Review (long) Nieuw Amsterdam Collectors Voyage

I purposely waited for the post cruise depression to subside, before I wrote my review of my 19 night Collector’s Cruise on board the Nieuw Amsterdam.

Having cruised relatively exclusively with MSC my choice of Nieuw Amsterdam came as a result of a little pushing from the anti-MSC bloggers to get more experience on alternate lines and a good itinerary at what I believed was a good price.

I arrived in Venice after 24 hours of travelling, the 110EUR cost for a water taxi did not deter me I just wanted to get to the Jewish Ghetto and as such to the 4* Carnival Palace Hotel. I discovered the hotel by chance, given that the cruise departure was in the middle of the Venice Film Festival hotel accommodation, as can be expected was extraordinarily high until one day I came across this little gem (which at that time had not even opened) for 160EUR for the night incl. breakfast.

The next day, awake at 06:30 (thank you jetlag) I experienced Venice, deciding to throw caution to the wind I followed locals who seemed to be en route to work through the Jewish Ghetto, past Rialto and eventually arriving at an empty Piazza San Marco. Shortly thereafter the human Tsunamis started and I made a dash for a vaporetto which was going up the Grand Canal back towards the Jewish Ghetto, I had after all a bigger boat to catch and time was getting short.

After getting lost (in a good sense-this is after all Venice), I arrived back at the hotel and gathered my baggage, ordered a water taxi and tried to wait patiently.

Water taxi arrived and we were off towards the port. I wouldn’t call the ride the most scenic that Venice has to offer but; luggage + public transport ≠ me.

Arriving at the water taxi drop off point I was greeted by terminal staff who asked “Nieuw Amsterdam?” which I replied “Si!”. They tagged my bags and pointed me in the direction of the terminal, which was a bit of walk but at least my luggage was no longer my problem, so I took my time to take in the exterior of what was to be my home for the next three weeks.

Check-in was effortless and I was on board within 45 minutes of arriving. On MSC the cabins are always ready before passengers embark and I was a little deterred at the prospect that I may have to walk around the ship with hand luggage until my cabin was ready - commonly referenced by other HAL reviewers, but when I stepped off the gangway I was pointed in the direction of my cabin, deck 4, starboard side, obstructed outside.

Having recently given up smoking I felt that my cabin choice was perfect, no balcony ≠ temptation. There were floor to ceiling windows which gave me a fantastic view of Lifeboat 13 and allowed natural light to stream through. Kingsize bed (aka two singles), dressing table, small sofa, flat screen TV with built in DVD player and a picture of cows sitting under umbrellas on the beach (I loved that picture) made up the rest of the contents of the room. The bathroom was adequate for its intended uses.

While waiting for an elevator to take me to the Lido for some lunch I noticed the state of the carpeting, shocking is the only word that comes to mind. Over the next 19 nights I would notice more and more of this throughout the ship. To better describe what the problem is the carpets essentially look as though they were water logged and then dried, leaving a water stain behind and thereby creating an illusion that they are dirty.

Given that this was predominately an issue near elevators I cannot understand why Hal has not addressed the issue.

I took the glass elevator to the Lido deck for some lunch, can’t really remember what I ate, but you will see this is will be a recurring theme when it comes to the rest of my review with respect to anything that was prepared as part of the inclusive aspect. What I do remember is that the food was very much “plain cooking” and even the Asian section lacked any real flavor.

After lunch I walked outside to the sea view pool – fantastic! I enjoy classic cruising so for me an aft pool is just what I want. The area is mid-sized with a fair amount of deck chairs, table and chair sets, a bar, two Jacuzzis and a pool. This was also where I discovered the Balinese experience….”soda, beer, cocktails” the waiters called in a loud voice while walking around – I thought to myself I had died and gone to hell!

Let me explain, I have been brought up with the understanding that staff should be seen and not heard, an experience often conveyed in the world’s best hotels, so essentially I expect them to stand around and maintain the peace and quiet until such time as I engage with them. I am not their friend and to blur the line between client and friend is, in my opinion the root cause of sloppy service.

At this stage I thought I would make my way down to reception to procure a few items that I read about on the various CC boards. The front desk staff were wonderful and I really enjoyed engaging with them. I arranged a $250 drinks card, unlimited laundry and the sommelier’s package for single passengers.

I do not believe that the $25 saving on the $250 drinks card is worth the hassle of carrying two cards around so I only repeated once more and by the end of the cruise I was just using my cruise card for any drinks that I needed.

The unlimited laundry on the other hand was a god send, although I did find it irritating that you had to wait for your laundry to return before you could send in more items I cannot complain as I had clean and pressed clothes of the duration of my cruise. Laundry services even went so far as to, on my request replace all the buttons on my dress shirt – without charge.

The only saving with respect to the sommelier’s package was that it worked out that the bottle for your cabin and “gift” was free of charge, otherwise it is a Navigator’s Package with two dinners at Pinnacle, two wine tastings, the wine for the room and the “gift”. The first night of my cruise I was in the Northern Lights and managed to chat to the cellar master, Fernando who convinced me to upgrade my wine portion to the Admiral’s package for an additional $50….no real saving but it was for better wine, however I do highly recommend the Three Blind Moose Cabernet Sauvignon, which is found on the Navigator’s List.

After an afternoon nap I made my way to the Crow’s Nest for the 16:30 – 17:30 Happy Hour, and what a Happy Hour it was. Luis was a great attendant in the Crows Nest; Billy, Arnel and Rene kept me entertained in the Ocean Bar and the Happy Hour (Buy 1 get a second for $1) was exceptionally good value for money. I had read on various forums on the CC boards that the Happy Hours were at strange hours – I did not find this the case as on the 12 night portion the happy hours were always 16:30 – 17:30 Crows Nest, 18:30 – 19:30 Ocean Bar and 21:00 – 22:00 Crows Nest. On the 7 night segment it was 16:30 – 17:30 Crows Nest, 18:30 – 19:30 Ocean Bar and 23:00 – 24:00 Northern Lights Disco, but the change was indicative of how the passenger demographic changed.

After Happy Hour I made my way to the wine tasting at the Silk Den, which I have to say is one of the nicest bars for a pre-dinner aperitif. The wine tasting was mediocre at best with a lot of hard selling “when you buy the Navigator Package”, “when you buy the Admirals package”, slightly irritated that I had to pay so I they could sell me something that I already had I managed to resurrect the event by engaging in a conversation with a lovely Dutch couple.

Eventually I decided it was time for dinner. Having booked only several weeks before the cruise I was only able to get open seating, and having taken the time leading up to my cruise to convince myself to just go with the flow I was seated at a table of 6 with a Kiwi couple, Australian couple and another solo traveler. Shocked by the lack of service I tried to make the best of it, however I could not believe what was presented to me as food. Large portions of tasteless plain cooking. One thing I believe people need to realize when they book a cruise with Holland America is that the food is geared to an Average Joe palate in my opinion. There is nothing remotely interesting or imaginative on their menus, unless of course you are prepared to pay for it.

I decided to turn in early that first night and so went to the Northern Lights Disco......bad idea, but it was nice to scope out how young at heart my fellow passengers were, but alas it was quite and eventually by 02:00 I was in bed. At least as a result I could start working on my tan early the next day before the sail away and Cruise Critic Meet and Greet..........<to be continued>

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

For the most part, I agree with you on the blandess of food on HAL in general.

The servers at the drink station in the Lido always seem pleasantly surprised when you ask for Sambal. :)

(I hope I spelled that correctly.)

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

You are off to a good start.

Oh please carry on - great review. Nice to hear someone else enjoyed the Jewish Ghetto in Venice. I think it's one of the hidden treasures there as there was hardly any tourists there when we went:)

Its nice to see a lot of places to list ...... the places are so wonderful as far as i know ....... going to beautiful places charms mind and refreshes heart....

Let me explain, I have been brought up with the understanding that staff should be seen and not heard, an experience often conveyed in the world’s best hotels, so essentially I expect them to stand around and maintain the peace and quiet until such time as I engage with them. I am not their friend and to blur the line between client and friend is, in my opinion the root cause of sloppy service.

I could not agree more. I am amazed at the people who regret that they could not chat more with their Holland America servers. Calling out "soda, beer, cocktails" is ball game and carnival behavior. Thanks for the review.

We were on the Nieuw Amsterdam this past July. We did not have to wait for our laundry to return before sending more out. With 3 kids, the laundry package was one of my favourite parts of the cruise. :) I agree with you about the carpets though. It was rather shocking how a relatively new ship could have such disgusting carpeting.

The unlimited laundry on the other hand was a god send, although I did find it irritating that you had to wait for your laundry to return before you could send in more items I cannot complain as I had clean and pressed clothes of the duration of my cruise. Laundry services even went so far as to, on my request replace all the buttons on my dress shirt – without charge.

Is the inability to send out more items before getting laundry returned a new thing? We have always sent 1-2 bags a day with unlimited laundry not waiting for the previously sent laundry to come back

Really enjoying your review, looking forward to more. :)

I disembarked Nieuw Amsterdam in Venice the same day poster apparently boarded. I agree with the comments about carpet wear but carpet does wear in high traffic areas, cannot be swapped out during normal sailing and in the big scheme of things, this was a minor matter in a well maintained and attractive ship. I do disagree with the comments about crew interaction. I found the friendliness and smiles of the crewmembers to be a refreshing alternative to the dour and mute servers often encountered elsewhere. I'll stay tuned for subsequent editions of the review to see how the rest of the cruise went, compared to what we experienced. I did a lengthy review in the member review section of Cruise Critic, if anybody cares to read about my opinions.

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Day 2…..the advantage of having a bath / shower combination is that it is highly unlikely that an individual will have to fight with the shower curtain and so, after successfully avoiding being molested by the same curtain I made myself respectable enough to face the world and headed up to the Lido for breakfast.

I did one lap around and eventually stopped at the English Breakfast Section which served an assortment of eggs benedict as well as the usual English breakfast staples. My breakfast was nothing spectacular, but it was good. Bacon was crispy, eggs benedict were warm, but the sausage in the form of a patty was, well interesting and informative in that now I have an understanding of where McDonalds got the concept from of a sausage patty on their egg McMuffins (I was told that the sausage patty was quite common place in the USA). As I was not a fan of the sausage patty (which tasted nothing like sausage in my opinion) it was fortunate that I noticed later on that there were also Pork Sausages available and after I further realized that I needed to refer to them as English Sausages and not Pork Sausages in order to actually get one without pointing I was in 7th heaven.

It doesn’t say a lot about the lunch buffet if I say that the breakfast in Lido is more imaginative, flavorful and varied than the lunch, because let’s be honest, eggs and bacon are difficult to make a mess of. I enjoyed the variety of choices as well, there is an English Section, American Section, Omelets, Pastries and a Dutch Section which is very European in nature, but as good as breakfast in the Lido was I fail to understand how items were not replaced with still an hour of service left and how short staffed they were (the same lady who made the eggs benedict also had to serve the English breakfasts on occasion). While I understand this shortness of staff is a result of the crisis it is still quite alarming for a cruise line with the catch phrase of “Signature of Excellence”, to fail to excel in the service aspect of their business as a result of cost cutting.

After breakfast I made my way to the Seaview Pool – swimming time! My first thoughts on the pool itself was that it is fresh water……hmmmm, I prefer salt water pools on a cruise, but new experiences I thought to myself. The water seemed clean but the pool itself was full of algae. Found predominately on the stairs and under the lip (gawd I hope everyone understands what I mean when I say lip) I realized that this is one of the drawbacks of having fresh water in the pools – they not emptied and scrubbed every night like on MSC. Slightly disgusted I climbed out, dried off, watched the Queen Victoria dock, and went to the front desk to report the algae.

Lunch was boring as usual – enough said.

13:30 seven short blasts followed by one long blast of the ships alarms (and much to my pleasure the ships horn) signaled the commencement of the lifeboat drill. Clever me had already made my way down to my lifeboat station and there I witnessed the impact of the Concordia on sea travel. A member of crew called out cabin numbers with names of passengers, roll call I believe has become a fact of life now when cruising and I personally think it has been long overdue. Irrespective of this added measure the drill only lasted 20 minutes maximum and I made my way to my cabin to throw out my oar to start rowing to Dubrovnik.

After collecting my camera from my cabin I made my way to the seaview pool first to see if I could get a good spot…..no such luck, up another deck, no further luck, up another and then another and I found myself above the Silk Den, almost alone – fantastic. This is in my opinion fantastic for sail away as it is very quite up there. I was able to scurry from port to starboard without a problem. Tom, the Travel Guide gave a narration over the speakers, very informative, not necessary in my opinion, but a nice touch nonetheless. With Venice in the back ground I scurried down some stairs, across the lido and up some more stairs to the Crows Nest for the Cruise Critic meet and greet. I must say that I am a terrible cruise critic member in that I didn’t stay long, a wine tasting was calling.

Organized by one of the members there was coffee and tea and biscuits, not the best show from the cruise line but a show nonetheless so I cannot really complain. Another member had name tags for all of us and all in all I think it was quiet well organized.

The first wine tasting of my package was a selection of the Navigator’s Choice wines. Costing $15 I don’t understand why they still charge for these things because, once again as per the previous day it was nothing more than a sales presentation. The wine was good nonetheless and I staggered gingerly up to the Crow’s Nest for the 16:00 Happy Hour with the excuse that as a solo I need to socialize more ;-)

Between Happy Hour in the Crow’s Nest and the solo passenger get together at the Pinnacle Bar I needed to get my formals on, so off I swaggered to my cabin for a wardrobe change.

Disappointed in Holland America Line’s Solo Passenger Get Together is an understatement. Having no representation from the line to break the ice whatsoever we were left to our own devices, fortunately there were a several outgoing personalities so the gathering was saved. But this was nothing compared to what I would experience next.

My biggest issue the entire cruise happened next…all dressed up with somewhere to go I made my way to the Main Dining Room. Perhaps the incident saved me from being victim to that offensive red décor for the remainder of the cruise, but irrespective my experiences that evening were totally and utter unacceptable. Seated at a table for two on my own I knew the evening was not going to amount to much but I believe no one would be prepared for the lack of service I received that evening. Fifteen minutes before I could order my wine….hmmmm, order taken, surf and turf being the best option for the main……hmmm, but new experiences and all of that I figured. I finished my main meal which was, well boring and dull as per the night before, so at least they consistent I figured. Then I waited, dirty plate in front of me, knife and fork placed together like mother taught me, and I waited, and waited and waited and waited. Thirty minutes later, numerous waiters and a F&B Officer walking past my table my dirty plate remained. Deciding not to make a scene in front of people enjoying their dinner I got up and left the dining room, and went straight to the front desk, where I threw every toy I had out of the box, asked for a DVD and went to my cabin for the rest of the evening................ to be continued......but don't worry it does get more positive :D

I'm listening Sir.

Thank You kindly.

A riveting tale indeed. You have a way with words.

Great review. Thanks for sharing.

very interesting review

will look forward to more

carol

Thanks for the review!

Very interesting reading here. Look forward to more from you.

Interesting review. I do have to point out that HAL has always done a roll call at muster drill. It has been my understanding that failure to appear got you a private, stern small group muster drill with an officer. I am glad HAL takes it seriously.

Unlike you, I would have unobtrusively signaled the F&B manager and explained what was lacking.

Great reading (and writing) and I look forward to next installment.

Thank you for making all this effort for our benefit.

Nice sharing the schedules are very much attractive to the people looking for a cruise . the choice of places.

Thank you for your review. Looking forward to hearing more. I'm glad to know that things do get better for you.

The beds on HAL are wonderful, only The Savoy in London has better beds in my opinion and my biggest issue, which is a general cruise line problem and not specific to HAL would be the way, like the red sea did for Moses the mattresses part during the course of one’s sleep. Albeit I had to climb out of the occasion crevice the wonderful big fluffy pillows, soft linens and a fluffy duvet as opposed to a quilt all results in a fantastic sleep.

And that is where I was when we arrived in Dubrovnik to an astounding applause from the heavens. Torrential rain, lightning and thunder greeted all of us that morning and being one who often overthinks things in conjunction with the events the previous evening the storm became an omen of things to come………for about five minutes.

It was quite surreal walking through the lido pool area with the retractable dome closed; the humid air was a contrast to the dark sky, lightning and rain pouring off the glass ceiling and all I wanted was to climb back into my comfy bed but instead I made my way down to the Promenade Deck to try and get a better feel of the storm. Not well covered from the elements I used the forward stairwell to access the promenade as I knew that this was well covered by the balconies on deck 4. I found my spot and watched as people disembarked, there was water everywhere and it did not seem as though it was going to let up anytime soon.

I enjoyed the promenade deck, teak decking wraps around the ship with deck chairs shaded by the lifeboats. There was generally always someone out there. Whether it was the early rises taking their walks, people lounging on the cushioned deck chairs, or smokers coming out for a quick cigarette there was always someone greeting you. There were towel stations positioned all around the Promenade, which brings me to another irritation.

Let’s be honest, HAL is not cheap, cost is often a reflection of quality and that being said why does HAL insist on redistributing rancid towels. Faded, stained, bleach marked there was nothing luxurious about them whatsoever. I found the ones on the Promenade Deck the worst, but occasionally you could find one or two up by the pools.

Anyway, back to the adventure……

An hour or so later it seemed as though the rain was going to start letting up so I made my way down to the gangway. In Dubrovnik the ship docks nowhere near the old town so HAL arranged for a shuttle bus at $7.50 each way, which is a huge rip off if there is more than one of you. Later that evening, during Happy Hour some friends I was in process of making informed me that they caught a taxi to the old town return for EUR20.00 ($26.00). If you can get four in a cab you save $4 per person per trip. At 10:00 however, I did not know this information and so I paid the $15.00 and boarded the bus. I would not recommend walking to the old town as the terrain is quite hilly and I could only imagine it would be taxing on one’s energy. Dubrovnik is beautiful and when we arrived at the old town we disembarked……into the rain, pffffffffff.

Croatia is only a member of the EU from next year so you cannot use Euros, but at the main entrance to the walled old town you can exchange money at the souvenir shop, I can’t remember the exact rate but it was about 7:1 to the Euro. Cash for lunch in hand I walked through the gate to the city. The city itself is not much, little alleyways, lots of restaurants and souvenir shops. I found the local market a building used as a living testament to the rebuilding of Dubrovnik following the Serbian War and stairs going up a Cliffside to residential apartments. After walking round for several hours I decided to find a spot and have lunch. Be careful in Dubrovnik when choosing a restaurant, some places are just a rip off, typical tourist traps and others, favored more by the locals and as a result me are a lot more reasonable. I had a local beer and calamari head (tentacles)…..the beer was adequate and the calamari was so fresh I could still taste the salt water and by the time I was back on the bus the sun was out and it was getting hot hot hot.....overthinking this new positive omen on my arrival back to NA I headed straight to my cabin for a quick wardrobe change into my swim suit and off I was to the sea view pool.

I cannot reiterate enough how much I liked the sea view pool area and, algae or not it was now hot enough for me to just jump in………..the water was freezing, but at least the staff had stopped calling out for orders. I lay around in the sun for a while longer and retired to my cabin for a bit of an afternoon nap, I was on vacation after all……..<to be continued – sorry so hap hazard but duty at work calls>

i know the feeling about sitting on your own it happened to me! i did not book a cruise to sit on my own!

dave

i remenmber paying for a shuttle in dubrovnik on msc divina but cannot remember how much but could not be as much as yours! i like hal too but not able to do one yet. love to go on this ship as my dad was on the 1938 version. do they have many souvenirs with the name on? dave