Nieuw Amsterdam first impressions

[cobalt206]

Hi Donny-Joe, Small World I'm actually from Kirkland as well. I totally agree with you that Pinnacle Grill matches up with the best steakhouses in Seattle (The Met, El Gaucho and Daniels).

 

We are sailing on the NA in less than 90 days and I'm pleased to hear your outstanding review. Thanks for sharing your experience!

[Btimmer]

Thanks for sharing your comments. We did the NA TA cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it. The PG was also really good for us as well and we liked the Lido method of service on the NA compared to the Eurodam, its sister ship.

 

 

Tim in Burien, WA

[EbayCruiser]

I enjoyed reading your comments and I agree with you about Disney for kids.

 

I took my grandkids on Disney and IMO no one else does it like Disney for kids. Of course, it helps that I am a BIG Disney fan. Always loved the parks, although DH not so much.

 

We travel just the two of us so we prefer HAL and sometimes RCI. Glad you had a great cruise on HAL.

[retiredkid]

I am thrilled that you chose to compare DCL with HAL's NA in particular. DCL is our benchmark cruise line and to read such a favourable report makes me very VERY happy. We are sailing on the NA for the first time in April. Thanks again for your honest evaluations.

[Dusty Wren]

Hi all,

 

I'm sitting poolside at the Margaritaville pool in Grand Turk, where the wifi is flaky as all get out, so we'll see if this posts.

 

More random notes from the cruise thus far, this time in bullet-point form for (hopefully) easier reading:

 

• Cabin:
  
  • We have two adjoining Signature Suites, which are fantastic. We usually cruise in standard verandahs on Disney, and this is a massive upgrade in space and amenities, for significantly less money. We paid about 2K per person (paid originally 1450 for a VE, got upgraded to V when the price dropped, then paid 550 for a last-minute upgrade to SS). That wouldn't even get you the cheapest inside cabin, at the lowest possible price, on the Disney Fantasy's Dec 19th Eastern Caribbean cruise - they started at 2100. An equivalent cabin on Disney doesn't really exist, but for comparison their best verandah started at 3K per person and went to 4K per person before sailing.
    
  • We've been in a junior suite on RCI, on the Enchantment. Nowhere close to the HAL Signature Suite.
    
  • We especially like the expansive balcony with plenty of furniture, the large bathroom with two showers and two sinks, and the double desks. And the big TV.
    
  • Furniture and fixtures largely seem to be in great shape. We have a slight problem with our shower nozzle in the stall (it droops slowly as you're showering). I'm putting in a call about it; we'll see how HAL handles it. Frankly it impacts us very little, as we mostly prefer the tub shower anyway.
    

  [*]Entertainment:

  • The interactive entertainment system is very good, with a straightforward interface. The selection of movies is fine, with plenty of recent movies and some older classics. The video quality is pretty good, with some glitches and compression artifacts that I suspect only a video nerd like me would notice.
    
  • We checked out the BB King show briefly last night, but the kids weren't feeling it, so we left. I thought the players were very good.
    
  • We then went to the mainstage show, "The Astoria," which was a mixed bag. The dancers were good, the singers were mostly very good (with a few minor pitch issues), but the story was a vague scenario with no dialogue, about some young men and women. Several of them fall in love. Someone's heart is broken. Someone learns to let go and enjoy life. It just consisted of song and dance numbers set to pop tunes, plus some wordless acting. There were sets that looked like a succession of urban lofts. It didn't seem to me that a scenario that thin added much to the experience. The backing music was pre-recorded, but they had an onstage "band" for part of the show that were not doing a good job of pretending to play the music. We found that truly bizarre. The cast even gestured to them during the curtain call, as if to say, "Let's hear it for the guys pretending to play the music!" At least the "drummer" appeared to actually know how to play the drums and made a half-hearted attempt to play something sort of like the music. The "guitarist" mostly just strummed continuously and didn't change his hand positions when the chords changed. I kept thinking, "HAL is paying people to pretend to be a band. Who thought that was a good idea?" I mean, Disney uses pre-recorded backing music (and background singers) for all their shows, and they don't pretend otherwise. As far as I can tell, no one cares.
    
  • Just to be clear, we all liked the mainstage show fine and will go see the other ones. The singing and dancing were both good, which is the important part. We just thought it was a little odd.
    

  [*]Misc:

  • We went to Tamarind last night, and the food was mostly very good. We thought the sushi was fine, but we can get better in Seattle. My Thai-style chicken curry was top-notch. The kids liked their duck and wasabi-crusted tenderloin. The drink service was slow, just because there was only one drink server covering too many tables. The rest of the service was very good.
    
  • The internet service has been generally pretty good. The lag is considerable, which is to be expected with satellite. It tends to get better in port, which suggests to me that they're probably switching to cellular or some other terrestrial network. An unlimited package is $249 for the whole cruise. The highest minutes package is $199 for 600 minutes, and the cheapest is 30 minutes for $19.
    
  • The Christmas decorations are all over the ship, and really nice. At the bottom of the atrium is a gingerbread village, and there are garlands, wreathes, trees and other decorations all over the ship. Supposedly there's going to be some extra stuff for Christmas day itself; I'll try to report back about that.
    
  • There are fewer family-style activities on the ship overall than with Disney. Most kids aren't going to be too excited about cooking classes, lessons about Windows 10 or tanzanite seminars. RCI also didn't have much in the way of family activities either. There seem to be plenty of activities in the teen center - my teen gets a card every day listing a whole day worth of them. But he's the only one who can do them; we can't participate as a family. Disney has family game shows, family trivia, family craft activities, etc. From our perspective this is fine, as our kids never cared much for most of that stuff except trivia. Note to HAL: our family votes for more trivia. :)
    
  • Carnival's cruise center in the Turks & Caicos is...fine. It's basically like a private island experience with more tanzanite stores, a nice pool and no free lunch. The NASA exhibit there is really small, but well put together and informative. We didn't get out of the cruise center to explore the island; perhaps we will if we ever come back.
    

 

Bottom line is that we're still having a very good time, and are generally pleased with HAL. I think people looking for a party cruise would be disappointed, but it fits our style really well. We miss a few things from Disney, but really not much.

 

Hi, was there smoking around you on the balconies & in the casino?

[POA1]

Thanks for this nice review. Looking for to sailing NA in June. Only one other HAL cruise but service and feel where similar to what you described. How new vs.old did the ship look / feel to you?

 

- Joel

Read post #19.

[SherriM]

Truly appreciate your thoughtful and fair sounding reviews. We are going in September and your reviews add favorably to the anticipation aspect.

Sounds like you have a lovely family too!

[doone]

Thanks so much for the update, we sail the NA next year, can't wait to hear more from your wonderful cruise.

[JTL1997]

thanks Don, my husband and I will on the ship next Sunday.

[sapper1]

Thank you for taking the time to do such a detailed and easy to read review of our favourite HAL ship.

We will be back aboard her in May so I am delighted to see that everything is still very positive.

[Banditswife]

Thank you for your positive review. We board NA in 5 weeks for our 1st Holland America cruise.

[Donny-Joe]

Hi, was there smoking around you on the balconies & in the casino?

 

Sorry, didn't notice this when it was posted. No significant smoking issues at all. Never smelled any on the balcony. Didn't spend much time in the casino, but it was never busy and never smoky when we did walk through.

 

We did notice a faint whiff of smoke, like a smoker had just walked by, once while walking down a hallway. Pretty minor.

[Typhoon1]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[Sea Turtle]

Enjoyed your thoughts--thank you!