong "no way" folks. There was NO way any one chair would satisfy all without individual compromise. So, the majority "won" the selection process for each type of chair.

I suppose some chairs satisfy no one - but I picked the options too carefully for that to happen. The main differences in votes were directly related to body type. Shorter versus taller, larger versus smaller hips and bottom area, but even more important - leg length in relation to overall height. i.e. - how long were their legs? (Two of the Top Management men were a perfect example. One was about 6' 3", one 5"7". However, once they both sat down in identical chairs their heads were at the same height from the floor.)

SO, just because one person finds a chair really comfortable or really uncomfortable would mean nothing to me as it will frequently be related in large part related to their body dimensions. (Granted there are chairs out there that most would find uncomfortable.)

On our Nieuw Amsterdam cruise in July I found that the chairs in the dining room cut across my shoulder blades, very uncomfortable. I also found the same on most chairs on a recent cruise on the Eurodam. I'm 6-2

Allan

Who is Orlando Ashford and what is his address? We are coming back to Florida after a 24 day Med and Adriatic 17 port marathon and I for one was looking forward to a few good reads on the 8 sea days back.

In my opinion, they could jettison some of the HAL themed merchandise if they want to be "lighter".

Please, please write to Mr. Ashford. HAL is getting a lot of complaints about the loss of a real library. The more complaints the better.