It’s the dreaded disembarkation day and we have to leave the Nieuw Statendam today.
Disembarkation Morning
I was up before 5 am both due to anticipation and the slowdown of the ship. After dressing I headed to the lido for some coffee. Took screen shots of my account statement since they no longer give you a hard copy.
The trip map was delivered along with a travel “journal” to stick it in. I like this touch.
Back in the cabin balcony I was able to see the Sky Princess let up as we passed on way to our pier.
My brother found me and we headed to the main dining room when it opened at 6:30 this morning.
I had one last chocolate croissant. This was followed by the vegetable scramble with a side of hashbrown and ham.
Yummy! This it was back to the cabin to wait until closer to our gray 2 time of 8:15 for debarkation. Shortly before 8, we left our cabin and headed to the Dutch Cafe to sit out the time.
Holland America did a silent disembarkation meaning no groups were called once they started the process. We just got up and left when it hit our designated time. It was almost no line to get off and a nicely moving line to get to the luggage area.
We found our bags and waited to get through immigration where they were checking passports manually instead of using facial recognition. Once through that we walked to the taxi stand and had one right away to take us to the Fort Lauderdale Airport.
Travel Home
We went to the airport but we didn’t have flights. Instead we’re picking up a rental car to drive to my new Florida home in Daytona Beach. E and my husband are going to the Daytona 500 tomorrow.
Here’s where the smooth morning hit a roadblock. The line to rent a Budget car, even being in the Fastbreak line, took 45 minutes to an hour to get through. There was one agent handling the Fastbreak customers and he was working at a snail’s pace.
Eventually we were at the front and given our car. When we got in the car (which was an unwanted upgrade to a Dodge Charger) the tank wasn’t full even though it was indicated on the sheet.
At this point, we didn’t want any more delays and just left versus taking care of it. This meant I had to buy them several gallons of gas I didn’t use but so be it.
We had an easy 3 1/2 hour drive to Daytona Beach with one rest area stop for drinks and restrooms. My husband met us at the Daytona Beach airport where we turned in the car (after fueling up).
Final Thoughts
E and I both enjoyed our cruise very much. There were far more positives than negatives in our experiences and I’m looking forward to five weeks on the Zuiderdam this summer.
The Good
The ship, crew and food were all positives during this trip. This was the second time on the Nieuw Statendam and she was just as beautiful and well appointed as in 2019.
Although service has been cut back (with one daily room clean, no sommeliers or bar servers in main dining room, etc.) what is provided is wonderful. All my staff interactions were positive. More about the daily room attention later.
The food was even better than our last Holland America cruise in 2021 on the Koningsdam (recap to come soon). Lastly, I appreciate the fresh flowers and beautiful artwork all around the ship.
Having cloth towels to dry your hands in the public restrooms is a very nice touch!
The Bad (or Needs Improvement)
The three areas I was most disappointed in were entertainment, main dining room menus and obvious cutbacks in services. I did share this feedback in the follow-up survey.
The biggest disappointment has to do with entertainment other than the music venues. The main showroom programming is an issue across the fleet and a result of the last president’s vision. It was heartening to hear during the coffee chat that improvements are coming and I hope to see change in July.
Although I think Holland America has the best food on the three lines I’ve sailed since the restart it isn’t as good as it used to be. How can they claim to be higher level than Carnival yet not provide lobster any night when the lower line does? Also the dessert menu is three options which is too skinny a menu if you ask me. At least they still have always available options (that’s a dig at Royal Caribbean’s recent changes).
Last but least has to do with the service cutbacks. Some are recent and others have been in place since the restart. Here’s a list of what I cared about:
- No theme teas (these were very fun and gave us variety in the tea experience)
- No Mariner luncheon. We still get the tile but put in our room by the steward instead of presented at a lovely luncheon attended by the captain or his designee.
- No twice a day room service. I actually don’t’ mind this one but would prefer to have a choice of morning or evening. If Carnival can do this so could Holland America.
- No bar server in dining room. First it was the sommelier which was ok (although not ideal when wanting help picking a wine) but then since our last cruise less than a year ago the bar servers were gone. The result was a long wait or even no delivery of ordered drinks. Since this activity was handed to the already busy waiters, they are even more busy and harried now.
Even with these concerns we both look forward to our next Holland America adventure.
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