Nieuw Amsterdam Cruise Reviews - Reviews

The Nieuw Amsterdam is a beautiful ship with many amenities.  We enjoyed our Signature Suite.  Service on the ship was great.  All cabin stewards and dining stewards were friendly.  Two good cruise directors.  Weather was very nice.  This ship is a winner for those contemplating a nice vacation.

The ship is sparkling clean, and the crew is extremely attentive.  The food was well prepared, but table service tended to be quite slow.  Dinner in the Pinnacle was not worth the 2-1/2 hrs spent to complete the dinner.  Showroom production shows were average, as was the other entertainment.  Cruise director was outstanding and kept things moving!  Did not get to Grand Caymen due to rolling seas.

excellent food.  Very helpful and very pleasant staff.  Could not use lifeboats as tenders on grand Cayman so immediately left.  Every passenger credited back fifty dollars plus port charges.  Casino nice but small.  Fun activities.  

The service in the main dining room was so slow!!!  We chose to go to the special dining areas and had wonderful meals.  Every member of the staff (excluding dining room waiters) was very courteous, knowledgeable and helpful.  We still wish staterooms had digital clocks and night lights in the bathroom, but we brought our own this time.  Both embarkation and disembarkation were remarkably smooth.

Great weather all the time. God food and relaxing atmosphere. Shows partly very good, some too loud. Great choice of land trips. Friendly and caring staff.  Cabin

and balcony roomy and comfortable. After 3 cruises with Holland-America will definitely come again.  

I'll keep this short - this was a senior citizen cruise. If you like to lay around the pool in total silence (usually), or on rare occasion listen to piped in classical or elevator lite jazz type music, have food served to you soft and unsalted, and activities aimed toward the senior crowd, this is the cruise for you.

It would have been greatly appreciated if someone had told us at the time of booking that this is what Holland America was offering. We would have booked elsewhere.

Never again.....we couldn't wait to get home.

The food in the dining room did not meet the standards of past HAL cruises, or even of other cruise lines we have recently used. It was served always lukewarm, and the quality of it was very disappointing compared to the food on past HAL cruises. The presentation was pleasing, but the food was very bland and ordinary. Vegetables included were not to everyone's taste.

We chose Anytime Seating, and perhaps because of that, service was incredibly slow and dinner took far too long.

Our cabin (#6962) and especially the bed rattled all the time, (perhaps vibration from the engines?) making it difficult for us to fall asleep. We were also very surprised to feel so much motion on the ship, despite pretty calm seas. This is something we have never experienced before, so are wondering if there is some design flaw with this particular ship. We certainly will not chose to sail on this ship again.

Serve the meals in the dining room on heated plates. Offer a wider variety of vegetables and sides. Hire more staff for the dining room. Don't offer Anytime Dining if it does not enhance the dining experience for diners. It would be better to have more staggered dining times.

The staff is excellent and the dining room meals were great. Some shows were good, some were just ok. There were 3 dancing classes. Pools were very small. There is a spa, ping pong tables, and basketball court. Not as many activities as other ships. Ok if you just want to relax

This was our first cruise and we loved it and will cruise again. The size of the ship was just right(about 2100) and not too big. They had a good selection of activities to do on ship and on shore.  The food was fantastic. The demographics of the folks was just right for us.  We did not want a ship full of children with parents, young adults or just retired folks.  The blend was just right so that we were able to enjoy ourselves and relax. Our travel agent did a great job of telling us the little ins and outs of cruising before we left. This allowed us to have a very worry free trip.

Holland America exceeded my expectations on every level of sailing.

before sailing I heard mixed reviews and that's why never sailed with Holland. This was my first time with Holland America and definitely not last👍🏻👌🏻🛳🎉🎊

As always, the service and ambience was exceptional. My favorite cruise line. From the time we arrived in the terminal until we left, we were treated well. The staff was exceptional and the decorations for Christmas were pleasant. Dinner in the Pinnacle was outstanding. On Christmas Eve, we were treated with carols from the staff as we entered the main dining room. What a nice touch.

I am an older traveler who took my two adult daughters and my 8 year old grandson on a week long trip to the Western Caribbean the week before Christmas.  The ship was decorated beautifully for Christmas.  Poinsettias were everywhere including our room.  We were in the Neptune Suite and I felt that we were treated like royalty. 

My oldest daughter and her son had never been on a Holland American Cruise and she was were very leery about how entertained her son would be.  Well, he loved club Hal.  Even though there was only 32 children onboard, he managed to meet most of them.   He and his mother are Disney cruise fans, but after the cruise he said that he felt that the Nieuw Amersterdam was right up there with Disney.

I really appreciated the electronic upgrades, the new flat screen Ultra HD tv was especially liked by my grandson.  The room was beautiful and all the suite amenities such as laundry, high tea every afternoon, and of course, the excellent service of the two concierges in the Neptune Lounge.

The food was also its usual high standard of excellence.  The ice cream was rated 5 star by my grandson since it was hand-dipped served in a waffle cone.  Our breakfasts in the Pinnacle restaurant were wonderful and such a special treat.

All and all, the cruise destinations were all special too but the ship itself was a great destination and a respite.  We all enjoyed it immensely......Gloria Carvey  

Reservation process was easy and accommodating with the United cruise. We like the ship, its staff and of course the food.  Our group (10 People) are seniors and most of time travel together liked the ship that we believe is geared towards more senior crowds.  Overall we were satisfied.    

Disappointed that the ship no longer has fresh squeezed oj and they used to have a good pizza place. Now the pizza is gross, but I didn't cruise to find pizza. The new tv and movie on demand system is great if your an insomniac like me or just want to take a break from the tons of stuff to do

We had rough seas a couple of times where I had to go to the middle of the 3rd floor where the bobbing and swelling of the seas was more bearable than staying in my 6th floor cabin.

The crew was the nicest people who would ask if I needed anything. That impressed me. There were fewer children on this cruise. Less noise. The music was totally enjoyable around the swimming pool. No wet t-shirt or hard rock loud music. VERY ENJOYABLE!

Holland America impressed me very much! 10 STARS FOR SURE!

Very nice cruise, lovely ship, but you'd better be looking to just relax, be cause the entertainment was quite sparse. Very little opportunity to dance and the customer base did not seem to be big socializers.

Food was good but very redundant and uninspired with the exception of the Thai cuisine,

Employees were great, cruise director was pretty much out of sight, nice library with a unhappy librarian. Cabins were very nice and had the largest closet space of any we'd seen on other lines. Did not like the swing-out balcony door.

Contrary to what we expected, guests did not really go out of their way to dress on Gala nights.

Our stateroom was very nice and the steward could not have been better.  The food was quite good. Actually many times the food at the buffet was actually better than in the main dining room. The seas had a slight roll to them but not too bad.  Our main problem was the entertainment.  The shows were terrible. There was no staging at all and the music and singing was so loud that you could not understand a word.  The BB King band and the piano bar were just as bad, so loud you couldn't find a place far enough away from the stage that was comfortable to listen to them much less be able to have a conversation.  'The Band' in the one bar was wonderful but alas they did not have a vocalist, however, they were very pleasant to sit and listen too not blasting at full volume like all the others. This was our 2nd HA cruise and it was much better than the last one but not good enough to consider going with them again unless there is no other choice. The only reason we sailed with HA this time was that they stopped in Key West for the whole day and the others left around noon. If not for that we would never have chosen to go with HA.

The service from all of the staff was excellent; the cuisine was outstanding and served by a professional and well-trained staff; the on-board and off-board activities were excellent and well-planned.

Outstanding crew  - food was best on any cruise ship I have been on - Made (table 77) was great.  Cabin steward was wonderful - Really nice ship - could be a little more shopping - need tea spoons at buffet - designated smoking area in casino.  These are the only recommendations I would suggest.

This was my 19th cruise with lots of other cruise lines.  Louise

Cabin conditions unsatisfying. Poor air-conditioning first night. Temperature to warm to be comfortable. Unable to get a good nights sleep. Tried many times to have the air-conditioning to be repaired to make the cabin cooler. Requested a fan to help us sleep more comfortable. Was told there were no fans on the ship. After meeting new friends on board the ship, they requested a fan in our favor. Voila, a fan appears the next day. Can't enjoy a good night outside on the balcony because two cabins ahead of us and one deck below, an old man smokes cigars all night destroying my fresh air off the sea. I have more to complain about but no room to explain. Overall, very unpleased with certain aspects onboard cruise.