First Time on Holland - Trans-Atlantic Rome to Ft. Lauderdale 2020

[Tom.Terrific]

Hi all,  My wife are I are excited at the prospect of our first cruise with Holland America, and we're also excited about our first visit to Europe.   

 

Looking at the two TA's offered by HAL in 2020, We'd appreciate your opinion on which cruise you find most appealing.   The two ships (Veendam and Statendam), sail on different dates in Oct '20, and have different durations, but for this query, let's call these things equal and just consider the experiences at each port for both cruises.  Both ships have 5 ports of call, the ships both embark / debark at the same ports.

 

Cruise #1 visits Palma De Mallorca, Spain - Cartagena, Spain - Malaga, Spain - Cadiz (Seville), Spain - Ponta Delgada, Sao Migual, Azores, Portugal 

 

Cruise #2 visits Toulon, France - Barcelona, Spain - Alicante, Spain - Malaga, Spain - Cadiz (Seville), Spain - Funchal (Madeira), Portugal

 

Are any of these ports favorites, or piqued anyone's interest?  Are there any must see/do experiences at any of the ports?  

 

Thanks for your thoughful consideration,

 

Tom

 

 

[lcand1923]

I would look at the Port pages on Cruise Critic or visit Trip Advisor and see which have sites that interest you.  Personally, I prefer Barcelona to Cartegena.  I also found Funchal interesting.  But I've never been to Palma De Mallorcan and Ponta Delgada, if I went to them I may tell you that they are great!

[RuthC]

Consider, too, the ships, as they are not at all alike.
I presume you mean the Nieuw Statendam, as the Statendam left the fleet a few years ago. The Veendam is one of the smallest ships, and one of the oldest, in the fleet. The Nieuw Statendam is the largest and newest. They are very different, with very different experiences. The Veendam is more traditional in style, while the Nieuw Statendam is contemporary. Activity on the Veendam is quiet, and more low-key, while the Nieuw Statendam has much more activity. There are more specialty restaurants on the Nieuw Statendam.

I don't know which ship is doing which itinerary, but personally, I would prefer the second itinerary, but would also prefer the Veendam over the Nieuw Statendam.

[mkl55]

Both of those itineraries have wonderful ports.  I would opt for #2 simply because of Barcelona, a personal favorite.   However, in the case of a transatlantic, the ship itself is very important and you are looking at both ends of the HAL spectrum in terms of ship experience.  The Veendam is a charming, older, smaller ship that offers a more sedate experience.  The Nieuw Statendam is shiny new and larger, hence it offers many more dining and entertainment venues.  Since the itineraries both offer interesting ports, I would urge you to do some research on the ships to see which experience most appeals.  I've sailed on Veendam and Koningsdam (sister to Nieuw Statendam) and I would be more inclined to choose Nieuw Statendam for a crossing simply for the greater variety of dining and entertainment opportunities.  

[kazu]

I just love TA's and sorry I'm not doing one this year.

 

Myself - it would be #2 easy.

 

but, I agree with Ruth C - we don't know which ship is doing which (and I'm too lazy to look) do look at the two ships and decide which you prefer.

 

[OlsSalt]

Maderia - we did a "levada" hiking tour if you are a walker - a wow experience that you will need to arrange on your own - and research which option you would like to visit.  These are water channels that flow down from the mountains and irrigate this lush, very steep island.

 

Cadiz: we arranged to do Seville on our own with a very early am train that is in walking distance from where our ship came in - we were on the smaller sister ship to the Veendam, so one needs to check if the larger ship comes into that same down town port.  Again, lots of walking but enjoyed both the train trip as well as having free time on our own in Seville.

 

Palma: after several visits did not have major  interest for  us, so I would not use that port as a make or break deal breaker. We took a local metro to visit where Father Junipero Serra, founder of the California Missions was born as we are collectors and live in one of his former mission towns. But that would not necessarily be interesting to others.

 

Barcelona: agree with others, a very special and highly walkable city. Plus a very extensive hop on hop bus you can pick up off port side - if you are not docked out of town. 

 

Going on the smaller ship - Veendam - might get you into the closer in ports. Either will be very good, and agree TA's can be the best cruises of all. You won't lose on either choice.

Edited March 18, 2019 by OlsSalt

[Tom.Terrific]

Thanks to everyone that replied to my query, your insight has been most helpful.  We'd done some of our homework looking at the ports of call for these two cruises and were already leaning toward cruise #2.  With your input I'm convinced that these are the ports we want to visit on our first TA.  We had also pretty much decided the Veendam was our ship of choice because we expect it to have a charm that likely isn't as prevalent on newer ships, and we think a Lanai stateroom would be wonderful.  (Please let me know if I'm dreaming here) In addition, they're not building any more ships like the Veendam, (Statendam Class) however, I anticipate Holland will build additional ships like the Nieuw Statendam, (Pinnacle Class) Thank you RuthC, and we don't want to miss this opportunity.   

 

One thing we hadn't considered was the additional entertainment and dining venues available on the Nieuw Statendam. While there are 7 sea days in a row before reaching Fort Lauderdale we're pretty low maintenance and don't need much.  As long as we can sit out in the sunshine with our books and an occasional adult beverage. We also enjoy the pool and hot tubs if it's warm enough.

 

17 Days at sea sounds just about right...  Can't wait.

[OlsSalt]

Good choice, best thing since you like low-key is the Veendam still has the large dedicated library space  so even if the weather is not good you have a cozy place to sit and read in very comfortable seats surrounded by a fairly nice inventory of books to explore. No longer maintained by a librarian on board but good enough for pick and choose pleasure reading on a good range of topics and authors.

 

HAL will provide a fairly good enrichment lecture series on TA (or at least they certainly did in the past) often up to three separate topic series with lectures throughout the day, and some of the speakers add informal post lecture seminars to discuss the topics more informally.  

 

The at-sea days went by pretty fast and I am still using a lot of the information we got from the series speakers - some current events and global impacts, one series was on based around the books 1491 and 1493 - the Columbian Exchange since we were making close to the same "new world" voyage as Columbus.. Others were also very iteresting general interest topics - maritime history, astronomy, worlds fairs ....etc.

 

Hope you have a great time.