My review after one week on Nieuw Amsterdam

[amandas friend]

We did a 7 day cruise, inside passage round trip from Vancouver. Overall it was a wonderful cruise. The staff were wonderful. The ship is in very good shape and is easy to navigate. Food was a mixed bag- MDR was good but not great. The lunch in MDR is understaffed but better at dinner. Pinnacle Grill dinner was superb but slow. The Lido was much better than most buffets. The cruise director,Gage, was below par. Guest services were great. The three ports were Juneau( not impressed), Sitka (wonderful) and Ketchikan ( nice). There wasn’t much entertainment. The comedian was very good but on 3 nights the main showroom was dark. 
We will book HAL again and want to on a ship no larger than NA.

ps- I hope Julia approves of this post🤣

[syesmar]

@amandas friendThanks for sharing your experience! Appreciate you taking the time to share.

 

I'm curious: what did you do in Juneau? (I have some suggestions for a return trip, but don't want to repeat in case you did them). Was it a cloudy day when you were there?

 

Interesting about the Main Stage being dark for 3 nights. Was it planned or due to illness? I heard some ships were improving; hopefully things will get better on NA. 

 

All the Best!

[oaktreerb]

Thanks for your report.    I hope HAL will get this Alaska season going with some good entertainment in the showroom.  I would guess that “The Origin Story”, Holland America through the years, was shown in the main showroom.    There should have been some musical productions.  Sitka and Ketchikan are good ports because they have plenty of places to visit around the port.  Juneau is a good place for getting out of town to go whale watching!

 

 

 

 

[amandas friend]

Thank you for your feedback. Origins was showing in the daytime. I wish they would have a show every evening. 

[amandas friend]

Juneau was cloudy. We didn’t do an excursion 

[ski ww]

We enjoyed all our stops, in Juneau we did the panning for gold, the salmon bake, wandered around town & took the cable car to the top. You're right about the entertainment, it could use some work. 

[jimbob22]

On 5/3/2024 at 4:40 PM, amandas friend said:

We did a 7 day cruise, inside passage round trip from Vancouver. Overall it was a wonderful cruise. The staff were wonderful. The ship is in very good shape and is easy to navigate. Food was a mixed bag- MDR was good but not great. The lunch in MDR is understaffed but better at dinner. Pinnacle Grill dinner was superb but slow. The Lido was much better than most buffets. The cruise director,Gage, was below par. Guest services were great. The three ports were Juneau( not impressed), Sitka (wonderful) and Ketchikan ( nice). There wasn’t much entertainment. The comedian was very good but on 3 nights the main showroom was dark. 
We will book HAL again and want to on a ship no larger than NA.

ps- I hope Julia approves of this post🤣

we got on in San Diego, took it to Vancouver, and got off when you got on.  What didn't you like about Gage? My wife liked him (she attended one or two talks he did).  I don't keep up with CDs much, but thought he was fine. 

 

I also liked the size of the ship--although the Pinnacle class isn't that much bigger.  Since we were on the final 5 nights of a longer Panama Canal cruise, we did not get to see any of the stage shows.  Comedian Johnny Cardinale performed twice (he was actually really good).  And there was a pianist (Hyperion Knight, excellent) that performed twice.  And on the final night they just had a movie in the main theater.  So the entertainment was not real strong.

 

Our lido and mdr experiences were fine. We and others noticed that the hot water in the shower was on some annoying pump/cycle (around 10 seconds of hot followed by 3-4 seconds of tepid, repeat).  This was annoying.  And some parts of our fourth floor stunk like sewage; but overall the ship is in really good shape, looks similar to the newer ships.

[syesmar]

On 5/3/2024 at 3:40 PM, amandas friend said:

…The three ports were Juneau( not impressed)…

 

On 5/3/2024 at 9:01 PM, amandas friend said:

Juneau was cloudy. We didn’t do an excursion 

We’ve enjoyed the Blue Bus out to the Mendenhall Glacier. We’ve seen many eagles on the journey there, which I’ve loved. We’ve also enjoyed whale watching excursions in Auke Bay. The Alaska State Museum was within walking distance for us and we liked our visit after whale watching. We were going to take the tram to Mt Roberts but like your day, it was cloudy, so we wouldn’t have had visibility.

 

Thanks again for sharing! All the Best!

[mcrcruiser]

  Didn't  Juneau have   the trolley running ? Reason I ask is because there is a Russian orthodox church to visit & the state capital building  all available  by the trolley . Then there is the Red Dog Saloon for some laughs   .There is a aerial skyway as well  for Mt Roberts

Edited May 5 by mcrcruiser