Nieuw Amsterdam Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Ship was immaculately clean both inside and out.  Service was excellent. A real plus was very low key up-selling for drinks, specialty dining, etc., as opposed to most cruise lines.  Main dining room food was excellent with a variety of choices.  Pinnacle Grill specialty restaurant is a very elegant affair.  We enjoyed 3 excellent programs that the ship offered.  Adagio their classical music program in the evening, the BB Kind Jazz group, was just first rate and exciting, the America's Test Kitchen program was fun and informative.  The ship has so many intimate spaces, it makes the ship so very comfortable.  Also, a real plus, they are not blasting loud music all over the place, and if music is playing it is soft, almost muted.  Service throughout the ship is excellent and prices for drinks and specialty coffees were very reasonable.  It was our first HollandAmerica cruise and we signed up for future cruise while on board. 

Had a wonderful time, food great especially the Pinnacle, Tamarind and Sal de Mer, excellent.

We were in stateroom 8038. It was very noisy above, keeping us awake and very annoying.

Loved the Promenade deck, but the chairs were shabby, some broken and the seat pads weren't always out on deck.

The crew were excellent, helpful and polite, a credit to HollandAmerica.

The Pros:  the food and the service and the showers (great water pressure and temperature controls, tv and movie selection in room

The Cons:  small vanity section in cabin, no plug outlets in bathroom(!), bed layout not good, lack of enough cubby spaces in closet, not enough lighting in closets, not enough live entertainment in evenings or other activities onboard. I was bored. Costs for everything onboard were high.  This is definitely an older person's ship. Many times in the evenings the ship seemed overly quiet and almost empty! The few bars onboard other than at pool areas were either empty or almost empty early evening. Not enough promos onboard in those areas to attract more people. I was shocked. 

For me personally, I can't recommend this ship for a more active and gregarious person.  It was disappointing. My third time on HAL, but will definitley take another cruise line in the future, sorry to say. 

Lastly, while our cabin was comfy and had a tub, it was right BELOW the galley, so it was rather noisy the first couple of nights after 4am, to the point where we complained. We were offered other cabins which were inadequate or too late in the cruise to change. We were finally given a small credit at cruise end for our inconvenience.  The front desk staff were very gracious and really tried, but the cruise was completely full, and these cabins came up through cancellations.

I loved the spa. I spent many hours in the steam room and hot water pool,

it took away the aches and pain for awhile, the food was all-around great/

the service was a-1.

In general the cruise was relaxing and enjoyable. We were disappointed we could not always access a favorite venue because of private parties. We selected open seating so that we could have dinner 'whenever'....but the lines were so long and making reservations for time in between regular seating was not possible. There was not as much 'live music' as we were used to on other ships.

We really love the Holland America ships.  Super clean, very friendly staff, very attentive, you feel like a queen (or king) for a week. 

Food is amazing, lots of dinning options too.  Try the other restaurants on board if you had the extra cash, they are worth it.

We got the Signature Beverage Package and it was great.  There was no way we could drink all the drinks allotted to us each day, but it was nice not having to "think" about a bill at the end of the trip.  We will do this again.

Excursions are good, but we wish that they were longer!  2 hour excursion is just too short.

We were disappointed that the ship could not stop in the Bahamas due to rough seas.  We understand that this happens.  Be aware that this can happen.  It almost happened on our last cruise but we got lucky.  Not so lucky this time.  It was a bummer of a way to end the cruise.

Holland America has an older customer.  I could count on one hand the amount of children I saw all week.  This is great if you are looking for a more mature and quieter cruise.  Keep in mind however that they activities and entertainment tend to be for the older crowd as well. 

When booking cruise I tried to dinner reservations and was told that 5:45 was the only reservation available and that I would have to take anytime dining and make a reservations after boarding.  It turned out that Holland had booked a group of 1,000 and given them all the dinner reservations later than 5:45.  The food in the dining room was not up to par with any of the 5 previous cruises that we have been on with other lines.  The buffet was good, so after one lunch in the dining room, we ate at buffet.  Food in upscale restaurant was good but pricey.   Wait staff was not very knowledgable about food preparation or proportions.  Cabin staff was good.  Bar tenders and wait staff not so much.

The food was great, entertainment could be a little better, rooms were

clean and good service in dining room and cleaning our room.  Tour guides

need to be around when you get off the ship to assist you as where to go-no

assist to get to Grand Turks experience tour-only a Carnival sign at the

ticket booth where we found that we were to be and no assist to go to

Rain Forest in P.R.-found our own way!

I love to cruise to just get away from all the hustle and bustle of the world.  I have traveled worldwide and am not interested in explorations.  I just enjoy the food, drink and entertainment.  Holland America has excellent service and very friendly people on their staff.  

Wonderful relaxing elegant experience aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam for 10 day Caribbean Cruise.  All staff demonstrated commitment to customer/guest care!

Ship was incredibly well cared for 24 hrs/day and we could not believe it was 7 yrs old.  It was beautiful as was the staff.

Best part of the cruise was Half Moon Cay  , Sweet Place. Thank you!!!   We were treated like kings in the rented cabana with great food and service. We were 75 feet from beautiful white sand beach and sparkling clear blue water. Tad and Connie McBride

We love the ship, the food, the itinerary. But the service hs got down the drain. The waiters, in the restaurant, buffet, wherever, are bellow worse: they don't know how to serve, how to treat you, are rude, don't bring what you ask, complain when you come later,... don't know even English! Even one of our bags was broken at embarkation! The cleaning services were very poor also. The stward and helper, terrible!!! I had paid gratuites in advance and I got very very upset, because we didn't receive minimum service. Exception to Melanie, Guest Relations Officer, who was rerally nice and tryied to help us along the way. We were very desapointed. In the casino, we didn't receive one "good evening" although spending all my nights there...

We would definitely recommend this cruise to others.  Very little down time.  Excellent entertainment venue on the ship.  Excursions were well planned out.

The cruise itself was wonderful. Weather perfect, seas calm, cabin was lovely, great staff and crew. The islands we visited were unique unto themselves. Everyone was a different flavor. I think that this itinerary is on the top of my list to d

It was seeing the islands and their beautiful beaches.  The weather was perfect and all the excursions ran on time and smoothly.  The food was exceptional and our cabin metal our needs.  It was a plus to have a fifty inch TV to watch the football games.

The best part of the cruise was the vast array of island stops and sharing with fellow shipmates.  Made new friends very well during the open seating variety.

The itinerary was great. One day cruise, one day port, one day cruise. The ports of call were good especially a visit to Royal Palms Resort in Grand Cayman. Service was top notch. Food choice was ok. Food quality was great. Ship was recently refurbished so it was beautifully decorated.Entertainment was lack lustre except for Adagio the violin & piano duet. Mostly an older quiet crowd which is great if your are looking to relax. Not suitable for youngsters of any age. Wish they served real orange juice and quality coffee.Overall it was a good relaxing ten days as we lucked out with excellent weather and calm seas.

Great food and a smaller ship than the past two ships we have used. Entertainment was lacking several nights. Activities on ship were less than on the larger ships. Shore excursions we great and well organized. 

The food place was my favorite part.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       .

food and music ,worst was the noise of boat creaking just at our cabin , completely intolerable, however managed to get a different cabin , beware of 4113 cabin