Live from Nieuw Amsterdam Aug 8-20, 2015

[castle12]

We are onboard the Nieuw Amsterdam on the current Mediterranean Tapestry, Aug 8 - 20. This is to provide our impressions with 9 of the 12 days behind us.

 

This is our fifth cruise, second on a HAL ship. So we’re not as experienced as most of you reading this, but at least we’re beyond the novice stage. We normally book balcony cabins and for this cruise, we booked a cabin on the stern, Deck 7. We liked the idea of being able to see and hear the wake. However, we received a last-minute upsell offer for a Neptune Suite. With the assistance of our TA, we were able to book a wrap-around suite on Deck 8. So we still had the wake view but we would be only one deck below the Lido pool area. We knew that would be noisy but decided the large deck and suite advantages would be worth it.

 

Embarkation

 

Our embarkation time was nominally 1:00 pm, but experience has told us to get there an hour or so before. We were embarking in Barcelona and while a taxi was easy to get, the traffic around the cruise port was very heavy. It took us over half an hour to inch our way over the last couple of hundred yards to the traffic circle. Fortunately we had cleared out of the hotel at 11:00, so we still got to the port by noon.

 

Having the suite booking enabled us to sail right through, but we noted that there was a very long line up for regular passengers. Why, we wondered, were they called to stand in that lineup when there were lots of chairs available in the first stage of the waiting area? They should have been calling smaller groups, it seems to me.

 

Our cabin was ready when we got onboard, so we deposited our carryon and proceeded to the Lido for lunch. The roast beef was excellent. When we returned to our cabin, our luggage had arrived.

 

Explore4 Package

 

Documentation for the Signature beverage package was in our cabin. The daily limit is 15 drinks valued at $8.00 or less. So far, the process has been seamless. No initialization step is required. You can just start using it in any bar on the ship. The staff understand it and automatically hand back the receipt with the card so that you can count your drink consumption if you wish. No drinks have been charged to our room account thus far in the cruise.

 

For wine, there are at least two reds and one white, a Pinot Grigio, available by the glass within the $8.00 limit. They have been good enough for us.

 

Note that bottles of water are included in the 15 total. That was worthwhile for us, but I suppose you could use up the 15 on water and then have to pay for alcoholic drinks in the evening. In our case we occasionally purchased water on our way off the ship, but for on board consumption we used the minibar water.

 

The Explore4 package includes a dinner in the Pinnacle Grill, but there was no mention of this in the documentation in our cabin. We asked the Neptune Lounge concierge about this, and she was able to confirm for us that we had a reservation for the second night at sea. That suited us just fine, and the notice did arrive in our cabin the next day.

 

Internet

 

The unlimited option was available priced at $249, which we took. I found the Internet to be better than any previous ship we have been on. I have been able to get on line anywhere in the ship that I’ve tried. The sign-on procedure is simpler than I’ve seen previously.

 

One anomaly - the system kicked me off after one hour even if I was using it, and there was no warning or notice. I was in the middle of posting photos to Facebook and the system stalled. Eventually I gave up and logged off, only to find that the system had logged me off about 15 minutes before. So you should keep track of your time and when you get close to the hour, log off then on again.

 

Laundry

 

We arrived on board with a week’s worth of laundry after having spent some time in Spain prior to the cruise. We put it into the ship’s laundry and it duly came back the next day. We have put laundry in every other day since, and it has always come back the next day. We did not have the 3-day problem reported elsewhere on this forum.

 

Formal (or “Gala”) Nights

 

The Gala Nights were Monte Carlo and the sea day, as has been reported before.

 

There has been some discussion here about the new dress code. I like wearing my tux so that’s what I packed, but I did wonder if I’d be alone. Well, I wasn’t, but I was in the minority. To get a rough measure of what the percentages were, I picked two panels of formal night photos posted in the photo gallery from the first formal night and counted the types of male attire. The results: jacket and tie, 82%; no tie with or without jacket, 12%; tux 8%. The photos of course do not show the trousers, but in my area of the MDR I saw no one in jeans. As far as the ladies were concerned, I have learned not to express my judgment of ladies’ attire, but DW pronounced herself satisfied with the standard we saw.

 

Vibration

 

I’ve seen comments on the Nieuw Amsterdam having a noticeable vibration. We didn’t feel any unusual vibration, so I guess they’ve fixed it.

 

Food

 

Very good, in fact overall the best we have experienced in our short cruising career.

 

Before this cruise, we would say that the best meal we’d had on board a ship was the Pinnacle Grill on Eurodam. Now, we’ll just say “Pinnacle Grill” period. The Nieuw Amsterdam’s Pinnacle Grill was every bit as good as Eurodam’s. It certainly was popular. After our meal on Day 2 of the cruise, we decided to have one more dinner there. Well, it was a struggle to find a booking day/time that suited us. It was pretty much booked up. We did make a booking for a late evening sitting, and enjoyed it as much as the first time.

 

Entertainment

 

We’re not much for late-night partying, but we did do a bit. The BB King Blues Band was excellent, packing the Queen’s Lounge every night we happened by. We did sit down to listen one evening, and we enjoyed it to the point that we got up on the dance floor … not something we often do these days!

 

We only went to one show in the Showroom at Sea. We saw Penny Mathisen, who has apparently sung in Sydney’s Opera House and in London West End musicals. She put on a very good show.

 

Other people at our MDR table saw Laszlo and Claudia and liked them very much.

 

The house band (called simply “The Band”) were very pleasant for listening over drinks before dinner. They played in the Ocean Bar but could be heard in the Pinnacle Bar as well.

 

Adagio in the Explorers Lounge were competent.

 

We tried to catch Jeremy in the Piano Bar. It’s a small room and he attracts a full house. The staff add regular straight-back chairs so that more people can sit down, but when we were there, there was only one server. We sat through three songs and the server never came near us, so we left.

 

Port Visit Arrangements

 

Shuttle buses were provided at Marseille, Corfu and Dubrovnik at a cost of $16 round trip. In Taormina, there were taxis on the dock which for prices ranging from $14 per couple (three couples) to $25 (one couple) would take you to Taormina. That’s a one-way price. We had no trouble finding taxis at either end, but we heard it said later that if you went ashore in the late morning, no taxis were around.

 

In response to a question I saw in another thread here, in Monaco we used the hop-on hop-off bus which was available right by the ship. We had to wait through two buses to get down the hill from the old town.

 

I’ll save any further comments on ports for a formal review.

 

Summary

 

We’ll return to this ship, even without this lovely wrap-around balcony. The food was wonderful and we like the Signature Beverage package. We’ll be sorry to say goodbye in Venice three days from now.

[Lizzie68]

Thank you for a very detailed report. Happy to hear you.have the Internet package that we had on the Westerdam and hope.it is.still in place when we go on the NA next April.

[Fouremco]

Thanks for the post. :) One of our favourite ships!

[kftw]

Thank you so much for your report. Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

Edited August 17, 2015 by kftw
Realized OP was still on the ship.

[cruz chic]

Thx for the info on the Internet and the clothing. I'm interested in gauging this for my cruise.

[POA1]

Great report. Thanks!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Wonderful review.

Thank you.

[kazu]

Thanks so much for taking the time to share with us.

 

Sounds like you got a sweet (suite) upsell :)

 

I hope you get some time in Venice to enjoy and enjoy the sail in. it's very pretty :)

 

unlimited internet is always a plus :)

[Ricktan]

Great report, thank you! We are doing this cruise on the Sept 13. Have they had any specialty dinners offered?

[Scrapnana]

Sounds like a great time. Thanks for sharing with us! Hope you enjoy your last few days on board.

[RuthC]

Thank you for your report. Especially thank you for including information about the entertainment.

[sppunk]

Thanks for your review!

[castle12]

 

Formal (or “Gala”) Nights

 

The results: jacket and tie, 81%; no tie with or without jacket, 11%; tux 8%.

 

Port Visit Arrangements

 

In Taormina, there were taxis on the dock which for prices ranging from 14 euros per couple (three couples) to 25 euros (one couple) would take you to Taormina.

 

I've corrected a couple of errors above in the original post.

[erewhon]

Thank you for your thorough review.

Enjoy the remainder of the cruise.

Edited August 18, 2015 by erewhon

[castle12]

Have they had any specialty dinners offered?

 

"Le Cirque" was offered in the Pinnacle Grill on Sunday evening (after departing Corfu). Cost $49. We didn't go but one couple at our table did and enjoyed it.

[madera1]

Thanks for taking the time to inform us of your experience. Enjoy the last few days.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[CanadianLoveCruise]

Many thanks for taking the time to post your cruise experience. I'll be on the Nieuw Amsterdam in September, so your review is very helpful.

 

I noticed that you purchased internet access for the entire cruise. Are there per minute-packages available as well? If so, would you post the prices? If it's too much digging to find the costs, then don't bother. It's much more important that you enjoy the rest of your vacation!

 

Enjoy, and thanks again for your review.

[castle12]

 

I noticed that you purchased internet access for the entire cruise. Are there per minute-packages available as well? If so, would you post the prices?

 

 

There are four per-minute packages listed:

 

600 min - $199

400 min - $159

200 min - $99

30 min - $19

 

The instructions are available in the Explorations Cafe. They are clear and easy to follow.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for posting the prices for the Internet.

[DeeniEncinitas]

Love your report!

We have done 3 24 day Collector cruises on her 2010 inaugural, 2011, and 2013!

She is our favorite!

Loved your report.

We are doing our Oct.2016 Med cruise, and this time on The Eurodam,

Since The Nieuw will be cruising Alaska then.

Happy Sailings!

Denise:)

[POA1]

There are four per-minute packages listed:

 

600 min - $199

400 min - $159

200 min - $99

30 min - $19

 

The instructions are available in the Explorations Cafe. They are clear and easy to follow.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

Thanks. That's a bit of an increase over the old per minute plan. You used to get 1,000 minutes for $250 or $0.25/min. Now the best you can do is a little over $0.33 per minute.

[taxmantoo]

Thanks. That's a bit of an increase over the old per minute plan. You used to get 1,000 minutes for $250 or $0.25/min. Now the best you can do is a little over $0.33 per minute.

 

You seem to forget that for the same price of $249 you now get unlimited usage which could translate to even less than $0.01 per minute if you wanted to. ;)

[CanadianLoveCruise]

There are four per-minute packages listed:

 

600 min - $199

400 min - $159

200 min - $99

30 min - $19

 

The instructions are available in the Explorations Cafe. They are clear and easy to follow.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

Thanks very much for the info. Hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise.