Photo review Nieuw Amsterdam 24-n Med cruise July 11 2014

I've read many reviews etc posts on the boards that have helped me a lot. Now I'm back from a wonderful cruise, the 24-night "Magic of the Mediterranean" July 11 to August 4 2014, and would like to contribute to the boards with a review of my own ;)

Cruise planning

The travelers are I and my partner. We are in our mid 30s and early 40s. We live in southern Sweden, quite close to Copenhagen (capital of Denmark).

During last New Year's, we did a Princess cruise in the Caribbean. When we got back, we started to plan for the summer and the next trip. The ideas ranged from a road trip through the Nordic countries, to a New England/Canada cruise (save that for later) to some sort of Mediterranean road trip or cruise.

So we found a great rate for this cruise on the HAL site, probably because of wave season. We actually felt embarrassed about booking such a long cruise :eek: Our previous cruises had been 12-n at most. It just felt 'overly luxurious' compared to our friends and colleagues short charter trips etc. For 3,5 weeks we would be fed 3 times per day, our room would be cleaned 2 times per day, we would be entertained each night, we would have perfect weather and we would visit 17 ports of which at least 10 were totally new to us :cool:

Since we would be cruising in Europe for the first time, on our 'home turf' with short flights, we thought we could skip the hotel stays and book flights on the embarkation and disembarkation days. We even considered going by rail. However it did feel risky, especially on embarkation day, but we had little choice since my partner couldn't easily take out vacation from work that week. How bad could it be, with a 2 hour non-stop flight and a 5,5 hour margin to sail-away? More on that later :o

I ordered guide books for the larger countries of the itinerary, I prefer DK Eyewitness guides. Since it was home turf, I planned all the ports as DIY and no excursions at all. To keep costs down and to stay independent (we don't like large groups), everything was to be done by walking, taking public transit or renting a car. For transport I prebooked rental cars in Katakolon, Kusadasi, Corfu and Civitavecchia but I didn't prepay. For sights I prepaid and reserved visits to St Marks' basilica in Venice and La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. I would have liked to prebook also - e-tickets (was offline) or museum card (couldn't be shipped) in Istanbul for Hagia Sophia and Topkapi palace, and tickets or museum card (neither could be shipped) in Venice for the Doge's palace - but it worked out just fine anyway, more on that later. I also couldn't reserve access to some of the houses in Pompeii, as advised by cruisemom42's thread.

Day -1, July 10

We always get impatient waiting for our vacations to start, so a couple of days in advance we decided wanted to do a sneak start and booked the Hilton Copenhagen Airport hotel, at an extortionate rate. Being at an airport hotel meant we could sleep longer in the morning of departure. On thursday afternoon after work, we packed up our last things and took the airport train (Oresundstag) directly 1 hour from Helsingborg to Copenhagen. We roamed the terminals in the evening and had dinner at Burger King :p (not much choice in Copenhagen airport landside). Went to bed early and tried to sleep.

Airport view from our room:

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Great start.

Good stuff, looking forward to more.:)

I'm hooked-count me in!

Norris, loving this rich itinerary.

Looking forward to hearing more.:)

Thanks looks great give more ..

Looking forward to hearing more and seeing lots of pictures. My old boss and his wife life in Helsingborg and I used to work for Kemira Chemicals here in Canada. Have you heard of this company? You live in a beautiful area of the world. We did a Baltic cruise a couple of years ago and loved Sweden, etc. It is very beautiful!

Thanks for beginning your review.

Looking forward to the remainder.

Thank you for posting. Looking forward to reading more.

Great beginning, looking forward to the rest of your report.:)

great start - looking forward to some more!!

Looking forward to hearing more and seeing lots of pictures. My old boss and his wife life in Helsingborg and I used to work for Kemira Chemicals here in Canada. Have you heard of this company? You live in a beautiful area of the world. We did a Baltic cruise a couple of years ago and loved Sweden, etc. It is very beautiful!

Interesting coincidence! Yes, Kemira has a large plant in our town, it's well known. It's close to the center, so we're sometimes a bit worried about it. They have had spills before, but the gas has drifted out over the sea... I'm glad you enjoyed Sweden!

Day 1, July 11, Venice, embarkation day

We started the day with a wonderful Hilton breakfast. Made our way into Copenhagen airport terminal 3 thinking everything is peachy. We were scheduled on a non-stop SAS flight 8.20-10.25am. When we got to the terminal, we were shocked and reminded why we shouldn't have booked a flight on embarkation day. The line to bag drop (for all Star alliance flights) stretched into terminal 2, the entire baggage system had broke down. Stood in line for 40min for no good and were finally excused by the staff and led to an express counter, when only 20min remained to our departure. Got our bags checked and got to go through fast track and had to run to our gate, but we made it and the flight only had a 10min delay.

When we got to Venice airport, we purchased ACTV bus tickets (6€) from a temporary counter in the baggage reclaim hall while waiting. We got my partners bag but mine was lost. Luckily I had a cabin bag and we had split our things in the cabin bag and in the checked baggage, so it wasn't that bad. However I had no toiletries (unessential stuff) and no formal wear and so on. They told us that the bag might arrive 6pm, but we would have sailed away by then, so we just told them which ship we would be on etc. It took a while waiting in line and reporting our lost bag.

We took the ACTV line 5 aerobus towards Piazzale Roma in Venice. It was like a regular city bus, stopped a lot and had no baggage space, so a bit cramped. It took about 25min. Maybe we should have took the ATVO bus instead, they looked more like coach buses. When we got to Piazzale Roma (the bus station of Venice) we looked around for a grocery store, we found a Coop store along the pier north of the Vaporetto (water bus) stop and bought a tooth brush and some sodas etc.

We would not be sightseeing in Venice that day, since we would return in 11 days and have an overnight there. We headed back to the piazza and took the People Mover (1,30€) one stop to Marittima, the cruise terminals. I had heard of shuttle buses to the terminals, but we saw no signs of it and just decided to walk. It was approx a 700m walk to terminal 117. When we arrived, there were no porters and we had to stand in line outside to hand in our baggage to the x-ray machines, no tip for that! Inside the terminal there were no lines, we checked in immediately and boarded at 1.30pm.

A view of the ship as we were boarding:

A view of the pier in Venice, from lido deck:

The cabins were ready and we headed straight to our new home for 24n, cabin 4074 a partially obstructed ocean view cat G on the port side, and dropped our carry-ons. The category is perfect for us, since it has the same size and configuration as a veranda cabin and also has floor to ceiling window (it just doesn't open), it's also on a higher deck (4, upper promenade) and is much cheaper than an unobstructed OV. Our cabin was great except for a few gripes: we would have liked black-out curtains and better lighting outside the wardrobes. Also we could hear a thumping base from the Northern Lights disco, even though the disco is two decks below! However the noise was on par with the AC, so we could tune it out. We heard nothing from the decks directly above or below, sometimes we could hear people scraping deck chairs on promenade deck or people making noise in the corridor and banging doors.

Our cabin 4074:

Our partially obstructed view:

We met our cabin stewards, Bary & Kamal, who took excellent care of our room throughout the trip. We asked them to clear the minibar for us.

Wonderful review and photos. Thank you!

Day 1, July 11, Venice, embarkation day, continued

Our lost baggage had delayed us at the airport, which meant that we missed the mariner embarkation lunch. We had dropped our carry-ons in our cabin and we headed to the Lido restaurant for lunch. The Lido was of course in code orange (disease spread prevention measures, first 48 hours of each HAL cruise) so we had to stand in line for drinks etc, but it was fine.

Throughout our cruise we thought the Lido restaurant had excellent offerings for breakfast and lunch, but dinner was slightly limited and the entrees were not that good. Especially breakfast is great with fresh squeezed orange juice and 4 types of hot breakfast stations: entrees (scrambled eggs etc), eggs benedict, omelets and waffles/crepes - the last three cooked to order. Too bad that they closed 8.30pm each night, I'd rather have them keep open til 10pm and skip the midnight snack instead. We took most of our dinners in the table service restaurants instead.

The Lido restaurant (not embarkation day):

After lunch my partner we headed down to the Front office, to let them know that we lost a bag. Bien Razote helped us tracking our bag through the first days, he was great. We also got a letter, were offered complimentary toiletries and express laundry and we were also excused from the dress code. However we had slacks and shirts for smart casual in our carry-on, but we didn't have formal wear for the coming sea day.

My partner went for a nap and I started exploring the ship. I headed to the spa for the spa tour, because I have never been to the hydropool or relaxation area before. Unfortunately they would not sell day passes on either of the two cruise legs, and we would not have used a trip pass sufficiently to justify the cost (I think 199$ ?), perhaps in Alaska or Norway/Baltic.

Hydropool area:

Relaxation area:

Then I checked out the pool areas. We were filled to capacity and had 200 kids on top. So the Lido pool quickly became a teenager & kids pool. A bit sad it was so crowded most of the time (especially sea days and port days after sail away), since I preferred it over the sea view pool, to get a little shade during the hot days. We often returned early from the ports and then it was calm at the lido pool.

Lido pool:

Seaview pool:

I also went up to Tamarind restaurant and booked it and Pinnacle Grill for later in the cruise.

Day 1, July 11, Venice, sail away

We had the muster drill at 3.45pm. You don't need to bring your life jacket. The muster station is on promenade deck just below one's lifeboat. Roll call is taken 'manually' and the cruise director make a safety announcement over the PA system.

Sail away started shortly after 4pm. The bow and the forward balconies were opened for a scenic sail away. The balcony at deck 6 was excellent for some shade, also there are benches. It took about 1,5 hours.

Yacht & Azamara ship docked close to the terminal area:

Giudecca canal:

San Giorgio Maggiore church & island:

Approaching St Marks' square:

St Marks' square:

Leaving the lagoon:

We didn't get my partners bag, but a note in the cabin instead. They had found his Leatherman tool and wanted to store it until the end of the cruise. We thought it strange since we had had it on 3 previous cruises, but there was nothing to do about it.

We went to an early dinner in the MDR (Main dining room). We had open seating. We went almost every night between 6-7pm and never had to wait for a table for 2. Sometimes we shared a table for 4, just because they asked each time we got there and it's nice to meet new people sometimes. The food was excellent and the staff attentive. Important for me was that it always took 1-1,5 hours for a full dinner, which is good because I dislike to wait. When we cruised on Zuiderdam a couple of years ago, dining in MDR took so long so we started to go to the Lido instead. On this cruise we vastly preferred the MDR for dinner because of better prepared and more elegant food, but also because of how our fellow guests dressed and behaved in the Lido...

Day 1, July 11, Venice, sail away, continued

We skipped the show, we were tired and went to bed early. We had an amazing sunset and beautiful moon light, over incredibly calm seas. We actually had beautiful clear, warm weather (around 30gr C) and calm seas for the entire trip. The environmental officer told us later that we never used the stabilizers.

Sorry for this initial report being so long, always happens a lot in the beginning of cruises :o

Love your review and photos! Our first European cruise departed from Venice, which always holds a special spot in our hearts.

Day 2, July 12, sea day

So we had a relaxing sea day, which was much needed since we left home just after work and had a stressful departure from Copenhagen the day before.

I continued exploring the ship. The atrium has a beautiful plexiglass sculpture, inspired by the New York city skyline:

I love the wrap-around promenade decks of HAL, but the deck chairs are nice too:

I discovered that the sofas/alcoves in the Silk Den bar/lounge, was an excellent alternative to Crows Nest / Explorations Cafe, for relaxing and reading in quiet. Explorations Cafe is surprisingly noisy for also being a library. In the Silk Den:

We had afternoon tea in the MDR, it was Indonesian tea:

It was formal night, but my formal wear was missing because of the lost bag. We had booked dinner in Tamarind restaurant instead and it was no problem being only smart casual there. The service was great and the food very good. I had deep-fried shrimp and wasabi-encrusted tenderloin:

I don't remember what the show was, but I went to the BB King's Blues club and did so many times later in the cruise. I thought they were great, kind of a new experience for me because I don't listen to blues otherwise. However I didn't like that each performance had a 20-min (almost half of the show time) introduction of the band, so I just went there later next time. They had 3 shows most nights.

<snip>

 

Yacht & Azamara ship docked close to the terminal area:

 

This looks to be the Carinthia VII, one of the top yachts in the world. Reminds one of what true luxury sailing really is.

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. Great photos! Looking forward to hearing more about your experience.

Hurry up, please. I'm taking the cruise out of Venice on the NA in a couple of months. Your review is making me so excited and love your pics. They are great. :)

Off to a great start so I'll be following along...there's no need to apologize for the start being too long...make it as long as you like or need to. It's your review and I for one am enjoying it.

Great photographs so keep them coming!

Norris, sailing from Venice on Sept 21 on Ocean Princess

Day 3, July 13, Katakolon

Katakolon was a surprisingly cute little town in a sparse rural part of Greece. The shore excursion team called it "the Skagway of the Mediterranean":

We got a nice view of the ship since there was no large terminal building in the way:

We had prebooked a rental car with Avis, half a day for 50€. We drove to ancient Olympia, about 40min and 30km away. The admission was like 9-12€, combo ticket site+museum, we ended up skipping the museum however. The ruins weren't very restored, but it's always interesting to visit a historic site.

Way into the ancient stadium:

We returned to Katakolon and returned the car. Looked in the shops and stocked up our minibar.