Nieuw Statendam review; good cruise but HAL you can't cut everything

[RedneckBob]

Forgot to mention there were no guest speakers on the 12/3/22 cruise and there were no groups.

[RedneckBob]

12 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

HAL still has horse racing but only at HMC.............Btw, thanks a bunch for a very well detailed and informative report!

 

And my horse Sea Biscuit is leading !

[Sunseeker810]

I was on this ship in November.  I was a casino invited guest.   I had a complimentary drink package.  Unfortunately, it took 3 days for anyone to acknowledge it!  The main desk blamed the casino, and the casino blamed the main desk.  I showed the the print out that I had brought with me and still nothing.  On the forth day the drink charges were removed, BUT now I was told that the drink package was only for me and that my Husband would have to pay for his drinks!  I have never heard of such a thing.  A casino invite is for me and my guest.  Was he supposed to sit and watch me???  I told my rep about this when I returned.  I have heard nothing from HAL.  Disappointing. 

 

Also, We only eat in the main dining room twice because the service was so slow.  

[Sunshineliving]

@LMaxwell- Do you know the piano players names at the Billboard?

 

[JennysUncle]

17 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

Anyone remember HORSE RACING on cruise ships?  And I was born in the 80's.......

Mid-Pacific on the P&O Arcadia, 1960.

[fellswoop]

Haven't been on HAL since restart. Going next month.  Did not know cabin attendant only came in 1x a day now. Can you specify morning or evening?

[RedneckBob]

2 hours ago, Sunshineliving said:

@LMaxwell- Do you know the piano players names at the Billboard?

 

That’s a great question. Just got off NS after 14 days and daily program never gave there names. Nor can I remember there names from listening to them play. 

[RedneckBob]

1 minute ago, fellswoop said:

Haven't been on HAL since restart. Going next month.  Did not know cabin attendant only came in 1x a day now. Can you specify morning or evening?

Our cabin stewards for Deck 6 aft, our cabin 6152 came twice a day and were outstanding! (Sailing 12/3-12/17/22). But only on dressy nite did receive a chocolate on the pillar. I bet that cutback really saves a lot of money.

[My & Mau]

Thank you L Maxwell for the great review. We were on the same cruise, and wanted to add some additional comments. Here goes:

• -This was by far the "friendliest" cruise we have ever taken...lots of eye contact with fellow passengers, "Good mornings," "Good .........," you name it, each and every day, which made the ambiance very comfortable. I suppose you could say this was because of the fact that so many of us have cancelled prior cruises, and this one was the one;)!!!!! But, it was as if we were all seeking each other out:):)....very special!!
• -We never had an issue for a "Table for 2," in the MDR, and truly appreciated the "Slower service."
• -The Sel de Mer gets high praise from us...the food was wonderful. Yes, it was pricey ($49pp), and Yes, it would have been nice to have lobster at the gala night dinners...but we enjoyed this meal so much...
• -The staff were up to their usual friendliness and accommodating manner; they seem genuinely willing to please...so many times we heard, "Thank you for coming back to us." It was really nice to be appreciated!!
• -We actually enjoyed the entertainment, and love the Music Walk concept. We also loved the technology, and found the digital with dance performance to be wonderful and highly creative!!!!
• -We found the one "Flower arranging" workshop to be enjoyable...and I wrote in my review that we need more cooking demo's, and definitely lecture/informational content...believe this would enhance the activity sphere;).
• -Happy holidays to all...our best wishes for your well being, M & M

Edited December 18, 2022 by My & Mau

[LMaxwell]

3 hours ago, fellswoop said:

Haven't been on HAL since restart. Going next month.  Did not know cabin attendant only came in 1x a day now. Can you specify morning or evening?

Yes, you can specify morning or evening. We wanted morning but did ask for fresh ice each evening to be dropped off; and it was.  

 

Rant: I know many of the mass market lines are cutting back to once a day services; this results in more volume of rooms for room attendants to service, not less work for them. It is a reduction in services while our per diem costs increase. I never make this the room attendants problem, but I am not a fan of the situation or what these companies are doing. I know they need to reduce costs and increase revenue, but I am not the CFO - I pay a lot of money to go on a cruise and don't want it to feel like a staycation. If they need to increase costs, services should also remain or even increase. Increased costs and decreased services is a loser in my book no matter what logo is painted on the smoke stack. 

[Cruise Suzy]

6 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

I know many of the mass market lines are cutting back to once a day services;

 

Had twice a day service without asking on Rotterdam 11/20-30 and Westerdam 7/17-24. Given option of once or twice a day on Roterdam 2/20-27.

[LMaxwell]

2 hours ago, My & Mau said:

 

• -We found the one "Flower arranging" workshop to be enjoyable...and I wrote in my review that we need more cooking demo's, and definitely lecture/informational content...believe this would enhance the activity sphere;).

 

Some of the different workshops were well attended and became popular fast; filling early for any repeats. I think the content of these is fine; but there should be more of them throughout the day. No cooking demonstrations that I am aware of anywhere - sometimes those are free, sometimes for a charge. The mixology class was fun.

 

HAL dropped the ball not having any cultural speakers or presentations at all, IMO. This is within their control and someone made a decision, again, to deliver less than they advertised. The whole program is outlined on their website as a ship feature.  Aruba and Curacao are culturally rich ports with extensive Dutch heritage; it would have been terrific to get a real lesson on them, as was expected. I tried to go to one port talk and it was just shopping map for the immediate port area. Nothing at all what I was looking to spend time on

 

More options and activities is always a benefit to the paying guest. You don't need 2500 people to be interested; but you provide a variety and it helps move people around the ship, interact more, get new experiences, etc.  

[Banditswife]

Thank you for your review.  We were on NS from 11/26-12/10.  I agree with most of your review.

*Cabin steward-On day 1 I told cabin steward I didn't care when our cabin was serviced, just whenever he had time & that 1x per day was fine.  But his team serviced our cabin 2x every day & did an excellant job of trading out towels, turning down bed & generally keeping our room clean.

*Entertainment-We were disappointed as well.  Glad we didn't attempt to see the comedian if it was adult type content- I just don't care for that type of entertainment & agree it should be noted in programing.  The 1 "step one" dance performance we attended was good.  I just felt they didn't utilize that beautiful theatre well enough.  

*Casino- we were told on day 1 that we had free drinks in casino, but not 1 time in 14 days did anyone ever offer us a drink.  We saw hosts standing around watching, but rarely saw a bar server roaming around.

*spa- agree about the upsells.  Had a bad experience there on a previous HAL cruise & decided it was not worth the $ or my time.  Having a spa treatment is supposed to be a relaxing enjoyable addition to a cruise.  How can we relax & enjoy the time there if they are constantly trying to upsell us.  I was also overcharged.  I cannot believe they told you pedicures were for women only- crazy.  On other cruise lines, I have seen men getting a manicure or pedicure while in the spa.  No wonder the spa always looked empty when walking by.

*dining- we chose to eat most meals on lido, so many choices & much quicker. 

Again, thank you for your review.

[Native Floridian 26]

On 12/17/2022 at 4:03 PM, LMaxwell said:

Happy Hour: Half price, entire menu. Two different venues. an hour at each one consecutively, not concurrently. Would like to see some more venues rotated in for variety, but they did usually do afternoon trivia to coincide with HH so that was good. Very reasonable prices. Not big drinkers so nice to get my daily cocktail or diet coke there. They give you peanuts. All the long timers made sure to tell me about the hot and cold apps they used to get at HH. 

Awesome review and timely as we're taking NS on the April Transatlantic.  Question though: The Happy Hour was truly BOGO free?  I have seen other threads that the HH is now B1G1 Half off.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Native Floridian 26

[LMaxwell]

22 minutes ago, Native Floridian 26 said:

Awesome review and timely as we're taking NS on the April Transatlantic.  Question though: The Happy Hour was truly BOGO free?  I have seen other threads that the HH is now B1G1 Half off.

 

The daily paper said 25% off select cocktails, wine, beer - This was PRINTED every day.  But was wrong. 

 

The Navigator app said 50% off. 

 

The bar staff every day told us it was 50% off the entire menu.  Not truly a BOGO as you don't have to pay full price, and you don't have to get 2 drinks. You can buy any single drink on the menu and be charged half the menu price. Or, yes, buy two and basically pay the menu price of 1 of them. It ran from 3-4pm in Billboard, 4-5pm at Ocean Bar. I so wish they had added a 5-6pm at Sea View or Explorations Central; again, just to mix things up a bit more.  However the 2 venues consecutively was better than Nieuw Amsterdam that was just 1 bar a day for 1 hour only.  

 

I have heard in the past they used to have night time happy hours; I did not see any advertised. The Panorama Bar on Deck 10 advertised "Martini Time" from 9-10pm each night; but no description anywhere of what that was and I never made it by at that time to find out. May have been another discounted menu; I am unsure. 

[vicd1969]

Great notes on your cruise experience on the NS. My Nieuw Statendam MDR and Tamarind experience largely matched yours this past November. Being burned by the slow MDR anytime dining, I’m going to aim for Club Orange next time whenever I sail a Pinnacle ship. For what it’s worth, our cruise director told us in her Q&A session that the shipboard staff have no flexibility in setting up activities - they have to follow the script from Corporate. It seems HAL is conceding the lack of ship activities as a comparative weakness and has a strategy of focusing on non-Caribbean itineraries and longer cruises to deploy their activities budget. 

[idiebabe]

@LMaxwelland @Banditswife  I’m not sure why you were told Pedicures for Women Only.  We were on November 5th and my Husband and I both went together and had a Pedi.  My Husband was done before me and a man came right after him for a Pedi.  

[PROCRUISE]

23 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

 

Was on the same cruise. Had to get to the Dutch Cafe early also if you wanted the fabulous apple pie!

[PROCRUISE]

3 hours ago, vicd1969 said:

Great notes on your cruise experience on the NS. My Nieuw Statendam MDR and Tamarind experience largely matched yours this past November. Being burned by the slow MDR anytime dining, I’m going to aim for Club Orange next time whenever I sail a Pinnacle ship. For what it’s worth, our cruise director told us in her Q&A session that the shipboard staff have no flexibility in setting up activities - they have to follow the script from Corporate. It seems HAL is conceding the lack of ship activities as a comparative weakness and has a strategy of focusing on non-Caribbean itineraries and longer cruises to deploy their activities budget. 

Was on this cruise 12/10 - 17/22 and bought Orange Club. The priority boarding was not handled well and the special event Orange Night at BB King Area was a joke. However, the cost was TOTALLY worth it due to the Orange Club Dining Room. So wonderful quiet compared to the MDR, outstanding and very personable waiters who were not rushed and food that was always served HOT. Will definitely add it again, tomorrow, to our February cruise on the Rotterdam.

[AFNavigator]

On 12/17/2022 at 3:03 PM, LMaxwell said:

The comedian they selected, while funny, was downright X rated. The shows centered around lewd sexual jokes. I was not mad about this, but very surprised that this was THE primetime entertainment and no notice of 18+, adults only, etc.

Personally, and everyone has their own taste, we loved the comedian Cisco Duran last week.  In his defense, he and the cruise director announced repeatedly that his later 9:30 show would be "edgier" and was not appropriate for anyone under 18.  Despite those warnings, which were repeated again before the later show began and by the comedian during the start of his late show, some people still brought their teens and pre-teens to the show.  I can't blame HAL or the comedian for those parent's questionable judgement--they were warned repeatedly.

 

I wouldn't call the comedian's late show an X-rated show though, more R-rated (once again, everyone has their own tastes so this is just my perspective).  I've seen Carnival comedians whose routines were tremendously more extreme than this guy.  Yes, the later show was primarily sexually oriented, with a very few 4-letter words uses, but most everything was something you might see on a cable TV comedy show.

[rodndonna]

20 hours ago, My & Mau said:

Thank you L Maxwell for the great review. We were on the same cruise, and wanted to add some additional comments. Here goes:

• -This was by far the "friendliest" cruise we have ever taken...lots of eye contact with fellow passengers, "Good mornings," "Good .........," you name it, each and every day, which made the ambiance very comfortable. I suppose you could say this was because of the fact that so many of us have cancelled prior cruises, and this one was the one;)!!!!! But, it was as if we were all seeking each other out:):)....very special!!
•  

 

Maybe just something about that ship,? We were on the previous week,  and of our four HAL cruises (all post Covid), it was the friendliest and best atmosphere cruise (everyone seemed to be just enjoying themselves). It was the least interesting itinerary of the four,  but our time on the NS in early December was the most overall "enjoyable" of the four.

 

We did come across quite a few "first cruise since Covid" folks, so you might be right in thinking that is factored in to why everyone was so pleasant.

[WriterOnDeck]

Regarding cultural speakers and experts, from my fall Westerdam cruise and things I've read it seems HAL is preparing canned talks with powerpoint slides, to be presented by the cruise director (whom I understand does not have responsibility for the activities staff). I'm sure most of the CDs do a fairly good job of presenting, but they add no value. HAL might as well make a video and show it. There is no Q&A. If it is not a standard 7-day Alaska cruise, for example, but a longer cruise, the CD probably hasn't even been to these areas. I saw many mistakes even on the CD's port talks, mostly because she hadn't been there as far as I could tell.

 

I agree the enrichment speakers, etc., are a key element of HAL cruises.

[DaveOKC]

Comment as to casino drinks.  There are a couple of options that the casino gives out - one is for drinks anywhere onboard, another is for drinks in the casino for both people in the cabin and the third is just for casino drinks for the "player" on the invite.  On our cruises we received a card to show the servers to get the drinks.

Remember that the drink service in the casino is not like Vegas - drinks are not free for players.  Of course a host can comp you drinks if they think your play warrants it.

[LMaxwell]

2 hours ago, AFNavigator said:

Personally, and everyone has their own taste, we loved the comedian Cisco Duran last week.  In his defense, he and the cruise director announced repeatedly that his later 9:30 show would be "edgier" and was not appropriate for anyone under 18.  Despite those warnings, which were repeated again before the later show began and by the comedian during the start of his late show, some people still brought their teens and pre-teens to the show.  I can't blame HAL or the comedian for those parent's questionable judgement--they were warned repeatedly.

 

I wouldn't call the comedian's late show an X-rated show though, more R-rated (once again, everyone has their own tastes so this is just my perspective).  I've seen Carnival comedians whose routines were tremendously more extreme than this guy.  Yes, the later show was primarily sexually oriented, with a very few 4-letter words uses, but most everything was something you might see on a cable TV comedy show.

 

Where were the warnings? The cruise director wasn't even present for the first few days; she was at a conference.  Yes, I have seen more extreme late night sets and listed as 18+ or adult only. 

[LMaxwell]

15 hours ago, idiebabe said:

@LMaxwelland @Banditswife  I’m not sure why you were told Pedicures for Women Only.  We were on November 5th and my Husband and I both went together and had a Pedi.  My Husband was done before me and a man came right after him for a Pedi.  

 

I don't know why I had to get the runaround lies from 3 different people in the spa at all. Won't happen again for me; these tactics are very scummy and designed to get people to pay more.