Nieuw Amsterdam Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Great ship and always up to the HAL standards. If I should find only a negative note this could be the crowded lines for breakfast.

The itinerary is relaxing and fine for any family.

We had wonderful accommodations and service.  We would definitely come onboard again and will recommend it to others.  However we will never cruise again during a school holiday.  The children took over the ship, running up and down hallways, corridors, public places.  They were unruly and the staff and the officers did nothing to contain this.  We are grandparents and not anti-children.  We had to seek refuge in parts of the ship that were "adult only" and it was sheer luck that no child fell overboard.  Their parents had passed out by the middle of the afternoon, and they did what they wished.

The food was of good variety and was tasty.  The seas were smooth, which always helps.  We saw one show, which we enjoyed.  All in all we had a wonderful time and we'll return when school is in session. This is our 33 cruise, not all on HAL.  

The food was fantastic ! The crew were very attentive and helpful. The entertainment was outstanding. It was great to go on a HAL cruise and not be subjected to music from the Big Band era of Frank Sinatra and Glenn Miller !!!

Well done !!!

There really isn't anything bad to say about this cruise, it was perfect!

The crew were so friendly and helpful, without exception, nothing was too much trouble, food excellent, and entertainment very good.

A nice relaxing break, where you could participate in everything or simply do nothing, no one pushed you into anything.

i would recommend this ship and cruise to everyone

overall god experience but disappointed that I didn't receive an itemized invoice on our spend at the end of the cruise. I have to make several call to get my hands on it.

be careful with the on line credits from price line .you have to go to their website to claim them which was't explain to me at the time I booked the cruise.so I lost out on them as well as the coupon book they advertised.the ship is nice and the food was good .but nothing exceptional

This cruise was an ultimate success. We loved everything!!!!!!!!!!! We highly enjoyed all the relaxing and the ports were excellent. The food was amazing especially the Pinnacle Restaurant! Our waiter was sooooooooooooo sweet!

Love the service on the Nieuw Amsterdam of the Holland American Line.  A step above many of the other lines. Beautiful ship with nice amenities, wonderfully friendly crew, and a nice assortment of things to do on the ship. Really enjoyed the wine tasting and the ballroom dance lessons.

First time with HOLLAND AMERICA.really  very nice.IT was an older crowd .no spring breakers.only a few childen.ITS not a big party ship.you can make it happen . THE whole pace was relaxing.Know body pushing drinks or fighting over chairs. lots of sunny chairs.very nice crew ,good food all over.you can make your own choice where you want to eat.THIS was  a relaxing vacation.everthing was real good .we would go again .

This cruise was nothing compared to our other experiences with other cruiselines. The food was not good. The onboard entertainment was absolutely boring. They seemed to cater for only the elderly. This is the 1st time I have ever been anxious for my vacation to end.

Enjoyed the cruise, especially our excursion " discover Atlantis" in Nassau!  Very high ratio of staff to cruisers, staff very professional, very helpful.  Didn't like the smoking allowed on balconies and in Casino.  Open dining was a joke, waited up to 45 minutes sometimes for a table.  Embarkation and debarkation very smooth, well organized.  Have no desire to stop at Domican Republic again.  

Very nice cruise, it had been several years since my husband and I had been on a cruise.  Lots of changes but mostly for the better.  There isn't any longer 24 hr buffets which was fine with us but the midnight buffet used to be very special. Soft drinks and alcoholic beverages are extra expense as well as 3-4 of the restaurants.  Shore excursions are at the discreetion of the traveler. Margarita, our guide in San Juan was very difficult to understand.  

We were scheduled to be in room 4018, when we arrived to the port we were told our room had been changed to 1031, after checking we  were told that this was below the casino, some thing I a aided like the plaque, we were unable to be moved and endured noise which awakened us almost nightly.our complaint was answered by earplugs being left in our stateroom. Because we were arbitrarily moved our luggage was lost being denied entry to the dining room in Bermuda shorts and needing medication in those backs we were very frustrated, they finally arrived 6 hours later after several calls and visits to management. To add insult to injury. When we went to discuss this the next day we were told no report of the missing luggage had been documented.

Seas were very rough most of the trip which made the cruise uncomfortable (but not Holland America's fault obviously).

Grand Turk Island was beautiful, clean, and no hassle shopping.

San Juan is more commercial like the US but served our purpose.  Lots of restaurants.

St. Thomas is one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean.

Half Moon Cay was a real surprise.  Clean, neat, and best of all a great noon barbeque.

This was my first time cruising and I had a great time!  The quick version is this:  beautiful ship, great staff (especially the Lido deck cabaña staff), fun entertainment (comedian and juggler were awesome). The ship never felt crowded. The food was problematic for me - I'm dairy free and, while they knew that upon my arrival, none of the food staff knew what was in the food, there were no labels and 95% of it had dairy.  For example, there were no desserts that were dairy free except plain fruit.  The spa was beautiful but the staff less than helpful.  Overall, a great cruise.

Sorry to say that our experience on this ship was not very good! The services and accommodations were very good but the ship itself did not "wow" us! Felt the inside of some of the decks (2,3) were somewhat dingy.  We chose to have open seating for dinner thinking we would have been able to reserve the same table for 6 (we were 3 couples) for the 7 nights for the same time we wanted to chose which was for 6:30 pm but the only reservation time that arrangement was available was for either 5:30 or 8:30 seatings. Too early for 5:30 & too late for 8:30!!!! As a result - we always had to wait for a table anywhere from 10-20 minutes when we went to dinner for around 6:30.  We always had a problem as they tried to give us an oval (small) table for 6 near the aisle & had to request another one near a window.  So it was a different table every night except on the 2nd gala evening when we were not permitted to dine as my husband was not wearing either a dinner jacket/long sleeve shirt/tie!!! No "tie" no dine!!!  We ended up going to the buffet dinner!! The dress code in the dining room were a bit too restrictive! First night my husband was wearing his dressy shorts and was told that he needed to change to long pants so he went back to change while we had to wait for a table (for 6 people) to be ready. The shows weren't bad. We did enjoy the BB King Blues singers & band. The nightly violin & piano players for us was music to sleep by but they were good. No big screen by either pools. The ports we visited were excellent - reason why we choose this cruise. Didn't know that there were going to be so many very elderly people (slow walkers/canes/walkers/mobiles) which was sometimes a little difficult to move around them seeing there was limited walking spaces on some of the decks (don't mean any disrespect towards them as they were mostly very friendly)

in general - the ship was a disappointment (being the smallest of previous cruise ships) the dining problem & no "wow" factor!! In future we will not be booking any cruises with Holland America unless it becomes absolutely necessary if going to ports of call we haven't visited that other ships aren't going to and it would have to be a bigger ship at that!

Fantastic Cruise, only two exceptions,Tour of Grand Turk was not worth the money, not very professional . The entertainment that included the Juggler  (BONK ) was a side show that did not belong on an amazing Cruise !!! Not very professional !!

The food and personell were exceptional !!1 The entire crew went above and beyond expectations !!!

We left Fort Lauderdale for 4 ports on the Nieuw Amsterdam - Key West FL, Grand Turk, Dominican Republic & Half Moon Cay (private Island) Bahamas.  All the ports were nice with the later 3 truly beaches in paradise.  We also did 2 excursions where one was not great and one was outstanding.

This was our first H.A. cruise and the ship was nice plus the staff very good as well although not outstanding.  We had no issues but the only thing we were somewhat disappointed in was the buffet restaurant as compared to other cruises lines - limited stations, variety, shorter hours and not open self-serve.  The evening entertainment wasn't as good either.

All in all we had a great time despite some rough seas.

Things started out wrong with Cheap Cruises promising us incentives of a cash credit on board which we were never given followed by a misrepresentation of the cruise itself which we later found out was a "Senior Cruise". The average passenger age must have been in the 80s....which already tells a lot. I was looking forward to healthy eating but the 2nd day into the cruise after eating a "healthy salad" I got the runs and despite the control over that in 2 days, the infection kept my stomach unable to eat anything other than toast & tea, jello, etc.

My wife, who was not infected, did try out their mostly meat based menus but was not impressed by any of their quality, taste, or variety. The menu of foods & variety available are not suited to healthy foods or vegetarians.

I do give credit to the primarily Indonesian serving staff. They were friendly, courteous and very pleasant.

The entertainment was good.

The ports where we stopped, and shopping areas there seem to be controlled by the cruise lines with no local flavor and high prices meant for a monopolized clientele.

Overall, it was the worst vacation of my life. Holland Cruise....never again!!!!! 

We had come to expect 5* service from HAL.  Our dining service was one of the worst ever.  Two hours to get thru eating.  Missed items.  Wrong items.

Our room steward was one of the best

Ship was clean, and it good condition.

Our room was NOISY, and we had read it had "thunking" problems on line.  It did, and HAL is unable to address this.  Not one night of good, quiet, sleep.