First HAL Cruise-Underwhelmed by Nieuw Amsterdam

[iancal]

Arwen...have to agree with you absolutely on the Caribbean routes. This has been our experience a number of times.

[YOW]

We were also underwhelmed on our first HAL cruise, on Eurodam last winter. But we're giving another try, best itinerary by far for Bermuda.

 

You've got some nice images, BTW... do you have a photo blog, or just using Webshots?

[SwissMyst]

We were also underwhelmed on our first HAL cruise, on Eurodam last winter. But we're giving another try, best itinerary by far for Bermuda.

 

You've got some nice images, BTW... do you have a photo blog, or just using Webshots?

 

HAL itineraries have always WOWed us compared to their competition. The ship itself is comfortable like an old shoe - little eye-pop wow factor there, but wonderful homey comfort and that is why HAL is a WOW for us. At least you know what to expect the second time and yes, it does seem to have the best Bermuda docking itinerary so this is the HAL we know, all the way.

[luxurysailer]

There was also a 3 piece jazz band in the Ocean Bar, but they ended early and were not even close to a cover band. It wasn't dance music. :)

 

Emphasis in the above quote is mine.

 

This is a pet peeve of ours. Why in the world would you put a combo in a dance lounge and then assume that the patrons want to listen to jazz? We experienced this the first night on our cruise on the Amsterdam last year. There were about ten couples in the Ocean Bar wanting to dance, and they persisted in playing jazz. One person in our party complained to the cruise director about this, and every night for the remainder of the cruise they played dance music. I might add that every night that lounge was full of people dancing. There were sometimes so many of us dancing that the dance floor was too small.

 

On that first night the only dance music we got was by special request, then they'd go right back to jazz. We asked them why and they said they were just doing what they were told. Go figure! :confused: Although there are almost always some non-dancers in the dance lounges who must be there just to enjoy the music, I seriously doubt most of these are specifically wanting to listen to jazz.

[whogo]

Excellent report, Aquahound. I found myself nodding along, I could totally relate to it. Thanks for posting.

[SwissMyst]

Just got our Crystal Cruise line brochure which one can count on a WOW factor cruise line in some regards. However, looking at their 14 day cruise through the Indonesia islands, their starting price is close to what we are paying for our 50 day HAL Rotterdam cruise that includes an even better 14 day Indonesia Island segment. And there you have it. WOW is the price difference for us.

[Aquahound]

We were also underwhelmed on our first HAL cruise, on Eurodam last winter. But we're giving another try, best itinerary by far for Bermuda.

 

You've got some nice images, BTW... do you have a photo blog, or just using Webshots?

 

No, I'm just using Webshots for now, but I'm getting more and more interested in photo taking and decent cameras, so I may look further in to the hobby.

[iancal]

I was under the impression that HAL was doing a complete re-work of their entertainment department-something that was apparently initiated by customer surveys and by a change in marketing direction.

 

Has anyone seen the changes yet or has this been 'shelved'?

[Taxguy77]

But what you say right there was a shortcoming I found on NA. The personalization shouldn't be compromised. I always book the Open Seating option on all my cruises. On all my cruises where I had dining at my time, the servers still introduced themselves, went over the chef's suggestions, refilled water glasses, and prompty cleared dirty plates, and added the little touches I mentioned earlier, like taking the time to remove my wife's lobster from the shell. In other words, there was no lack of service in the anytime dining that would normally be in the fixed dining. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if this is the norm for HAL, I really think they should take measures to correct it. The first time cruiser may not notice it, but coming from other lines where the service is better, it is very noticable. Again, I only hope it's a current NA issue, not HAL.

 

You have been lucky!:p

On our HAL TA on the Rotterdam, the MDR was lighted more for dining, but it was hard to get a waiter. We ate once with the CC group and twice on our own before giving up on it. (We were unable to get fixed dining, so much for "As you wish". This was the cruise we were going to decide which we liked best.

On the second Azamara ship, it was VERY crowded and took over 2 hours for dinner. I gave up ordering a 2nd glass of wine as it took over an hour to get the first one. Tried it 4 times, twich poor and twice really bad.:(

Royal Clipper, always open seating, excellent service and quite good food. :)

NCL on the 2nd ship to be "Designed for Freestyle Cruising" bad enough to never book them again. :eek:

[Aquahound]

I was under the impression that HAL was doing a complete re-work of their entertainment department-something that was apparently initiated by customer surveys and by a change in marketing direction.

 

Has anyone seen the changes yet or has this been 'shelved'?

 

Either this change has not reach Nieuw Amsterdam yet, or the previous entertainment really sucked. ;)

[George C]

Thanks for the review, HAL late night entertainment is not the best, we night go back to RCCL for next cruise. Also I hate open sitting on any line and would not book a cruise if that was only option. We had some great food in Naples on last trip and would love to visit again.

[SwissMyst]

..... We had some great food in Naples on last trip and would love to visit again.

 

Naples is of my own favorite cities in Europe, well-priced too and free from international chains that are homogenizing much of the rest of Europe. So glad you enjoyed yourself here.

 

If one confines their city visit to the historic center and pedestrian streets in the heart of the old city, one can come away dazzled by its opulence, liveliness and local color as well as its great street food. We go back to Naples as often as we can, but we have also carefully carved out its very special parts that keeps our love affair with this city going and going.

 

Rick Steve's Mediterranean Cruise Ports does have an excellent walking tour of this city's highlights from the dock and off to the left for easy access into its historic core and fabulous art and architecture. Just a few blocks from the ship. Naples is a city that deserves a two-week stay to let its charms emerge slowly as its various special neighborhoods reveal themselves for those willing to explore and get past the uglier post WWII reconstruction areas particularly around the port which was heavily bombed.

 

Naples up until the mid 1800's was one of the wealthiest and most powerful maritime cities in Europe - even its decaying elegance today is part of its many under-appreciated charms. A great history of this city is found in the book: "From Salt Water to Holy Water".

[LeBarryboat]

I have noticed that it is best, with HAL, to stick to first or second seating rather than the open seating.....I have noticed the service is dramatically better when you have the same wait staff for every dinner. For some reason the open seating with HAL doesn't work as well as other cruise lines, the servers and waiters are rushed, and they are very mechanical and efficient but less personable.

[Aquahound]

Ref Naples, my comments were based on my personal interpretation of the little bit I saw. We went out to Sorrento and Pompeii, so all we saw was the port and the part of the city between the port and highway heading south. Unfortunately, first impressions were not only not good, they were pretty darn bad. The breakwall having so much garbage on it does not make for a good first impression. I know nothing of Naples' infrastructure, but either their trash collection procedure is severely lacking, or there is an attitude of severe laziness. It is also unfortunate the busses leaving the port have to drive by that trash/shanty town.

 

When we returned to the port after the tour, we had a little bit of time. We were going to walk up to San Francesco di Paola, but it was some sort of religious holiday and the area was jam-packed with revelers.

[Typhoon1]

Make lemonade out of lemons.

[readytogo2]

Thanks Paul for a very well balanced review...I just wish it was a bit more optimistic being we're going on the NA come Sept.:eek: I'm sure we will be just fine being we survived Carnival leaving New York, now that ship and passengers were from hell but we still had a good time. We always make the best of things. I also have to say that I appreciated your posts on the RCI boards last year and the year before when we were first trying RCI.

[readytogo2]

Make lemonade out of lemons.

 

Exactly :D

[Aquahound]

Thanks Paul for a very well balanced review...I just wish it was a bit more optimistic being we're going on the NA come Sept.:eek: I'm sure we will be just fine being we survived Carnival leaving New York, now that ship and passengers were from hell but we still had a good time. We always make the best of things. I also have to say that I appreciated your posts on the RCI boards last year and the year before when we were first trying RCI.

 

Thank you for the kind words. :) Yes, you will be just fine. My impression of NA is exactly as my thread title suggests....just underwhelming. My only true complaints are the Open Seating service and the lack of upbeat live entertainment in the evenings. While the ship does not have wow factor and does not stand out over other ships, it is still a nice ship. It's all about attitude. If you have general complaints that can't be fixed on board, adapt, and save them for later like I did. No need to let it damper a long awaited vacation. :)

[SwissMyst]

Ref Naples, my comments were based on my personal interpretation of the little bit I saw. We went out to Sorrento and Pompeii, so all we saw was the port and the part of the city between the port and highway heading south. Unfortunately, first impressions were not only not good, they were pretty darn bad. The breakwall having so much garbage on it does not make for a good first impression. I know nothing of Naples' infrastructure, but either their trash collection procedure is severely lacking, or there is an attitude of severe laziness. It is also unfortunate the busses leaving the port have to drive by that trash/shanty town.

 

When we returned to the port after the tour, we had a little bit of time. We were going to walk up to San Francesco di Paola, but it was some sort of religious holiday and the area was jam-packed with revelers.

 

Agree, what you saw is pretty appalling which is why I try to rise to the defense of much of the rest of the Naples area that is not industrial, gangster controlled and post WWII construction. What you saw is what you saw and what we have seen also - even the Naples Train Station is not for the faint of heart. But .... there is so much more to the city and the Naples Bay peninsula when one travels out to the western areas from the port and to the utterly charming island of Procida.

 

Naples garbage is not a moral falling, but more a Comorra (local mafia) failing of the garbage worker unions. Naples politics and uneasy accommodations to the long entrenched gangster infrastructure are legendary. But what is less well known have been the efforts of the former Naples aristocracy to preserve, protect and highlight their equally rich historic cultural treasures. That is the surprise when one starts to uncover what Naples also has to offer. And they have done a very good job of this.

 

From the extraordinary National Museum which is a treasure to the restored little piazzas, back pedestrian streets and the elegant shopping avenues and cafes out to the western parts of the city and the hilltop residential elegance of Vomero and western suburbs and parks, this is a treasure of an old European city.

 

There is too much money running contraband and illegal operations out of the port area (grunge city) for the petty mobsters to bother knocking off tourists from the backs of motorcycles, Plus the conversion to so many pedestrian streets now in the heart of the old city make its former tourist crime riddled reputation ancient history as well.

 

No city is a crime free paradise so always still exercise caution, but this was a city we were comfortable going about our travels day and well into the night when we got the lay of the land.

 

We base ourselves in Spacconapoli when we visit: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187785-d195419-Reviews-Spaccanapoli-Naples_Province_of_Naples_Campania.html And here is the hotel we love: http://www.decumani.com/en/

[Aquahound]

SwissMyst - thank you for including the info about Naples. It will greatly benefit those traveling there who have time to explore the city.

 

In all fairness, my complaint about Naples also applies to a city much closer to my home....Miami. Like Naples I'm sure, Miami has so many very beautiful places to visit, but in order to get to the freeway from the port, you have to drive past a homeless shelter and through about 3 blocks of poverty-stricken individuals on the side of the road. I have always said the city should make some changes to avoid these first impressions.

[George C]

Not lemonade need to make limoncello out of lemons if you are in Italy

[SwissMyst]

Not lemonade need to make limoncello out of lemons if you are in Italy

 

One more reason to take the one hour hydrofoil to the little island of Procida from a Naples port stop - the famous lemon island and the birthplace of Limoncello. HAL needs to get smarter about the Naples shore excursions and port lectures to show off this city better. http://www.limoncellodiprocida.it/

 

Images of Procida: http://www.google.com/search?q=procida&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=5frIT4HbNaSg2AXN6oDaCw&ved=0CIEBELAE&biw=1170&bih=640

[Alcarondas]

I'm coming late to the discussion, but I don't find anything you said to be surprising or flame-worthy. I'll just chip in my own 2c based on 12+ years of HAL cruising:

 

It's sometimes hard to tell which is the cause and which is the effect, but HAL 1) is very "traditional" in the way it does things, and 2) appeals to an older crowd.

 

Many of the HAL oddities are better appreciated in the context of a company whose "DNA" stretches back to the days when even steamships had masts, and whose Golden Age was before the jet era. Despite now being part of a colossal leisure-cruising conglomerate struggling mightily to stay on or ahead of the curve in serving the needs of modern tourists, a lot of HAL's ways and means are still deeply rooted in a time when ocean travel was a necessary means of transportation, and not an idle pass-time.

 

It's always been my perception that newfangled shenanigans like open-seat dining, cruise directors, and music that requires electric instruments just don't fit well into HAL's worldview, and that they offer such things only because some stuffed suit at Carnival HQ has basically demanded that they do, on pain of keel-hauling. On the other hand, the things HAL does best are the things they've been doing well since passenger ships burned coal and were called ocean liners.

 

A HAL cruise isn't a "cruise" in the holistic sense of a unitary vacation experience; rather, it's a connected series of short ocean voyages to specified port cities. Even though it's a short hop from (say) Barcelona to Tunis or Lauderdale to San Juan, they go about it with the same mindset they had when they were still on the Amsterdam-New York run.

 

Personally, I love all those little anachronisms - they're what keep me coming back. I enjoy that feeling of slipping back in time a tiny bit, to an era when ships were ships; "out to sea" meant completely disconnected from the world; entertainment was self-guided; and dinner was a social event, not merely an opportunity to eat.

 

I'm also keenly aware that I'm probably the dinosaur in the room. ;)

[SwissMyst]

I'm coming late to the discussion, but I don't find anything you said to be surprising or flame-worthy. I'll just chip in my own 2c based on 12+ years of HAL cruising:

 

It's sometimes hard to tell which is the cause and which is the effect, but HAL 1) is very "traditional" in the way it does things, and 2) appeals to an older crowd.

 

Many of the HAL oddities are better appreciated in the context of a company whose "DNA" stretches back to the days when even steamships had masts, and whose Golden Age was before the jet era. Despite now being part of a colossal leisure-cruising conglomerate struggling mightily to stay on or ahead of the curve in serving the needs of modern tourists, a lot of HAL's ways and means are still deeply rooted in a time when ocean travel was a necessary means of transportation, and not an idle pass-time.

 

It's always been my perception that newfangled shenanigans like open-seat dining, cruise directors, and music that requires electric instruments just don't fit well into HAL's worldview, and that they offer such things only because some stuffed suit at Carnival HQ has basically demanded that they do, on pain of keel-hauling. On the other hand, the things HAL does best are the things they've been doing well since passenger ships burned coal and were called ocean liners.

 

A HAL cruise isn't a "cruise" in the holistic sense of a unitary vacation experience; rather, it's a connected series of short ocean voyages to specified port cities. Even though it's a short hop from (say) Barcelona to Tunis or Lauderdale to San Juan, they go about it with the same mindset they had when they were still on the Amsterdam-New York run.

 

Personally, I love all those little anachronisms - they're what keep me coming back. I enjoy that feeling of slipping back in time a tiny bit, to an era when ships were ships; "out to sea" meant completely disconnected from the world; entertainment was self-guided; and dinner was a social event, not merely an opportunity to eat.

 

I'm also keenly aware that I'm probably the dinosaur in the room. ;)

 

If I knew what sounds dinosaurs made, I would roar along with you. You captured my own thoughts about HAL ships too. What one passenger finds as a HAL deficiency, some of us find as evidence of HAL's enduring pleasures. It can't be all things to all people, but it can be a lot for some of us .... old dinosaurs.

[SwissMyst]

SwissMyst - thank you for including the info about Naples. It will greatly benefit those traveling there who have time to explore the city.

 

In all fairness, my complaint about Naples also applies to a city much closer to my home....Miami. Like Naples I'm sure, Miami has so many very beautiful places to visit, but in order to get to the freeway from the port, you have to drive past a homeless shelter and through about 3 blocks of poverty-stricken individuals on the side of the road. I have always said the city should make some changes to avoid these first impressions.

 

You ought to see the graffiti-riddled fences, tossed beer bottles, and dumped sofas that greet train passengers coming into Santa Barbara. :mad: We try but it is constant to keep this area cleared. Train tracks get used as illegal drug distribution routes with crash houses along the way, because the police can't drive their cruisers on them.