Statendam Review

4.0 / 5.0
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Another good cruise with HAL

Review for the Panama Canal & Central America Cruise on Statendam
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Sailin'Santa
2-5 Cruises • Age 80s

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Sail Date: Apr 2011
Cabin: Neptune Deluxe Verandah Suite

My two sisters and I had a wonderful time on this cruise which was our fifth, and the third on HAL. We don't take part in a lot of the planned ship's activities during the day, even though HAL excels at providing those that appeal to the varied likes of their guests. We like to sleep later on sea days and just rest and relax. It is in the evenings that we get out, and it was the entertainment that made this cruise so special. We enjoyed all of it and found that the musicians and performers on this cruise were exceptionally talented. The greatest fun we had on the ship was listening to and taking part in STRYKER'S shows in The Mix. I'll talk more about that later. We do our own travel arrangements and traveled from Texas to California in two connecting deluxe bedrooms in the Amtrak sleeper car. Our cousin met us at the station in Ontario, CA on April 8th, and we spent a week in Anaheim visiting with her family, going to Disneyland, etc. On April 14th, she drove us to San Diego where all four of us stayed at the Downtown Courtyard by Marriott. It was built in 1928 and was a bank.. If you ask, they will give you a sheet that tells the history of the building and you can take a self-guided tour of the lobby and the basement. A stay in this hotel is worth arriving a day early for your cruise. Embarkation: We wanted to be at the port by 11:00 a.m. so we could sign in early without having to wait in any lines. I had done all of the forms online, so we knew that checking in wouldn't take long. As we drove up to the port, we were stopped by port security personnel who told us that embarkation was going to be delayed and we should come back around 2:30 p.m. We drove around for awhile, but since we had been there several times before, there was not a lot we wanted to see. About noon, we went back to the port and were allowed to enter. Our luggage was taken away, we said goodbye to our cousin, and went inside to check in. Thank goodness we returned long before we had been told to, and we never learned the reason for the misinformation we were given. There was a very short line for security and for checking in. Since we always get a deluxe verandah suite (DVS) when we cruise with HAL, our check in desk was the first one after going through security. We boarded the ship and were able to go immediately to our stateroom. That is a new feature since we sailed with HAL last April. We were able to leave our carry-on bags in the stateroom and went right to the Rotterdam Dining Room for the Mariner's Luncheon. There were already a lot of people there, so they must not have been turned away earlier! As stated before, our stateroom was a DVS. There are three of us, so we love the roominess of this type of accommodation. We also like all of the perks that come with this first class suite. My two sisters (in their early 80's) get to sleep in the beds which we had set up as twin beds. I (67) learned on our cruise to Alaska on the Volendam in 2007 that the pull out sofa bed is very uncomfortable. I only slept on it one night during that cruise, and then I came up with a great idea that I've used ever since. I ask the cabin attendents to remove the back cushions on the sofa (which is nice and long in a deluxe suite). Then I have them get two duvets and fold them in half. This makes a nice soft "mattress" for my bed. After that I have them put the sheets and blanket on. (After the first night on this cruise, one of our cabin attendants figured out how to put the sheets on my makeshift bed so that they did not come undone at the corners!) After the bed is made, I make sure that both of the attendants know that they are not to unmake it everyday. That's my bed, and I want access to it at any time of night or day!! That's what our cruises are all about—rest and relaxation! It was always made up like a real bed and turned down at night. This cabin type also has a large dressing room with three nice closets that have doors which are full length mirrors, lots of storage space, and a dressing table and stool. There is enough floor space so that all three of us could be in there at one time. The dressing table has a small lavatory which is a nice extra! One negative comment about the closet doors--on this ship they are sliding doors, where on the Volendam and the Zaandam they were doors that you could just open and shut. These were hard to maneuver, and on a night when the sea was rather rough, they slid back and forth making banging noises. I closed them and then took the vanity stool and lodged it against one of them. That stopped all of them from sliding and banging. Another DVS guest told us that theirs had banged around all night disturbing their sleep. The only negative to this type accommodation is that it is directly below the lido deck. Our stateroom was right in the middle of the ship, so we were below the port side of the pool. Starting in the morning, (if we were awake) we could hear guests moving the chairs around above us. (We went up there, pulled a couple of chairs around, and sure enough it was the same sound!) It wasn't bad enough to make us ever want a smaller cabin on a lower deck. :

Cabin Review

Neptune Deluxe Verandah Suite

Cabin SA

Positive: Ample closet space for three people, big bathroom, large bedroom/sitting room space, large balcony, right across the hall from the Neptune Lounge, on the port side with great views of the shoreline when they were close, new carpets and drapes, in the middle of the ship with equal distance to the forward and aft elevators (no mid-ship elevators on this ship)

Negative: closet doors are hard to open and slide back and forth in rough seas, Lido port side by pool is directly above and you can hear chairs being moved on the deck above

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