'Twas Two Weeks Before Christmas - Live from the Nieuw Statendam, Dec. 10 - 17, 2023

[Mystymom]

Always enjoy your wonderful posts----thanks for taking us along.  Can't wait for your next adventure!!!!

[POA1]

22 hours ago, julia said:

Poohbert Deck??!  I lost it! 😅

Thank you! It's good to be understood.

[POA1]

My little Android countdown widget on my phone tells me that it's now 100 days until we leave for our Rotterdam cruise. It's a 9 Day Southern Caribbean sailing. I expect that, like the 7 Day Eastern we just finished, we're going to think this one's too short as well.

 

The itinerary was originally supposed to be the ABC Islands and Half Moon Cay. There were two pair of sea days bracketing the Dutch West Indies. We were pretty stoked to have a "double-double" of days at sea, because they really help with shipboard research.

 

Alas, the dreaded itinerary change struck and Curaçao was replaced by sea day. (Our expected speed will be 2.4 knots as we zoom past Curaçao.) The second double sea day was replaced by a stop in Grand Turk. If we had been smart, we could have changed shirts, been careful to avoid getting Christmas decorations in the background in a second set of photos last week, and already have our "April" Grand Turk content in the can.

 

 

Edited December 20, 2023 by POA1

[POA1]

There had been quite a bit of discussion about the Nieuw Statendam's television during the cruise prior to our sailing - the transatlantic crossing. If we aren't the worst people to weigh in on TV watching, we're definitely positioned to make the playoffs for worst.

 

Other than having the bow cam channel on to hear announcements, we watched less than 10 minutes of actual TV. We never even watched long enough to see if the "TV would freeze up," a common complaint amongst the repositioning crowd. (I'd have unplugged the TV, counted to 5,and plugged it back in. I feel that calling tech support for anything other than a password reset hurts my geek street cred. 😎)

 

I do agree that the TV position is not ideal in the Vista Suites, in terms of watching from the sofa. However, the sofa is across from the desk and the mirror behind the desk is both a regular mirror and serves as the makeup mirror. (It's lit, but not magnified.)

 

We travel with an music player and rechargeable speaker, because the Bubble of Awesome deserves its own soundtrack. The little green Sandisk player has 8 GB of internal memory and a 32 GB micro SD card.

 

 

It's loaded with around 25 different Christmas mixes that are appropriately an hour and 20 minutes each. That was our in-cabin entertainment.

 

The little green player has 60 mixes, 80 hours, of what I call cocktail music which is what we listen to on our balcony at home. There also another 80 hours of more upbeat music.

 

The battery life on both the speaker and the player are over 12 hours per charge.

😔

Edited December 20, 2023 by POA1
I cannot get rid of the little emoji at the end. I must learn to peacefully coexist with it.

[VMax1700]

22 hours ago, POA1 said:

combination art tour and pub crawl. Our working title is "A Toast to the Arts."

How about "IN to the pubs and OUT on our Arts"? 😁

[POA1]

Before I forget - here's a tip for better performance from the Navigator app when you are onboard. As you move about the ship, you are staying connected to the same SSID. In our case, it was NieuwStatendam-Guest. Even though the network ID or SSID, stays the same, you'll connect to different access points on different radio channels as you move to different areas of the ship. For best results, disconnect and reconnect when you get to the new location. Otherwise, your device might not do a hand off to the closest access point and keep a weaker radio connection alive.

 

The disconnect button is shown below. It's in Settings > Network in Android and probably somewhere similaron iOS.

 

 

 

[POA1]

My thoughts on the Club Orange experience, part 1:

 

There are three main components to consider when deciding whether or not CO is worth it for you. They are:

 

1) Priority embarkation and disembarkation, including tendering.

 

2) Stateroom upgrade inside the meta category.

 

3) Club Orange dining.

 

There is also a fourth major reason to choose Club Orange, and it's probably the number one factor, garnering the vast majority of the vote for #1 reason to choose Club Orange. (I only surveyed myself, but the results were crystal clear.) Topping the list is the nonpareil of cruise line souvenirs, the Club Orange tote bag.

 

Let's start with priority boarding. We're four star Mariners, so priority boarding did not add any value for us. In talking to people around the ship, priority boarding seems to be a pretty worthwhile thing if one doesn't get it on the basis of starishness.

 

As for the stateroom upgrade component, it can definitely be worthwhile. Based on 50 to 60 seconds of deep and thorough research, it looks like booking an obstructed verandah (VH) and upgrading to the highest verandah categories (VA, V, VS, or VQ) can be worth the entire CO add on price.

 

If you are stupid, like I was, you will book the exact room you want, in the category you want. In our case, a cat. A Vista Suite. Then, when I added CO, the only upgrade was an AS, aft Vista Suite. We wanted to be midship, so we declined the upgrade.

 

If you are already in the highest available stateroom and they can't upgrade you, you get some OBC. Not this guy! We paid for more than we had to, turned down the upgrade, and got nothing. (We did get the tote bag, so it's all good.) By paying extra, we get to blame everyone else for cut backs. 😉

 

The CO upgrade is a really good deal for solo travelers. Singles only pay for one CO, but get the benefit of an upgrade which is normally at double occupancy rates.

 

I'll cover dining in a subsequent post.

 

 

Edited December 20, 2023 by POA1

[POA1]

In another thread about "Orange Club," a solo traveler, @Toofarfromthesea

posted that it was a great value for an ocean view.

 

 

[RuthC]

15 hours ago, POA1 said:

My little Android countdown widget on my phone tells me that it's now 100 days until we leave for our Rotterdam cruise.

Sounds like a long, long time. Too long, actually. 

15 hours ago, POA1 said:

It's a 9 Day Southern Caribbean sailing. I expect that, like the 7 Day Eastern we just finished, we're going to think this one's too short as well.

You will. Because you're smart enough that you will not notice any difference. 

[POA1]

1 hour ago, RuthC said:

You will. Because you're smart enough that you will not notice any difference. 

The only upside to a shorter cruise is less email and work backlog when I get home. However, the next one encompasses Good Friday and two weekends, so we pick up two cruise days and don't add any extra missed work.

[POA1]

My thoughts on the Club Orange experience, part 2:

 

On the Pinnacle Class ships, Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam, and Rotterdam, there is a standalone Club Orange dining room. On the first two Pinnacle ships, the CO dining dining room started out as America's Test Kitchen. As such, it had seating more akin to a bistro. The chairs and tables are more casual than those in the main dining room. Arguably, the seating is not as comfortable.

 

By the time the Rotterdam launched, the Club Orange Dining Room was purpose built as a restaurant and the decor is more upscale. The seating is decidedly more comfortable to boot. (We got to tour the Rotterdam in November which allowed us to make a comparison.) We sail on the Rotterdam in the Spring as Club Orange passengers which will enable us to evaluate the Rotterdam in depth. We can butt-test the seats and see what differs between the two newest Pinnacle Class ships.

[PalmSprings]

Thank you both so much for your positivity, humor and grace. Reading along during your high sea adventures was something I truly looked forward to each day!

 

 Happiest of holidays to you both…and, of course, Poohby Joe.

[POA1]

As a general rule, we are a late fixed seating people. We have had second upper, main seating since way back when there were four assigned seating times. It may seem shocking to you young whippersnappers*, but there was a time when everybody had scheduled dining times.

 

Given our busy days in the lab, experimenting amongst the beakers, bunsen burners, and erlenmeyer flasks - having a known, fixed time for dinner is a comfort - one less variable in the quadratic equation that is our life at sea.

 

Club Orange, on the other hand, is an open seating product. You dine when you want. (Designed by long-haired, free spirited, hippies if you ask me, by jiminy.*)

 

We like to have the same wait staff every night. That way, we can build a relationship based on mutual respect, admiration, tips, and making sure Mother* is served her cappuccino with dessert..

 

So, we hatched our evil plan. As soon as we found a server we liked, we would ask for him or her every evening - thus making an oasis of fixed dining amongst the throngs of "oh... We'll just eat whenever we want" people. (Take that, ya tie-died, flower children!)

 

Witt that in mind, we found "our guy," Tri, and were seated in his section for every meal. Well, except for the last breakfast, when our waiter was a guy we called "not-Tri."

 

There's probably a point to all of this. Hmm.... It'll come to me.

 

Oh, yeah. I got it. While we like the Club Orange Dining Room, we'd be in late, fixed, second seating if we were on any non-Pinnacle class vessel.

 

*- I turned sixty earlier this year. Like a fine wine, I have aged into the HAL demographic and have earned the right to use words like whippersnapper, dadgummit.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by POA1

[CruiseIreland]

Thoroughly enjoyed your reports and style of writing! We board NS in February. Happy Christmas 🎄. Ken 

[POA1]

11 hours ago, PalmSprings said:

Thank you both so much for your positivity, humor and grace. Reading along during your high sea adventures was something I truly looked forward to each day!

 

 Happiest of holidays to you both…and, of course, Poohby Joe.

Thank you for kind words. The bear appreciates the mention.

[POA1]

4 hours ago, CruiseIreland said:

Thoroughly enjoyed your reports and style of writing! We board NS in February. Happy Christmas 🎄. Ken 

I hope you enjoy the Nieuw Statendam as much as we did. Have a great trip!

[POA1]

Having arranged for "the fixed dining experience" in the Club Orange dining room, I will say that service was excellent most of the time. Given that Club Orange is all open seating, you are at the mercy of the ebb and flow of the crowd. If everyone shows up to eat at the same time, there is a natural slowdown.

 

Fortunately, we got into a good rhythm with Tri, our waiter, and Nana, our wine steward.

[POA1]

My thoughts on the Club Orange thing, part three-ish:

 

On nights that are not dressy nor Culinary Council nights, Club Orange gets an extra entrée. The standard Club Orange dinner menu has, in addition to the extra entrée, a seared tuna & shaved asparagus salad and Beecher's Mac & Cheese.

 

The tuna looked good, but we did not have the opportunity to try it. We did, however, add the mac & cheese as a shared course on the last night of our cruise.

 

 

It has an excellent reputation. This reputation is well-deserved. The dish has a creamy sharpness that sets it apart from your run of the mill cheesy pasta.

 

You can find Beecher's Mac and Cheese in the Lido as well. You might want to give it a try if you come across it. (Hint, hint.)

[POA1]

I'm hoping Michelle weighs in on this topic, but I think that the food quality on this cruise was superlative. The Pinnacle Grill and Sel de Mer were excellent. The little appetizer thing we did on the first night at the Tamarind bar was a real treat. We were just using it to kill time and miss the first night crush that we expected in the CO dining room.

 

Apparently we need not to have worried.@LAFFNVEGAS

reported little wait for night one's dinner in CO.

 

While Tamarind was just a filler, we were so impressed with the food and service that we are planning a repeat in March on the Rotterdam.

[Huskerchick]

Food! My favorite topic 😂 Not that we have ever had any complaints about the food quality on HAL and for the most part we have always been very happy but I thought the food on the NS was fantastic. With the exception of one dessert, the Caribbean bread pudding that I thought was meh, everything was outstanding. And I know that food is subjective but I never had a meal where I wished I had ordered something different. We are less than 100 days out from our Rotterdam cruise and we are already starting to think about meals we are hoping to repeat. 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Huskerchick

[POA1]

I have to second Michelle's assessment. The food quality and preparation were top notch. We ordered things because they were new or featured. If an item was a Port to Table selection, odds are one of us ordered it.

 

I've seen menu items that are classics from the past. I'd be all over those. Sadly, there were none on our menus. (Maybe I need to thump the Bubble of Awesome. It used to work with tube televisions.)

 

Michelle consistently "won dessert." When we're ordering food, it's not whether it's good or bad. It's about whose dish is the best. There's a good chance that we'll talk smack about the other person's choices.

 

Many people might find that to be "childish" or "immature." To those folks I say, "Yes. Yes it is." Let's have a fruit cobbler, ice cream throw-down.

Edited December 22, 2023 by POA1

[POA1]

Obligatory fan service post: Poohby Joe photo bombs the Nieuw Statendam.

 

 

In the interest of full disclosure, here's the source photo.

 

 

Thu important thing is to make sure that his tag doesn't show.

 

 

[kluv2cruz]

20 hours ago, POA1 said:

My thoughts on the Club Orange thing, part three-ish:

 

On nights that are not dressy nor Culinary Council nights, Club Orange gets an extra entrée. The standard Club Orange dinner menu has, in addition to the extra entrée, a seared tuna & shaved asparagus salad and Beecher's Mac & Cheese.

 

The tuna looked good, but we did not have the opportunity to try it. We did, however, add the mac & cheese as a shared course on the last night of our cruise.

 

 

It has an excellent reputation. This reputation is well-deserved. The dish has a creamy sharpness that sets it apart from your run of the mill cheesy pasta.

 

You can find Beecher's Mac and Cheese in the Lido as well. You might want to give it a try if you come across it. (Hint, hint.)

Tuna is FANTASTIC. Beechers Mac & cheese is a different yummyness in CO. We tried it in MDR and it wasn’t creamy and yummy and perfect hot temperature. Not worth having there. Completely worth having in CO. And, the breakfast bread pudding in CO on Koningsdam was… holy wow, amazing. 
 

Thanks for a fun trip blog!

[POA1]

4 hours ago, kluv2cruz said:

Tuna is FANTASTIC. Beechers Mac & cheese is a different yummyness in CO.

Thanks. I was afraid that was the case. The tuna was always there, waiting to be called upon if we didn’t like the normal choices.

 

We didn’t try the Beecher's Mac & Cheese until the last night. Our bad. It was stellar.

[POA1]

We are able to follow along with the Rotterdam'a dinner menus in now since that is our next cruise. I kind of like seeing real menus from the ship. I don't know exactly what we're going to do with it, but we did put the two 9 day sailings before ours in our calendars. I'm theorizing that those menus will track with ours.

 

Of course, the burning question is: Will we get the Wiener Schnitzel?