Nieuw Statendam Review

Excellent ship, excellent food, overall great fun!

Review for Transatlantic Cruise on Nieuw Statendam
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SKMurphy
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Dec 2018
Cabin: Standard Interior Stateroom

Food was great in the Dining Room, Lido Marketplace, Afternoon Tea, Canaletto, NY Deli, Grand Dutch Cafe, Gellato shop. Very few hiccups in the food areas. We mainly ate dinner in the Dining Room. We mainly ate breakfast and lunch at the Lido Marketplace. The food at these venues was really excellent! Can't beat the variety at the Lido Marketplace from crepes, bagels, omelets, etc. at breakfast to salads, pasta bars, carving stations, oriental stirfry, at lunch. We had room service several mornings (skip the scrambled egg option). There are many bars, our favorite was the Ocean Bar mid ships on Deck 2 where Roldan, Fern (Fatima), and Patrick were our servers for the whole cruise! They took excellent care of us!

We had an inside stateroom on the Deck 6. Great size for 2 people We had storage space to spare. HAL was still working out some kinks with the TV information system. TV system included many movies; very few TV "shows"; limited news. But the Navigator available on your mobile device on their local intranet worked very well. You could set up the people you were traveling with and message them throughout the cruise (important on 9 continuous sea days). We did NOT get the internet package as we wanted to be relatively device-free. But many others around us still got decent internet service.

Service was fantastic in all areas!

Cabin Review

Standard Interior Stateroom

Cabin L

For 2 adults, we had storage to spare. We had a really nice size bed. Very comfortable. We chose an inside stateroom as my husband likes it dark to sleep, but he said next time we will get a verandah. It was hard to determine day from night when the room is so nice and dark and cozy.

Port Reviews

Rome (Civitavecchia)

I arrived in Rome the day before the cruise and stayed at the NH Roma Villa Carpegna with breakfast included. It was very nice. HAL had three buses that picked up at that hotel on cruise day. My travel agent didn't know this, so we arranged separate travel about 35 Euros each adult (transfer from hotel). It cost about the same for airport to hotel. Both my husband and I have been to Rome before and didn't feel the need to do the tourist thing there.

Cartagena (Spain)

We took a taxi to the main restaurant area as we are not great walkers. We had food and looked thru shops and easily walked back to the ship. Very nice. I got Euros at Guest Services. I'd say 250 Euros took care of my 3 stops, depending on how many items you buy.

Malaga

At Malaga, you walk thru a Port building to get to the buses, but they sell the tickets right at the beginning of the bldg! So get your tickets if you are going to town and get a map from them! I took the HAL-provied bus from the the port area and it drops you off across from the main shipping areas. A short walk to the main attractions (churches, etc.) and restaurant and shops. TIP: If you want one of the famous cork handbags, get them here! The port building had really good prices; not necessarily a great selection, so check it out BEFORE you go into town. I missed out and bought my bag in Madeira for a more expensive price.

Madeira (Funchal)

Right as you get off the ship, a HAL-provided (cost of course) bus takes you into town center. In the morning there was a nice dance group that did a native dance routine. GET A MAP! The roads twist and turn A LOT! We walked (long) to the cable car ride, bought a roundtrip cable car ride and a Yellow-Bus island tour bus pass for one day for about 56 Euros for 2 adults. DO THE CABLE CAR RIDE IN THE MORNING! The clouds start descending and they will shutdown the cable cars when the top of the mountain cannot be seen from the bottom! We took the Yellow Bus ride around the island (1.5 hours) with uncomfortable earbuds and multi-language choice narration. That showed us what stops we wanted them to drop us off at (like the Marketplace and NOTE the HAL bus location number); told the driver and he dropped us off at the number. From there, we walked the streets again back to the HAL bus pickup location (our choice of walking). I found a pretty embroidered table runner and a small cork bag to use for embroidery. One of the street front stores had Iberian ham sandwiches for 2.5 euros that were excellent. Got the bus back to the HAL ship. There were some booths with goods right on the pier. That's where I bought my bigger cork bag; vendor was good about mixing Euros and US currency there at the wharf.

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