Nieuw Amsterdam MED Tapestry 9/13-9/25 Review

[DeeniEncinitas]

Hahah. Everyone was laughing at list of things so don't worry about making fun! :) and trust me, the Makers Mark was the first to go into the drawer!:D

 

Good girl!

Keep your great pics, and your wonderful blog going! I enjoy your writings!

Happy Sailings to you and your DH!

Denise:)

Enjoy the Makers Mark its priceless compared to the Waterford Crystal!!!

🍸🍷 haha!

[Ricktan]

Sorry for the delay...been a crazy few days! After our "adventure" at sea we arrived in Corfu Greece. I have to say that it was not what I expected. Beautiful but not what I have imagined. When I think of Greece, I think of all the pics on the HAL website....blue water, white houses with colored roofs with colored flowers all around. Found out that is the other size of Greece! Corfu is green and lots of mountains!

 

We hired a driver who drove us up the mountains and through several tiny little villages. Stopped at one and we were given some homemade bread made in a wood burning oven with some local olive oil, feta cheese and black olives. We saw olive trees that were hundreds of years old and covered in olives! Here's one of the trees.

[Ricktan]

Corfu was the night that we had reservations for Le Cirque. We really enjoyed it. After everything I had read, I knew that I wanted the lobster salad and it did not disappoint !

Sorry for the shadows

We also tried the escargot and the pea soup.

 

The Chateaubriand was excellent!!

 

I'll let you decide if we liked the Creme Brûlée

[Ricktan]

Dubrovinik, Croatia. This was our actual anniversary day (our 25th). We had a driver who took us up into the hills for a different view.

 

He was in his early thirties and was a child during the civil war there. He had so many tales to tell and it was incredible to get a first hand account of how it affected his family. We spent about half the day out but then went back to the ship. We filled the hot tub on our balcony up with cool water (since it was so hot outside) making it our personal pool! We enjoyed a bottle of champagne and just relaxed....a perfect day! Kotor was the next day and a short day in port so we just repeated the process!!

 

Dubrovnik was the evening of the Master Chef dinner but I will post that next since I have several pictures.

[Ricktan]

Master Chef Dinner. Wow! I can't say enough about it. The whole experience was just wonderful. I will say....if you are not a "foodie" and/or willing to try new things, it would probably be a waste of your money. However, it was one of our favorite evenings! We were told that it sold out the first day and they had a waiting list so I'm glad that we booked right away. (I will do so again in Alaska and hope that it fills up!) Rod greeted us and we all were given a delicate Rose Champagne upon arrival and sat in the Pinnacle Bar. Once everyone had arrived they escorted us into a small room inside the Pinnacle Grill. The table setting was absolutely amazing! (you will see some in the pics). All of the other 5 couples were lovely people and we throughly enjoyed the company. We had wine pairings with every course (which they constantly keep filling) and I had to pace myself a little. The wines were all wonderful and I'm sure if I was POA1 I could tell you weren't they were but I'm not that good!! We also experienced another port at the end of the evening that Rod gave us (the first one we had was at the Cabana Club dinner). I don't know much about ports but found that we really liked them and that we have been missing out! They were served with dessert at the end of the meal.

The company was great! Funny, everyone talks about how much older the crowd is on HAL. We did see (and meet) lots of "older" people but it amazed me how many people close to our age that we met along the way. At the dinner, two couples was in their mid 70's. One couple was from Australia and I learned that chips and snacks are called "nibbles" and I have a new word to share! They were newlyweds, SO cute and I absolutely loved them! The other 4 couples were actually close to us in age and the conversation across the table was so enjoyable.....and, of course, the ever flowing wine helped to loosen every one up!! We were a great mix....we are from GA (USA) and there was one couple there who lives about 2 hours from us! The Aussies, a couple from NY, one from Holland, 2 from GA and one couple that the gentleman was from NC and the lady from Montreal. The service was impeccable! With every course they gave a great description and although they "hung back", never hesitated to join in which was fun. If you got up to go to the restroom you would return to a neatly folded new napkin sitting on you table spot! Made me feel bad for running to the restroom but hey, that was a LOT of wine!! HAHA! Here's some of the wonderful food that we enjoyed!

[Ricktan]

Dessert.....the chocolate tube on the right was filled with ice cream!

[Ricktan]

The 2 couples that we toured Sienna with we stayed in contact with the entire cruise. Since we were in the Penthouse Suite we had decided to enjoy balcony dining with them as our guests and since Kotor was a short port day, we had chosen that day. We had asked Joyce in the NL for help setting it up and as always, she was on top of her game. She had meet the MDR manger and they went in and measured out our balcony space in order to set it up. They sent us the menu for MDR the night before dinner so that we could each give our order early that morning. They set the table up and served us course by course.....it was so wonderful! It turned dark as we ate and the setting was gorgeous.

 

 

 

 

Venice. Our last port.....and our absolute favorite!! We LOVED Venice. It's the spot that I would go back to and just stay! We booked the Bauer Hotel through HAL so we had our transport included. This is a spot that if you are thinking about using HAL transfer, I say go ahead! Once we said our Good-byes and claimed our luggage, they put us on a bus which carried us just a few minutes and then we were put on a water taxi and delivered to our hotel. Shared our water taxi with 2 lady friends from VA.....one had just turned 80 years old and she was a complete hoot! I hope that when I'm her age, I am living like that.....cruising to foreign lands and loving life! My DH helped them both with their bags and they were so grateful but I have no doubt that could have handled it!! They were in our hotel also and we saw them several times. We stayed 2 nights in Venice and it was not enough! It was so peaceful yet playful, exciting yet calming....We took the gondola ride, walked the streets, ate pasta, drank wine, drank coffee and cappuccino ....ate gelato......it was Italy at it's finest! If you have to chance to stay here longer, do so!!

[Ricktan]

Summary.....the entire cruise was wonderful! Was there a couple bumps along the way? Yes, of course, as expected. But, overall.....HAL was everything we expected and then some. It was slightly sedate, elegant and refined. The crew was AMAZING!!! We found that HAL was the correct fit for us (maybe not everyone) but for us, it was exactly what we want in a vacation.

Internet.....I left thinking I would purchase the unlimited but was lucky. I have TM (can I say that??) and I have a plan that gives me unlimited data and text and everywhere we landed found me with free service. The only thing that would cost me is if I called home....they could call me free just not the other way around. So, I didn't purchase internet, just used my phone when in port and that was all I needed!!

Smoking....I worried about this and shouldn't have. Not saying that some people don't have issued but I didn't!! I spent a LOT of time in the casino but there was no smoking on the tables we played on and it was a complete non-issue for us! Never had a problem with it on our balcony either......I'm guessing we got lucky.

Laundry....we had unlimited dry cleaning and laundry as part of our suite and I used it almost every day! Had a couple things that had to be sent back for "better" pressing but no bad issues. They do a better job than I would have!

Food......hmmmm....I never went hungry! Food was great...some things better than others but overall wonderful! And....I never planned a plan, set a plate or wash a dish so it doesn't get much better than that!

Age groups.....sometimes, reading this board, you would think that everyone on this line has one foot in the grave. We met so many couples close to our age and the ones that were older (and, yes, they are older than Carnival!) had such wonderful tales to tell! Everywhere we went, bars, casino, dinner....we met such interesting people!

We loved the Neptune Lounge and all that came with it....is it worth the extra? To us, yes, but to some, I'm sure it isn't necessary to enjoy a great vacation! Just depends on what you are looking for!

Dress code.....I tried so hard to pay attention to the dress at Gala Night. My DH was is a tux and was stopped several times by people to tell him how nice he looked! Even the photographer kept telling him how nice it was to see a 3-piece tux! I didn't see more than a handful....lots of jackets and lots of cocktail dresses (I had a gown) but honestly, it didn't affect us. We dressed for ourselves and felt great so I didn't really care how others were dressed other than curious because of the hot debate on here!

 

Our cruise was a wonderful vacation and I am ready to now start planning in earnest for our Sept Alaska cruise on the NA ! If I have missed something that you are interested in, please let me know!

[madera1]

I thoroughly have enjoyed your review. Very impressed how you handled the list situation. You have a great attitude and hope you are able to go on many more adventures.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[LSEA]

Fabulous adventure! Thanks for sharing!

[scm1848]

We were on the Noordam last September, anchored off Corfu, when we encountered a similar situation, although not as serious. I was out reading on my aft wrap, with the weather just as calm as could be, when a sudden wind blew up out of nowhere. I think the wind went from 5 to maybe 50 or 60 mph in just a few seconds. It was really scaring, but the ship was immediately moved so that we were facing into the wind. Unlike your situation, there was no clouds or rain with what hit us; it was fair weather WIND!!

[xmrrushx]

 

The MDR asst manager told us that a quick estimate was that they lost between 500-600 dishes. He said everyone in there stayed calm initially but then when the list got worst, 2 moms jumped up screaming, "my kids" and running.

 

So like you i'm amazed to find not a lot of information on our Listing Incident. I had to laugh at the excerpt from this post. Those "two moms" were my wife's cousin and aunt. I was sitting in the MDR with them as i watched the whole event unfold. Im going to post out video from the MDR shortly on my youtube channel. I started recording shortly after the focal point of our list.

 

Glad to hear no one got injured while in your stateroom.

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL-m7NwzKqy2Y51kdzBx-pA

[DeeniEncinitas]

The photos are priceless! Beautiful photography!

Still bringing back memories of our 24 days!

Thank you

Denise:)

[Ricktan]

So like you i'm amazed to find not a lot of information on our Listing Incident. I had to laugh at the excerpt from this post. Those "two moms" were my wife's cousin and aunt. I was sitting in the MDR with them as i watched the whole event unfold. Im going to post out video from the MDR shortly on my youtube channel. I started recording shortly after the focal point of our list.

 

Glad to hear no one got injured while in your stateroom.

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL-m7NwzKqy2Y51kdzBx-pA

 

You got some great shots! Glad your camera wasn't damaged!