The most crowded ship I’ve been on.

Nieuw Statendam Cruise Review

CruiseJedi

Contributor Level: Purser

49 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 2

Overall rating:

3.9 out of 5

14 Night Legends Of Iceland & Scotland (Amsterdam Roundtrip)

Sail date: July 20, 2024

Ship: Nieuw Statendam

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 4080

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 1 month ago

Review summary

Starting with the good, our main dining room experience for breakfast, lunch and dinner was good. What you would expect from this level of cruise line. Same as the service onboard, what you expect. As much as they do right on this ship, no amount of tasty food, great service or entertainment can make up for the fact that this ship is far too crowded. Had I been forewarned as to how crowded it would be, I would have never booked to begin with. The public areas like the crows nest, the Dutch cafe, both levels of the pool decks and even the chairs in the hallway to the dining room are always full. Mostly on sea days and certainly on sail out on port days. We enjoy finding a place to have drinks, read our books and enjoy the view of the sea on our sea days. That is nearly impossible on this ship. Everything is always full. We have been fortunate on a couple occasions to get seats and relax, but while doing so we were asked on two separate occasions by guests if we were done yet because they wanted our seats. I find this a bit ridiculous. We were able to enjoy the sail out once in the crows nest and that was only because we got there 3 and a half hours before sailing. The buffet on the lido deck is a complete madhouse, narrow walkways, and far too many people. Which is why we ended up utilizing the main dining whenever it was available. There are long lines to get on tenders back to the ship, long lines when we are docked on a pier to get back on the ship. Long lines at the Dutch cafe and customer service. We cruise often, this is our 28th cruise on various cruise lines and we have never experienced a ship that was so crowded as the nieuw statendam The specialty restaurant pinnacle grill serves items that belong on the main dining room menu, but they call it special and charge extra. Tamarind was actually pretty good. At least it was a great itinerary. Never sailing with Holland America again.