This will be a short review of a short but nearly perfect cruise. The ship was in excellent shape. The art wasn’t even bad! The food was the best I’ve had in several cruises. The service was excellent. Room stewards Suri and Erna were perfect and waiters Subi and Dylan were fast and pleasant. The walking deck was lovely. These are the things that matter to me and this ship got them all right.
There were a few quibbles. They couldn’t seem to commit to giving us a table for the duration of the seven day cruise, which shouldn’t have been too difficult; every other ship can do it after a day or two if not immediately. The cabin had those annoying slots to put your card into to make the lights come on, but some sensible soul had put a cardboard card in there, mostly solving the problem. There is no longer a lovely little cafe on Three or five for fresh pastries and such. I believe it was called the Cova on other ships, and I did enjoy it. The food and books in the explorers lounge are both scanty and unappealing. That is something HAL should work on. I am glad that they haven’t meddled with the promenade deck as in Konigsdam, Maasdam and some others. I do think that Nieuw Amsterdam is the perfect age and era of HAL ship - there are still bathtubs in outsides and balconies and there is still that lovely deck and the service is excellent while the ship is still new enough to be in excellent condition. This is a ship to sail on again.
Not enough drawers. Almost none if you aren’t interested in keeping your small under the bed and I am not.
The room is quiet enough when they aren’t working on the lifeboat outside. And that really does need to be done and won’t be a bother for the next many many inhabitants as it was all done during our stay.
The view is obstructed as promised, but we got some usable view and lots of lovely light as the windows went right to the floor like in a balcony cabin.
At least as of this writing, the room stewards are great.
The complimentary shuttle shoots you right past the beach, right past the eco centre and dumps you in the downtown tourist trap. At least it isn’t as bad as I remembered from years ago. It didn’t seem like it would be permissible to walk out of or into the port, but it might be worth asking as then you could go somewhere other than downtown. How many shells, rocks, hats and shirts can you stand to look at?
This place used to be quite nice, but is so depressed and dreary now that even the beautiful scenery doesn’t quite cheer it up for me. If I went back I might just call it a sea day and stay aboard. It used to be so charming, though.
I kind of hate to admit that I could like a “cruise compound” as I call them, but this one has gorgeous landscaping and you can even get away from the dreadful music sometimes.
Absolutely wonderful place. Even a couple of thousand fellow cruisers didn’t ruin it for me and I do not like crowds.
It’s what you make of it. Bus service is cheap and good and gets you to the beach if you opt to save money by staying inland.