Nieuw Statendam REVIEW Jan 21-28, 2023

[CruiserKris34]

So, thank you to all who answered my questions prior to my cruise (not the ones who made fun of me for silly questions 😞 ).  For reference, this was my 8th cruise (6 on RC, 1 on Celebrity Apex & this on HAL).  I'm an empty nester & in my 50's & love kids but not a ton on a cruise.  I prefer a quieter, relaxing time & love the beach & sun.  I would be happy to answer any questions.

 

The GOOD:

STAFF - 10+ out 10.  I did not encounter even 1 rude or unhappy worker.  I saw one playing peek-a-boo with one of the very few toddlers on board (very sweet).  My adult niece has Williams Syndrome (mild form of Downs) & she was treated like a queen.  The staff was so wonderful with her & she had a fabulous time.  In particular, TAO was funny & kind.  He was always saying "Who needs their medicine?!"  🙂  Jose led some pool-side dancing that my niece loved. 

CHECK-IN - we had an 11:40am time, but our hotel shuttle got us there around 10:30.  We showed our boarding pass & passport & got our picture taken & went to the "waiting room" until they opened.  I think it was 11am. AWESOME.  It was announced the cabins were ready around ? maybe noon or 1.  Great!

SHOWERS - the largest I have ever seen on a ship.

HALF MOON CAY - ranks up there in my top 3 prettiest beaches/water color.  

FOOD - loved Dive-In burgers/dogs & the pizza near the pool.  Main Dining room was mostly good with a few exceptions.  Ribeye at Pinnacle was AMAZING & the waitress (Yunia) did a mini photo shoot with the flower on the table when I asked her to take our picture.  Bread pudding at the buffet was great 🙂   Loved having a "Skinny" latte at the Dutch Cafe with Sugar free caramel syrup.  Clairabelle & Lesley took care of me each morning.  

POOLS - loved the steps in both pools as opposed to just a horrible ladder.  Also LOVED the cushions at the Lido pool loungers & all of the comfy chairs with sea views (even beds lol).

CASINO - I like to gamble lol.  Loved using our sea card and not tickets for slots (balance goes on your account). Slots were tight for me, but not surprised.  We did some roulette & the lady was very nice.  Not sure why there was a separate room for some machines?  Maybe as some point it was smoking?  There were only a few very small sections for smokers, so the smell was not too bad. 

THEATER - loved the comedian.  The other shows were decent, but boring for me.  Seems like a waste of a beautiful theater. 

 

The BAD (or could have been better):

TECHNOLOGY - the website before the cruise was horrible.  So many "Service Errors".  I was waitlisted for an excursion, so when I called before the cruise when it was available, they made me put it on my credit card instead of using my HIA credits & then I had to wait in line on the ship to have it reversed from my CC & use my HIA excursion credits.  Very frustrating.  The Navigator app was quirky.  The chat feature worked, but messages from one person looked like they came from another one in our group.  Good start HAL, but needs work.  Also, with the HIA wi-fi ONLY ONE can be on at a time.  How stupid.  We had to keep kicking each other off. 

EXCURSIONS - oh my this was horrible.  We booked the Cayman highlights HELL & beach.  To tender, we waited 1.5 HOURS in the theater 😞  They were letting non-excursion people on the tenders BEFORE us.  So, we get on a bus and made 2 stops (1 souvenir shop & the HELL post office).  We get to the beach & it is beautiful.  The umbrellas were new but VERY CHEAP.  They kept blowing down the beach & it was not even that windy.  An accident waiting to happen IMHO.  Waited 40 minutes on the deck to order food & waited another 40 minutes for the food (which was really good).  The menu was in Cayman $.  I thought we were paying $64, but in US, it was $80.  The 2 guys were very nice & had great intentions but this was a wasted day for us & most wanted to go back to the ship early.  I wanted to go to the Excursion desk to complain, but the hours were so limited, I did not even make it and I think they were not even open most of the time.  I would have been ok with the day if the umbrellas would have stayed in the sand because I understand we are on island time.

MISC - hot water was out for about 3 hours one afternoon.  The inside cabin was so small & not even a chair, but I knew this.  The buffet did not have as much of a selection for dinner compared to other lines.  I thought the buffet food was good, but some in our party were not impressed.  Cigarette smoke drifts to the one side of the sea view pool, which is where the sun was.  Waited in the airport shuttle line for 35 min, but was organized well. 

 

So, overall, would I go on another HAL cruise?  Probably not, unless I got some great deal.  A year ago, we had a fabulous time on Celebrity Apex which just seemed to be a better overall cruise, so that is mainly what I have to compare to.  I try not to sweat the small stuff, but this is just how I saw it.  We had a great time, but with so many other options out there, HAL needs to improve on some things.  

 

 

 

 

[*Miss G*]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and I am sorry your first time with HAL was disappointing.  I am glad there were some bright spots.  

[Cruising-along]

Thank you for your honest post.  We sail both HAL and Celebrity, but more HAL.  We have another Celebrity cruise coming up in September.

The Nieuw Statendam is my favorite ship, we most recently spent a month on the NS this past fall.  I agree about Tao, he's a jewel!  

That's terrible about your shore excursion!  I've never seen a time when they let non-excursion passengers on the tenders before ship excursions.  Not good to have you sitting for 1.5 hours.

[erewhon]

Thank you for taking time to review your cruise.

[albingirl]

I agree about the shore excursions.  The shore excursion desk has limited hours, too, and sometimes a long line.  To be fair, some people seem to take forever when they get attention at the desk. Thank you for your review.  Sorry you were disappointed in several areas of your experience.

[Banditswife]

We had a HAL shore ex in Gr Cayman last fall, it was horrible too.  So next time in Gr Cayman we will DIY.  Thanks for your review.  

We also found the HIA included WIFI pretty bad.

 

[TickledBlue]

We were on the same sailing.  Rather than starting a new topic, I'll borrow the OP's format and add my thoughts here:

 

For reference, we are a bit more experienced cruisers with this being our 38th cruise (many on RCL and Celebrity, several on NCL and MSC, 3 previous on HAL).  We're also empty nesters & in our 50's.

 

The GOOD:

STAFF - All of the staff were really great and looked after us.  We did not have HIT so in the Lido buffet, it was great to have staff offer to serve you water/iced tea/lemonade/coffee rather than get it ourselves.  This is one of the pluses that HAL has versus the others that typically will serve bar drinks (at extra cost) only. 

CHECK-IN - Relatively pleasant and took maybe 30-40 minutes from curbside-to-ship after showing up at 10:20 am.   When you show up, they don't look at the assigned check in times.   If you were in a Neptune (or higher) suite or 4/5-star, you were directed to go up an escalator where you'd get priority check-in and boarding.  There were 2 lines after that for priority or regular check in.  Both lines were a very short wait to get passports scanned and picture taken, then given a boarding group number card.  Rest of the time was sitting in the waiting area waiting for your boarding group number to be called to make the way onto the ship.   Here's a tip:  If you like Pepsi products, there's a vending machine in the waiting area to purchase them -- $2.50 for 16 oz. bottle (cheaper than the Coke products on the ship, if you don't have a drink package).

HALF MOON CAY - we're not big beach people but we do enjoy this private island because of the walking pavers on the paths, the cleanliness, the abundance of available beach chairs, shade, and restrooms.  The perfect weather helped as well.   We were there at high tide which made the beach much narrower than when we were there last November.   I enjoy snorkeling and honestly, it's not great here but can be done right from shore.   Because of high tide, the water was a bit cloudy but did clear up on occasion.

FOOD - we think the food is, in general, some of the best at sea.  We're not foodies, so YMMV.   We particularly loved the MDR food which is very well-prepared.   HAL doesn't have lobster night but they do have swordfish (one of my favorites) night.   The Lido buffet food is generally very tasty as well although it could be hit-or-miss.   Dive-In burgers/dogs and the New York pizza & Dele makes freshly prepared and good food that came to the rescue when I didn't find anything in the Lido that appealed to me.  The Dutch Café offered food as well that I wanted to try, but MDW wasn't going for it.  I did manage to have 1.5 of their delicious huge chocolate-covered cream puffs.

WORLD STAGE (THEATER) - The layout of the circular theater and LED walls/floor made for stunning visuals but also limited the number of guests that could partake.   The comedian was excellent and he tailored his material to crowd well, but his 7:30 show was standing room only and not an intimate environment.  We enjoyed the production shows but they were the exact same ones we saw on the Eurodam last November.    The captain's presentation held in on the World Stage was both informative and very entertaining.   

MUSIC WALK -  Love the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll room/band although it was a little on the loud side.  After the first night, I attended a "Morning Talk" between the cruise director and the hotel director where a fellow passenger complained of the volume level in there.   I was pleasantly surprised that they listened and turned it down a notch the following night (but still on the loud side).  Also, the Lincoln Center Stage was entertaining.   With BB Kings and Billboard, seemed like most could find music that appealed to them. 

MISC - There were a handful of kids/teens on the ship and all well-behaved and monitored by adults (assuming they were parents or grand parents).   

 

The BAD (or could have been better):

TECHNOLOGY -  The Navigator app could use more work, at least on Android (not sure how well it works on the iPhone).  Without fail, when switching from public wi-fi to ship wi-fi, it needed to be restarted and its cache cleared.  Even when not switching wi-fi, it needed to be stopped/re-started to respond many times.   This was the same experience that we had on the Zaandam and Eurodam last year.   

POOLS/HOT TUBS - The two pools are very small for this size of ship and were pretty crowded during peak times of days.  Pretty sure they were no larger than those on the Eurodam which is 20% smaller.   Only 4 very small hot tubs and 1 medium hot tub for general use which made for crowded hot tubs too.  I think there was a hot tub in the retreat and there was the hydro pool in the thermal suite, but those cost extra.

EXC TALKS - I generally enjoy informative talks but having the cruise director providing canned presentations (although they are very professionally produced and she did an excellent job) pales in comparison to having subject matter experts provide talks.  I had to walk early out of the "Spirit of the Caribbean" because it was like watching a long ad for Barcardi and John Watling's rums.   

 

Overall, we had a very good cruise but I'd place it in the middle of the pack of all the cruises that we did.  HAL needs to improve on some things but I don't think that's forthcoming in the near future since they are in the midst of cost-cutting measures.

 

Would we do another HAL cruise?  Yes definitely, given a good deal, but we'll wait awhile.  The entertainment was pretty repeated.   Also, we preferred the smaller Zaadam and Eurodam since they weren't as crowded in public spaces. 

Edited January 30, 2023 by TickledBlue