N. Statendam Review Feb 4-11 2023

[ohioNCLcruiser]

I wanted to provide a quick review on my cruise on the N. Statendam from Feb 4-11^th 2023.

 

About us: We are three guys aged middle 30s. My partner and I have sailed on HAL 4 times before and 51 times on other lines. Our friend, the third person was on his first cruise with HAL and 9^th cruise overall.

 

The ship: The ship is in wonderful condition with the only minor maintenance items I saw were discoloring around the hot tubs. Overall, she is in great shape and clean! I love the artwork throughout these Pinnacle class ships. We enjoyed the variety and loved walking up and down the stairwells looking at each piece.

In my opinion, I think you can really tell these ships hold 600ish more people than the older ships with similar designs. Unlike my sailings on the Westerdam and even the N. Amsterdam and Eurodam, this ship felt quite crowded on deck 9. Long lines at the buffet and trying to move around people at times. If the Noordam, Westerdam, Oosterdam and Zuiderdam had the Tamarind restaurant, I would think it would be perfect. I don't like how the upper decks of this ship are very divided from each other. A lot of going up, over, down, back up, in, out etc.

 

The service: We thought the service was good and was pretty much as expected. We noticed compared to other cruise lines that the bartenders are a lot quieter when working. A lot less small talk while you sat at the bar and they didn’t get to know you as I have experienced on other lines. If we engaged them then they were happy to talk but it almost seemed like they are instructed not to do that unless the passenger starts it. That does not mean the service was bad it was just different. The casino bar service was very slow at times. I feel like Carnival bartenders could have made 3x the amount of drinks that it took for one drink to be made here.

Sadly, the worst service for me was not even on the ship. On the tender from HMC I was sitting across from the Piano singer and she was talking with one of the dancers next to her. I complimented her on how well she did this week (her conversation was her saying she did not know if she had the ability to sing a particular song that night) and she ignored my comments but the entire time was also making fun of guests and was being pretty loud about it. I worked on cruise ships for a long time and have always hated the attitude that entertainers often have towards the “crew” and this just provided me more flashbacks of that. Not all the entertainment and cruise staff department but some.

 

Shout out to Gage our Cruise and Destination Director who did a great job. He was there when you needed but did not bombard us with announcements. He was always smiling and greeting people whenever we saw him.

 

Our housekeeper was wonderful and I was very thankful that HAL still provided service twice a day. We used the laundry service and everything returned the next day and any requests we had were quickly taken care of. No complaints!

 

I have read that people notice service cutbacks in the main dining room but luckily I experienced none of that this cruise. Meals were all completed in a reasonable amount of time in my opinion.

 

The food: The food was great! The buffet food was always hot (sometimes too hot. Almost impossible to hold some of the plates) and tasted fresh. Holland America has always offered a great variety of food in the buffet in my opinion. Our friend who was on his first HAL sailing was very impressed.

The main dining food was always hot and fresh and tasted great. Some nights the menu options were boring and underwhelming in our opinion. I forgot that they do not have a lobster night in the main dining room so was a little disappointed in that.

Our dinner at the steakhouse tasted great but had the worst tasking Baked Alaska ever! The ice cream went bad, the cake part was dry and tasted old. Usually the HAL steakhouse knocks this out of the park but not this time. Everything else with the meal was delish.

Our favorite restaurant onboard the ship is Tamarind. We went twice and *everything* was delicious. I could probably go four times a week. Just a warning many of the desserts are very sour from all the citrus. Make sure to have a Tums-A-Tini cocktail after. Two parts tums with two parts Pepto.

The Pizza Deli had good chicken wings but I thought the pizza was just alright. Perhaps it was the long wait that left me feeling over it by the time the pizza arrived. Sometimes it took almost 40 minutes from ordering.

The entertainment: If you love music you will love HAL. The variety of venues from BB King Blues to the rock band was wonderful. The dueling pianos were also very talented but the story I mentioned about the female singer verbally making fun of passengers with a dancer on the tender really left a sour taste in my mouth. I know it was her last week of the contract and she was probably exhausted but no excuse.

Things that were weird: We were joking that this ship has a pool deck dome operator lookout like the Titanic did for icebergs. “Captain we spot a small cloud 10 miles ahead. Close the dome!” The dome was closed a lot when it seemed to be perfectly fine to keep it open. Even the bartender at the pool bar joked that they are always moving the dome. At night it could get very warm and muggy without it even opened a few feet.

 

Overall we had a great time and my friend is a big fan of HAL now. Next up is the Westerdam out of Tokyo March 13^th. I’m sure I missed a lot of details so feel free to ask any questions you might have.

Edited February 12, 2023 by ohioNCLcruiser

[Pickalily, Wilts]

Thanks for the interesting review of our favourite ship.  Haven't sailed anywhere since 2019, but we're back on board in May and can hardly wait!

[FlorenceItaly]

Fabulous review.  Thank you!  We sailed on her in November and enjoyed it.  The crew is fantastic.  We are big live music fans so it really ticked this box for us.  The downside for us is too many people.  Like you, we really felt the difference with the additional passengers.  We are back to the Zuiderdam in May for the Transatlantic.

[vicd1969]

Great review. Too bad about the Billboard piano singer’s attitude, hope you wrote about that in your post-cruise survey. While not exactly the same, at least you will have amazing onshore food experiences in Japan in lieu of Tamarind for your next cruise!

[Navybikermom]

I had a similar experience with the Baked Alaska on the Zaandam. The meringue smelled and tasted like fish. I hate fish, so I was immediately grossed out. I tore it open to eat the insides, but the ice cream was about the size of a small melon ball. Not worth it. 

[KroozNut]

Great review... Thanks! We're sailing NS in a few weeks, and you candid comments were very helpful.

[donandmelissa]

Thank you for a very helpful review.  We are taking a transatlantic on the NS in April and can't wait!

[raesive]

We're on right now, I agree about the hot plates in Lido! Did they make everyone sign receipts for drinks on your sailing too? We have the bev package but still required. They definitely weren't doing that last April and I find it annoying and a waste of paper. 

[ohioNCLcruiser]

53 minutes ago, raesive said:

We're on right now, I agree about the hot plates in Lido! Did they make everyone sign receipts for drinks on your sailing too? We have the bev package but still required. They definitely weren't doing that last April and I find it annoying and a waste of paper. 

Yeah they sure did. First time that was the case for me on HAL. Even my compd drinks in the casino I had to sign a full price ticket for.

[ohioNCLcruiser]

5 hours ago, Navybikermom said:

I had a similar experience with the Baked Alaska on the Zaandam. The meringue smelled and tasted like fish. I hate fish, so I was immediately grossed out. I tore it open to eat the insides, but the ice cream was about the size of a small melon ball. Not worth it. 

Yeah it was really odd. Def a drop in quality. 

[ohioNCLcruiser]

I wanted to add one thing to the review since I just realized this: I sent my clothes to laundry since I was boarding another cruise after this and just realized almost all my clothes were really stretched. Just a warning about the ship laundry. They can def stretch things.

[bandp407]

On 2/12/2023 at 8:59 AM, ohioNCLcruiser said:

I wanted to provide a quick review on my cruise on the N. Statendam from Feb 4-11^th 2023.

 

About us: We are three guys aged middle 30s. My partner and I have sailed on HAL 4 times before and 51 times on other lines. Our friend, the third person was on his first cruise with HAL and 9^th cruise overall.

 

The ship: The ship is in wonderful condition with the only minor maintenance items I saw were discoloring around the hot tubs. Overall, she is in great shape and clean! I love the artwork throughout these Pinnacle class ships. We enjoyed the variety and loved walking up and down the stairwells looking at each piece.

In my opinion, I think you can really tell these ships hold 600ish more people than the older ships with similar designs. Unlike my sailings on the Westerdam and even the N. Amsterdam and Eurodam, this ship felt quite crowded on deck 9. Long lines at the buffet and trying to move around people at times. If the Noordam, Westerdam, Oosterdam and Zuiderdam had the Tamarind restaurant, I would think it would be perfect. I don't like how the upper decks of this ship are very divided from each other. A lot of going up, over, down, back up, in, out etc.

 

The service: We thought the service was good and was pretty much as expected. We noticed compared to other cruise lines that the bartenders are a lot quieter when working. A lot less small talk while you sat at the bar and they didn’t get to know you as I have experienced on other lines. If we engaged them then they were happy to talk but it almost seemed like they are instructed not to do that unless the passenger starts it. That does not mean the service was bad it was just different. The casino bar service was very slow at times. I feel like Carnival bartenders could have made 3x the amount of drinks that it took for one drink to be made here.

Sadly, the worst service for me was not even on the ship. On the tender from HMC I was sitting across from the Piano singer and she was talking with one of the dancers next to her. I complimented her on how well she did this week (her conversation was her saying she did not know if she had the ability to sing a particular song that night) and she ignored my comments but the entire time was also making fun of guests and was being pretty loud about it. I worked on cruise ships for a long time and have always hated the attitude that entertainers often have towards the “crew” and this just provided me more flashbacks of that. Not all the entertainment and cruise staff department but some.

 

Shout out to Gage our Cruise and Destination Director who did a great job. He was there when you needed but did not bombard us with announcements. He was always smiling and greeting people whenever we saw him.

 

Our housekeeper was wonderful and I was very thankful that HAL still provided service twice a day. We used the laundry service and everything returned the next day and any requests we had were quickly taken care of. No complaints!

 

I have read that people notice service cutbacks in the main dining room but luckily I experienced none of that this cruise. Meals were all completed in a reasonable amount of time in my opinion.

 

The food: The food was great! The buffet food was always hot (sometimes too hot. Almost impossible to hold some of the plates) and tasted fresh. Holland America has always offered a great variety of food in the buffet in my opinion. Our friend who was on his first HAL sailing was very impressed.

The main dining food was always hot and fresh and tasted great. Some nights the menu options were boring and underwhelming in our opinion. I forgot that they do not have a lobster night in the main dining room so was a little disappointed in that.

Our dinner at the steakhouse tasted great but had the worst tasking Baked Alaska ever! The ice cream went bad, the cake part was dry and tasted old. Usually the HAL steakhouse knocks this out of the park but not this time. Everything else with the meal was delish.

Our favorite restaurant onboard the ship is Tamarind. We went twice and *everything* was delicious. I could probably go four times a week. Just a warning many of the desserts are very sour from all the citrus. Make sure to have a Tums-A-Tini cocktail after. Two parts tums with two parts Pepto.

The Pizza Deli had good chicken wings but I thought the pizza was just alright. Perhaps it was the long wait that left me feeling over it by the time the pizza arrived. Sometimes it took almost 40 minutes from ordering.

The entertainment: If you love music you will love HAL. The variety of venues from BB King Blues to the rock band was wonderful. The dueling pianos were also very talented but the story I mentioned about the female singer verbally making fun of passengers with a dancer on the tender really left a sour taste in my mouth. I know it was her last week of the contract and she was probably exhausted but no excuse.

Things that were weird: We were joking that this ship has a pool deck dome operator lookout like the Titanic did for icebergs. “Captain we spot a small cloud 10 miles ahead. Close the dome!” The dome was closed a lot when it seemed to be perfectly fine to keep it open. Even the bartender at the pool bar joked that they are always moving the dome. At night it could get very warm and muggy without it even opened a few feet.

 

Overall we had a great time and my friend is a big fan of HAL now. Next up is the Westerdam out of Tokyo March 13^th. I’m sure I missed a lot of details so feel free to ask any questions you might have.

Fabulous review - thank you ! By any chance has HAL added any pre dinner music , perhaps in the Ocean Bar & even piped in music out on the pool deck?  We are seasoned cruisers like yourself and really enjoy our dance music and the atmosphere that music creates on deck. We sailed on the NS in March 2019 & several other HAL ships prior. We have since moved to Celebrity as there is lots of good music. We are considering the NS for February 2024. I’ve read that the Lincoln Center stage will be removed and more bands brought on. Thoughts on your experience and perhaps what you may have heard while on board.

 

Very nice hearing you and your friends had a great cruise!  Thank you again!
 

[Pickalily, Wilts]

2 hours ago, ohioNCLcruiser said:

I wanted to add one thing to the review since I just realized this: I sent my clothes to laundry since I was boarding another cruise after this and just realized almost all my clothes were really stretched. Just a warning about the ship laundry. They can def stretch things.

 

Well, that's a different angle.  The usual comment after a cruise is that clothes have 'shrunk'.🙃

[Iamthesea]

Thank you for the great review.  We will be on the ship in May. Hopefully the ship will not feel too crowded.  It's a cold weather cruise, so not much action will take place on the outside decks of 9.  We try to avoid the Lido at peak hours.

 

Did you try ordering your pizza on the app, or did you walk up to order?

 

What type of accommodations did you have?