The Beautiful and Elegant Statendam

[califgary]

Just off the 14 day SD-FL Panama Holiday sailing on the beautiful and elegant Statendam...What a great ship our first on one so "small" -

 

Question does anyone know what is happening with Statemdam in Jan 2013? We enjyed this sailing so much that we looked into booking similar trip next holiday - and noticed between Jan 4 and Jan 18 - she has not published itinerary so we are thinking a "wet drydock" - anyone know?

 

Is it advisable to take a cruise just prioir to a ship going into a 2 week "fix up?" -

 

thanks for any info!

[sail7seas]

It's possible she has been chartered but that's only a guess.

[Globaliser]

Question does anyone know what is happening with Statemdam in Jan 2013? We enjyed this sailing so much that we looked into booking similar trip next holiday - and noticed between Jan 4 and Jan 18 - she has not published itinerary so we are thinking a "wet drydock" - anyone know?

 

Is it advisable to take a cruise just prioir to a ship going into a 2 week "fix up?"

Good to hear that you enjoyed your trip. That bodes well for ours shortly!

 

It looks like she might well be in for a drydock. The HAL website currently shows this, with Statendam "under construction" in the first half of January 2013 - see the end of this post.

 

I don't know whether HAL does this, but sometimes ships have some work started on them in the week or so before a drydock. And the cruise immediately after a drydock is always at risk of having some work going on if there's unfinished work - I think I've heard of this on pretty much every cruise line. In bad cases, the first cruise after a drydock might even get cancelled if the drydock overruns.

 

[kazu]

Thanks so much for your post - some have been asking about the Statendam so i am sure they will appreciate your report:)

[RuthC]

Is it advisable to take a cruise just prioir to a ship going into a 2 week "fix up?" -

I've taken the final cruise before drydock twice now (Rotterdam 11/09, Volendam 3/11), and would have no qualms about taking another one. Each of those cruises was 32 days long. We had plenty of workmen on each cruise, but other than seeing them in their workclothes, you would never have known they were aboard.

Neither cruise had any work done in public areas until after dinner on the last night. Even that was only cosmetic, as padding went up to protect surfaces.

 

Whether or not to take the first cruise after drydock would depend on what was being done. If it was just the basic, customary work, I would not hesitate.

The horror stories from recent years came from those ships that had major reconstruction work that included adding new cabins where none had previously been, or moving/removing swimming pools. I wouldn't book for a while on a ship where that sort of thing was done.

[sand dollar26]

I was on the exact same cruise on the Veendam two years in a row. Everything went well on the first cruise and we decided to rebook for the following year. We never knew the ship was going into dry dock. In fact, I did not know until I received a notice that my cruise would be delayed until the following day. For us it did not matter since we did not have to fly to the port of embarkation, but I can report that there were many difficulties associated with the delay. We found that overall even with the delay the ship was not ready. There were many problems. My question to everyone: How do you know when a ship is scheduled to be in dry dock? Had I known I never would have scheduled that cruise. It certainly was not one of my favorites. After that experience, I wonder if I will ever sail with HAL again. It used to be my favorite line!

[madera1]

Just off the 14 day SD-FL Panama Holiday sailing on the beautiful and elegant Statendam...What a great ship our first on one so "small" -

 

Thanks for sharing and happy to hear you had a great trip. We will be in your same shoes in March.

[shandryl]

I was on this cruise too! I had a blast. :D While I was on the ship I booked another future cruise. :D

[nanaj1]

Can you, or have you done a review, would like to hear about, the good, the bad and the ugly.....

Glad you had a great trip, we are going in April...

[KirkNC]

Glad you had such a great time you want to book again!

[califgary]

Thanks for the responses and yes I will put together a post on the last holiday cruise - in short - we had a wonderful time. The ship is unique and we found to be quite spacious - the crew all were wonderful the captain is a hoot! He participated in almost every event we were at on the ship. Every part of the Statendam has a unique personality to it and even on sea days we hardly ever noticed a big crowd anywhere (but there were exceptions).

 

The Statendam is a fine ship and we would definitly sail on her again.

 

I returned home with a heck of a cold so it might be a few days before i post a review!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome Home -- looking forward to your review.

 

Hope you soon feel better.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I was on the exact same cruise on the Veendam two years in a row. Everything went well on the first cruise and we decided to rebook for the following year. We never knew the ship was going into dry dock. In fact, I did not know until I received a notice that my cruise would be delayed until the following day. For us it did not matter since we did not have to fly to the port of embarkation, but I can report that there were many difficulties associated with the delay. We found that overall even with the delay the ship was not ready. There were many problems. My question to everyone: How do you know when a ship is scheduled to be in dry dock? Had I known I never would have scheduled that cruise. It certainly was not one of my favorites. After that experience, I wonder if I will ever sail with HAL again. It used to be my favorite line!

 

Years ago -- before we had sites like this -- we were on a Princess ship and an NCL ship right after they had been in dry dock. We had no idea that they had been in dry dock. And we had workers still working while we were cruising.

Those expereinces did not stop us from cruising those lines at that time.

Now with everything on the internet -- we can find out when a ship will be in dry dock and avoid the first couple of cruises afterwards.

[sand dollar26]

Thank you for the information. In truth, I never thought to research a ship's timing for dry dock, having taken thirty cruises ( most with HAL) and never having had the reason to do so. Please be aware that in my attempt to be diplomatic, I did not elaborate about the difficulties experienced by myself and other passengers.