Nieuw Statendam Review
Rating by category
Additional details
We were very excited to cruise after COVID and launching our two children off to college. We booked the cruise during their summer sale, the summer before we cruised. Our package offered a sale on the Have It All and included gratuities. We chose the Nieuw Statendam because we have always loved HAL (5/6 cruises) and we like the size of the ship and the pools. We also chose based on the fact that we prefer the Eastern Caribbean ports.
We traveled to Florida in advance to visit family and then to Fort Lauderdale the night before. It took us almost 2 hours to return the rental car and catch a shuttle. We also booked a shuttle from the hotel to the port for the next morning, it was on time despite the pouring rain and we arrived at the port at 10:20 for a 10:20 boarding time. The process went quickly and we verbally verified our immunization status prior to checking in. Verifly was not used. We were assigned boarding group 23 and boarding began roughly 5 minutes after we entered the room. We boarded the ship after waiting in another long line around 1:00.
We were immediately able to use the app and had very few issues with the app throughout the trip. Just an FYI, mobile ordering is not available for burgers or pizza upon boarding although the line was very short. We never saw the order on the app available when we tried to eat but we also never needed it.
Cabin Review
Verandah Stateroom
We picked our stateroom based on the extra large veranda on the 4th deck. It lived up to the expectations. The balcony was very large and 1/2 covered to protect from the sun. However, we still found that while heading south our port balcony was fully in the sun, so we used it more on the second half of the cruise. The balcony had 2 chairs that reclined slightly and 2 footstools and one tiny and one small side tables. It would be difficult to eat a room service meal on the short, small tables. They painted the balcony while we were on our trip and everything looked good. The room was fine, it is a little smaller than on old ships but excellent outlets and storage in the room. Limited space and storage in the bathroom. Great being able to watch muster on the TV and good coverage of cruise information/ bills on the tv. Our cabin stewards were amazing and deserved extra. We were asked if we needed two services and agreed to only one. There were no issues. The only issue we had with our stateroom was an occassional cigarette smell midafternoons. Never at night or in the morning. We could not figure out where it was coming from as it did not smell on the balcony.