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Norwegian Fjords

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Koningsdam

Holland America Rotterdam

Nieuw Statendam

Crew, Entertainment and Food

Jost Van Dyke

Seeing Norway was always on our bucket list, but delayed because of the pandemic.  Thankfully, we were able to take this cruise in May 2023 on the Nieuw Statendam.  Holland America did not disappoint as the ship was gorgeous, the staff were excellent as always, the food was delicious, and the ports were beautiful.  We decided to take quite a few excursions with the ship and also with Shore Excursion to ensure we could experience as much as possible in this wonderful country. In Bergen we headed out on foot and took a bus to a gondola to get a view of the entire area.  Our favorite port and activity was the train in Flam (which needs to be booked months before the cruise as it fills up quickly).  The excursions are expensive, but well worth the investment if you are only travelling to Norway once. This is definitely a trip for those who appreciate shear natural beauty.

A Must Do Cruise!

The fjords are alive with the sound of music?

We have chosen this cruise because of the attractive destinations in Norway a country which we both my wife and myself had never visited before. We were fascinated about the landscapes in this country.

Specially kind and service oriented was the stateroom staff Sugeng and Albert as well as the service staff in the restaurants. Holland America Line can be more than proud of this staff.

The meals were well prepared and tasty.There were always good alternatives.

Delicious were the nice pastries

Clare has shown to be a good professional and keeping passengers at all times well informed, Jose was an excellent entertainer with a perfect humor

The sound quality at the shows would need an improvement, as the performers were not able to show their excellent abilities. Background sound was almost at a too high volume.

In particular the well prepaid presentation at the end of the cruise of the crew members was a highlight.

We chose this cruise for the Norwegian Fjord itinerary. We chose the cruise line and ship due to the fact that the ship was essentially brand new (launched December '18) and we were interested in the culinary arts offering through the advertised America's Test Kitchen. Several weeks prior to embarkation we received an email listing some of the possible demonstrations that we would see in the culinary theater. However, we found out on board that the culinary program was not being offered and no one had an explanation regarding why this was. 

We spent a few days in Amsterdam prior to the cruise. During this time we received a gift from a friend in the Netherlands that included a bottle of alcohol. Knowing that we were not permitted to bring this on board we checked it in with security at the terminal during embarkation and were told it would be delivered to our stateroom on the final night. When it did not arrive and when our steward couldn't locate it we contacted guest services. They assumed it was at the terminal and told us if they located it when the ship docked they would bring it on board and we could claim it at guest services. If it was not found we were told we would receive compensation (we don't know how we could be compensated for a gift). On the morning of disembarkation we went to guest services and were met by a very cranky individual who assured us that the item was found and would be waiting for us at a desk at the end of the gangway after we left the ship; she couldn't explain why it wasn't brought on board as promised. The item was not at the desk, the individual manning the desk knew nothing about this and her attempts to reach her supervisor on board via radio were unsuccessful. We nearly missed our transfer to the airport while waiting for her to reach someone. During the entire process we felt as if we were getting the runaround and that no one wanted to assume responsibility for dealing with this. We easily could have accepted the fact that this item was lost if we were told as such. More troubling is that we contacted guest relations via email and also mentioned this in the on-line survey (which arrived in our email one hour after disembarkation) and after a week we have not received any response. This experience alone is enough to convince us to spend our travel dollars with a different cruise line in the future.

Another issue that surprised us was the wine package. We purchased a 6 bottle package shortly after boarding. Each night, except for the last, we were met with confusion when we tried to order a bottle. 

Compared to other cruises that we have taken there seemed to be a paucity of things to do on board during the at sea days; we had expected to participate in the Test Kitchen events which never happened.

The ship itself is beautiful, the art on board was impressive and for the most part the meals in the dining room were good. The food at the Lido Market, however, was always cold unless we had something made fresh which was always available. The Grill was excellent but had a 39$ upcharge, the food at Tamarind was mediocre.

The musicians at the various venues were all excellent and much more entertaining than the performances in the theater; we only wished their sets were longer than 45 minutes at a time.

The ports were all great to visit and as with any other cruise we would have liked to spend more time there. 

The terrible service review only applies to the customer service. The wait staff, the bar staff, the deck staff and our cabin steward were all excellent.

Poor Customer Service inviting us to cruise with other cruise lines.

My 19 yr old daughter and I were late additions to a large group of family and friends on a cruise from Amsterdam to the Norwegian fjords.  This was our first cruise on HAL and our first in this part of the world.  We very much enjoyed our spontaneous vacation.  

Embarkation was simple, our cabins were ready as soon as we boarded.  There are no flashy waterslides or shopping atriums etc - two nice pool areas, one with a retractable roof (very useful in Norway) and a giant movie screen on the upper decks.  Clientele was on the older side.  Our group was half 40-50ish and half 17-23ish in age and we felt younger than many.  Most of us were in balcony cabins or suites on deck 10, which were lovely spaces and provided us gathering room.  My daughter and I were in a standard interior cabin on deck 4.  It was extremely comfortable - beds were fluffy, TV was large, storage was plentiful, bathroom spacious and nicer than I imagined it would be.

We mostly ate in the main dining room for dinner and the Lido cafe for breakfast and lunch.  Food was great for all.  We did one night at Rudy's Sel de Mer, which was special but probably not worth the upcharge.  We enjoyed high tea in the main dining room on a few days :-)

There are many evening entertainment venues on the 2nd deck, lots of music in a variety of styles.  The biggest downside for us is that our last minute cabin was interior on deck 4 and we could hear it all from there.  We played a "guess the song" game which could have developed into something fun with some planning (we would have had to station a few people on the stairs to verify our guesses.)

In port, we booked one kayak trip on our own in Flam and bought an OsloPass in Oslo which allowed us many museums and transportation.  The one HAL adventure we bought was to climb Pulpit Rock outside Stavenger - it was the number one thing we wanted to do in Norway but could not find an outside vendor who could do it on our timetable.  HAL did a great job - it was definitely a disciplined march to make sure we accomplished the goal - but they had buses, guides, and got us back to the ship in time with no stress other than physical trauma from climbing up a mountain.  Several of us also went on the "behind the scenes" excursion on our last sea day which was highly interesting.

Our main complaint is about itinerary.  We have been to Alaska where the "scenic cruising" part is when people are actually watching the scenery.  This trip along the fjords involved scenic cruising after leaving port until sunset.  We traveled the length of the Sognefjord - the "King of Fjords" and the longest/deepest fjord in Norway twice (once to get to Flam, situated at the end, and once to leave.)  We cruised to the end in the middle of the night.  We left while everyone was eating dinner and it was dark before we reached the ocean again.  I abandoned food et al in order to see the fjord and capture photos.  Granted that I will not starve on a cruise but the scenery is supposed to be a highlight.

Similarly, the onboard entertainment is not in synch with the dinner seating times in the MDR.  The MDR takes too long to make the World Stage shows, you have to leave early.  I also think the stage shows were poorly promoted.  We are huge fans of Postmodern Jukebox, who performed two nights.  The theater wasn't even half full.  There's no nightly standard show. 

Final complaint:  Amid the many pieces of paper selling jewelry or future cruises that arrived at our door each day, I completely missed the one saying that we would not be arriving back in the center of Amsterdam where we left.  Missed the deadline for the bus back to the departure point and had to pay 50E for a cab.  This detail may have warranted a little extra attention.

In summary:  I would absolutely go again.

Nieuw Norway Adventure

N﻿﻿ieuw﻿ ﻿Statenda﻿m Review,﻿ Land of the Midni﻿ght Sun, D﻿eparture on 7﻿/﻿7/19 

For a little bit of background, we are mid-40’s cruisers that have sailed on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity & Disney with almost 20 cruises under our ﻿be﻿lt.   This was our first Holland America experience and we chose this cruise due to the itinerary to the Artic Circle. 

We left a few days early so we could have time to enjoy a little bit of Amsterdam before the cruise on Sunday.  We arrived into Amsterdam﻿ early afternoon and took a cab to our hotel, the Kimpton Dewitt as we did not want to transport our luggage by public transportation.  We stayed at this location due to free points, but I highly recommend it as it was a sho﻿rt walk to all of the major sites in the city. A colleague recommended that we take the hop on/hop off on tour.  I do not recommend this as it was a big ﻿waste of time and the tour highlights were not that great.  We did download the Rick Steves audio tour on my Iphone, and we did two of his free walking tours and learned a lot from this and highly recommend this way to tour the city.  On the Saturday before the cruise, we took the Old Holland To﻿ur that provides public transportation by bus for 20 euros pp and it took you to Zaanse Schans, Edam and Volendam.  We had a great time and they also have a walking tour that we used walking around the windmills. ﻿ 

On Sunday, we headed to the port around noon and were on the ship by 12:30. We were really excited to be on this trip and to experience all that we could see on Norway.  We were even more ecstatic because a couple of weeks before we decided to upgrade to a Neptune Suite.  We have never stayed in a suite, but we pulled the plug because the cabin was an aft corner with the 2 balconies, and we wanted to be able to see as much as we could of all of the scenery both in the fjords and the Artic.  One benefit that we truly enjoyed as a result of the suite was Club Orange.  We had amazing food and service in this venue at both breakfast and dinne﻿r.  I have a gluten allergy and they truly catered to me and I was able to have souffle and many other dishes that I have never been able to have on other cruise lines.  

Ports:

Eidfjord.  We scheduled an independent excursion through Go Fjord to see the Vøringfossen waterfall.  On the way to the waterfalls, we stopped a nature exhibit.  This was truly a waste of time, but this was the che﻿apest and easiest way to see the waterfall.  The excursion limited the time at the waterfall, so I highly recommend going to the furthest platform viewing first and working your way back as it had the best views of the falls. ﻿

Bergen:  We first got on the hop on/hop off bus and do not recommend.  The city is not that big and pretty walkable.  We then walked around and stopped at the Hanseatic Museum and Bryggen. I highly recommend the museum and they have regular tours for English speakers.  We did﻿ not buy tickets in advance of the funicular because I was concerned about weather.  However, the weather turned out beautiful so on our walk﻿ to the funicular I bought tickets on their app and was able to avoid the huge lines waiting to buy tickets.  We then had a hearty traditional Norwegian lunch at Bryggeloftet & Stuene.  We then headed to the Fish Market as my husband loves all kinds of dried and canned fish.  I bought some sausage (later learned you can’t bring back to USA ☹).  

Alesund:  We took the independent excursion through Norway Excu﻿rsions, Alesund from Fjords to Trolls.  Our tour guide Anita was amazing. I learned so much from her about the history of Norway and their culture.  Thi﻿s was by far the best tour with amazing scenery on the Troll Road with its 11 hairpin turns.  This Florida girl was glad she was not driving.  The tour also allowed several stops and photo stops which was really nice.

Trondheim:  We found a walking tour from Frommers that we used to tour the city.  This was also another very walkable city and Nidaros Cath﻿edral was amazingly beautiful.  We also walked over the Old Town Bridge with the historic wharves up to Kristiansten Fortress which provided a beautiful view of the city.  Afterwards we headed to Baklandet Skydsstation ﻿f﻿or lunch which was nice little café with outside seating and very yummy food. We then finished our walking tour and headed back to the ship.  The weather was again beautiful, and we had a great day in this city. 

North Cape/Honningsvag:  We decided to rent a car.  I was a little nervous about driving and renting especially when the rental company said make sure you shut your door at the cape because she had a rental last week lose the door to the wind when he left it open!  However, we had no problems driving.  We headed first to the North Cape and walked around and checked out all of the exhibits.  Then we drove to Skarsvag an﻿d﻿ checked out the village.  We wanted hike to the Arch, but I was worried about time, so we decided to skip that.  Then we drove to Gjesvaer, a little fishing town.  We had a great day driving around and this allowed for us to make photo stops when we wanted to.  We also brought lunch for﻿ ourselves and had a little picnic at one of the pullouts overlooking the water.  A gas station was right by the cruise terminal, so we had no﻿ problems filling up.  Also, as a FYI, you fill the tank up first and then pay!  

Hellesylt:  This port was a bit of a bummer because we did not cruise all the way to Geiranger.  As a result, we booked the cruise excursion ﻿that provided the bus tour and then a cruise down the Geraingerfjord.  T﻿here was little opportunity for independent excursions in Hellesylt and the excursion we went on was just okay.  We drove by a bunch of beau﻿tiful things but did not really stop and a tour guide was decent but not amazing. 

Flam:  Because we were in port from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., we did the Norway in a Nutshell tour on our own.  This allowed us to take the Flam train up to Myrdal, then a train to Voss, then a bus to Gudvangen a﻿nd then the boat down the Nærøyfjord.  We would highly recommend it.  We met another couple from the boat also doing this tour and was able to eat lunch with them in Voss at Tre Broer Cafe and Bar.  It was really a great day. 

Haugesund:  We decided to rent a car because there were several ﻿l﻿ittle things that we wanted to do and decided it was easier and cheaper to do on our own.  We rented from Sixt and the representative was waiting outside for us when we arrived making it very efficient for us to get on the road.  We made the following stops:  Haraldshaugen (Norwegian N﻿ational Monument), Steinsfjellet (panoramic viewpoint of city), Avaldsnes:﻿  Nordvegen History Centre and Viking Settlement, Skudeneshavn (fishing village) and Åkrasanden (beaches).  Unfortunately, at the Viking Settlement, most of it was closed due restoration; however, the history center was really interesting.﻿ 

Thoughts on Holland America/Nieuw Statendam 

The good:  The ship is new and beautiful.  The food and service was amazing at Club Orange, Pinnacle Grill and Tamarind.  My husband enjoyed the sushi at the buffet.  We loved all of the musical acts at Lincoln Center, B.B. Kings and Rolling Stone and the themed artwork that went alo﻿ng with it.  We enjoyed the BillBoard Bar and Ocean Bar and had really goo﻿d service and drinks at those locations.  We also loved the Dutch Café with it﻿s coffees and snacks.  We also loved all of the free movies you could get in the room.  We also attended the America’s Test Kitchen demonstr﻿ations but wished it was more interactive.  We also appreciated the cover﻿ed pool area especially on chilly days at sea. 

The so so:  On sea days, the public spaces were extremely full, and it was sometimes hard to find a place to lay down and sleep or read a book especially around the pool. The EXC talks were just okay.  We felt t﻿hat she found the information off google and turned it into a speech.  I wou﻿ld have preferred someone from Norway that could provide more history and culture about the areas we visited. 

The bad:  We felt that there was a huge lack of activities on sea da﻿ys or at night other than the musical acts.  The ship also repeated some of the same entertainers for the nightly shows at the main stage.  We also had difficulty communicating with some of the staff due to language b﻿﻿arriers; this was not a big deal but sometimes it was hard to convey what you needed as far as drinks or food in the buffet.  The drinks at the rem﻿aining bar locations other than the ones mentioned above were terrible and the service was not great.  My gluten free options due to my allergy were also limited and even though I was told they have gluten free pizza crusts at New York Pizza, they said they ran out after only 2 days on the ship.  We also had problems due to the lack of receipts given because we were charged for items when we had the beverage package and we wa﻿nted to have the option to provide additional gratuities for the servers in Pinnacle Grill and Tamarind.  

Overall Thoughts:

We went on the ship for the itinerary and had an amazing time because of it.  We thought the food was top notch and we loved our aft Neptune Suite.  However, I don’t believe that we are the normal demographic for H﻿olland America, and I think we would be truly bored if this had been a Caribbean sailing due to the lack of activities and interactive cruise activities ﻿that we love on other cruise lines.﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿

Wonderful itinerary for Norway

We chose this cruise because of the itinerary and the new ship really appealed. We weren't disappointed - had a fabulous time. 

Embarkation was so easy - well organised, quick and no stress at all. We stayed the night before in Roommate Aitana hotel in Amsterdam which was about 20 mins walk away and highly recommended. Our luggage arrived at our room promptly after boarding.

Ship - the ship was beautiful and well maintained. The Crows Nest is a beautiful space, peaceful for games of chess and board games. The Lido pool area is good because the retractable roof makes it pleasant in hot and cold weather - ideal for this itinerary. The sports court and the area around were pleasant spaces - with outdoor gym equipment and a running track too.  I would say that the ship felt slightly overcrowded from time to time - mainly in the buffet. We enjoyed the international mix on the ship - most passengers seemed to be from US or Netherlands with some from UK and also further afield too. Ages were a mix too with the biggest majority probably being active couples around retirement age, although there were also young families and a whole range of ages !

Cabin - our cabins were really good. We had an aft balcony cabin and an inside cabin in our group. I was very pleasantly surprised by the size of the inside cabin. The aft balcony was lovely and sheltered and didn't feel overlooked. The bathroom was also a pleasant surprise - with a proper , walk in shower and clever layout. The cabins were beautifully clean and the cabin staff were friendly and did their jobs really well.

Dining - we mainly ate in the Lido buffet. I was impressed with the quality of the food and the fact that the food is served rather than open to collect. There was a lot of variety overall but with vegetarian and vegan requirements I felt these could have been better catered for, especially vegan options. Small changes could have made so many more of the options suitable for all - for example changing the noodles to wholewheat or udon from egg noodles would allow the stir fry counter to be suitable for vegans, making the vegetable soups with coconut cream rather than dairy cream etc.  There were no vegan desserts available for our whole trip ! Minor changes to some of the existing options would make the whole menu far more accessible for all requirements. The ship does also have a special menu for vegetarian and vegan customers and I discovered half way through that they would serve that in the buffet on request too - that was much appreciated and one of the staff in the buffet was a huge help in getting that organised. However it is necessary to place any orders from that menu a day in advance , whether for dining room or buffet,  which is not ideal and definitely not keeping up with the times - vegetarian and vegan diets are no longer unusual.  The other issue with the buffet was that there simply isn't enough space - it could get very crowded and difficult to find a seat.

The pizza at the pool was excellent and highly recommended.

We didn't get a chance to eat at the Dutch Cafe as it was always very busy and rather crowded.

We didn't try any of the speciality restaurants as none had much for vegetarians or vegans.

Entertainment and Activities - there didn't seem to be loads of organised day time activities , but that was fine for us as we used the gym, spa etc. We did attend a couple of lectures which we enjoyed. In the evening BB Kings was the standout venue - excellent and really good fun ! The Lincoln stage looked good but the times were early and we were always dining then....  The Rock room was lacklustre compared to BB Kings although the idea of having two options was good and it did always seem busy. The gym and spa were very good and the decks had a range of things to do - table tennis , shuffleboard etc. I don't see the point of  all ships having so much space set aside for a casino - and never saw it busy so maybe we aren't alone in that !

Service was faultless from the staff. Never saw much of the officers.

The itinerary was good and we enjoyed all the ports. Since they dock so close to the town for each port it was easy to come and go from the ship and see the local sights. 

Disembarkation was also very easy - only a bit of queuing and luggage already available to collect.

Wifi was very expensive !

We would definitely sail with HAL again and had a great trip.

Fantastic 7 Day Norway Cruise 

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