Review- Nieuw Amsterdam - March 13-27, 2011

[ybarber]

We booked this cruise about 3 months ago. Myself, DH, DS and his Girlfriend went, DH and I were in an SC Aft suite and the "kids" were in a VF both on deck 5. It was our 3rd HAL cruise and the first for the kids! This was our second consecutive back to back.

 

We flew out of Cincinnati at 9:15 to FLL and arrived early. We got a cab and stopped at Walgreens for toiletry items and got to the port at 12:30. After heading to Suite check in, we were on the ship by 12:45. Our staterooms were ready so we checked them out, we loved our suite, dropped off our carry ons and went to the Lido. It was pure chaos there, but thinned out quickly. We unpacked and settled in to our new home for the next 2 weeks! Our Cabin Steward, Asep came to meet us and provided us with an extension cord for my cpap machine.

 

Our suite was huge and had an incredible balcony that wrapped around to the starboard side. It was to be a great place to hang out. We loved it. The kids spent a lot of time in our room and balcony too.

 

Sail away was right on time and we were on our verandah waving as we exited the inlet and then it was "cocktail" time. We headed to our favorite bar, on the aft pool deck. Here we met "Boozie"! What a character! He was in full performance mode and learned surnames and from then on, he remembered our names! Edwin was another server who took the time to learn our names and was very sweet!

 

Next we hit the Signature Shop and immediately found a couple things we couldn't live without. We met Ivan, Michnea, Ivette, and Bonita, who we enjoyed visiting with during our cruise.

 

We had late seating, table 65. Good location, but a little noisy. We had nice table mates and our Stewards, Ness and Wendra were very sweet. Our Wine Steward, Anna, is the best on the sea. Food was great and the service was spectacular!

 

Our first stop, on Monday was HMC. We just laid out on the beach, and then went back to the ship to eat. Good day for a nap.....it was formal night and we had a great time getting all dressed up. We had pictures taken and partied until late!

 

The next stop was Grand Turk. We shopped and then went to Margaritaville for a painfully long lunch. We should have went back to the ship to eat, but what the heck! I got a set of Larimar jewelry here for a good price.

 

Wednesday was our first sea day, which we enjoyed, and went to the Pinnacle for dinner. Food was great, service was very, very slow. We had to ask for a lot of forgotten items. Rather disappointing. Also, had room service for lunch for the four of us in our suite, off the luncheon menu in the MDR and it was great?

 

Thursday was Grand Cayman. We had booked an excursion, Reef and Rays,

and it did not disappoint. We had a great time snorkeling and visiting Sting Ray City. We did a little shopping, got some lovely perfume, and then went

back to the ship for lunch.

 

Friday was Costa Maya. We went on an excursion to the Chaccoben Mayan Ruins. Our guide, Jesus Rivero was highly knowledgeable, a Mayan descendant, and quite an entrepreneur. We loved the tour. On the way back to the Port, Jesus sold some of his unique Mayan Oil Coconut Candles and Siver Mayan Calendar Pendants. We bought some of each. After the tour, we went to Taxco to buy some silver chains for our pendants and saw Jesus again. He was very upset. One of our fellow passengers went to Taxco and told them that they had paid for pendants but he didn't give them to them so they got 3 more, and he was having to pay for the "stolen" pendants out of his pocket. We were very ashamed that someone on our ship would rip off someone who has so little. We talked to several officers on board about it who were going to look into it.

 

An officer joined our table for dinner, which was nice. It was formal night also. The dinner and service were great!

 

On our final sea day for the week we had couples massages with Josie and

Lady. It was awesome. While we were there we booked two more massage

for the next week and signed up for the Hydro Pool and Thermal Suite!

 

For our turn around day we went on an excursion to the Everglades on an air boat. It was a lot of fun. Upon our return we had a chaotic lunch in the Lido, then back to our cabins for a nap. No lifeboat drill for us, so we just chilled in our rooms and balcony while the "newbies" did their thing.

 

It was a great first week! I will post the review of the second week soon. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

 

Overall, everything except the service in the Pinnacle was great this week. Room service was spotty, sometimes lukewarm, but prompt. Laundry service was great. MDR service outstanding.

 

One week left!

[Krazy Kruizers]

great review

 

looking forward to your second week

[portofrome]

Thank you very much for the review.

[IRL_Joanie]

Great review of our Great Ship!!

 

Joanie

[SmokinActuary]

Thanks for the review!

[OVgirl]

So nice to hear that you enjoyed your cruise. We also got to know Edwin on our cruise and he was very sweet.

Hoping to hear more of your review for the second week.

[erewhon]

Thank you for your easy to read review.

Looking forward to your next report.

[PGV]

Thanks for the review! Looking forward to our trip on the Nieuw Amsterdam! Can you tell me how much was the hydro pool and thermal suite? Can you book it by the day or just for the week?

Thanks!

[ybarber]

The week long charge for the hydro pool and thermal suite is $199 for a couple.

 

I believe it is $40 pp per day.

 

The package is the way to go.

[ybarber]

Well, after our nap following our Everglades adventure we got ready for dinner and headed down to the MDR to our table, 65, to meet our new table mates. Our table mates from last week wanted a quieter spot, so they moved.

 

We met Bruno, who has over 900 days on HAL, who boarded the ship that day for an eastern and western Caribbean and then he was going on the transatlantic to Barcelona. Unfortunately, at 4PM, he tripped going into the bathroom and broke his ankle. He stayed on for the week only but had to cancel the rest of his cruise. He is such a nice man and we enjoyed him very much. He reads Cruise Critic, so if you read this Bruno, Hello!

 

A couple from Canada was also seated there nut said yhey wanted early seating and after talking to the MDR Manager were told they could change the next day. So we visited but did not try to get too attached.

 

The next day was a sea day and we had a massage booked and wanted to enjoy the Hydro Pool and Thermal Lounge, so we did! There was a storm front in the area and the seas were really rocking and rolling. Yes, it was bad enough that the barf bags were out by every elevator!

 

Now I have neglected to mention the Neptune Lounge! We loved it! It was so great to get assistance from the Concierges, have the snacks, and what can I say about the cappuccino? It is awesome! We stopped by the Neptune and headed back to our suite for a shower and I got sea sick! After over 90 days at sea, for the first time. Now it could be the Aft location, or something I ate, but I wasn't taking any chances. I took a dramimine, took a nap, ate some crackers and felt better. The 3 bloody Mary's I had with dinner helped too.

 

Tonight we went to the Pinnacle. The high note of the evening is that Anna, our wine steward from last week was working in there. We ordered some good champagne (DP) and after 40 minutes Anna told the waitress we were ready to order. We did not see her for that entire time! We were somewhat annoyed, but thing improved for a while. Then, our waitress disappeared again and we had to ask for dessert and coffee. We were told she was off and had left! Why wasn't someone else assigned to us? We were more than annoyed. But, we didn't let it ruin our cruise!

 

The next day we were calling on Grand Turk again. We decided to rent scooters. We crave to Cockburn Town and did some rustic shopping, had lunch at a local joint and then scooted back to the cruise center for a 2:30 sail away.

 

Wednesday we stopped in San Juan. Today was Zip Lining. What had I got myself into, I asked myself? We met up with our group and headed off. By the time we climbed the hill and walked up switch backs to the first traverse I knew I was in trouble. I was already scared out of my mind. It wasn't just the height, speed, the harness or leaning back and sliding your strong hand along the cable behind you that bothered me. It was all of the above! It took every bit of strength of character to make it through those 8 traverses! Afterwards, DH informed me that I had earned myself a new purse from Coach or Dooney and Bourke for being such a good sport and so as soon as we got back to Old San Juan, we made a bee line for Christo Street! We got our Daughter who was watching our little yorkie, Harley for us, a Coach. I got a white Ostrich pattern bag from Dooney. I love it!

 

Thursday we were in Saint Martin. We love it here, it is our third visit. We went to Marigot, hit the flea market, and DH went to Mayas for some cigars. We then took another cab to Phillipsbug, and shopped the Dutch side, had lunch and took a water taxi back to the pier. We were hot and tired when we got back "home". It was already hitting us that our wonderful vacation was coming to a close, but we weren't going to let that ruin the few days we had left.

 

That evening we went to The Tamarind. What a wonderful experience! It was awesome. Every dish was exquisite! The service, except for the bar service, was top notch. The food was simply delicious. We would have went back but they did not have any reservations available. Try it as soon as you are able! Even if you are not "big" on Asian food, as I am not. I loved it!

 

Friday wad our last sea day. We had Hot Stone Massages booked with Josie and Lady. The treatments were great.

 

Over the two weeks we played some Bingo, visited the Neptune once or twice a day, had our laundry done daily, attended cocktail parties for Suite Guests, the Mariners Luncheon, a cocktail party for Collectors guests, hosted a cocktail party in our suite, enjoyed hot and cold appetizers a few times in our suite, loved the priority tendering, loved the food and service in the MDR from Ness and Wendra, visited Anna and our friends in the shops (too much, according to our inboard account final bill - lol) and enjoyed cocktails in the afternoon by the aft pool and tea late in the evening there too. We enjoyed every second of our cruise and feel so grateful for our time on that beautiful ship!

 

It was our best cruise ever!

[ybarber]

Sorry about all the typos in my post. I have an iPad and it is nearly impossible to go back trough a post to proof read. I hope you all were able to follow it! Thanks for your patience!

[cruisun]

Thanks for the great review. We too loved our two weeks on the NA. We also had our most disappointing Pinnacle experiences on the NA but expectations were exceeded in all other areas!

[ybarber]

Thanks for the great review. We too loved our two weeks on the NA. We also had our most disappointing Pinnacle experiences on the NA but expectations were exceeded in all other areas!

 

That is exactly how we felt too. But the Pinnacle experience must improve on the NA. It is bad for business to have an up-sell restaurant that does not deliver the level of service that should be expected. We mentioned it to the Manager at the MDR. He said it isn't the first time this comment has been made. Hopefully it improves. If not, on my 2012 Med cruise on the NA, I won't even book it.

[IRL_Joanie]

It has been such a pleasure to read your review!! I really enjoyed it and only wish that it were not at an end already.

 

And a couple of comments, if I may??

 

I did not notice any typos!! I was to engrossed in the great reading:)

 

Bruno, I am so sorry that you had to cut your cruise so short because of breaking your ankle. I hope you heal quickly and can once again board and cruise this beautiful ship!!

 

Joanie

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your review. I am sorry about your Pinnacle experience. I just don't understand why HAL can't provide a consistent experience. Sometimes your go there and it is fine, other times it is like your experience and you had a bad one twice :confused:. Maybe it will,take an empty restaurant to get the message through.

 

Kirk

[kazu]

Thanks for your review. It was great. It's a shame about the PG on the NA. They really need to get this consistent.

[stefhef]

We were there with ya on the first leg of your cruise!! We had a similar experience too. The only disappointment was the Pinnacle Grill - painfully slow service, steaks overcooked (didn't send it back because we didn't want to invest another hour) - canceled our second planned visit. We have been to the Pinnacle on many HAL ships and this one was no where near up to par. HAL needs to fix that. The Tamarind, on the other hand, was terrific, like you say. We really enjoyed it and the food was quite different.

[localady]

That is exactly how we felt too. But the Pinnacle experience must improve on the NA. It is bad for business to have an up-sell restaurant that does not deliver the level of service that should be expected. We mentioned it to the Manager at the MDR. He said it isn't the first time this comment has been made. Hopefully it improves. If not, on my 2012 Med cruise on the NA, I won't even book it.

 

I cruised with you the second week and I agree, Tamarind was uber-wonderful, but the experience in the Pinnacle was less than perfect. We had a waiter who I believe was trying to be humorous, but just hit me wrong. He told us what quite arrogantly what we should order and made me feel that despite my 20 +++ Pinnacle visits that I was an imbecile......:rolleyes:

That said, it was my only bad encounter in an otherwise stellar week of cruising!!! :D

[blueboro]

That is exactly how we felt too. But the Pinnacle experience must improve on the NA. It is bad for business to have an up-sell restaurant that does not deliver the level of service that should be expected. We mentioned it to the Manager at the MDR. He said it isn't the first time this comment has been made. Hopefully it improves. If not, on my 2012 Med cruise on the NA, I won't even book it.

 

 

We were on the same cruise from the 13th - 20th and loved it. Great food and beautiful ship. And I agree about the Pinnacle. We were a party of 8 and it took almost 4 hours to finish dinner. While the food was very good it was not worth spending an entire evening. And...the Tamarind. Awesome!!