Holland America - Nieuw Statendam Cruise Ship

Holland America New Statendam is a 4-year-old boat that we ended up going on due to the cancellation of the original cruise with Holland America that we were on.  Originally I had booked the Rotterdam which is the brand new ship for HAL but they decided to transatlantic voyage that ship and ended up giving us $150 USD credit each.  We then ended up booking New Statendam with two of our friends.  

The New Statendam is a fairly typical ship it's not overly large it's not small it's just a medium-sized cruise ship.  There were 2800 on board for passengers and just under 1000 crew.  

This is the 4 of us and we just got on board.  We were waiting for the elevator to go up to Deck 11 to check out our digs.  In the background is the center of the boat and the Art Gallery is at the bottom.

Holland America gives you a little card of your cruise to keep in your cruise journey book that they also gave us.  It was a nice keepsake because most of the Caribbean cruise ports blend into each other if you have been on several cruises.  Jimmy and Sandra's first cruise was a spectacular sampling of islands and a great itinerary.  (to the left)

On the first night of the cruise, we went to the dining room for supper and all of us had an excellent meal.  The bartenders certainly know how to make a mean margarita every one of my Margaritas that day and night was excellent, unlike the other two ships that we had just sailed on the Prima and the Beyond.  The wine and meal entrees starters etc took a long time to come I do believe they are short-staffed on this boat.  I'm not sure if it's like this all the time but certainly, the first two nights seem to have been short-staffed.

For entertainment, there was not really a lot the first night in the theatre.  At 8:00 p.m. was a showing of 150 years of Holland American History which actually tantalized me but the other three people I was travelling with weren't remotely interested so I ended up not going.  I am a history major and I love history.   I should have gone to watch it then but I went on the last day by myself and thoroughly enjoyed it.  But I like history.

The second night of entertainment was called Humanity and this was a dance production.  The dancers were extremely talented and very nice to watch.  Some of them were the best dancers I've ever seen.  The screen behind the stage and on all the walls is one continuous panoramic screen which adds a lot to the production.  Usually, I'm not interested enough in a dance production to go and watch it but this one was well worth watching.  

We chose an inside cabin on this sailing and the room was adequate.   It was smaller than most Cruise lines or maybe it just looked smaller?  There was an ample amount of storage but definitely, the bathroom is the smallest bathroom we've ever encountered at sea.  The room had a nice desk with a seat so that was great for studying my Spanish and blogging.  There wasn't a couch in the room though it was just the bed and the desk and storage areas.  One goofy thing about this room is there is a corner cabinet and 1/3 of it is set up like a china cabinet and the lower half is storage. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with a china cabinet.  I think that could have been more well thought out.  

Our room was on Deck 11 which was kind of complicated because it was on the front end of the boat, the elevators went to 11 but the back end only went to 10 so it was a little bit of a complicated route to get to our cabin.  Jimmy and Sandra lucked out and ended up with a window in their inside cabin looking out onto the jogging track.  Light is light and that was a bonus for them.

Our cabin was well situated because all I needed to do was walk upstairs to deck 12 and I was in the coffee shop which was a wonderful place to sit at the front of the boat with wrap-around windows.  You could watch the water as you sat and had a nice cup of Americano.  

We could walk the other way outside our cabins about 20 steps and end up right outside on the jogging track.  We were on the sun deck so if you ever wanted to know what it was like outside it was a quick trip to check out the weather or to get fresh air.  

Two flights of stairs down was the Lido deck and the buffet for breakfast and lunch.  The Lido cafe or buffet was a nice two-sided long run of choices.  One thing different about this ship is you did not serve yourself.  Everything was behind a glass shield and the staff served you so for example the salad bar you would just have to let them know exactly what you wanted.  This is probably a good idea with covid still very much floating around.

Our first day was at Sea.  On the second day, we sailed into Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands. 

The waters of Turks and Caicos are absolutely gorgeous stunningly blue turquoise.  We had $100 shore excursion credit per person due to the cancellation of the Rotterdam Cruise, therefore we chose the Bahari Beach Escape.  This was an all-inclusive plan and we enjoyed that part of it very much.  Their Tropical Rum Punchs were excellent.  Also included were floaties, so we all grabbed floaty mattresses and enjoyed the extremely shallow turquoise waters of Grand Turk for hours.  That was a super fun day playing in the waters like a kid.  

That night we went to the dining room and I had a chilli shrimp dish that was absolutely divine.   I'm still thinking about it right now.  It was so delicious.  

We decided to try and take in another dance night at the theatre that evening.  The entertainment on this boat is lacking. There is absolutely no singing in the theatre.  This is completely a waste of a good theatre.  This boat has four dance nights scheduled and after watching one that's probably enough.  Even though they're extremely talented dancers, I need to hear voices singing to feel like it is real entertainment.  The entertainment on this boat has been disappointing in the theatre.  There is a Blues Club, a Rock and Roll Club, Dueling Pianos etc but I still expect a major musical production on every cruise ship and we didn't get that delivered on this boat.

On the third day we stopped in San Juan, Puerto Rico which was our second port.  San Juan is a beautiful historic old city of considerable size in Puerto Rico.  

I am standing under one of the numerous Sentry Boxes that are all over the walls of the old city.

The old walled city is quite large and the whole interior has cobblestones in the most unusual beautiful blue hues.  These cobblestones were taken from the ballasts of Spanish Galleons when they were no longer needed.  They were made of iron slag which gives them that off-blue-gray colour and they were placed as cobblestones all over the interior of the walled city of San Juan. 

I took this picture of Jimmy and Sandra to showcase the cobblestones of Old San Juan.

There is tons of history to see in San Juan starting with El Morro Fort which is the largest fort in the Americas and it takes a considerable amount of time to walk around.  

The views from the fort are definitely worth it.  Just to give you some idea of how sturdy the fort is and how thick the walls are, if there is a tsunami you are to run to the fort to hopefully survive.  There are signs posted all over San Juan for this action.  

Inside El Morro is a photographer's dream.

The old cannon balls lay dusty as a grim reminder of the battle that took place outside the Fort as the Dutch tried to take the Fort in 1625 and almost did if it was not for the citizens of San Juan who fought alongside the Spanish soldiers to help defend El Morro.  Hundreds died in this battle.

Here is El Morro's pet iguana.  Not really but he was a poser and we had to take a few snaps of him.  He may have been suicidal because if he fell off that spot, he would have been a goner.

There are many old churches to see in San Juan and even if you're not religious architecturally speaking they are definitely worth seeing for the interiors and exteriors.

The Original old gate to the Fort to the right.  You can see the original wood door that is so thick and heavy and so beautiful.  Columbus knew a good thing when he saw it.  He first sighted Puerto Rico in 1493, on his second voyage.  In 1533 the first fortification began to be built.  In 1790 the construction was completed and the wall around old San Juan was also completed.  Spain new that this stronghold was the key to the riches of the New World and they needed to protect this.  The English tried 3 times to take it and failed.

We took a different route back to the boat and happened upon Umbrella Street, it was quite pretty.

Here is our ship the New Statendam.

After touring around San Juan we went back to the boat and went up to the observation area lounge and had a few drinks.

We decided to go to the buffet for supper tonight just for a change-up instead of the dining room and it was well worth it.  The food is very good on this boat.

On our fourth day, we sailed into the port of St Thomas.  We've been in this port a fair amount of times but we did sail into the prettiest Port this time, there are two ports in St Thomas.  On the last cruise, we sailed into what I would call the uglier port.  We had Sandra and Jimmy with us so we got off and walked around and did a little bit of shopping.  

We found the 99 steps up to the top of a hill where there are gorgeous views of the ships and harbour.  The stairs are made of bricks from the former ship's ballasts and because they are ancient they are eroding and they need to be preserved.  Although walking up the stairs is good exercise and provided a great view it is quite derelict on both sides of the stairs and many of the homes are for sale or just falling down.  

We walked right past Fort Christensen which is a very small Fort that may be worth paying the small fee to get into it but we decided not to.

St. Thomas is a pretty port and worth getting off of the ship for.  There are many things to see and do not to mention there is a lot of exercise to be had.

Vince Acevedo was the comedian in the World Theater this night and he was quite funny.  We went to the 7:30 show and he was an interactive comedian.  He didn't have a canned comedian show.  He was quite quick and funny and so good that we actually went back down to his 9:30 show because he said it would be different and it was. We enjoyed him thoroughly that night.

The next day was at Sea and we just had a leisurely day.  We all worked out and did our steps on the walking track and ate in the buffet for breakfast lunch and dinner.  There was a dance production number but we had already seen one and we weren't really interested in going.

Jimmy and Sandra and I went to a production in the theatre at 10:30 am it was called City on the Sea and basically, it goes through everything from how the electricity is generated how the ship deals with the drinking water, gray water and sewage water and how you get the staff to do what they do and how many tons of food are brought on each week.  This had many of the leaders in their areas coming onto stage and they answered questions from Gage the Cruise Director.  The show took about 45 minutes and was fairly fascinating to me and well worth going to. The panoramic screens in the theatre give you a lot to see.

I later went to the 2:30 showing of Holland America Lines- 150 Years.   It was a chronological historical show for approximately 1 hour and I found it very interesting, I'm glad I went.  There were literally only about 30 people in the theatre with me, I know because I counted them.  

Holland America I think it is time to step it up with the entertainment on board this ship.

The next day we tendered off the boat to Half Moon Cay which is a private Bahamian Island owned by Holland America. The tender was fairly quick with 200 people on board each tender. 

The Waters are unreal turquoise blue around the island. When we got off there were shops where you could buy things etc.

We found some beachside loungers to set up camp and stare at the waters in the Bahamas.

The sand is like soft powder on your feet and a pretty light champagne colour.  We went swimming right away and you can see your feet if you look down as the water is crystal clear.

Apparently, only 2 percent of the island is used by HAL and the rest is for the birds and wildlife.

There are no waves on this crescent-shaped beach.  It was heaven!!  The only way to improve on heaven is to have your drink package extend to this island.

That is Jimmy and Sandra waving at me from the beautiful blue water.

As you can see, the water is stunning and the beach colour and consistency is like none other.  Sandra could not stop playing with the sand.  It was gorgeous.

That night we went to the adult version of the comedian Vince Acevedo and he was extremely funny.  I was surprised when he said that his time was up because it seemed about 10 minutes long.  Once again he had a very interactive show and the guy is so quick on his feet that any of the audience can say something and he is right back at them and turns it into a joke.  I laughed the whole time, very worth seeing for the third time.

We ate at the Pinnacle Grill this evening, this was a specialty restaurant where you have to pay approximately $40 USD per person per sitting and we got it complimentary as a bonus for the cancelling of the Rotterdam Cruise.  The food was amazing and the portions were very large.

Everything on my plate was really good and everybody liked their meal a lot.  Sandra barely put a dent in her 'Not so Baked Alaska' above and my Creme Brule to the right was very good.

One thing on this boat that was a bit confusing was even though we had the drink package, we still had to sign each time we ordered a drink. This is an annoying practice that Holland America should dispense with.  Another thing is the service is lacking and maybe it is a Holland America thing that the service staff does not ask if you want another drink?  This way they save money.   

Also to get two cans of water from the bar takes 10 minutes and there should be a machine that dispenses the water for free for package drink people.

One of the things on this ship that is highly disappointing is the smoke coming from the outdoor pool infiltrates a large section of this ship and it seems like you can smell smoke everywhere.  For a person with allergies and asthma, this is a huge drawback.  For this fact alone, I am not sure that I would ever book with Holland America again.

All four of us had the drink package and the package does not continue onto Half Moon Cay, their private island.  This is a rip-off because we paid for the drink package and did not receive it.  With Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, they honour the drink package on their private island as HAL should as well.  This was very disappointing and made me a little angry as it is the principle of it.

The food was very good on this boat and so were the margaritas 😁but that would not be enough to get me back onto a Holland America ship.  Half Moon Cay, Bahamas could get me back on though.  This is now one of my favourite islands in the world, it was perfect other than the fact that it is privately owned by HAL and the only way back is to sail with HAL again.  First-world problems are aggravating!!!