Nieuw Statendam Review

Not what I have come to expect on Holland America

Review for Transatlantic Cruise on Nieuw Statendam
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LMM1801
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Apr 2019
Cabin: Vista Suite with Verandah

I want to start off my saying the cruise wasn't bad. I met a few great people and had a good time. Did I like the new ship, Nieuw Statendam? Not really. I knew when I signed up for the cruise I just might find it too crowded, and I did. We were a full transatlantic, which doesn't happen often. In 2014, my husband and I did the Nieuw Amsterdam transatlantic to Barcelona and loved it. I loved the ship and have been on her again and plan to go again next year. Our ship was probably at most half full, so that made it nice. One of the typical perks of a transatlantic. But a few weeks before sail date, there was an accident with the Oasis of the Seas in the Bahamas, and their transatlantic was canceled. So the ship went from being I will guess about 60% full to sold out overnight. It also gave us a bit of a different mix than normal. There were a lot of die hard Royal Caribbean fans, and those that like Oasis of the Seas aren't really the same people that love Holland America. Not sure if related, but it was the first time I actually saw three incidents on the ship. One could have been potentially bad. It started because the Lido closed at 8 and then reopened at 10:30. It seemed like a really dumb thing to me, but this guy in the Lido decided to take it out on the dining room staff. He screamed very loudly at one of the dining room female staff to get him food after the dining room closed. She said she couldn't. He began to scream very loudly at her, that she was the same girl that wouldn't help him the night before. She and her coworker, who looked nothing alike but were both from Indonesia, both shook their heads no. The other female said the night before, he had yelled at her. It got very heated as he continued to scream at both of the women. Then another passenger came over and started shaking his finger in the guy's face, so I went for the manager and he was able to cool down the situation. The staff and managers were all super nice and very good. I had no problem with the staff. The other two incidents were just loud, obnoxious people making a lot of rude comments etc. I have never experienced that on HAL before.

The ship to me, as I said, felt very crowded. They have added 600 passengers with only 40 more feet in length and a few areas on the top. I really enjoy Holland's signature class ships (Nieuw Amsterdam and Eurodam) and the Vista class ships. They are the right size for me and the vista class has the most space per passenger of all HAL's ships. The cabins on NS (Nieuw Statendam) are much smaller than the ships I am used to going on. I ended up doing an upsell to a Vista Suite, which put me in a cabin the size of a typical balcony on most of the ships I favor.

The cabins were very nice, except I was shocked to see so much wear on the loveseat in the cabin. The ship had only been sailing for four months at that time. I did mention it and the next day I had a new loveseat cushion.

Cabin Review

Vista Suite with Verandah

Cabin A

Cabin was extremely well laid out. I really loved it and it was my favorite cabin of all my cruises. It was about 210 square feet plus a 50 square foot balcony. It had a dressing area/desk and chair. The mattress on the bed was quite hard and not comfortable which was weird, as my friend had a very comfy mattress. Maybe it was a different topper they used. The bathroom had only a shower. I really missed a tub. The shower was fine, but the toilet was in a really odd position. My friend said hers was not like that. She was in an interior cabin and the toilet paper holder was behind me and everytime I went to pull the toilet paper off, it fell off and landed on the floor. Was kind of a comedy of errors. I also had a problem with my first cabin steward, which was a new experience, but they assigned me a new one.

Port Reviews

Cherbourg

Mont St Michel was an amazing place. The only bad thing was how absolutely crowded it was. The guide spent about half an hour on the bus telling us how crowded it would be and not to eat lunch inside as there wouldn't be time, and that was not really true. I got so worried about getting back in time, I was way early and the bus wasn't even there. But it is an amazing and gorgeous place.

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