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

[POA1]

The Retreat Cabana area on the three Pinnacle Class ships has more cabanas than the Retreats on the Vista or Signature Class vessels. The Nieuw Statendam and Rotterdam have a hot tub in the Retreat. None of the others do.

 

The photos below are taken from Deck 14. That deck does not appear on the deck plan, but I believe it's called the Sky Deck, Sun Deck, or Kevin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photos above were taken starting on the starboard side and continuing around to the port side.

 

The final photos below are of the hot tub. It's the same tybe of tub as the ones on the Lido deck. There is a chair lift for guests who would not be able to get into the tub otherwise. (This is the closest thing HAL has to an on board "ride." 😉)

 

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by POA1

[Haljo1935]

14 hours ago, POA1 said:

Thanks for posting the breakfast specials @Haljo1935

 

They do not show up in the Navigator app when I look at the MDR breakfast menu. That could mean that the Rotterdam isn't doing specials at breakfast. Or, it could mean that they don't change out the breakfast PDF file in Navigator. No one is live blogging from the Rotterdam as far as I know, so I'll put it in the mystery category until we can check in a few months.

 

The specials look great, but we generally avoid high carb breakfasts. They tend to make us sleepy, particularly me. That's why I tried to order a small portion of bread pudding. It was only came in one size though. I hated to waste it, but I didn't want to be in need of a nap right after getting up for the day.

 

 

I hear ya on nap vs yummy food - who wants to make such important decisions so early in the day?!

Here are today's vs what is loaded on the Navigator App (spoiler alert: there are no specials on Nav App).

Depending on where I open it from, the pdf does not fully display, so I did a screenshot of it, too.

 

mdr_breakfast_menu_winter_2023_en_-_v2_2_ (1).PDF

Edited December 24, 2023 by Haljo1935
Additional comment

[POA1]

You get a water set up each day for your cabana. It's a liter glass bottle. This is down from 2018 when you got two. They were plastic bottles back then. I'd prefer two bottles of water, but the cabana guys brought out a second bottle if you finished the first one.

 

 

There is also a coffee and tea set up. There are pitchers of juice, including fresh orange. The two larger dispensers are infused water. Most of the time it was orange on the right and apple on the left. The apple was sometimes replaced by lemon.

 

We take Yeti tumblers with us and the cabana guys kept us well stocked with ice. For the most part, we drank infused water over ice. We took the glass bottle back to our room.

 

Edited December 25, 2023 by POA1

[POA1]

Your cabana service includes breakfast service and lunch service. The breakfast menu is basically the same as room service. We did not take advantage of cabana breakfast because we ate in the Club Orange dining room most days.

 

 

 

There are tables around the cabana area on the Pinnacle Class ships. The other ships have tables both around the cabana area and there is a table & 2 chairs inside each cabana. I prefer the set up on the older ships. The cabanas are deeper, holding both two loungers and a table with two chairs. The newest ships just have two loungers and two small side tables.

 

 

 

 

Lunch is served from either the Lido menu, the Dive In, or NY Pizza and Deli.

 

Drinks come from the Crow's Nest.

 

 

 

Edited December 25, 2023 by POA1

[POA1]

The cabanas were sold out for our cruise as they have been for most of the cruises we've been on. We usually book ours as soon as we have confirmed our cruise booking.

 

One of the risks you run is that you might lose some cabana time to bad weather. We lost a day and a half. The terms & conditions say that you acknowledge that you are getting the cabanas weather permitting. I'm not sure how they'd handle it if you lost a significant chunk of your paid time.

 

The normal operating hours are 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Our cabana stewards said that we could use them outside of those hours. On other sailings, we were told that you were limited to the hours when the cabana stewards were working.

 

The orange tote bag in the photo was a Lancome promo from about 25 years ago. It has served us well over the years, but it lacks the splendor of the Club Orange tote.

[POA1]

 

Merry Christmas, everyone!

 

I put this in my Live From so that the CC Grinches wouldn't move it over to the generic holiday board. I think that they don't want Cindy Lou Who and all the pals down in HALville to have their own yuletide wishes. 😉🎄

 

Let us hope that this post is taken in the tongue in cheek spirit of the Season with it intended.

 

 

Edited December 25, 2023 by POA1

[puppycanducruise]

Merry Christmas.

Thanks for all your hard work, looking forward to the next installment on the next cruise.

[Haljo1935]

1 hour ago, POA1 said:

 

Merry Christmas, everyone!

 

I put this in my Live From so that the CC Grinches wouldn't move it over to the generic holiday board. I think that they don't want Cindy Lou Who and all the pals down in HALville to have their own yuletide wishes. 😉🎄

 

Let us hope that this post is taken in the tongue in cheek spirit of the Season with it intended.

 

 

Oh my, Poohby Joe looks absolutely festive in his Christmas finest! And don't we feel honored - he put on pants!!

The picture is great; thanks for sharing.

Merry Christmas to you and Michelle.

@Huskerchick

[Sunshineliving]

@POA1 Thank you for your posts. You are the reason I found out about the Retreat. I've only cruised one time without a cabana. My husband said never again. 

Merry Christmas!

[POA1]

Among the amenities for the Retreat are daily sparkling wine and little snacks such as frozen fruit or chocolate strawberries.

 

 

The cabana stewards were pretty good about making the rounds with the "champagne," and usually made enough passes that you could have more than one glass. The wine was a cremant, perfectly acceptable but you certainly weren't going to mistake it for Dom Perignon.

 

We never got around to stress-testing the sparking wine service to see if there was a limit to the number of glasses they'd serve us. I guess we can put that on the list of future experiments.

[POA1]

There is a list of "enhanced amenities" for the Retreat Cabanas available from HAL. I'll try to get it later today. It's what your PCC or TA would send you. I had a copy, but I did not save it.

 

The list came out at about the time prices went up. I guess it's supposed to soften the blow of the rise in cost. The problem is that I don't think the enhanced amenities made it to the ships. (I spoke to someone on another sailing and their experience mirrored ours.)

[kopykat]

2 minutes ago, POA1 said:

There is a list of "enhanced amenities" for the Retreat Cabanas available from HAL. I'll try to get it later today. It's what your PCC or TA would send you. I had a copy, but I did not save it.

 

The list came out at about the time prices went up. I guess it's supposed to soften the blow of the rise in cost. The problem is that I don't think the enhanced amenities made it to the ships. (I spoke to someone on another sailing and their experience mirrored ours.)

Anxiously waiting for the list of enhanced amenities. I’ve booked a Retreat cabana on th R- dam for 3 weeks starting late January 

[Shalandara]

8 hours ago, POA1 said:

Among the amenities for the Retreat are daily sparkling wine and little snacks such as frozen fruit or chocolate strawberries.

 

 

The cabana stewards were pretty good about making the rounds with the "champagne," and usually made enough passes that you could have more than one glass. The wine was a cremant, perfectly acceptable but you certainly weren't going to mistake it for Dom Perignon.

 

We never got around to stress-testing the sparking wine service to see if there was a limit to the number of glasses they'd serve us. I guess we can put that on the list of future experiments.

@POA1  I want to thank you for your scientific research into the cabanas.  You answered a lot of my questions last fall as I was preparing for my TA on the Oosterdam.

The retreat was amazing.  We had it for the full 14 day cruise -- there were only 4 of us booked for the entirety.  Yes, it was windy on the first few days.  But since we missed ports early on (and also had all the sea days for the later half) the cost (admittedly lower then) was worth it.  The attendants were amazing (we had Ross, Michael, and Alexi).  Just having a place to always know I could go and have a seat was worth it.  If I was grabbing lunch from Lido or the Taco Bar (I do it as a salad actually) I would just carry the plate up to the Retreat since I knew there was a table, and utensils, and drinks available.  We are light on the "needy" side, and not much into drinking.  So after the first few days they learned not to offer us the bubbly (but always reminded us that we did pay for it as the package).  They learned that hubby liked the frozen grapes (but alas they were seeded) and I liked the frozen strawberries.  Hubby tended not to eat lunch up there (he's a picky eater and needed to see what the food was before getting it) -- I loved putting in lunch orders and having it delivered. 

One time hubs had gone down to the cabin to get a new book, and on the way back got a smoothie from a bar on the way back.  The crushed look on the attendant faces when they told him they could have gotten the drink for him was comical.  But I made up for hubby's lack of proper use of them with my requests.  Although they seriously questioned the fact that I rarely ordered dessert with lunch.  But even my specified "only these things in a salad" happened.

I did get almost a tea service up there.  I asked for the plate of goodies from the tea from the Dining room but not the tea.  And it happened!  Granted just the sweet treats and not the savory ones (I did not complain at all at that).  And the next day they surprised me by getting it without me asking!

After we hit the full sea portion of the trip a few more people started booking by the day, and it did get slightly harder to get attention at times -- but only slightly.  They had come to learn our schedule and lieks and dislikes by that point and had refills on our bottled water and my lemonade addition.  But I have to say I felt oddly special in that we were always called by name but the newcomers were just addressed as "sir/madam".

 

Before the TA we had already booked the retreat for our next trip (Rotterdam in Feb 2025) betting on it being a good thing.  After having experienced the Retreat we are glad we booked before the price went up.  It fits our needs and personalities just fine.  A not-crowded place, dedicated seats, ease of getting things, a good enhancement to vacation. Yes the weather can play havoc with it a bit.  Windy at times.  Slightly too hot on certain days (we were forced onto a more southerly route for the TA which actually proved to be quite nice).

(I will also comment on that thread so that anyone doing searches might find my comments there as well.)

[POA1]

On 12/25/2023 at 11:15 AM, puppycanducruise said:

Merry Christmas.

Thanks for all your hard work, looking forward to the next installment on the next cruise.

 

On 12/25/2023 at 12:03 PM, Haljo1935 said:

Oh my, Poohby Joe looks absolutely festive in his Christmas finest! And don't we feel honored - he put on pants!!

The picture is great; thanks for sharing.

Merry Christmas to you and Michelle.

@Huskerchick

 

Thank you, and a belated Merry Christmas, a timely Happy Boxing Day, or an early Happy New Year!

 

Poohby Joe enjoys donning his oh-so-tiny Santa suit on Christmas.  He's one of those hard-to-fit sizes. He's quite a bit smaller than a standard teddy bear.  We did manage to find a tuxedo and Santa suit for him though.  His bow ties are from a set of infant's bow ties.  (We have to wrap then around his neck a couple of time before we close the clasp.  When I think about what Poohby Joe goes through to look sharp on dressy nights, I realize that I have it pretty easy,)

[Huskerchick]

We have done the Retreat Cabana at least a half dozen times, on our last few cruises and I always find it to be money well spent.  The "cabana boys" on the NS were efficient but not nearly as good as some we have had in the past. In all fairness tho on one of the days there was just a single attendant as he lost his helper to the lido pool bar but he certainly did his best. We have one booked again for our 9 day Rotterdam cruise in March and will be interested to see if the new amenities show up. 

[POA1]

4 hours ago, kopykat said:

Anxiously waiting for the list of enhanced amenities. I’ve booked a Retreat cabana on th R- dam for 3 weeks starting late January 

 

Well, since you are anxiously waiting - and we all know the holidays can be stressful - let me assuage your anxious feeling. 😃

 

Here is the current list of Retreat Amenities that your PCC or TA has from HAL. (It's current as of 12/26/2023. It went into affect at about the same time the prices went up and the cabana PDF disappeared from the HAL site.)

 

CABANA AMENITIES

 

Includes following daily services:

 

• 1 bottle still water or 1 bottle sparkling water (San Pellegrino)
• Cut fruit plate
• Guacamole & chips
• Coconut passion fruit parfait
• Dive-In & NY Deli Pizza Menu Available
• Complimentary two glasses of sparkling wine
• Breakfast - Continental offering
• Mid-morning Snack - Virgin pina colada smoothie & chocolate cookies
• Lunch - Seafood boil, Nami signature maki roll, California roll, spicy tuna roll, salmon nigiri
• Afternoon Service - Watermelon & pineapple skewers, Ice cream selection
• Cold hand towels
• Pool towel setup

Our experience on the Nieuw Statendam:

 

• 1 bottle still water or 1 bottle sparkling water (San Pellegrino) (We received at least one bottle of water per day. If we drank it, they gave us an additional one.)  I'll give this a plus +.
• Cut fruit plate (We did not see this, but there was always a fresh fruit basket.)  I'll call this a wash.
• Guacamole & chips (Did not happen.  If it had, we would have definitely ordered beer and taken photos, 'cause that's how we roll.) This is a minus -.
• Coconut passion fruit parfait (Nope. Michelle probably wouldn't have been wild about the parfait, but Brian loves him some coconut.) Also a minus -.
• Dive-In & NY Deli Pizza Menu Available (In addition to these, lunch also included the full Lido menu.) Absolutely a plus +.
• Complimentary two glasses of sparkling wine (We received these and they refilled our glasses.) A plus +.
• Breakfast - Continental offering (We didn't take our breakfast in the Retreat, but they offered the full room service menu, not just continental breakfast.) This is a plus +.
• Mid-morning Snack - Virgin pina colada smoothie & chocolate cookies. (Never saw these.) A minus -.
• Lunch - Seafood boil, Nami signature maki roll, California roll, spicy tuna roll, salmon nigiri. (We joked about this. Sushi under the tropical sun? BotulisYum!) I'm not sure how to score this. On one hand, we did not get this. On the other hand, we would have passed on on seafood under the sweltering sun.)  Let's call this a push.
• Afternoon Service - Watermelon & pineapple skewers, Ice cream selection (This sort of happened. There were grapes and chocolate covered strawberries, but no ice cream, pineapple or watermelon.)  I'll call this a draw.
• Cold hand towels (We did not see these, but it's possible we missed them. We've had them on other ships.)
• Pool towel setup (We had these.)

 

Thoughts:

 

We were perfectly fine with the amenities we received.  The things that are on the list wouldn't have added much to the overall experience. Well, except maybe for the gauc & chips. Paired with a nice cold beer, that would have put something in the plus column.

 

As Michelle mentioned, the cabana guys weren't the best we've ever had. We usually took 10 or 14 day cruises, so there was more time for relationship building.  We don't have any complaints about the cabana service, but it's the first time I haven't felt compelled to write separate thank you notes to the cabana stewards.  The fact that the last two days - a sea day and Half Moon Cay - were a wash out didn't help things.  Of course, We can't really ding the crew or the ship for the weather.

 

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by POA1
Font size selection really does not want to "stick" in the mobile version of CC. A minus -.

[wdw1972]

I'll do the same, from my late November 2023 Retreat (family cabana - for 2 of us) on Eurodam. Reader's Digest version - most of this is not new or "enhanced", other than a handful of the missing items 😉

 

Includes following daily services:

 

• 1 bottle still water or 1 bottle sparkling water (San Pellegrino) - we had 2 big Aqua Panna (sp?) glass bottles of still water.  Most days we never bothered to have one opened.  I took one to my stateroom the first day (replenishing as needed) and kept it in the fridge to pour cold water into my insulated metal water bottle I drank from in the Retreat and my travel buddy preferred the orange or cucumber infused water in the dispensers
• Cut fruit plate - offered every day, accepted once in a while.  Fruit basket present every day.
• Guacamole & chips - never saw or heard of this
• Coconut passion fruit parfait - ditto - never saw or heard
• Dive-In & NY Deli Pizza Menu Available - this has always been the case
• Complimentary two glasses of sparkling wine - first day a steward said it was supposed to be one glass per guest and grudgingly poured a second.  After that we generally had a refill each day and saw the same happening elsewhere (so it wasn't due to being 2 people in a 4-person cabana)
• Breakfast - Continental offering - our experience was the full Lido breakfast (not room service, not continental).  Whenever I ordered breakfast it was generally eggs benedict, and of course with a mimosa.
• Mid-morning Snack - Virgin pina colada smoothie & chocolate cookies - never heard of this
• Lunch - Seafood boil, Nami signature maki roll, California roll, spicy tuna roll, salmon nigiri - ewwwww.  Thankfully, no!  Ordered lunch from Lido, Dive In or NY Pizza
• Afternoon Service - Watermelon & pineapple skewers, Ice cream selection - I think someone mentioned ice cream once, but wasn't interested. No watermelon or pineapple skewers - we had frozen grapes and some chocolate covered strawberries
• Cold hand towels - yes, every day once or twice (morning/afternoon)
• Pool towel setup - this one was weird. For the first time they did not have the bin loaded up with extra towels.  They had a rolled up one on each chaise lounge inside the cabanas, but the cabanas in the common area just had a cushion. It wasn't a big deal because the stewards learned right off the bat to set up an outside chaise lounge with the big Retreat towel and give me a roll-up towel when I'd arrive each morning.  Normally they've been self-serve from those bins on all my past cruises.

As always, HAL excels at being inconsistent.

 

Sue/WDW1972

[POA1]

Fortunately, we have never had an issue getting additional glasses of bubbly. If you saw our earlier post on caviar in the Pinnacle Grill, you may recall that we each ordered a glass of the Chateau Ste. Michelle Brut and our waiter left the bottle. (It was a tacit admission of, "Look. I know you're going to kick this whole bottle. You're know you're going to finish it, too. In the interest of efficiency, here ya go. Have at it!")

 

 

I was only up in the cabana area twice at champagne time, but I always had at least one refill. Our project plan for the Rotterdam is to see how many times we can get them to offer us a refill. It's challenging work, but fulfilling nonetheless.

 

There was a stack of towels by the outdoor shower. There were towels on all the chairs, too.

 

[POA1]

To put the expurgated version of the Guide to Cabana Living to bed, I'll close with restroom information. (Thrilling conclusion, right?)

 

Each of the Retreat Cabana areas, and the Cabana Club on the Eurodam*, have their own restrooms. For the most part, they're located in the cabana area and you do not need to go back inside the ship.

 

On the Pinnacle Class vessels, the restrooms are located forward in the cabana area, on the port side of the ship. (This is where we get the term port-a-potty.)

 

 

The shower is located on the starboard side.

 

 

We've clearly got to do a better job of cataloging the Retreat earlier next time. The weather messed with our schedule because I waited, thinking we'd have time during the last two days of our cruise.

 

*- The Eurodam is the only ship that calls their cabanaland the "Cabana Club." The Eurodam also has an alternate color scheme in its cabana area. The Eurodam is also the only ship that does not have a corresponding place name in the Netherlands. It's probably acting out due to an inferiority complex.

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by POA1

[kopykat]

9 hours ago, POA1 said:

To put the expurgated version of the Guide to Cabana Living to bed, I'll close with restroom information. (Thrilling conclusion, right?)

 

Each of the Retreat Cabana areas, and the Cabana Club on the Eurodam*, have their own restrooms. For the most part, they're located in the cabana area and you do not need to go back inside the ship.

 

On the Pinnacle Class vessels, the restrooms are located forward in the cabana area, on the port side of the ship. (This is where we get the term port-a-potty.)

 

 

The shower is located on the starboard side.

 

 

We've clearly got to do a better job of cataloging the Retreat earlier next time. The weather messed with our schedule because I waited, thinking we'd have time during the last two days of our cruise.

 

*- The Eurodam is the only ship that calls their cabanaland the "Cabana Club." The Eurodam also has an alternate color scheme in its cabana area. The Eurodam is also the only ship that does not have a corresponding place name in the Netherlands. It's probably acting out due to an inferiority complex.

 

And the doors to the restrooms are super heavy on the Rotterdam Retreat! I thought the doors were locked. 

[POA1]

3 minutes ago, kopykat said:

And the doors to the restrooms are super heavy on the Rotterdam Retreat! I thought the doors were locked. 

😁 Yes, yes they are. But, didn't you feel safe once you got inside? Mogol hordes with a battering ram couldn't interrupt your business.

[POA1]

When you are booking a cabana, try to have the map handy. That way you can choose one in the location that best suits you.

 

 

[POA1]

I forgot to mention that the opening of the U shaped section of the cabana area faces forward. The base of the U faces the Lido pool roof or the Panorama deck area.

[POA1]

We hope to get into the groove of things on our Rotterdam cruise. We missed a lot on this voyage. I'm hoping it's because we were out of practice after being away for five years. But, it's always possible that it's due to dodderage.

 

For example: Lido visits? None. Main show lounge production shows? Zip. MDR lunch? Nope. High, Low, or Middling Tea? Zilch. Enrichment presentations? Fuhgeddaboutit.

 

We have to do better in the Spring. We simply must!

 

What we need is... Ze plan!! (You know it's serious because there are two exclamation points.)

 

I know we're going to try to get thicker milkshakes and see how many glasses of cabana champagne (cabanapagne?) they'll give us before they start asking questions. I'm pretty sure that there were one or two more research projects, but for the life of me, I can't remember.

 

I won't wake DW because it's after midnight and I doubt being torn from slumber - even in the name of scientific curiosity - would be a good idea.

 

If you have any suggestions for research on our upcoming cruise, please post them. If you haven't learned by now, no idea is too stupid. (I'm hoping to get some interns. They can do the dangerous stuff.)

[POA1]

I was serious about needing research project suggestions. We need some structure and focus. (Although "photo catalog of all the art on the ship, by location, is a bit beyond our scope. 😉)

 

If you want to know something, please post it.