Nieuw Amsterdam Review
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We booked this cruise at the last minute because of a phenomenal last minute deal that offered airfare, transfers, 1 night pre-cruise hotel, 2 bottles of wine, SBC, dinner at Canelleto and lunch at Pinnacle Grill.
The hotel - Embassy Suites in Ft. Lauderdale was very nice. The room was spacious and the cooked to order breakfast the next morning was decent. The transfer to the ship was handled very nicely and embarkation was smooth and very efficient. Our package was for an inside room and the room was a good size well maintained. Our cabin steward Oki and his assistant were always cheerful and took very good care of us. I do think that they have too many cabins to take care of though.
We had open seating and it worked just fine. The food is so poor. We are long time mariners and the food used to be very good. I'm sure that much of their food is prepackaged and just heated up. The food in the Lido is so bad it is like eating at a really cheap dinner. The Asian buffet food is not as good as I've had at some food courts. When they served turkey it was a rolled turkey (sort of like a big bologna) not a real turkey. The best food on the top deck was at Dive In for the burgers, hot dogs and fries. The salad bar (make your own salad) was also very good. It's pretty bad when in a huge dining area the best food is salad, hamburger or hot dog. The fruit was not ripe. I can't understand sailing through the Caribbean with all the lovely fruit, mangoes papaya etc. and none of the nice fruit is brought onboard. The service is also very poor. There is no staff to help you with your plates and the plates are so hot that they are very difficult to carry without hurting your fingers. The food in the main dining room at dinner was also not good quality. The chefs cannot cooked fish or chicken. Both were always overcooked, dry and tasteless and the pasta was also not edible most times. When I left almost all my meal on the plate the server did not ask if there was a problem or offer to bring another meal. The best service in the main dining room was at tables 314 - 318. This is a little area that had 5 tables for 2 and the wait staff in the area were exceptional. They also have probably the best wine steward at HAL in this area.