Photo Review of our Spring Break Aboard the Nieuw Statendam!

[sailawaybellaluna]

11 hours ago, Dulciana8 said:

I loved your trip review you did last year— it was very helpful to us as we took our (then 4 year old!) son on his first HAL cruise last November. Seeing your pictures and reading all the details was so helpful to me before— thank you!!! AND we are booked on Nieuw Statendam for Thanksgiving this year!!! So I’m loving your NS review! Thank you so much for posting— I especially love all of your remarks geared towards what works with children/families on HAL. Super helpful! 👍 

Oh, thank you! I'm so happy you found my Rotterdam report helpful! How fun that you'll be sailing the NS for Thanksgiving! That's my favorite holiday and I'm always hosting and cooking, so no cruises for me that week... 🙂 

[sailawaybellaluna]

1 hour ago, TriumphGuy said:

Nice report and photos. That cabin looks positively spacious compared to the balcony cabins on Princess' ships. At least there is a place to sit! 
We'll be on NS next year for a transatlantic, so your photos and reports are quite useful. Thank you!

I've never been on Princess!

 

How wonderful that you'll be doing a Transatlantic! That's on my list of goals, without my children however... 🙂 

[sailawaybellaluna]

Back to day 1...

 

After exploring the ship a bit, we headed back to our cabin and were pleasantly surprised to find our luggage there. We do NOT travel light, so it was great to be able to quickly tuck things away in the closet and drawers before the muster.

 

I will say, as small as the cabin was, there was plenty of storage. Lots of drawers and tons of hangers in the closets!

 

The muster (for us) was in the Rolling Stone lounge. It was pretty straightforward and not too chaotic. This is the first time on a ship where the majority of the safety information was actually on the tv inside your stateroom. Later in the week we were trying to access the room service menu and couldn't do anything to change the channels on the TV. Apparently this was because we hadn't fully watched the video, so it was going to stay on until completion.

 

After muster we headed back to our cabin to watch the sailaway. Now, one thing I did NOT expect on a HAL ship was tons of noisy kids screaming and banging balcony doors. 😞 Gah. We went out on our balcony to find the three cabins to the left of us had all removed their balcony door barriers and were one large family traveling together, with lots of kids. Perhaps this is a weird complaint since I always travel with my kids, but we've really stressed teaching our kids to be polite travelers. They know not to shout on the balcony in case someone in the cabin next door is reading. They know not to step on the chair and peek around to see who's next door. And they definitely know NOT to constantly slam the balcony door! Do they mess up and forget sometimes? Of course, they're little. But we're always right there to keep them on track. Ack. Our sailaway was like being in the middle of one of those terrible mall jungle gyms. I was REALLY stressed about how the week would play out with the constant screaming and door slamming...

 

Our neighbors did manage to wake us around 6:30am every morning with their yelling/door slamming, but thankfully we only encountered them a couple more times on the balcony. Each time the kids were standing on chairs looking into our balcony and waving. 🙂 My husband jokes with me that I'm going to be a hot mess when I'm 80. Probably one of those grouchy people yelling at the kids to be quiet. And he's probably correct! Haha. (I will say, it was probably before 5pm when I called Guest Services and requested they have a word with the neighbors. Not only due to the noise and door slamming, but it was concerning seeing little kids pulling the chairs and table right up next to the railing and standing on them...I'm assuming they may have had a word, because it wasn't terrible the next six days). 

 

Here's a few pics of our sailaway...

 

 

 

 

As you can see, we had a beautiful day! I was so thankful for this! I had been tracking the weather for weeks, and our sailaway day was consistently showing rain and clouds. We got lucky!!

[sailawaybellaluna]

After the sailaway we got ready to head to dinner...

 

We had table 238, and it was gorgeous! It was on the upper level, near the railing. It was fun to people watch down below, but we could also enjoy the view from all of the large windows. They held the table for us until 5:30pm each night, and it was wonderful!

 

 

I'm afraid I didn't take too many photos of our meals, but on this particular night I had something I believe was called shrimp diablo, and it was delicious! I love that blue and white Delft!

 

 

We had zero complaints about the dining room the entire week! Food was brought out hot and everything ran very smoothly. The waitstaff was incredibly efficient, even on night 1! I loved that from appetizers to dessert and coffee took about 90 minutes OR LESS! To me, this is perfect! On our last couple of cruises it was 2+ hours, and while I love the formal dining experience, this was a bit long for us...

 

[fatcat04]

Yikes!! What special kind of idiot lets their kids pull up a chair to the balcony railing, climb up, and lean over? We are pretty laid back parents but that kind of dangerous behavior plus disturbing others is a huge and well explained no-no. I'm glad you called the front desk.

 

We too had to be careful of slammed balcony doors (they are heavy)  and our little one is an early riser much to our chagrin, I don't do 6am well on vacation. We apologized to our neighbors several times and they were always kind. They too had little ones so they may have been in the same boat, pun intended.  

 

Enjoying all your great pics!!

Edited May 1, 2019 by fatcat04

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad you decided to tell guest services about the children and standing on chairs, etc.

 

Your table location looks ideal for people watching -- we like to do the same thing.

 

Those bulbs hanging from the ceiling remind me of Christmas ornaments.

[1of4]

Wow on your neighbours!  I think I would have been on the phone too as I couldn’t tolerate the little darlings staring over the barrier (yikes) or the slamming.  That’s why families get such a bad rap on HAL.  Oh and our first choice for dinner table is along the upper railing.  We love it!

[mocruzer]

Thanks for a great review and pictures.      

[ski ww]

Enjoyed your review & photos.

[sailawaybellaluna]

I made an error...this was actually table 289, and we had a table for six. It was lovely!

[sailawaybellaluna]

Thanks everyone for reading along up to this point...

 

After dinner we decided to stroll around the Promenade deck and enjoy the sunset. It was a gorgeous evening!

 

 

After strolling around, we decided to head back to the cabin and get the kids down so they could start getting on a relatively good schedule with the time change. The next morning we would be docking in Grand Turk and I was super anxious to get off early and snag chairs (for free!).

 

Here's a look at our cabin after the steward turned it down for us. Cozy. 🙂

 

 

Next up: Grand Turk!

[sailawaybellaluna]

Let me just pause for a moment before starting our day in Grand Turk and upload the Spa Menu. I wasn't able to partake in any spa treatments during this cruise, but here is the price list in case anyone is interested.

 

 

 

[sailawaybellaluna]

We woke up to a gorgeous arrival into Grand Turk, and a lot of loud talking and yelling on the balcony from our neighbors. 🙂

 

It was a beautiful day, and it was fun to watch as we sailed in. I wanted to scope out Jack's Shack and also see the best place to sit. The last time we were in Grand Turk was 2014, and we had a great beach day. It was so easy to just grab the (free) chairs and umbrellas provided by the cruiseline.  However, I had been reading a lot lately on CruiseCritic about how these chairs now take a back seat (literally) to many other vendors renting their own chairs and umbrellas immediately near the water line. 

 

This is a struggle for me because as a cruiser, I'm well aware that my dollars don't always support the local economy the way in which they could (or should). At the same time, I'd love to sit for free if it's available to me and not negatively impacting anyone else. Since we have very young kids who want to jump in the water, I really wanted to be in the front row, just near the water's edge so I could keep a close eye on them. So, I had decided to get off the ship quite early today (I ordered room service at 6:30am, much to my husband's chagrin!), and we were off the ship by around 8:20am.

 

 

 

It was gorgeous out, and the crowds hadn't yet arrived, despite the Carnival Sensation being docked next to us already.

 

We found chairs and umbrellas right near the water's edge, close to the pier. At 8:30am, there were about 12- 15 of them left. Everything else had been taken (at the water's edge - still plenty available on the beach) or the vendors had moved their chairs and umbrellas directly to the water's edge.

 

So I grabbed six chairs and three umbrellas and moved them way down on the sand, so no one could set up in front of us. It was perfect! And it was free!

 

The kids had a wonderful time digging around, and my son and I went snorkeling. There wasn't much to see, but it was great for him to practice his snorkel skills.

 

 

Grand Turk is a gorgeous beach with amazing sand! There are lots of typical port shops there, clean bathrooms, a couple of eateries, and a bit of history about the NASA Splashdown.

 

 

More to come...

 

[surgie]

Love following along with your report! Thanks for taking the time to write and share pics. We'll be on NS in August and it's great getting your preview. 

[Cruising-along]

Your children are so adorable!  Enjoying your review 🙂 

[sailawaybellaluna]

1 hour ago, Cruising-along said:

Your children are so adorable!  Enjoying your review 🙂 

Thanks so much! We're lucky they are good little travelers!

[Germancruiser]

Thank you so much for providing these wonderful pictures- we are on board the Statendam in July for the Fjords- I saw the Statendam up close in Fort Lauderdale at April 14th- we were on board Silhouette for the Transatlanic! Cant wait to board the Statendam! Thanks again!

[fatcat04]

Excellent thinking getting out so early and moving your chairs and umbrellas down close to the water. I have been dismayed by the changes at Grand Turk. It used to be a favorite beach day for us but this last trip we spent very little time there due to the pushy vendors taking all the waterfront area and the loud vulgar DJ's and music from M-ville. 

[mudscraper]

1 hour ago, fatcat04 said:

Excellent thinking getting out so early and moving your chairs and umbrellas down close to the water. I have been dismayed by the changes at Grand Turk. It used to be a favorite beach day for us but this last trip we spent very little time there due to the pushy vendors taking all the waterfront area and the loud vulgar DJ's and music from M-ville. 

I totally agree.  We were there this past Nov. and there are loungers with pushy vendors from the pier all the way to Jack's Shack.  It was like running the gauntlet!

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Great report on Grand Turk.  Sorry to hear that the vendors are taking over the beach area.  Sure has changed since the last time we were there in 2016.

 

Your children are adorable.

[puppycanducruise]

I'm enjoying reading about your cruise. 

Great pictures.

Beautiful children.

Lucky you.

Looking forward to seeing more.  Thanks.

[sailawaybellaluna]

Thanks everyone for reading along up to this point...

 

Back to Grand Turk...Once we had our chairs set up, we had a great day! We really weren't bothered by vendors or anything...well, except a lady asking to braid our hair just once or twice.

 

It was a beautiful morning. This is where we sat, but directly down at the water's edge. As you can see, the green umbrellas and lounge chairs are the free ones provided by the cruiseline.

 

 

Here's another photo I took from the pier as we were leaving...You can see the green umbrellas and chairs again (free), and the ones the local vendors have set up for rent in front of them. We were in that area in the bottom right, along the front without anyone blocking us. I really attribute this to getting off early and pushing those chairs as far down to the water as they could go without getting wet. (The water line had moved a bit by the time this pic was taken...

 

 

 

 

And a final glance back as we were preparing to jump back onboard our beautiful ship!

 

[sailawaybellaluna]

We were back on board by around 2pm, and decided to order some room service and freshen up before dinner!

 

On this night, I didn't seem to take many photos at dinner, but here's a few pics around the ship:

 

 

After dinner on this evening, my husband took my son to see the Magic of Joseph Reohm show, and they both really enjoyed it! I took my daughter and my parents and went to listen to classical music at Lincoln Center Stage! We all loved it! On this particular evening they did a show called "movie classics", and it was really wonderful!

 

 

It began at 7pm, and it was great to be there right as the show started! Another endorsement to how efficient our dining staff was each evening!

 

Back to our cabin to see the towel animal before bed!

 

 

More to come...

 

[sailawaybellaluna]

Well, I may be the worst CruiseCritic review writer ever! I actually transposed the days! So, Day 2 (or the first full day of the cruise), was actually a Sea Day!

 

Let's just pretend I didn't reverse the order of our Sea Day and Grand Turk...

 

I found this little planner in the room to be helpful. I wish I had consulted it before I started typing out this review...

 

 

 

 

More to come about our Sea Day and first Gala Night on board...!

[sailawaybellaluna]

Here we go...Let's start our Day at Sea!

 

We woke up to a gorgeous day outside and had room service delivered to the cabin! Holland America has the best breakfast room service of any cruise I've been on, and I love that it's free! The hot omelettes are always delicious!

 

 

We always grab a couple of packs of dollar bills from the bank before cruising so we can easily tip the room service waiters...

 

After breakfast the kids decided to "visit" together on the balcony for a bit. I'm so happy when there is bright sun and gorgeous weather on a sea day!

 

 

I headed up to the deck to read for awhile and my husband and kids chilled in the room watching a movie...

 

 

It wasn't my day though...As soon as I got situated and set up here, a woman grabbed some lounge chairs and started moving them directly in front of my chair. So, I couldn't exactly see much except their backs...

 

See that two feet to the left between my chair and the railing? I thought I'd just enjoy that little view and go about reading my book. Except not a few minutes later, the captain announced there was a whale off the side of the ship, and that area was soon packed with about 20 people. I had scantily clad bottoms right in my face. 😩 I was a little surprised people found that to be the ideal place to stand... Gah! I guess living in Southern California, we see a lot of whales in the winter and early spring months as they migrate south, so I wasn't as excited about the whole thing.

 

I picked up and found a quieter area to sit. With less bottoms. 🙂

 

I was only up there about an hour or hour and a half before messaging my husband and meeting him and the kids at the pizzeria for lunch!

 

The New York Deli & Pizza overlooks the pool on Deck 10, and has a variety of made to order personal pizzas, as well as sandwiches, salads, chips and pretzels. Our family really enjoyed having lunch here on a couple of days! Service takes about 20 - 30 minutes, but you're given a beeper and the food comes out piping hot and delicious. This is all at no additional charge.

 

 

I also appreciated the beautiful bathroom right near the pizzeria! So easy to get cleaned up and wash hands before eating! And while it sounds strange, I really love that HAL uses little reusable towels to dry hands, but invests in paper toilet seat covers! The entire thing was just clean and serene. As serene as can be for a ladies bathroom that is! 🙂

 

 

Following lunch, we headed back to our cabin to get dressed and ready to explore the ship a little more, and head to Afternoon Tea!

 

More to come...