Niew Statendam

[floridababa]

How is the ship? The staff? The food?

Going next month and hope they have improved🤔

[CruiserBruce]

Spent 18 days on her in July. Nothing bad to report. Everything was great, particularly the staff.

[FlorenceItaly]

We were on her in November and loved it.  The staff was fantastic.  The food was good.  Our least favorite restaurant was the Pinnacle.  We enjoyed all the live music.  

[Cruising-along]

25 minutes ago, floridababa said:

How is the ship? The staff? The food?

Going next month and hope they have improved🤔

We spent a month on the NS (my favorite ship) October-November and had absolutely no complaints.  Two of the best cabin stewards we've ever had (and we've had amazing stewards).  Food was great IMO.

Can you elaborate?  What were your problems on that ship?

[floridababa]

I have not had problems but some people are complaining about HAL food in all venues and crew not knowing what they were doing 

[PalmSprings]

We were on in November.  It was a mixed bag.  
 

Our room stewards were magnificent - bartenders/cocktail servers friendly and attentive.  Our MDR waiters (early fixed dining) were inexperienced and often slower than what we had previously experienced on HAL but were also very friendly and trying hard to do well.  Rudis and Tamarind on NS are both truly epic!

 

Embarkation on 11/17 was the worst we’ve ever experienced on any cruise line - slow, disorganized - a complete mess.  The shore excursion experience in San Juan was awful.  If HAL doesn’t find better vendors, their already-suffering reputation post-Covid will continue to fade.

[Cal1iope]

We were on NS in December. Overall it was great, but a few things stood out. Communication among the staff isn't great. We were on board a total of 27 days for 2 back-to-back sailings. My husband and I both tested positive for covid within the first few days. They had dedicated stewards to clean covid rooms but nobody told our regular steward that the room was contaminated. After 14 days we changed rooms. We were told they would move our bags but they didn't. And when we disembarked we were going straight across the street to the Volendam. Our bags weren't waiting when we got off the ship, nobody knew where they were, and we finally found them 45 minutes later mixed with the crew's bags. Besides those Communication issues we really enjoyed our time aboard. 

[Native Floridian 26]

4 hours ago, floridababa said:

How is the ship? The staff? The food?

Going next month and hope they have improved🤔

Improved what?

 

[albingirl]

We were with the NS in Feb. For 2 weeks and I think everything was great. Food was very good as well as the service .the ship was sold out, so that was one thing that took patience. Elevators etc. But, we sailed on half empty ships in the past couple years, so we had been spoiled.

 

[TomAndJane]

We just got off The Statendam on March 4th.  Here are some of my observations as a 4 star mariner (not that that matters):

 

1.  We were on two other DAM ships in early and late January.  The Happy Hour each day consisted on 50% off each drink so if you didn't have the drink package it was a great deal (Eurodam and Zuiderdam).  On the Statendam the Beverage Manager decided to make it 20% off your 2nd drink after paying full price for the first one

 

2.  The Grand Dutch Cafe had NO BELGIAN beers that they advertised on their website and the board in the cafe.  The Beverage Manager tried to convince us that their distributor could not get the beers in North America.  If this is true then why did I have them on the Rotterdam and Koningsdam?  The Belgian beers are more expensive and I believe that the Beverage Manager is just trying to save money.

 

3.  Be careful of the fish in the Canaletto  We ate there and my wife had three bones at least 1/2 " long in her first two bites.  They told us the person that de-bones the fish was new and it would not happen again.

 

4.  Staff was great especially our room stewards and Roy at the Panorama Bar.

 

5.  Entertainment in the Rock and Roll room was good and the piano players had some good sets and some not so good sets.

 

6.  During our cruise a member of the entertainment staff was very unfortunately killed so the main shows and BB Kings were cancelled the last four nights of the cruse.

 

7.  Make sure you check your onboard account daily (charged twice for $43) and also once you get home.  We had a posted (not hold) charge and still have it right now of $169.70 for excursions we did not purchase and for a port our ship did not even go to.  These charges were not on the app the say we left the ship.

 

8.  Food is subjective but I would say the menus are not as good as they use to be.

 

9.  When the casino is crowded it can be a little smokie,

 

10.  Overall I would say you will love your cruise, enjoy the ship and staff but just be aware that things may go awry.

Edited March 10, 2023 by TomAndJane

[floridababa]

43 minutes ago, TomAndJane said:

We just got off The Statendam on March 4th.  Here are some of my observations as a 4 star mariner (not that that matters):

 

1.  We were on two other DAM ships in early and late January.  The Happy Hour each day consisted on 50% off each drink so if you didn't have the drink package it was a great deal (Eurodam and Zuiderdam).  On the Statendam the Beverage Manager decided to make it 20% off your 2nd drink after paying full price for the first one

 

2.  The Grand Dutch Cafe had NO BELGIAN beers that they advertised on their website and the board in the cafe.  The Beverage Manager tried to convince us that their distributor could not get the beers in North America.  If this is true then why did I have them on the Rotterdam and Koningsdam?  The Belgian beers are more expensive and I believe that the Beverage Manager is just trying to save money.

 

3.  Be careful of the fish in the Canaletto  We ate there and my wife had three bones at least 1/2 " long in her first two bites.  They told us the person that de-bones the fish was new and it would not happen again.

 

4.  Staff was great especially our room stewards and Roy at the Panorama Bar.

 

5.  Entertainment in the Rock and Roll room was good and the piano players had some good sets and some not so good sets.

 

6.  During our cruise a member of the entertainment staff was very unfortunately killed so the main shows and BB Kings were cancelled the last four nights of the cruse.

 

7.  Make sure you check your onboard account daily (charged twice for $43) and also once you get home.  We had a posted (not hold) charge and still have it right now of $169.70 for excursions we did not purchase and for a port our ship did not even go to.  These charges were not on the app the say we left the ship.

 

8.  Food is subjective but I would say the menus are not as good as they use to be.

 

9.  When the casino is crowded it can be a little smokie,

 

10.  Overall I would say you will love your cruise, enjoy the ship and staff but just be aware that things may go awry.

I thank you for your input.   Reading on many sites that talk about poor service and food. Hoping the NS is good

[TomAndJane]

6 minutes ago, floridababa said:

I thank you for your input.   Reading on many sites that talk about poor service and food. Hoping the NS is good

You are welcome.  The staff is great.  I am sure you will have a great cruse.

[FlaMariner]

We spent two weeks on the Nieuw Statendam in November and enjoyed it all....Ship was spotless, service as great as ever and we enjoyed the food.....Billboard Onboard, Rock Room and the movies on lido deck were our favorite evening events.....Check out the thermal suite if you are into that.

 

Have fun

[AFNavigator]

4 hours ago, KroozNut said:

This is a totally subjective review, and therefore should be disregarded..

I'll have to second the observation regarding the lack of Belgian Beers in the Grand Dutch Cafe.  We were on the NS in December and they had no bottled Belgian beers beyond Hoegaarden.  Luckily, we LOVE Hoegaarden!  The had Heineken on draft and in bottles but that's available just about anywhere so I wouldn't put it in the same category as their advertised specialty Belgian beers.

 

When we asked about the shortage, the Dutch Cafe manager attributed the lack of Belgian beers to supply chain issues.  He said they order the beers but never know what will actually arrive in their resupply shipment, so that's somewhat the same explanation provided to TomandJane. I doubt they aren't ordering them to save money--I believed the manager on the supply chain problem though.  Perhaps HAL needs to evaluate which distributor they contract.

[jakkojakko]

Dutch means the country of the Netherlands. Belgium is a different country, so having belgian beers in a dutch cafe is not a given.

[Nang]

15 minutes ago, jakkojakko said:

Dutch means the country of the Netherlands. Belgium is a different country, so having belgian beers in a dutch cafe is not a given.

Netherlands vs Belgium is a red herring.  The issue is that a beer advertised as being available was not, its nothing to do with the origins of the beer or the name of the cafe.

[HALcruiser2001]

19 hours ago, floridababa said:

I have not had problems but some people are complaining about HAL food in all venues and crew not knowing what they were doing 

I was on Feb 18-25.  If you search this forum for "summary review" you will see my review.

There is also a thread about "has food improved yet on HAL."

You really cannot judge anyone complaining about food across the board, it must be specific to the ship.   I cannot review MDR as I never ate there, Rudi's, Pinnacle, Club Orange were all perfect.

[Real NHDOC]

We’re joining NS on 3/18. Disappointed to hear the happy hour still isn’t 50% off. I plan to discuss it with the hotel manager because I was told the 50% off discount is now fleetwide. All ships have it except NS AFAIK. 

[KroozNut]

1 hour ago, Real NHDOC said:

We’re joining NS on 3/18. Disappointed to hear the happy hour still isn’t 50% off. I plan to discuss it with the hotel manager because I was told the 50% off discount is now fleetwide. All ships have it except NS AFAIK. 

We're on that sailing as well. Please feel free to join our roll call if you haven't already 🙂

Where did you read that HH wasn't 50% off on NS? Not that it really matters to us because we have the SBP. But when we sailed Zuiderdam last April, I believe it was buy one, get the second one for $2.

Do you know what the HH special is for our NS sailing on the 18th?

[Real NHDOC]

30 minutes ago, KroozNut said:

We're on that sailing as well. Please feel free to join our roll call if you haven't already 🙂

Where did you read that HH wasn't 50% off on NS? Not that it really matters to us because we have the SBP. But when we sailed Zuiderdam last April, I believe it was buy one, get the second one for $2.

Do you know what the HH special is for our NS sailing on the 18th?

See post #10, above. Someone who got off last week reported that in his review. It was that same happy hour deal last summer on NS when we went to Iceland. It’s not very happy. On that one I thanked them for being so stingy since it caused us to eliminate our daily cocktail and we saved around $400 we would have spent in the bar. They didn’t understand my sarcasm. 

[Quo Vadis?]

We sailed for 19days on NS from Quebec to Boston and back in September.  We loved it so much that we booked 7 weeks from November to January.  Then the day before the cruise ended we added another week.

 

The crew is fantastic.

The MDR is very good 5 days out of 7.

We loved the Dutch cafe and Lido for the off nights.

The live music was better in September than in November.  

Trivia hosts were exceptional.

The Crow's Nest was my destination every day.

 

[floridababa]

Thank you for the great review

[wdw1972]

Onboard right now.  Ship looks great, crew are friendly.  There are just under 1000 crew, so that's pretty low staffing for a ship this size.  We have 2900 people onboard including LOTS of kids - it's ridiculous.  Everything from infants to teens - I've never had so many on any of my HAL cruises.  Thankfully I'm in a cabana in the Retreat so I don't have to deal with the crowds & noise.  

 

I don't bother with MDR so can't speak to that.  Lido food has been great - did breakfast early w/no wait, dinner with no wait and had cabana stewards bring me lunch.  Long lines at NY Deli in the evening - almost back to the bar on the other side.  Kids are allowed in both pools this cruise.  BB Kings is great - both male & female vocalists.  Can't deal with Billboard or Rolling Stone Rock Room due to the smoky stench from the casino filtering down.  We'll be doing all 4 specialty dining locations starting tomorrow - have no doubt we'll enjoy them all.  

 

I'd gladly sail NS again, but I'm finished with 7-night cruises, especially when many schools are out!

 

Sue/WDW1972

[Real NHDOC]

Thanks for the review. Looking forward to hearing BBK on NS soon. The band on Rotterdam is amazing.
 

School break and holiday cruises are the worst. The only way to avoid kids is to book the longer itineraries. We have a few kids on Rotterdam but the 10-11 day loops definitely limits the numbers. We made the mistake of going on Eurodam last year Christmas week. Never again. 
 

We move from Rotterdam to NS on Saturday. Hopefully the school break season is winding down. In any event we’re staying on until Rome. Transatlantic crossings tend to eliminate children completely 😀

Edited March 13, 2023 by Real NHDOC

[Native Floridian 26]

11 hours ago, wdw1972 said:

Onboard right now.  Ship looks great, crew are friendly.  There are just under 1000 crew, so that's pretty low staffing for a ship this size.  We have 2900 people onboard including LOTS of kids - it's ridiculous.  Everything from infants to teens - I've never had so many on any of my HAL cruises.  Thankfully I'm in a cabana in the Retreat so I don't have to deal with the crowds & noise.  

 

I don't bother with MDR so can't speak to that.  Lido food has been great - did breakfast early w/no wait, dinner with no wait and had cabana stewards bring me lunch.  Long lines at NY Deli in the evening - almost back to the bar on the other side.  Kids are allowed in both pools this cruise.  BB Kings is great - both male & female vocalists.  Can't deal with Billboard or Rolling Stone Rock Room due to the smoky stench from the casino filtering down.  We'll be doing all 4 specialty dining locations starting tomorrow - have no doubt we'll enjoy them all.  

 

I'd gladly sail NS again, but I'm finished with 7-night cruises, especially when many schools are out!

 

Sue/WDW1972

Can you tell me what the Happy Hours are on your cruise from the daily program?  I've seen different offers now from Bogo, 1/2 off 2nd and now 20% off second.  Thank you!