LIVE Thanksgiving Review Nieuw Statendam Rome -> FLL My First Transatlantic Nov 26 - Dec 10 🦃

[Haljo1935]

13 hours ago, pinkiek said:

Good morning:

 

Sounds like a wonderful cruise.  Thank you for your review. My husband and I are sailing on the Nieu Statendam on December 10th.  

 

I have 2 questions.  Are the cabin walls magnetic and what are the key cards like?

 

Thanks!!

We will leave her in good condition for you. 🤭

Yes, you can use magnets on the walls (and doors).

Key cards have a hole 

doors are tap to open.

[Haljo1935]

15 hours ago, hrhdhd said:

Have a great day. PD was my favorite port on my TA last year.

It was beautiful! We ended our day w/cappuccino and cheese at a Cafe across the street from our ship.

[Haljo1935]

14 hours ago, FLCruiser97 said:

This is a beautiful island. Hydrangeas everywhere.

Would love to see the hydrangeas lining the roads in bloom - I'm sure it's incredible. 

It is a beautiful place - even the garage cans are pretty, lol. And hydrangeas even grow there.

[Haljo1935]

9 hours ago, quilty964 said:

@Haljo1935I'm enjoying your reports!  Just wondering, how do you find a tour in FLL? Our flight home is later in the afternoon, HAL has some choices, but they are done noonish...that still gives us a lot of time at the airport.  Thanks for sharing!  Karen

You are correct the ship excursions end around noon. Viator and Shore Excursions Group (probably others) have tours all day.

[Haljo1935]

11 hours ago, ottahand7 said:

Smart move to have a 6:00 pm flight.  All the cruise crush and wheelchairs will have probably already departed.  

We originally had an earlier flight, but seat selections were limited and prices higher, so we moved it a bit later to resolve both those issues.😏

Last time our cruise ended in FLL, we flew back from Miami, but Luggage Direct is not an option for Miami flights. So, we went w/the later flight from FLL.

[Haljo1935]

9 hours ago, charliebeagledog said:

Has anyone noticed how they are having local cheeses from the ports we visit in the Lido.   After Malaga they had some wonderful choice from there and today they had a ton of cool choices from São Paulo Azores plus fresh Pineapple from the island (and were sautéing some of it at the station across from all the cheese…yum!).  

The different cheeses are impressive and definitely a premium touch to us.   

the HA Fleet Executive Chef is on board and seems to be directing lots of these things ( he did a Q&A yesterday and we saw him directing the setup of the cheese display.
 

This is our first HA cruise ( we’ve been on celebrity a bunch previously).  We are really enjoying ourselves!!

Welcome to HAL!! We missed the cheeses and pineapple 🍍- glad you made it up there.

HAL does a pretty good job with providing local options at many ports; this one sure lent itself to some good choices. We had cheese & pineapple (our excursion made a pit stop at the plantation) in port; sad we missed them onboard.

[Haljo1935]

11 hours ago, POA1 said:

Are the Christmas holiday drinks on the bar menus yet? We did the holiday mixology class during our Christmas cruise on the Zuiderdam in 2018.

Have not seen any yet; will continue to check.

Curiously, I am not able to find the drink menu pictures I took; can only find some of the special event fliers.

[Haljo1935]

On 12/3/2023 at 3:21 AM, BetsyS. said:

Have a great day! 😊

We made it!

It was fabulous!

Caused a traffic jam at the alcohol table, but made curfew.🫣

Let go of the last of our lines at 4:53.

Bye bye Ponta Delgada!

[ksmaxey]

We LOVE the cellar master dinners.  We HATE the environment of the Canaletto.   We are not going to pay that kind of $ to sit in a fish bowl with the noise of the Lido for such a great meal.  Rudi's is nearly empty every night and would have been a much better location for the cellar master meal and we would have jumped on it there.

[ksmaxey]

I attended the coffee chat with the executive chef a few days ago and he said that they would begin transitioning menus from Mediterranean to Caribbean on this part of the cruise after Ponta Delgada

[hrhdhd]

"Special's" [sic]. I see HAL still doesn't have a proofreader. 

 

Glad you got back onboard for the prize: all those sea days!

[Haljo1935]

1 hour ago, ksmaxey said:

I attended the coffee chat with the executive chef a few days ago and he said that they would begin transitioning menus from Mediterranean to Caribbean on this part of the cruise after Ponta Delgada

Thanks for the post - I did not attend and am happy to learn of the menu shift.

[Haljo1935]

8 hours ago, southseaers said:

We enjoy all your postings, thanks for sharing. We board on Sunday, Dec 10th, can you tell us who the hotel manager is, and who the food and beverage manager is. We thank you again for all your information on the Nieuw Statendam. Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

F&B Dir is Mehmet Musacali

Hotel Mgr is Mustafa Gulbahar

[Haljo1935]

There has been local "catch" for each port; I didn't see it to post because we don't go to Lido for dinner. So, I have not been reading the Lido Dinner notices in the Navigator. 

 

Also missed the final day for $25 deposits and pre-paid grats for same reason - I didn't look at the in-box messages in the Navigator. 🙄

[southseaers]

Thank you for getting these pictures. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your trip. Your pictures have been so nice to follow

[POA1]

5 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

Have not seen any yet; will continue to check.

Thanks. I appreciate it. The selection of holiday cocktails were a nice addition, but we actually sailed over Christmas so maybe it's too early.

[Haljo1935]

14 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Thanks. I appreciate it. The selection of holiday cocktails were a nice addition, but we actually sailed over Christmas so maybe it's too early.

I'll keep checking. Now that the Azores is behind us, I need something else to be my daily focus, lol.

[Haljo1935]

43 minutes ago, southseaers said:

Thank you for getting these pictures. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your trip. Your pictures have been so nice to follow

So kind 😊 It was fairly cloudy the first part of the day, so the pictures from atop the mountain are not nearly as stunning as the actual view.

Due to lack of sunshine, the blue and green colors were not visible in the lake.

Living near Ft Worth, I know Cowtown - this is not the same, lol.

[flcraigs5]

49 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

So kind 😊 It was fairly cloudy the first part of the day, so the pictures from atop the mountain are not nearly as stunning as the actual view.

Due to lack of sunshine, the blue and green colors were not visible in the lake.

Living near Ft Worth, I know Cowtown - this is not the same, lol.

This was my favorite port on our transatlantic back in 2019!

[ksmaxey]

here is a picture of the starlink antennas around the lido pool dome

[Haljo1935]

Drink prices as found in the Lido

Leaded

Unleaded 

[Beach Basket]

3 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

F&B Dir is Mehmet Musacali

Hotel Mgr is Mustafa Gulbahar

Mustafa is a fabulous guy! 

[Haljo1935]

1 hour ago, flcraigs5 said:

This was my favorite port on our transatlantic back in 2019!

I can understand why - it was fabulous!

Tour guide Louis says it's a 4.5-5 hr flight from Boston, so very doable 🤔

[Haljo1935]

3 minutes ago, Beach Basket said:

Mustafa is a fabulous guy! 

He attended our M&M and is the one who told us about the ADA compliant modifications being made to the fleet. He is very approachable. 

[Haljo1935]

6 hours ago, ksmaxey said:

We LOVE the cellar master dinners.  We HATE the environment of the Canaletto.   We are not going to pay that kind of $ to sit in a fish bowl with the noise of the Lido for such a great meal.  Rudi's is nearly empty every night and would have been a much better location for the cellar master meal and we would have jumped on it there.

So disappointing  - it's such a lovely venue; they really should make use of it.