14 Nights Wild British Isles: Ireland’s West Coast Cruise

Great week on Nieuw Statendam!

This was our third cruise on Holland America and it continues to deliver very good value in our eyes. We have also sailed multiple times on ach of Carnival, Princess, Celebrity and NCL. We are in our 40s with 2 kids aged 11 and 14. No doubt that the fellow cruisers tend to be older, with very few kids on board. That said, the combination of excellent live performances (BB King Blues Band is absolutely fantastic, Rolling Stones excellent), good food all around (diverse buffet, good salads, good dining room experience), fantastic service (the staff was one of the better ones we have witnessed on all our cruises - good vibes could be felt throughout the week), interesting "extras" (the Lido fanfare for Mardi Gras was very fun), very nice cabins, pristine ship, excellent embarkation/debarkation, .... I would like to add that despite the few kids on board, there is a very nice room for teens called the "High Score" with multiple free games, including some pinball machines. No nickel and diming here. Well done HAL! Only drawback I would say is that we didn't particularly care for the few shows by the resident singers and dancers. That said again, the excellent BB King and Rolling Stone bands made up for that. We also enjoyed the comedian Frank Townsend very much. As you can hear, we were very pleased with our week and warmly recommend the Nieuw Statendam!!!

Loved Nieuw Statendam!

This was my first time on a Pinnacle class ship and I really enjoyed it. We were in a balcony Category VD room on the 5th floor and it was very spacious and plenty of room for all our stuff for this 7 night Caribbean trip. We used it as a getaway from the cold and it fit the bill. The weather was perfect every day with highs in the low 80's and low humidity. No rain and lots of great sunsets. We really enjoyed all the live music but it's not perfect. We listened to Zach and Grace, the two piano players in Billboard On Board each night and while their vocals aren't the strongest, they have a fun banter between them and play lots of great tunes. Our favorite music show were two solo performances. One by Levi, the pianist from the Rolling Stones Lounge and Mike the sax player. They did a pre-dinner show and killed it. The other was Aaron, a guitarist with the Rolling Stones Lounge that also did a pre-dinner solo. HAL should have those two acts every night! Claire the cruise director was awesome. Our main dining room waiter Gerald was excellent and always had our drinks ready for us and got us out in time for the late shows. We occasionally had to wait for open seating around 7:15 PM but never more than 10 minutes. The food at both the main dining room, the Lido and room service were all very good. The desserts at the Lido for lunch could be improved. They need more good chocolate desserts! They also had food after 10 pm but we didn't go there since we were still stuffed from dinner. We also liked the Dive In for burgers and hot dogs and I think they have the best French fries at sea (so crispy!). The pizza at the NY Deli place was also good. We got that to watch the Super Bowl on the big screen by the pool. Afternoon tea was also very nice with sweet and savory goodies and good tea served in the dining room. The entertainment they brought on board was excellent. The comedian Jose Sarduy was so funny and the Brazilian guitarist, Diego Figuieredo was so talented and very personable. Also embarkation and disembarkation were a breeze. We were on and off in minutes. No lines/waiting. All in all we had a great cruise. So much so we booked another cruise on the Nieuw Statendam this summer for Scotland and Ireland!

Christmas on Nieuw Statendam

Nieuw Statendam was a great ship for a family cruise but is not geared towards the 20 something party scene. We went over Christmas with three generations (step mom, her sister and my wife and adult daughters). The main dinning room food was very good. We had some food allergies at our table and they made sure that we ordered the night before to help move dinner along. It did not really help, but we were glad they were aware of the problem. Obviously, one has to keep in mind that it is impossible to individually cook certain items like a steak. If you get that concept then the food was good. I was not a fan of the buffet as they have people serve you and many items are not clearly labeled. Breakfast at the buffet was hard to mess up and they did not mess it up. There was one night that was "cake night." Nothing labeled and a line of people that had waited several minutes to get within sight of the cakes only to be faced with more choices than a cheesecake factory. There are also several people that need a kindergarten refresher course on waiting your turn and how to stand in a line. I also had pizza from their pizza restaurant, and it was good, even the previously prepared slices. We did not do a specialty restaurant as the food in the main dining room was good. I would recommend the Holland cafe. They had energetic staff and good food/desserts including a big chocolate cream puff that was a cousin to an eclair. The entertainment was not my cup of tea, but it was heavy on live music acts. The acts that I saw had talent and engaged the crowd. We recently also sailed on Utopia of the Seas and the two ships were almost polar opposites. On Utopia there was almost over stimulation whereas NS was more sedate. My daughters did several art classes and enjoyed them. If you want an ice skating experience on board this probably is not your ship. Service throughout the ship was very good. I did AquaTrax/Jetski on Half Moon Cay. It was a lot of fun even though I had never done a jetski before. In Ocho Rios we did a tour to Bob Marley's birth place, which is also his resting place, 9 mile. We used Oneal Tours. He was great and if you are looking for something to see a non-tourist side of Jamaica. He is on instagram and probably other social media as well. It was reasonably priced and Oneal was great. We were in Grand Cayaman on Christmas day. Many things were closed, but there were a number of shops and a few restaurants open. We did an island tour but the turtle sanctuary was closed. The rum tasting was dropping us off at a gift shop. They had rum cake available, but forgot they were to do a rum "tasting" and then brought out a bottle of banana rum and thimble size cups. In Cozumel, I went to the Coba Mayan Ruins and my wife and daughters went to an orphanage and market. If ancient history is interesting to you I cannot recommend Coba enough. I had gone to Tulum before. Coba is just different than Tulum. Recognize that it is a full day and there will be no time for shopping before or after in the port. My wife and daughters enjoyed their excursion but felt it was a little exploitive of the orphans. Embarkation in Ft. Lauderdale was clunky with parking across from the terminal. There were no major issues, just a little bit of show up when you want and we will get you on the ship. Disembarkation was fairly easy although tracking over to the parking deck was not fun. My wife and I had a veranda cabin and my daughters shared an inside room. The inside room had a good bit of space. The veranda room was nice to be a part of the environment whether at night or as we came into port. We were both towards the back of the ship and had no issue with noise.