Began a 50th birthday cruise with family and friends (party of 10 with 5 balcony cabins on the Rotterdam Deck) on the Inaugural Caribbean voyage of the Nieuw Amsterdam during the week of November 7-14th 2010 with a delayed embarkation and departure from Fort Lauderdale due to Holland America's need to perform a CDC sanctioned sanitation and deep cleaning of the ship following an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness on the just completed transatlantic crossing. I chose this particular ship as it was christened last July and felt the freshness and "newness" of the ship along with HAL's Signature of Excellence Service would produce a very good cruise experience. In many ways my expectations were realized but it too many instances the experience was not up to expectations.

The Rotterdam deck was the last deck of cabins to be opened to passengers. Upon entering our cabins I was a little surprised to see the stewards were still cleaning a couple of our rooms. The cabins did not compare quite as favorably as the Celebrity Solstice's Aqua Class Spa Cabins as the Nieuw Amsterdam's cabins appeared a little dingy, I believe due to the poor quality carpet and couch. There was also trash left between the wall and nightstand in our friend's cabin immediately adjacent to our cabin. While the bedding, closet space, mattress,deck furniture and bathroom were actually superior to Solstice the very poor quality cabin furniture and carpeting ruined the the initial impression of the space. I do not understand why HAL chose such poor quality furniture and carpeting for this level of stateroom.

The two seater couch was a brown /green microfiber covered piece of junk that HAL should be ashamed of. The armrests, which wobbled back and forth, felt as though the were made of cardboard and the cushion was constantly sliding out of position. The carpet was of equally poor quality to the touch and sight. Read more