Nieuw Amsterdam Review

Mediterranean Cruise on the classy Nieuw Amsterdam

Review for the Western Mediterranean Cruise on Nieuw Amsterdam
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princessvoyager
2-5 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Apr 2011
Cabin: Standard Interior Stateroom

Having read some of the reviews for the same cruise (or one directly before or after ours), I find it hard to believe we were on the same ship. Some people are obviously a little harder to please than us...and yes if you look for faults hard enough anywhere in life, you'll find them, but I must say HAL do everything possible to make you feel welcome onboard and give you the best holidaying/cruising experience they can. Nothing is ever too much trouble.This is my third cruise and being in my late 30's cruising on a ship doesn't in generally tick all the boxes (sorry but bingo, computer course or cooking classes don't do it for me) but this cruise was great.The pluses:1. Beautiful new ship, well appointed, very spacious and you never felt you were onboard with 2000 other guests. We had easy free access to the pool, spa and never had trouble moving about the ship or finding a seat at open dining or the shows. The ship was quite classy and you felt you had really lifted class from other ships out there.2. The ports of call were terrific. It's hard to visit ports including Monte Carlo, Florence, Rome, Dubrovnik and Venice and feel like you haven't seen some interesting places and had a great holiday. We had only one day at sea and by the time that day came around, a quieter day on ship was appreciated. It was a busy 12 days but we loved every minute and had a thousand laughs along the way.3. The food and service was very good (a few more drinks stewards wouldn't go astray). We went 'open seating' and rarely had to wait for more than a minute before being taken to a table. The menu was well created and varied and the red meats in particular were very good and tender. The desserts were probably the weak link, but even then nothing to complain about. We took a case of wine on board and although we had to pay $18 per bottle, saved us a lot of money. I appreciate HAL's wine policy.4. The staff were great. Our room attendant Ido was brilliant and should be steward of the year. Everyone appeared to enjoy their jobs and didn't look like they were being used by the company for their cheaper labour.5. Our cabin, despite being an inside room was great. It was spacious with a very good sized bathroom and plenty of wardrobe space. There was a flatscreen tv and dvd player and an extremely comfortable bed. No complaints. HAL even provide access to over 500 DVD's free of charge...not that I had time to watch even one!6. The shows were generally very good, quite professional and although a little cheesy in spots, it was obvious an enormous amount of work had gone into producing them. We found them entertaining at the end of a good day out. The opening show was the best, followed by the main cast's last show. The 'Garage Band' show was a bit of a hit and miss affair and the sight of very good musicians pretending to play was a little sad. It wasn't exactly the 'family friendly' show it had been promoted as being but it was ok.7. Embarkment and disembarkment processes were very well-oiled and dealing with queues was something we never encountered.Our small suggestions:1. Bit more effort put into the teens club program. Teen programs shouldn't be finishing at 11-12pm either.2. Rotate movies in the cinema rather than the same film all day and night3. Ship would benefit from a passenger ironing room like all other ships I have been on4. Although it could have been so much worse than it was (it was generally quite good), a smoke free cruise ship would appeal to us5. Keep the pools/spa open a little later in the evening. 7pm is not exactly late6. Where is shuffle board? I thought all cruise ships had that game out on deck. If anything, all cruise lines need to develop activities that appeal to a younger demographic. 7. Change the internal corridor carpets during the next ship fit-out8. DO NOT book out major sections of the ship for 'private parties' Having over 1/2 the explorers lounge closed off at 6pm one evening so a group on board could have their own private drinks session quite annoyed us, especially as we had just sat down 15 minutes earlier and were then asked to move so the area could be sectioned off. Use the course meeting rooms if people want to have private drinks gatherings.Overall...9/10Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions. chrisegan1@gmail.com

Cabin Review

Standard Interior Stateroom

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