Koningsdam Review

We recently went on a B2B cruise on the Koningsdam from 21 April until 13 May starting in Rome and ending in Amsterdam. I will try not to repeat myself too much but apologise if I do in advance [emoji846]. We had previously cruised with Holland America in Alaska so knew what style of cruising it was and it didn’t disappoint,

Embarkation Day

Embarkation Day was so easy... we were greeted at the transfer van by the terminal staff who took care of our luggage whilst we went through processing. The staff were super efficient and before we knew it we were boarding. We were able to go straight to our cabin (7051) and drop our stuff off before heading to the Lido for a bite to eat.

Drinks

We pre-purchased a Soda Card, water package and also a Beverage card as we didn’t believe the drinks package was what we needed as we aren’t huge drinkers. We did however also pre-purchase the Cellar Door Wine No.1 Package which was 4 bottles of wine to use throughout the cruise along with the 2 bottles of wine we were able to take onboard when we first arrived. It may sound like a lot but we were on board for 22 nights and still worked out cheaper than the beverage package. We would pop along to the Lido deck if there was happy hour which usually meant buy 1 beer get another one for $2 which worked out not to bad when you converted it to NZ dollars.

Cabin 7051

Our cabin was a balcony cabin on the Schubert Deck and was really good except for the connecting door. The first part of the cruise was good as our neighbours weren’t that noisy but we had a change of neighbours halfway through and the new people obviously had hearing issues as we could hear most of what they had to say when they were on their room. Our cabin staff were amazing and always greeted us with a smile and our name which was amazing they could remember us. Our cabin was an unobstructed view.

Speciality Restaurants

We ordered the package that included the Canaletto, Tamarind and Pinnacle. The cruise line did put us down for all three restaurants for the first leg of our trip which we asked to change as we wanted to spread it out over the 22 days. Our favourite was Tamarind by far and we actually booked another night whilst on the 2nd leg of our trip. The Pinnacle was a bit disappointing to be honest.. the staff were not as friendly and efficient as the other restaurants but that was just our opinion.

Grand Dutch Cafe

Oh my goodness this was excellent, the staff were always friendly and it was great to try Dutch treats like apple pie, pannekoeken (Dutch pancakes) etc.

Tours

We did a few tours through HAL and they were very organised however we did notice that some people may have had differing ideas of what their physical abilities were. We went on a couple of tours that were described as ‘strenuous’ and yet some of the guests were out of breath walking from the ship to the bus which resulted in less time being spent seeing things. We totally understand that people have health issues but perhaps choosing tours more appropriate to your abilities would be suggested.

Overall Opinion

Since the increase in terrorism security had been beefed up, even to the point where we had to have a shuttle from the ship to the port exit in Belgium which was only 40 metres max away and took so much longer not to mention very frustrating.

Overall though we thoroughly enjoyed our cruise and would still recommend HAL to people we believe would suit that style of cruising (not ideal recommending it to people who want to be entertained 24/7).

We have heard that Amsterdam are looking at trying to stop cruise ships going there in the future as they can’t cope with the number of tourists so not sure if/when that may change.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thanks for the detailed review. We are planning to take Nieuw Statendam next summer for a Northern Isles cruise and since it is not yet finished being built I look for reviews of its sister ship, the Koningsdam.

Thanks for the review

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app