Statendam Cruise Review - Just returned

[justluv2cruisewithhubby]

This is our 4th Holland America cruise and I was pleasantly surprised to sail on the Statendam. I’ve read all the reviews for the past year so I was not expecting too much from this older vessel. To my surprise she is the sister ship of the Ryndam which we loved so the layout was great and familiar. She is in very good shape. We consistently saw workers painting and cleaning throughout our sailing.

 

We did a 5 night cruise which is our shortest HAL cruise and we just turned two star mariner which is exciting. I did not realize that on a 5 night cruise there was no welcome back party from the captain which I was looking forward to. However this was “Casual attire” cruise which is my first. Every night in the dining room the attire was casual which was nice and meant we didn’t have to pack suit jackets or dresses.

 

We sailed out of Vancouver Canada which is a beautiful city. We booked a pre-cruise hotel at the Pan Pacific thru HAL which was a bit pricey but well worth it. A stunning 5 Star hotel and you literally take the escalators down to the ship the following morning. We boarded the ship in no time we had cabin E810 on deck 4 which was a large Ocean View cabin. Exactly what I expected a good size room with a loveseat and table. Tub in the bathroom with plenty of shelf space in the bathroom for all your items. The bed was somewhat comfortable and the pillows were a little flat but again being an older ship I kind of expected it. The room was always clean, we never really met our room steward he did not introduce himself to us which was a first in all our cruises. He did his job in cleaning and providing towels without us seeing him during the 5 nights so that worked fine for us.

 

We ate dinner in the dining room every night and our waiters were superb. So friendly and attentive they were fabulous and the service was fast as we had first sit down seating. After dinner every night we enjoyed our little butter mints which is another little perk that HAL does that we love. The food on the ship I must rate as VERY GOOD. There was not one mediocre meal it was all very good. We did not have any crab/lobster due to the short nature of the cruise.

 

They had self-service laundry on the ship which was cheap at 2.00 to wash and 1.00 to dry. We did a quick load while on board which worked out perfectly. The port of calls were Seattle; Astoria and then two days at sea and then final stop San Diego. We enjoyed the coffee café in the mornings where you can purchase a large strong coffee for $2.00 and get our copy of the NY Times which we just love having to catch up on world events. That is one of the small little perks that we love about HAL getting our morning NY Times. We also spent time in the library and reading our books while at sea, as there are plenty of quite areas to read.

 

We were able to do afternoon tea twice on the ship there seemed to be some issues both times with the set up and planning. The first sea day the line was around the corner and out the door as they did not serve you they had the pastries and finger sandwiches right at the dining room door and there was so a hold up as passengers had no idea what to choose for food. By the time we got our little deserts and tea it was basically over. They ran out of whip cream for the crumpets and jam (not sure how that happens) but that was disappointing but we said we’d try it again the next day. Day 2 at sea, they had everyone sit down first then they came around to serve you. The issue this time was we asked for the crumpets and jam/whip cream and they kept telling us they will come around and 45 minutes later NOTHING….they kept bringing by the small sandwiches or cookies which we didn’t want. So tea time both days were disappointing.

 

We signed up for a wine tasting event it was only $15.00pp which was not bad considering we had 5 samplings of wine, 2 red and 3 whites. It was about 1.5hrs long and educational. The sales on the ship are always fun to see what kind of paraphernalia they will sell, to my surprise they had some really good sales such as nice T-shirts for $5.00 and lined rain coats for $15.00. Costume jewelry was buy 1 get 1 free and only $5.00 dollars so that was a steal.

 

There were plenty of activities to do on the ship during down times, we played Trivia for the first time and met two very nice couples so our team of 6 would play daily (be prepared the questions are not easy so study up)

Disembarkation was pretty good we signed up for expedited so we had our bags to walk off the ship and we were first in line. We really enjoy sailing HAL and will sail them again.

 

 

[Typhoon1]

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.

[PathfinderEss]

Glad you had a good cruise on the Statendam, we love that ship. Thanks for posting your review.

[kakalina]

Thanks for your review. We will be sailing on her soon and I appreciate your comments. Do you recall who your Captain and Cruise Director were?

[Vict0riann]

Thanks for your report. We were very happy on Statendam for 28 days a few years ago. Wonderful!

[Folk Singer]

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.

 

 

ditto :):)

[iflyrc5]

Thanks for the review - we will be on board for 45 days starting Jan 29th.:D

[justluv2cruisewithhubby]

Thanks for your review. We will be sailing on her soon and I appreciate your comments. Do you recall who your Captain and Cruise Director were?

 

Rick Barnes was the cruise director and the captains name escapes me however he was born and raised in Netherlands the captain did a Q&A on the ship and we learned a lot about him.

[hpf]

Thanks for the review, we will be aboard the Stantendam for 30 days in a couple of months. Therefore I was very interested in your review. Glad you had a nice but short cruise

Helen

[SilvertoGold]

Rick Barnes was the cruise director and the captains name escapes me however he was born and raised in Netherlands the captain did a Q&A on the ship and we learned a lot about him.

 

Possibly Captain Michel Willems? He's enthusiastic about doing Q&As!

Edited October 14, 2014 by SilvertoGold

[erewhon]

Thank you for reviewing your Statendam cruise.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

We have done tea a couple of times -- especially like the cup cake tea. The scones were last to come -- but they were delicious.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Rick Barnes was the cruise director and the captains name escapes me however he was born and raised in Netherlands the captain did a Q&A on the ship and we learned a lot about him.

 

I love it when the captains do a Q&A. But sadly the last couple of years, the ships we have been on - even on a long cruise there weren't any.

[justluv2cruisewithhubby]

Possibly Captain Michel Willems? He's enthusiastic about doing Q&As!

 

SilvertoGold - i would recognize the name and it wasn't Michel Willems - sorry

[puppycanducruise]

Thank you for taking the time to post your review.

Sorry about the teas. It's something I look forward to.

[VioletHorse]

I was surprised to read about your poor tea experience since it was identical to our experience on the Volendam (7 day cruise) earlier this year. At the time I just thought it was an anomaly for our sailing, but the poor service, lack of cream and jam and the tepid water provided for tea was so very disappointing.

 

Our first tea was what you described - serve yourself - very slow lines - people were finishing their food and leaving before we got ours.

 

The second tea was the "Indonesian" tea. I was expecting the stewards to be dressed in native clothing and instead saw stewards in Hawaiian shirts. No big deal with that, but the table service was awful, as we repeatedly asked for cream and jam for our scones and did not get any. The water temperature for tea was comfortable enough to bathe a baby, but not to make tea. It did seem that that just weren't enough servers.

 

Although we have 9 cruises on HAL it was the first time that we'd gone to the teas, and it will likely be our last foray into the MDR for tea.

 

I've gone to teas on Princess and Carnival, and they were wonderful, elegant affairs with attentive staff who made sure that we were well served with goodies and that our cups were always topped off with hot water.

 

Our tea experience on the Volendam was a "miss", however that was the only "miss" on an otherwise excellent cruise.

[SilvertoGold]

I love it when the captains do a Q&A. But sadly the last couple of years, the ships we have been on - even on a long cruise there weren't any.

 

I really enjoy Q&A sessions and the Good Morning Interview Shows.

 

For the Q&As it depends on the Captain, his attitude and interest in doing things like that. Some are really good sports who get involved, some see their roll very differently. Typical of HAL's famous inconsistency.

[solocanadian]

I disembarked the Statendam on September 28. The Captain at that time was Vincent Smit.

[kakalina]

Thanks Solocanadian.

[justluv2cruisewithhubby]

I disembarked the Statendam on September 28. The Captain at that time was Vincent Smit.

 

Thank you Gail - our Captain was Vincent Smit - he did a good Q & A with a large group of us, he has dry humor.

[MicCanberra]

Thanks for the review.:D

[Landlubber54]

We were on the same sailing as the OP. We, too, loved the ship, at least in part because we had sailed previously on the Ryndam. We went to the Dutch Tea - got there early so we did not have to wait in line - and I agree that it was odd to be serving the savories and pastries at the entry. Really delayed things. And when we left the line was still quite long. The Q&A was wonderful because it included Captain Smit, the chief engineer and the hotel manager. Cruise Director Rick Barnes did a great job of moderating and getting around to as many people as he could for questions. It lasted at least an hour. Good time!

Edited October 18, 2014 by Landlubber54
typos

[JanDom]

Thank you for your reviews!

We will book the Statendam for an 14 days Alaska Cruise...

The only Thing we did not book yet, is that we do not know if we want to book an Ocean view or an Vista Suite .... Can anybody tell me something about the suites? 🍀

 

I am really glad to hear that the vessel is in a good shape, cause it will be the oldest ship we have ever been 😊

 

Greetings and thank you again

Janine

[crystalspin]

@JanDom

 

I believe the Statendam and the Zaandam are quite alike in dimensions as well as passenger:crew numbers. The Statendam has two elevator/stairwell banks and the Zaandam three. (We sailed the Statendam twice before, but my memories are pretty dim. We just returned from the Zaandam.)

 

We sailed the Statendam to Hawaii and to Alaska in an inside WITH one or the other of our mothers on the made-up third-bed sofa! The insides on HAL (at least the midsized S and R series) are quite a bit bigger than other lines' insides. If you didn't have the third person you would have a nice sitting area plus the desk!

 

The OV's are about the same size and configuration as the insides. The room of either seems larger if the main bed is split into two twins with the center area open (and the window approachable, in the OV).

 

On the Zaandam, we had a "Vista Suite". The Vista/Verandah Suite, aka balcony room, is not that much bigger inside than the inside/OV. The bathroom is marginally larger with a short/narrow tub, within which you take your shower. On the Zaandam, that tub was jetted (whirlpool), although I never tried it. These rooms are "suites" in name only, as there is no butler or dedicated concierge or special privileges -- there is supposedly a "one touch phone concierge" but the reputation on CC is that the phone concierge is worse than making your own reservations etc, so we never tried it.

 

I'm not sure the room is THAT much bigger -- the square foot area given always includes the balcony, and I didn't take a tape-measure to determine how much is room and how much balcony. The configuration is different with the main bed closer to the hallway and the sofa farther, near the balcony. This room works better (seems larger) with the twins pushed together as a queen/king. My opinion.

 

The great thing about the balcony room, whether or not the temperatures are appropriate for using the balcony, is the floor-to-ceiling window the door makes! We loved it around Cape Horn of South America! That said, we didn't miss having a window or door on our Alaska trip -- we just got up and left the room for other places that had great windows. However, having had a balcony, even a cold one, will make going back to an OV or inside very difficult!

 

Well, I'm no expert, but I saw your question waiting with no answer for over 24 hours. Either choice should be an excellent cruise!

[JanDom]

@ crytalspin

 

Thank you very much for your answer !

We booked the Zaandam just two days ago for the christmas cruise 2015 to South america and Antarctica and choosed room No 7083, it is an ocean view but with a now crowded are in front of it and we can be there in less than a minute. Because this are is in the back we hope not to have to much wind there :)

 

We have been to Alaska before, for an one week cruise with RCCL. We had a balcony and used it as much as on no other cruise where we had warmer weather, because we just loved sitting outside with a jacket and look for wildlife.

 

So I think we will choose the "suite" even if it is like a balcony cabin and get some specials like 300$ OBC, three bottles of wine and reduced excursions and have the balcony....

:):) thank you :):)