Rominesh

1 minute ago, PRgymnast said:

We need to know if this applies to Celebrity.??!?!

The press release is now on Celebrity's website.

21 hours ago, Barwick Cruiser said:

We’ve been in 6035 and it was super quiet...no noise from above or below. Only issue was the crew smoking area below but that was only a few times and only while in port. 

Can you elaborate? I didn't think there was anything but water below the sweet 16s.

The nice thing about Celebrity is the abundance of hand sanitizer. They had both people and stands for dispensing it practically everywhere. Between making sure to use it whenever encountered, and washing hands and wrists thoroughly, I don't feel too concerned. I will say, I was a fan of HAL's approach of only having staff serve food, but they also weren't offering the Purell to the same extent as Celebrity.

Just to add - we were on the NS for Thanksgiving week, first time on HAL, second cruise overall. I found the Music walk to be the absolute highlight of our cruise. Between RSRR, Billboard, Lincoln Center, and BB Kings, it felt like we were at a floating music festival. Musicians were all top-notch, selections were all good, and no issues with anything being overly loud, at least to us. 

1 hour ago, NCTribeFan said:

 

 

I've usually found that the MDR food tends to be over-salted.  You can always add seasoning.  Can't remove it!!

 

 

It wasn't so much the salt levels, as much as the food was devoid of any seasonings, period. For example, on the first night my partner ordered the Shrimp Diablo, as did the table next to us. It came out well presented, but both my partner and the other table both agreed it tasted like they just used a jar of generic tomato sauce. The crusted prime rib I had later had no crusting at all, and the sauce they served with the jumbo shrimp cocktail was basically mayonnaise. I can forgive the lack of salt, and could understand why that would be cut down, but the lack of basic herbs in the dishes was disappointing. That said, the premium restaurants had no issues, so I know they have these things on-board. We were mystified since there tends to be many wonderful reviews of HAL food on these boards and elsewhere. I'm hoping this was just an anomaly for this one voyage.

2 hours ago, Pokeymon said:

Did you clear immigration in Key west then just disembark in Ft Lauderdale the next day?

Yes, exactly that. No customs in Ft. Lauderdale to go through.

14 hours ago, Dulciana8 said:

Thanks for your review. 
 

We were also on this cruise. Question— did you have Anytime Dining in the MDR? I only ask because last year on the Oosterdam our dining experience (service wise) mirrored yours nearly exactly. This year on NS we insisted on fixed seating and service was fantastic— preemptive, responsive, and dare I say practically perfect. We did not personally experience issues with service in the Lido, but we saw others who did, so I know that this definitely was not the normal this go around. I will add that I think our particular situation was helped by having a five year old in tow (doesn’t always work to our advantage but in this case, it did). 

 We had set dining, the 5:00 seating to be precise.

Greetings! We just got home from our Thanksgiving week voyage on the Nieuw Statendam, and wanted to do a little write up on our experiences. This was our first HAL cruise, and our second cruise ever (first was earlier this spring on the Celebrity Equinox), so we are still relatively new to cruising as a whole.  

Before I start, a quick preface to my upcoming wall of text. We tried very hard to not directly compare this experience with our first experience on Equinox, because different ships, different lines, different expectations. That said, sometimes it proved difficult to not say, "well, this thing was much better on this ship".  I just want to make it clear that despite any negative aspect I may talk about, we still had an incredible experience and we would still sail on HAL again. As someone else has said, one has to try VERY hard to not have a good time on a cruise.

The Stateroom:

We had an inside cabin near the aft elevator banks on deck 6. Aft elevators are very convenient for access to the Dining room, the Lido buffet, and the aft pool area, as well as the Sun deck for great views. We felt very little in the way of vibration or noise, and although we encountered some choppy waters occasionally, not really much movement. What little there was just made for a good night's sleep. Our room stewards were almost always visible and their work was excellent.  I had only one complaint about our room location, but I'll detail that in this next section.

The Ship: 

Nieuw Statendam was utterly gorgeous with very classic lines. The ship is filled with museum quality artwork almost everywhere. Almost all of the artwork on-board is themed to tie into music and performance. I loved the amount of open deck space, as we frequently like walk around the ship, especially in the evening. For the most part I think they layout of the public rooms were well designed and flowed naturally. My one single gripe about the design, tied into our room location, was the frequent necessity to have to travel either through cabin corridors or to traverse multiple elevator banks/stairwells to access other public spaces or open decks. To go from our room to the the crow's nest or sky deck we either had to go down to deck 2 or 3, then walk all the way forward, then take another elevator up, OR go up to deck 11, walk past the sports court area, then enter more cabin corridors to access the forward elevator bank. I didn't like having to enter cabin corridors from public areas just to access public areas.

Also, while beautiful and well designed, the Lido pool area was almost always oppressively hot and humid with little breeze despite a partially open roof. Some of the public rooms also seemed to struggle with adequate cooling.

The Entertainment:

This was the absolute highlight for us, and was completely unexpected. We knew going in about the music walk,  and was anticipating enjoying the offering, but we were not prepared for how it turned into a must-attend affair each evening. On any given evening, we went from enjoying a classical string quintet playing various selections, then traipsing over the the rock room to enjoy some really good classic rock tunes, then moving over to Billboard for the dual pianos (and the two artists here, Colin and Rachel,  were AMAZING), and then finishing up with some blues and jazz at BB Kings. At one point I think I muttered that this was like being at a floating music festival.  Elsewhere, in the theatre, we got a high-tech experience with several offerings that delighted us. The use of the 270 degrees of screen was well utilized with the BBC oceans presentation, as well as the dance troupe that used the screens and projectors as an interactive aspect. We also attended a few of the new EXC presentations and these also used the screens and projectors and were both informative and entertaining.

Before I go on, I want to inject a quick note here.  I've heard and read some complaints about the lack of production shows on HAL. I get it, big shows are what some people prefer. But I think this is good for both HAL and the cruise industry in general. HAL is doing something different and innovative by offering something others don't.  And if/when we cruise with HAL again, this is going to be a huge part of why.

The Food:

Our single biggest disappointment. Not because of quality; everything was cooked and presented perfectly. It was the taste. Almost everything in the Dining room and Lido was bland. We are not people who frequently add salt to food, but we found ourselves adding salt and pepper to our dishes, more often than not. Deserts tended to be boring and slightly tasteless, and simple-to-make foods like eggs tended to be watery and rubbery. The exceptions were specialty dining; we ate at Tamarind, Nami Sushi, and Canaletto (couldn't get Pinnacle sadly) and all were on par for what we expected the food to taste like. Also the Deli and Dive-in were excellent.

Service:

For the most part, service met or exceeded our expectation, with a handful of exceptions. Service was a mess in the dining room (and lido) for the first 3 days, and it was bad enough that a table next to us actually got up and left with frustration. We had breakfast on day 2 in the dining room, and people were waiting upwards of 20 minutes for their drink orders, or in one case, a person getting their food served, but not their dining partner. Then, magically, it was if a switch was flipped on Wednesday and everything was suddenly working, at least in the Dining Room (Lido was still hit or miss with drink service). We actually ended up speaking with a senior staff member about this on the last day of the cruise, and before we could tell them we noted the service level seemed to have reversed itself midway, they asked, "Did it seem to improve by day 3 or 4?".  Turns out there was 3 major events that hit them simultaneously: the transition from European to American cruising (they had just completed their transatlantic crossing), Thanksgiving week, and most notably, quite a few new contracts had just started this week. It was just an unfortunate storm of timing, and as I noted above, almost everything was moving at or above expectations by mid-week (except Lido - man, at times that was an exercise in frustration).
 

Ports:

We aren't beach people, we're more into exploration and adventure into local culture and history. We didn't book any excursions for this as we were just looking for some relaxation and doing things on our own. That said, Half Moon Cay was a pleasant surprise. Clean, gorgeous, and well maintained, we had much more fun than I thought we would. The cookout was also very good. The other ports were Grand Turk, Amber Cove, and Key West. Grand Turk was...not a lot. There was some history to delve into, but the island is so depressed and poorly maintained. I understand there are some wonderful beach-y and water-y type things to do, but...yeah. Amber Cove was fantastic, and the area made for some fantastic panoramic pictures. Key West is Key West. 

Summary:

We had high, but guarded, expectations. We came off an almost magical first experience with Celebrity Equinox, and we didn't want to try to project similar expectations onto this cruise. First cruise, that new car smell, etc, we understood nothing will probably beat that first impression and tried to not let us influence this experience. And I think we succeeded, for the most part. We ended up being pleasantly surprised by a few things, thoroughly enjoyed the ship, the staff, and the entertainment.  Service was a disappointment at first, but that improved, and now having the knowledge of the why behind the first few days, we're at peace with that. I can only hope the food issues (blandness) was just an isolated incident and not indicative of food typically served on HAL. We look forward to sailing on Nieuw Statendam and with HAL again.

I just wanted to add my thanks for your very finely detailed posts! We are sailing on her this spring for a similar cruise, minus Quebec and Charlottetown, and this will be first cruise on a M class, and second cruise ever (first was Equinox this past spring). Beyond giving us a glimpse of the ship, I really appreciate you covering the ports of call in such detail and really helps give us some ideas on what to plan and visit. I'd no idea about those gardens in Halifax and now we have gleefully added that to our list of things to do. As we aren't experienced cruisers, we were anxious about the size and age of the Summit compared to our first experience on Equinox, which was almost magical. This really has set our minds at ease.

Edit: Apologies, I DID miss your write up of Tuscan in your thread -I've read it and understand now. I am curious if you've been to other Tuscans on the fleet and how you would compare them.

3 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

If you just scan this forum, you'll see that I'm in the midst of my review of our just-completed two weeks on the Summit.  We ate at all the specialty venues, and I've given my thoughts on each.  By the time you sail, Qsine will have been replaced by Le Petit Chef.  Do a search in this forum and you'll find many discussions about this. Only you can decide whether it seems too gimmicky for you.  Or, you might find it a fun thing to do on your last night.  We've never eaten at LPC, so I can't speak from personal experience.  (I would not spend my money on Tuscan Grille any longer.)    (I've posted the link to my review thread below; if you haven't seen it yet, you might find it helpful as you prepare for your cruise.  There are also other threads here in which folks have recently reported live from the Summit; there's been a great deal of interest in her since she was just "revolutionized.") 

 

 

I've been following your review thread with great interest, as we're going on the Summit in May for NE/Canada. I don't think I've seen your review of Tuscan yet, but I'm curious as to the cause of your dissatisfaction. We had our very first cruise earlier this year, on Equinox, and I found the Tuscan there to be excellent, and was looking forward to it on Summit. Would you mind elaborating a bit?

Much appreciated!

Hello all! We're going on our first HAL cruise in November on the Nieuw Statendam, and have been combing the internet looking for pictures or similar of the current MDR dinner menus, so we can plan which nights we want to make specialty dining reservations. Is anyone able to provide any information on their nightly offerings? Many thanks in advance!

Hi! We're taking our first HAL cruise in November on the Nieuw Statendam, and our second ever cruise (first was on the Equinox this past spring). I was wondering if they offer discounted dining packages while on-board, like Celebrity often does, or is it better to pre-purchase what restaurants we want prior? Also, is Nami Sushi strictly ala carte, or do they sometimes offer all you can eat specials? Thank you!

1 minute ago, Turtles06 said:

 

You don’t have to have a cruise booked on any ship to view the upcoming sailings on the ships supported by the app (and the little model ship graphics). 

Ahh! I was not aware of that; after our cruise ended, the app went blank and thought it was only for currently booked. Thanks for the heads-up; I'll play around with it now, knowing this.

Just now, Turtles06 said:

 

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT200289

 

https://support.google.com/android/answer/9075928?hl=en

 

 

I already know HOW to take an image, but as I don't currently have a cruise planned for the Summit, I cannot view the ship in the app. I was asking more for someone who currently DOES have a planned cruise on the Summit for a picture of the ship from the app.

46 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

Are you asking for a screenshot of what’s on the app?  

Yes, exactly that :)

I know this may sound like a weird request, but can anyone provide a picture of the overhead view of the Summit taken from the Celebrity App? The one where the ship's bow is pointing to the top of the screen and it looks like a model of the ship, not an actual photo of the ship. Thanks in advance!

1 hour ago, Greenymac said:

Whoa wait, so they're going to do half the job??? That makes NO sense... We are on in September and hoped everything would be good to go.

The Oasis accident *really* messed up their timetables. There isn't much they can do about it; they have scheduled cruises and I'm sure they'd rather not cancel those.

1 hour ago, Essiesmom said:

Refreshing of the cabins can be done while at sea.  Not ideal, perhaps, but much of that is done by the crew who are not serving guests (since there aren't any...) and would be done by them anyway in drydock no matter where it is.  They certainly aren't going to waste all those days...EM

It was implied, but not directly said (so take with a grain of salt), that a good deal of the equipment and furnishings were already in place at Freeport in preparation for the refit with little time and resources to get it all to Spain. It definitely sounded like, however, they are hoping to get some cabins refreshed, but are very uncertain how many will get done in time for the next sailing.

1 hour ago, X2tgibso said:

Hoping this is not correct, we sail in June and was looking forward to the Retreat upgrades.

From talking with the officers it seemed like they hoped to do the Retreat upgrades at the very least. They are very uncertain right now of exactly what they are going to have time to complete, but the added suites via the Sky Lounge conversion and the change of Silk Harvest to the new restaurant also sounded like a certainty.

Just off Equinox and can confirm. The accident with Oasis was at the docks they planned to use for refit and now they instead have to sail to Spain leaving only 2 weeks for refit instead of the planned month. They are drastically reducing their plans for refit and only hitting important stuff first, such as changing Fusion, and converting part of sky lounge to suites. They aren’t sure there will be enough time refit all cabins.