Nieuw Amsterdam 1/18/2017 Review

Thanks for your review.

 

 

Holland America provides an easy way to address that: Just don't pay for a WiFi package. Then you can connect to the ship's Intranet without having any danger of drifting beyond that into the wider world wide web.

 

Did the steward refuse to keep two buckets of ice in your cabin?

 

Yes, they do provide a free WIFI for ship info. Assuming you have some device that can access it, which I did not have.

I never asked for two buckets of ice. The problem with that is that the buckets are not insulated and the ice would melt. For me, the problem is the delivery time of the ice. The steward would bring ice on his morning cleaning, but I don't have drinks during the day, so that ice would just end up melting. I like to have my drinks right after dinner. We always ate early, so I would be waiting around for the steward to come and do his evening cleaning to get ice. It is not that important of an issue, just a suggetion.

If we run out of ice I just go down the hall way to the room where the ice machine is & fill up our bucket.

 

On the Eurodam the smoking area was on starboard & the Pizza place was on port, hopefully that is the same on the NA? But I do agree the smoke gets pretty bad in the Sea View pool area if the wind blows the wrong way. There where also people "vapping" on the non smoking side, when I pointed this out to the person he told me he wasn't smoking.

Allan

What ice machine? Are you talking about the crew only area, where I assume the steward gets his ice? I would be nervous about just entering the stewards work area on my own.

Yes the smoking area is on the starboard area of the sea view pool area. But since smoking is no longer allowed on the balconies, I believe more people than ever are using the smoking area. This include several gentlemen smoking cigars. It was enough that the whole sea view pool area was smokey. Because there are large glass sides to this pool area (to keep out wind), there is not that much air circulating there.

We agree with Tom O and would the ice delivered later. What I have done is to find out here he is getting the ice and then go get it myself when we need it, otherwise I go to the nearest bar and the ice there. No big deal, they are busy enough without me wanting ice at the time they are. Need the exercise.

Not sure what you mean by 'set up dinner' so let me describe our last cruise on Westerdam.

 

The second night of our cruise was Gala night and our steward asked if we were going and if we wanted a corsage.

 

s.

When we were offered a corsage that I did not want, we accepted and then found a 10 year old girl dressed for formal night. That corsage made her day!

When we were offered a corsage that I did not want, we accepted and then found a 10 year old girl dressed for formal night. That corsage made her day!

Excellent idea. Good for you.

We sailed on the N.A. last summer to Alaska. Never gone to the Caribbean. The flights are as much as the cruises unfortunately. I'm also concerned about the heat and humidity but I've also wondered about the sheer volume of ships that go there. If you look a travel/consolidator site it seems that there are hundreds of cruise ships travelling around the Caribbean.

 

I wonder if the various ports become one tourist trap after another; nothing authentic, just shop after shop selling trinkets made elsewhere.

For most of our ports, we were the only ship there. But there were some exceptions. St Maartin had I believe 5 ships in port, and this included two mega ships.

Also on our return to Ft Lauderdale there were 8 ships in port that day. We were kicked out of our normal pier, and sent to pier 4. This was bad news for people who had parked near the pier we started from. But the port did provide a free shuttle for them to get back to their cars.

I believe that all ports that get regular cruise ship traffic are tourist traps, that includes Alaska. You have to get away from the pier to get to real shops. On our cruise the biggest tourist trap was St Thomas, which gets lots of cruise ship traffic. In downtown St. Thomas, and near the ship, at least 50% of all shops were jewelry stores. I really don't believe the 50,000 people who live on St Thomas need more than 100 jewelry stores to choose from. Nor do they need 40 or 50 perfume shops.

Thanks for this informative review. We are doing this cruise next week and wondered how many gala nights are on the schedule?

Thanks for this informative review. We are doing this cruise next week and wondered how many gala nights are on the schedule?

I believe there were just two. The first "at sea" day, and the last "at sea" day.

But there could have been another one that I didn't notice, because we had our dinners delivered to our room.

On our cruise the biggest tourist trap was St Thomas, which gets lots of cruise ship traffic. In downtown St. Thomas, and near the ship, at least 50% of all shops were jewelry stores. I really don't believe the 50,000 people who live on St Thomas need more than 100 jewelry stores to choose from. Nor do they need 40 or 50 perfume shops.

They do need at least 100 t-shirt shops though.