My favorite HAL ship
Nieuw Statendam Cruise Review
7 Night Southern Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)
Sail date: December 10, 2022
Ship: Nieuw Statendam
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 8199
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
Overall, it was a very nice and relaxing cruise. We loved the updated ship design and aft balcony stateroom. The port calls could have been a bit longer, as we wanted to explore more of Aruba and Curaçao. HAL’s private island is a disappointment if you haven’t booked an excursion, as there is very little to do or see. Still, one of my favorite HAL cruises.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
24-Hour In-Room Dining
Ordered room service twice and it arrived incorrect both times. (We didn’t mention it to anyone, as it was a matter of scrambled eggs vs. fried eggs - not a big issue to us) What was annoying was that our room stewards neglected to leave room service order cards for about half of the cruise.
Tamarind
Excellent service! The food was top notch!
Explorations Cafe
Friendly staff. We enjoyed it a latte!
Dive In at the Terrace Grill
Hot dogs & burgers were pretty good. We had lunch here more than once. Being able to order via app is a nice addition!
Onboard Activities
Lido Pool
Very relaxing area to spend lunch or catch an evening movie. I love the addition of the upper deck above the pool, which the Eurodam & Westerdam don’t have.
Movies by the Pool Deck
Movie night was so relaxing that I fell asleep!
Sun Deck
We enjoyed this area, but the smoke wafting from the large smoking section made us limit our time here. The added upper deck area was nice, but always crowded.
Sea View Pool
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Entertainment
B.B. King's Blues Club
The band was good, but we prefer the club-like setting of BB Kings, rather than the open area setup this ship has.
World Stage
Great venue. The show selection is in need of updates.
Rolling Stone Rock Room
Band was good, but pretending to pull someone out of the audience to join the band was cheesy and didn’t really add anything to the experience.
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
If you enjoy Starbucks style coffee, it is available at the Explorations Cafe. Several passengers weren’t aware of this until several days into the cruise.
Ports of call
Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (Private Island)
Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida