Nieuw Amsterdam Review
Rating by category
Additional details
This was our first cruise on HAL. We typically cruise on Norwegian or Royal Caribbean but got an outstanding deal on this cruise so we decided to give HAL a try.
I would say that overall we really enjoyed the cruise and felt that it was a very good experience for the price. There were some things that I felt exceeded expectations and a few that feel a bit short of our desires.
We knew going in that HAL tends to cater to an older audience so we expected the feel to be a bit reserved. My wife and I are certainly not party animals.
Cabin Review
Large Ocean-View Stateroom
We were in cabin 1027 which is a catigory F ocean view room. The cabin was fine. The bed was comfortable. The bathroom was nice. Lots of storage. Nice window with an unobstructed view. We heard only a little bit of noise from the music venue above us but it wasn't bad at all. Our cabin steward was good.
Port Reviews
Amber Cove (Puerto Plata)
We walked to the main taxi stand at the entrance to the port facility and negotiated with a taxi driver to give us an all day tour of the city of Porto Plata including going to the top of the mountain to the botanical gardens. We paid $80 for four people for what ended up being a five hour tour.
The botanical gardens are amazing. Our taxi driver walked us around the garden and showed us the sites. I would strongly suggest that the gardens are well worth the time.
In town our driver took us to several tourist shops that I'm sure he got a kick back from. Most of these were ok, but we don't really enjoy shopping so after about four stops I informed him that we didn't want any more shops. He said ok and for the rest of the day we were shopping free.
We stopped by the Spanish fort for a short visit.
On to the beach for an hour on the beach and some beers.
We asked him to take us through the residential part of town he was happy to show us his neighborhood.
He stopped by several other photo opportunities that he thought we would enjoy.
He spent time talking with us and explaining the things we were seeing.
He took us to a grocery store and a stop by the local farmers market where we purchased some awesome fresh fruit.
We had a wonderful time, we didn't feel rushed at all and got to choose what we wanted to see.
We were with him for 5 hours and he would have been fine with us going longer. He didn't expect payment till the end of the day. We gave him the agreed upon $80 plus a $20 tip because he had been so nice and had made our day special. In the end that comes out to be $25 per person for the day which was way less than a packaged excursion and we had total control of the day.