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Back from nieuw amsterdam 1/2 sailing

josie724

By josie724,
in Holland America Line

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josie724

josie724

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We had a flight from NY to FLL on 1/2 arriving at 11:30am. All went well and we were at Port Everglades by 1:00 pm. The line was EXTREMELY long, but walked up to the podium and we were given our badges with our Suite Status, and on we went. They could have set it up a bit better, because jumping the line can get some of the non suite passengers annoyed. Our cabin was ready very promptly. The only negative was the size of our balcony. We were upgraded from an SC to an SQ. We never got to sit out on the balcony because it was half steel. The room was very large, but I would have liked more balcony instead. But this is the chance you take with a guarantee, sometimes an upgrade may not be truly an upgrade.

 

Food: I have to say we never had a bad meal, either in the Lido or in the MDR. I have read a lot of complaints about the MDR, but we were very satisfied with both the service and the food. We ate in Caneleto the first night, and that was probably our least favorite, good, but not GREAT!. We had reservations for Pinnacle the 3rd night and that was FABULOUS. I had the lamb chops and dh had the NY Strip, both were great. We ate in MDR one evening and had to wait for about 15 minutes for a table, not a problem we had open seating. The manager of MDR came over and offered us a glass of wine because we waited for a table. Our last night we ate at Tamarind and enjoyed it very much.

 

Ports: We were not able to go to Half Moon Cay because of the rough seas. That was a disappointing but understandable.

Falmouth, I wouldn't go back there on a dare. I thought the port itself was fine, but that was because it was just built and is fenced off from the rest of the town. Once you step out of the port, it is just awful. Unfortunately Jamaica is one of those places that if your staying in a secure resort it is paradise, but otherwise it's not so nice.

 

Grand Cayaman: this is one of my favorite destinations. We vacationed there 2 years ago, so I was familiar with the bus system and we went off on our own without any problem. We took the bus to the Westin and walked onto the beach placed our towels down and enjoyed our day. We walked over to the public beach where the cruise excursions go, and it was way too crowded for me. We had lunch at one of my favorite places, Sunshine Grill, and then did some shopping. The tender system was excellent.

 

Entertainment: We saw two shows, the first night was an introduction to the entertainment, and we saw the magician, who we thought was hysterical. Other than that we would just walk around, gamble a bit, or head back to our cabin and relax.

 

Neptune's Lounge: MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PLACE ON THE SHIP. Just loved going there, and enjoying the best cup of coffee. The coffee machine at the lounge is the same as the coffee machine at Explorer's Cafe, so the coffee was very good.

 

Pool area: We always found a chair to lay on, the service at the aft pool was always very good. Boozee, was the best! Always very friendly and brought our drinks very quickly.

 

Even though this is a mid size ship, we found plenty of places to feel like we had privacy. Of course it was crowded at the pool areas, but there were plenty of places to find quite areas. The lido pool was very busy with lots of children, I heard there were 400 kids on board.

 

Disembarkation: I felt was very efficient if you followed the system put in place by HAL. Yes the line was long, but we got our luggage quickly and were out of the terminal in less than 45 minutes.

 

All in all I was VERY pleased with HAL. This was our first sailing with HAL. We've cruised with Carnival twice and Norwegian once. I would suggest it to friends and family in a heartbeat.

 

I'm not sure if we would cruise again in the future, not because there was anything wrong, but this cruise seems to have stayed in our system a bit longer than normal and both my dh and I are still feeling a bit woozie.

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josie724

josie724

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Thank you for your review.

 

I am curious as to why you say that the Nieuw Amsterdam is a mid-size ship? Are you coming this to other cruise lines? The Nieuw Amsterdam is HAL's largest ship.

 

Glad you had a great time.

 

Yes, I'm comparing it to other ships on other lines like some of the mega ships. When we were docked in Falmouth we were next to either the Explorer or the Allure, I can't remember, now those are monsters.

 

The point that I was trying to make is that there was a lot of elbow room, you never felt like the ship was overcrowded and we had a completely booked sailing.

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Friend100

Friend100

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Yes, I'm comparing it to other ships on other lines like some of the mega ships. When we were docked in Falmouth we were next to either the Explorer or the Allure, I can't remember, now those are monsters.

 

That was Allure of the Seas. We were on the port side of the ship and saw Allure's stern with the hollow midship / aquatheatre inhaling towards us when she's approaching Falmouth's dock. Very scary.

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josie724

josie724

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josie74, could you please explain why you could not use the balconey, are you afraid of steel?

 

Afraid of steel? LOL, you're pretty funny....I think the technical term is metalphobic......

 

The reason we really couldn't use the balcony to sit and relax on was because it was only about 3 ft wide and the steel rail went up to my chin. So if you sat down you would only see a steel wall. We were able to stand and observe the ports we were pulling into very nicely, but not able to sit with a cup of coffee and relax.

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josie724

josie724

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On Grand Cayman can anyone just hop over to the Westin and enjoy their beach???

 

Brenda, yes you can there is a walkway in between the Westin and The Villas of Galleon. You won't be able to use the hotel's chairs, but you can lay down your towels and use the beach. I believe all the beach is available for public use. If you want to rent chairs you would need to go up to Calico Jacks.

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SwissMyst

SwissMyst

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.........

 

I'm not sure if we would cruise again in the future, not because there was anything wrong, but this cruise seems to have stayed in our system a bit longer than normal and both my dh and I are still feeling a bit woozie.

 

Sorry to hear this because it was wonderful hearing your good report about your first HAL experience. Others have reported this same problem getting their "land legs" back again - if this is a motion related wooziness. You might want to search some of the recent threads that offered both suggestions and sympathy.

 

I believe the original poster was "cow princess". Not to be giving any sort of medical advice at all for your particular situation, just passing on the recommendations other made for what might be a similar "post-cruise" disorientation - they used Bonine on land, which many of us use on the sea, to kept get them reoriented. I'll try and find that thread and see if it can be of any benefit for you. (If not now, at least maybe making you reconsider another cruise choice for the future.)

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josie724

josie724

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Thank you all....we both wore the patch, and I was using ginger root when I felt woozie, but it seemed to have gotten worse before it got better, so I don't know if it was the motion of the ocean or a bug. It was a really weird kind of sickness, it would come and go. We would go from feeling extremely hungry to so nauseated that just the site of food made us sick. We've both been slowly getting better, but it comes and goes.

 

The weird thing is that we were more seasick on land than on the sea.

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