Scott Barronton (00:00)
Some cruise lines you try once, others you come back to because over time they fit the way that you like to travel. That's been our experience with Holland America Line We've sailed with Holland America several times, including twice aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam. Our most recent sailing was to Alaska and through the Inside Passage, a region the line has been operating in for decades. Nieuw Amsterdam isn't a megaship.
and they don't try to package it that way. There's no water parks or oversized entertainment venues. Instead, the ship is built around comfort, open space, and a pace that works well for longer itineraries. As part of this ongoing series, we're sailing the world's largest cruise lines on what we believe are their most interesting itineraries and sharing what it's like to live on board, comparing the ships, the service, accommodations, and itineraries.
based on experience, not marketing.
Speaker 2 (00:59)
We're Scott and Melissa, The Sunshine Travelers.
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Scott Barronton (01:26)
Before we jump into our conversation today, we do want to share a quick personal update because it connects directly to the way that we travel in the future.
At the end of March, I'll be retiring from my corporate role. This decision is going to allow both of us to focus fully on Sunshine Travelers and Sunshine Travelers experiences. And more importantly, it's going to change how we travel.
So instead of moving quickly from place to place, like we have had to do for so many years, we'll be able to slow down in some destinations and spend more time there and really go deeper. Whether that's staying longer, revisiting places or taking time to understand the culture, not just do a checklist of places to visit. And that matters. It leads to better perspective, more thoughtful conversations and more useful content. Not just the highlights, but real insight.
And that approach is exactly what this cruise series is about. And you're going to see it show up more and more in everything that we do going forward.
So it also means that it will allow us to help more travelers on the travel booking side of Sunshine Travelers, Sunshine Travelers experiences. Many of you love our booking and packing tips, but are honestly overwhelmed when it comes to actually researching and booking a trip. And we get that, it can feel like a lot.
And so in order to help as many people as we can, we will have a team of travel advisors to help us out. We book everything from all the major cruise lines to Disney and other theme parks, because you know we like those too, to Sandals and Beaches and other all-inclusive resorts. Plus we do custom itineraries as well.
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And we know how to find the best deals quickly. Our advisors can also plan customer itineraries for a nominal fee. And if you're thinking, but I love to plan trips and it would be awesome to make money doing it, then come join our team. You can go to sunxtravel.com to learn more about either how to book a trip with us or how to become a travel advisor.
And so in today's episode, we're talking about Holland America lines and more specifically the Nieuw Amsterdam. And because we weren't new to Holland America or even the ship itself, Melissa, what would you say stood out to you when we stepped aboard this time? So I have to say it was very nice because I felt like we already kind of knew the ship. You know, sometimes when you get on a cruise and we talked about this in the last episode, we talked about Princess Cruises.
It takes you a while to like find everything. So I will say that was nice that we knew where everything was. Learning how to get from one into the other, what decks go all the way across, how to get to the elevators and up and down.
One thing that we liked about this ship was the way that the cruise director actually described Fun in the front and food in the back. Easy enough, right? Yep, that's super easy. And it was just the opposite on the Princess, so that's why I kept getting confused.
the Nieuw Amsterdam carries just over 2100 passengers, which puts it firmly in the mid-size category of today's ships. And honestly, you feel that immediately. this ship never really felt crowded except for one surprising spot. They were going to get to in a second and there were always places to sit or walk or just look out at the scenery
And that was important for our most recent itinerary, which is gonna have a lot of scenery that you wanna view along the way. So the size of the ship also matters a lot when it comes to embarkation, disembarkation, and the ports as well. So with fewer people, the process does happen a lot more quickly.
So meaning that in the cruise ports, you can get off faster and get to your excursions without waiting in long lines. And that's something that we hear some people complain about really, really large ships. And this was our second trip on the Nieuw Amsterdam.
Our first sailing was an Eastern Caribbean itinerary and the ship went into dry dock right after that for some necessary refurbishment. So that was another reason that coming back on board we wanted to see what they had changed and we noticed that some of the spaces, specifically the dining rooms, definitely felt refreshed. Our stateroom was comfortable and well laid out, especially for a longer cruise.
Well, this time we had a veranda stateroom, which was a bit more spacious. And as you walk in the door, had a slightly larger bathroom with a tub shower combo. And this is probably one of my biggest complaints. I don't think people are bathing in these combo shower tubs, and it would be so much better to turn these into a nice shower with no shower curtain.
I always say that hotels with shower curtains immediately get a reduced rating from of the things that we did like is that you can sign up for an unlimited laundry pass for the duration of your trip. The price for the one week trip was about $70, but you could send your laundry on a daily basis if you wanted to. So this is a real benefit if you're trying to travel light.
⁓ or if weather elements play a role on your excursions and you need to have stuff washed and dried. So I think that's a really great deal and makes it easy to do your laundry. Another part of daily life on the ship deals with how you spend your time during the day while at sea.
There were plenty of activities throughout the day and the discoverers lounge was a key place where people would gather socially. had tables set up with games and puzzles. There were small rooms set up with classes that taught arts and crafts or hosted various learning opportunities. And in the afternoons, there were a few places where you could find musicians performing in small rooms off to the side,
But we felt like maybe those musicians would have probably been better off set up in a more public space or near one of the bars. Cause we walked past these several times and there was like two people sitting in the rooms with the musicians playing. Either way, you could be as social as you wanted, or you could easily find quiet spaces on the ship to go off and, just relax and do your own thing.
Scott a couple of things I wanted to point out is that was one of the main differences that we said about Holland America and the Princess is that some of that entertainment that we felt was just tucked off to the side was out in the open on Princess and people knew about it and were enjoying it. So I think that is definitely a fair point. The other thing I wanted to say about the Discoverers Lounge is on a previous cruise when you were actually working while we were at sea on the Holland America ship, that was also a place where you found it easy to work.
And then that's also where they had their specialty coffee shop set up. So it was just a great place. know we're going to talk about a couple of these things a minute, but that was a place where the park rangers had set up to give talks and things like that when we were in Glacier Bay National Park.
We also loved having the flexibility to spend time on the balcony, walk the decks or sit inside without feeling pulled into scheduled activities. So don't get me wrong. I mean, there's tons of scheduled activities every day while on the ship, but having those indoor spaces to sit and relax is also important. especially on an itinerary like Alaska, where the weather can be unpredictable and cold at times.
And we had a couple of days at sea or, where we would be near the glaciers and that kind of thing. But you want to be able to sit and watch the scenery go by and stay warm and dry as well.
Let's move on and talk about the entertainment aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam.
So I think the entertainment on Holland America is much more low key than on the mega ships. I think that's very intentional. This cruise isn't built around big shows or constant stimulation. Holland America seems to focus more on comfort and service than entertainment.
But the theater on the ship was very spacious and seemed to accommodate the guests very comfortably. I would say larger than on the Princess and I don't know that it ever was completely packed even though on the Princess it was sometimes. And we felt like the entertainers they brought on the ship were very high quality as well as their own staff entertainment crew and they had of shows
that those particular cast members would do. So you aren't going to find Cirque du Soleil style entertainment on the board of the ship, but I would say you would find quality Broadway style shows. then also a mix of illusionists, musicians, and things like that. And I will say the illusionist that was on our particular ship was very, very good and ended up doing a second show.
That one still just blows my mind. cannot even begin to fathom how he could do something like that. I would say that this is probably really picky, but I did think that the group of singers, performers was more like a glee club experience. They rearranged some of my favorite songs for harmony and it just didn't have the same impact on me.
So I would say the other big entertainment venue on the Nieuw Amsterdam is the BB King Blues Club. And I think it's something similar on the different ships of this class. And I think that the size of it on the Nieuw Amsterdam was probably the biggest drawback for us. The music was great. They had a fantastic band. The amenities are very nice, but the space is small for the number of people who want to...
be in there. It always fills up very fast. So unless you got there really early, I felt like it was tough to get in or find a seat. So we didn't mind standing, but if you have older people with you that need to sit down, I think that was one of the challenges. This is also where they had some of the larger game style shows like Deal or No Deal. But same problem, if you didn't get there early, you found yourself having to stand back along the wall with a large crowd. And I think that was the biggest difference.
And that was probably our biggest frustration on the entertainment side. It seemed that all of the late night entertainment was focused in this club. like they had some comedians, they had music, they had all those things, but you couldn't get in and get a seat unless you arrived about an hour early. And so they have plenty of room on the ship and it seems like this is something that they could resolve fairly easily if they wanted to. That space just isn't large enough for the demand.
and this was the only place on the ship that ever truly felt crowded.
Let's go on and talk about food on the Nieuw Amsterdam. I would say that dining continues to be a strong point for Holland America. We didn't have a single meal during that cruise that we didn't enjoy. 100 % agree. So our package for our Alaska cruise did not include specialty dining for this trip. As a matter of fact, we didn't do any specialty package for this particular one, but we did choose to eat at the Pinnacle Grill one night.
And it was definitely worth it. The food and the service were on par with any good steakhouse on land. sometimes you wonder if that's gonna be the case, but they had solid steak menu, great wine list that was different than what you could get in the regular dining room. Service was top notch. I believe the surcharge for this restaurant, if you don't have it included with some kind of package, is about $55 per person. So I think that's reasonable.
Well, it's reasonable if you just thought about that in terms of $55 a person, but you got to remember you're already paying for dining. this is on top of that. think we should real quick, we should add that our family that we were traveling with, they had gotten a package that did include one meal. And so that was really our motivation. I don't know that we would have done this otherwise. Well, it really led to when we did our Princess Cruises.
spending more time in those specialty dining because we kind of already had an idea of the elevated style dining that you got from it.
And I would say that even though we aren't buffet people, we did like how the buffet was set up on the Nieuw Amsterdam instead of one long line or one big area with all the different foods and in that one space, it was broken into different stations, which gave you more variety and made it easier to navigate. It felt in my mind, a little bit more like a food court than a buffet. And most places were actually serving stations.
rather than a self-service buffet. And that really helps to make buffets a little bit more palatable for us. Our favorite on the trip was our nightly dining reservations. And this has really been a theme for us every time that we have done Holland America. On our Alaska cruise, we had two servers, Ewan and Yayan.
who are our designated wait staff for the duration of the cruise. And every night we had the same table at the same time. And these two guys took such good care of us in every need that we had when we walked in. They would have our drinks ready, make recommendations of what we like, of course knew what our allergies were and talk about the nightly chef special. And so in Scott's dad's case, he stopped asking because Papa started to have the same meal.
every night and even if it wasn't on the menu, would get it for him. I do want to add one thing and I think we've talked about this before but if you didn't hear this, when we booked this cruise, the set dining times were completely unavailable and our brother-in-law had heard a tip that said when you first get on the ship, go to the dining room and see if they can add you to one of the dining times. Now,
I do think the later dining time is gonna be the harder one to get. And we went ahead and did the earlier one and it worked out great for us, but it really did add to the experience to have that same table and that same staff I think that just makes it a lot more memorable. So that's a little trick that you can use if the dining times are completely filled up.
And it's important to have those waiters who really know you like that because one of the tips that we used is instead of buying wine by a glass, remember we didn't have a drinks package or anything like that on this trip, instead of ordering wine by the glass, it was a little bit cheaper to buy it by the bottle. And typically we would just drink.
a glass apiece, maybe a little more than a glass. And so we wouldn't drink the whole bottle. Well, the next night he would already have that out there waiting for us when we arrived. even what we had leftover from the specialty restaurant, they put it back and had that. So that's definitely another benefit. One of the things that we do like to do on any cruise is order room service on mornings when we have an excursion. And this allows us to kind of
take a little bit more of a relaxed approach to getting ready, enjoy a cup of coffee and a quick bite while we're getting ready for the day's events. so this is where I go back to sharing about on Princess Cruise Lines, you were able to order your specialty coffees using the app to your stateroom in the morning. So on the Nieuw Amsterdam, you have to get the specialty coffees at like the coffee bar.
but you can order the pot of brewed coffee in your room. So just not the specialty coffee. So I can't wait to see how other cruise lines handle this. And I think Princess set a pretty high bar for that particular offering for me anyway.
So Scott, let's talk about the service. We mentioned it a little bit, but I would say that service was consistently very good across the ship. We enjoyed talking to staff members about where they were from and what their favorite ports are, what their favorite itineraries are, some of them like, have you seen the Northern Lights? Have you been to Florida? Some of those kinds of things.
Harry and Wilson were two of the staff members responsible for the daily activities on the ship. And so every time we would see them, they would ask if the Sunshine Travelers would be joining in on the next activity. They made all the activities really fun and almost a comedy show in and among themselves. So that was, that was fun to, I think we just happened to go to some of the little game shows on the first, first couple of nights. And so they really made.
that experience. So just a couple of other activities that you can do on the ship that we really enjoyed. Yeah, I felt like this was true across the board when it came to the staff. Everyone was very approachable and extremely helpful. And once they learned your name, they would greet you when they saw you around the ship. And to me, that's just amazing how with so many people on the ship, they can recognize and call guests by name.
Because you got to think the next week they're going to have a whole new set of guests on board. they don't make you feel like that. They make you feel like this is the only people, which is funny because, we remember them, but you're right.
So like, Ewan, for example, he would work like in the buffet area in the mornings. And I think even at lunch some of the days and he would ask for Scott's dad by name, where's Mr. Jerry? Where's Mr. Jerry? And so they really do make you feel like you're the only person they've ever waited on. So I really liked that.
And so then, of course, in addition to the service, the itinerary is one of the topics that can make a cruise memorable or not. And so the last one we did was the Alaska northbound itinerary that included Glacier Bay. And that's a fantastic itinerary. I would like to point out that in order to do Glacier Bay, you're going to need to do one of these either northbound or southbound, because if you only do like
round trip to Vancouver or round trip to Seattle. You just don't have enough time to go all the way up into Glacier Bay. So there were times that we felt like we had this section of water to ourselves. We didn't see many other cruise lines in port
Although there was a Princess ship that did follow us for part of the trip and I think was in one of the ports. But like in Glacier Bay, for example, it wasn't like it was like right on us and we saw one other little ship. So it's really, it really is an amazing itinerary to have that included. So again, not all Alaska cruise itineraries go to Glacier Bay. So pay close attention when choosing your cruise. ⁓ Glacier Bay is not the same as the Inside Passage.
The inside passage is going to be further down, I guess closer to Vancouver and Seattle. So just make sure you're going up into that glacier bay. It's definitely special. It's a national park. The only way to get there is to take a boat. If you are there in Alaska, you have to fly in and then take a boat. And it's protected, it's pristine, and only a limited number of ships are allowed to be in it.
in a certain time period in order to help preserve it as well. And because Nieuw Amsterdam isn't a mega ship, were able to get closer up to the glaciers. And you could hear the thunderous cracking of the ice on that glacial wall. You could see the breaks when the ice would crash off and go into the water.
And so you just got a little bit closer up feel than I think some of these bigger ships would be able to do. And we also appreciated having the National Park Rangers on board to talk through what we were seeing through Glacier Bay National Park. And the Rangers would use the public address system to point out wildlife along the way.
They saw orcas and whales and lots of seals and otters, and they would just point those out to you and tell you where they were as the ship passed through that area.
Melissa, what would you say that you liked most about the Nieuw Amsterdam? I think overall, I would just consider it to be a really classy ship and I really liked the size of it. Once you sail both on the Crown Princess, on Princess Cruise Lines and the Nieuw Amsterdam, you really appreciate the size of a smaller ship, if that's kind of your vibe, which I think it is ours. And so Scott, you asked me about my favorite part. What was your least favorite thing?
Well, we love this itinerary and the ship was incredible and comfortable, but there are a few things that I would suggest that they update on the ship. We talked about all the nightlife at the BB Kings Blues Club. It's a really nice venue, but it just misses because it's not big enough for the crowds that it draws.
And there aren't tons of options, so you have a lot of people trying to get into this one venue. And I would also recommend upgrades to the bathrooms. I cannot stand the shower curtains in hotels and cruise lines are no different. Is there anything else that you would add?
The biggest other thing that we've noticed is having to sign and tip for every little thing that you do on board, mainly the drinks. It gets pretty annoying after a while.
Princess didn't do this on our Australia to Singapore itinerary. And it could have been the tipping culture. don't know a hundred percent what they do on their Alaska, but we commented on how much more of a pleasant experience it is because also I have to wonder all that paper. my gosh. They must use reams and reams and reams of paper. because you say it's just drinks. mean, but at the meals
everything it seemed you were constantly having to sign something. you're right. You're right. Even for yeah, because even if you're getting drinks and things like that at meals they're keeping up with all that. So you also on the Nieuw Amsterdam Holland America, you also have to keep up with a key card as well. So some people do put them on a lanyard, but I really liked how you had the Princess Medallion on the Princess Cruises. We
had gotten the things you put on the bracelet. Because they do give you a thing you can put around your neck and I just don't think that we like that very much. And so we did get like the watch thing, which almost feels like more of a magic band. And so it's really easy for them to tap that. So I really liked that feature on the Princess Cruises.
So before we finish up, let's talk about who this cruise line and itinerary would be good for. So if you care about good food and really good service and having space to enjoy, then this is a really good fit. The Nieuw Amsterdam works well for Travelers who want to make sure that they are able to travel along that inside passage and go into the Glacier Bay National Park. I would also mention that this has a slightly older passenger base.
While I don't know the exact demographics, I would estimate that this itinerary was mostly 55 plus with very few children on the boat. They do have a kids club, but we went there. It didn't seem to be very widely used. We didn't see a lot of kids on the ship, few, but not many. And if you're interested in traveling on this itinerary, I think Holland America offers the best value for your money. so before we close, I know we've alluded to this a lot.
But if you're trying to decide between the Princess Cruise and Holland America, be sure to go back and listen to our last episode where we went in depth about our experience with Princess, especially on the Crown Princess. And if you would like help booking your first or your next cruise, be sure to reach out to us. You can reach out to us directly, melissa at sunshinetravelers.com.
or go to sunxtravel.com and there's like a booking form there.
This episode is part of a broader effort to experience cruise lines the way that travelers actually do long enough to understand what matters day to day in Holland America and the Nieuw Amsterdam offer a very specific style of cruising for the right traveler. It works extremely well. And if you're considering an Alaska cruise or trying to decide which cruise line fits your travel style, we're always happy to help you think through it. And if
There's a cruise line you'd like for us to review next. Just let us know. Send us an email, scott at sunshine travelers.com. As always, the goal is to help you travel more and to travel better.
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