Nieuw Amsterdam Review

4.5 / 5.0
964 reviews

Nieuw Amsterdam - April Panama Canal Cruise

Review for the Panama Canal & Central America Cruise on Nieuw Amsterdam
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jenniferchatt4
6-10 Cruises • Age 50s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Apr 2018
Cabin: Interior Stateroom

Holland America 17 day cruise from Fort Lauderdale through Panama Canal on to San Diego checked off all the boxes. As usual food was good to great, housekeeping and dining staff friendly, accommodating and truly attempted to meet our every whim. The check out procedure through San Diego was exceptional. Took less than 10 minutes!

A few specifics worth noting. Aji and Hendry in dining area were exceptional servers.

My husband got a $40 hair cut in the salon and the gal cut his ear as well as the back of his neck using the clippers. Not sure if the gal was not experienced or just did not care.

Cabin Review

Interior Stateroom

Cabin was good. No issues. Housekeeping service was good.

Port Reviews

Cabo San Lucas

Wow has this port changed in the last 10 years. We walked around and always felt relatively safe. We visited Cabo Wabo and got some margaritta's and coconut shrimp. Not cheap but worth having lunch off the ship. Of course tons of shopping and we were able to walk everywhere without a cab needed.

Huatulco

We took the mountain biking excursion. It was good but the guide was not a very good communicator. If you dont work out every week on a bike, treadmill or elliptical I would not suggest taking this tour. First thing you are required to go up a pretty steep hill. This part is fine but the next hill we climbed was a mountain. About 2-3 miles up the mountain to overlook the bay and mountains. It was a gorgeous view but the mountain was steep and long. We then biked into the City and walked around for about 40 minutes then on to a secluded beach. If you are in relatively good shape try out the mountain bike excursion. They do have a pick up truck that follows the group to help be safe on the city streets as well as pick up any bikers that cannot make the trek up the mountain. so worst case if you cannot make it up the mountain, no problem, they throw the bike in the truck and you hope in for a much easier ride. I would do this excursion again but likely bike a bit more in anticipation.

Puerto Quetzal (Antigua)

Antigua is beautiful and we took a boat excursion. While shopping these folks are extremely aggressive. That was the disappointing factor in this excursion. constantly being nagged by locals to buy every kind of trinket you could imagine.

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