Disorganized cruise

Item: Nieuw Statendam
Rating: 3.3
Author: JHB4

Nieuw Statendam Cruise Review to Canada, New England, New York

JHB4

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 22

Overall rating:

3.3 out of 5

Verified Review

11 Night Newfoundland & New England Discovery (Boston To Quebec)

Sail date: August 27, 2022

Ship: Nieuw Statendam

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 6043

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

Overall enjoyed the ports . Would not go on this ship again. Disappointed with Holland America’s general customer service around providing ship navigation info, entertainment, and boarding. Room service and food service staff as well as quest services staff awesome. Layout of venues and service desks confusing. Navigator app useless. Cabin rooms layout not good and too tiny. Balcony was a good size.

Embarkation

1 out of 5

Terrible, if I could I would rank the embarkation as a zero. No signage for passengers to board ship - 2 ships in port with no signs pointing identifying either boat. More than 2 hours in line after assigned boarding time, no info from anyone regarding delay or process to board ship, once aboard ship no directions for accessing room or what was happening , and more

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Food was mostly tasteless, first time in a cruiseship I had to salt my food to taste it. Eat a vegetarian diet and it was a terrible seek and find food I could eat. Lots of meat everywhere and dairy products. Hated that that the main dinning room had extras on the menu if you wanted to pay for it.

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5

Others than the same music each night - poor activities

Entertainment

2 out of 5

Same two bands playing each night. All good but could do with a change since the theatre had little on . First production show was excellent and unique, after that no so good if there was a show.

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Disappointed that the cabin stewards first into was that they did not do turndown service at night only if you asked for it specifically. Otherwise staff very goo - over zealous in trying to ensure our dining was a good and they would receive high recommendations.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Ship’s design is not conducive to the population that normally cruises in Holland America. Trying to figure out how to get from one area to the next was confusing and if you got there the ship often had areas blocked off from passengers. Annoying after a number of days as we payed for what I thought was a luxury cruise. The exit for for departing the ship was through passenger room hallways - narrow walkways, not sure if this was exactly a safe design. Our room was a balcony room. It was the smallest cruise balcony room we have ever been in. The bathroom was the same. The dinner area on lido deck was confusing too as the dinning stations were identified by the food it was servicing and replicated signage on either side of the dinning area. However some stations even though mostly the same food sometimes at different foods. The great thing about the ship was the balcony size and the stability and quietness of the ship. The caption and crew did an amazing job of maneuvering the ship.

Cabin / Stateroom

2 out of 5

The smallest balcony cabin ever. Others on boat mentioned the same. The bathroom poorly layer out especially for the population that typically sail with Holland America. Cabin very clean.

Ship tip

Not sue. I would not sail with this cruise line again. The captain apologized for a few things but the passengers did not benefit from it at all. No effort on Holland America’s part to make amends for the disastrous boarding procedures or lack of information overall for how the boat actually ran, lack of entertainment, etc.

Thumbs up