Nieuw Amsterdam Review
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We are a retired couple and live in Palm City FL. We are just back from the December 16 2012 sailing of the Nieuw Amsterdam- our third cruise with HAL. Wanted to share out experiences and thoughts. We started cruising together in 1987. Ships were smaller then -- there were no ships with balconies -- and there were no alternative restaurants -- only fixed dining. We are originally from Chicago, lived in Naples from 1994 to 2004, moved back to Chicago and then back to Florida in 2009. We have experienced flying to cruise ports, driving to cruise ports and taking the cruise bus to cruise ports. This was our 36th cruise. We love to cruise this time of year and decided to go with HAL because of the itinerary. Grand Turk, San Juan, St. Maarten, and Half Moon Cay.
We booked the cruise the end of September and booked an inside guarantee cabin. I saw that the price went down, called HAL and they upgraded us to an HH obstructed guarantee. When we finally got a cabin number we were in a D outside cabin. A few days before the cruise, we got an e-mail offering us a verandah V cabin for $29/person and we took it. We ended up in cabin 8101. This was a great location, starboard side of the vessel between the mid-ships and aft elevators and one deck down from Lido deck. It proved very nice.
Prior to this cruise we always took the Cruise Connection bus to the port. They went out of business earlier in the year and then when they re-started the business they didn't stop anywhere south of Fort Pierce-so we had to look for an alternative. We ended up driving to the port and parking in the Park-N-Fly lot close to the port. It was so easy and inexpensive that we will do that from now on. We left our home at 10am and were on the ship and in our stateroom by a little after 12 Noon. The embarkation process was excellent. We met our room steward and then went to the dining room for lunch -- this is a nice perk for Mariner guests-those who have cruised with HAL before. Our lunch also was excellent and a good start to the cruise. We then explored the ship since we were not familiar with this ship -- it was well laid out and easy to navigate. The ship holds 2106 passengers-I don't believe it was sold out completely. The ship is a really nice size and looks like a ship should look -- very traditional.
Cabin Review
Deluxe Ocean-View Verandah Stateroom
Cabin 8101 on Navigation Deck is a V-Verandah Cabin, Starboard side. It is located between the mid-ships and aft elevators and stairs - very convenient to everything and one deck below the Lido. We did not hear any noise at all from above and very little in the cabins on either side. The verandah was spacious - but they only put ONE comfortable chair and ottoman out there and the other chair was like a rattan dining arm chair-not comfortable at all. There was a tiny circular table. We didn't use it a lot for that reason. We asked for another chair and they couldn't find one - or so they said. The remainder of the cabin was great, bed very comfortable - we asked that they be split - lots of closet and storage space and there was a small tub in the bathroom which made showering very easy. The TV system was the worst we have ever seen with no information about channels or how to operate it. We only used it the last day to check our debarkation order. Otherwise it was useless to us. We loved the location and the size.