On November 18, 2023, we embarked our Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam voyage from Fort Lauderdale within an hour of departing the Virgin Valiant Lady in Miami. It was easy to call an UBER from the Miami cruise port terminal. Despite the thousands of people disembarking the ship at the same time, we had our UBER within a handful of minutes after ordering!
The trip to Fort Lauderdale was very fast. We literally were dropped off with our bags ready to have the luggage tags stapled to them within 40 minutes. When we got to the port, we looked for the priority embarkation (Club Orange), bi-passed the line of passengers, and were checked in within 15 minutes of security and line ups.
We hadn’t realized while booking this trip, that it was the American Thanksgiving, so we did notice a lot more kids on the Holland America than we are used to. Up until that point, our experience had been that Holland America has always had way fewer kids than other cruise lines.
We SOLD our house in Canada in early 2023 and have been cruising on ships around the world. We have tried so many different cruise lines, and have had two previous positive experiences with Holland America using a program called "Club Orange", that we thought we would try it again.
CLUB ORANGE ON HOLLAND AMERICA'S NIEUW AMSTERDAM
So, what is Club Orange on Holland America? It is a premium service on the Holland American Line that we had paid for, that gets absorbed into the cost of the cruise, and it gives you a few valuable additional upgrades, which to us, make sense;
1. A Premium Room Upgrade
2. Priority Check Embarkation; Priority Disembarkation; Priority Guest Services Desk; Priority Shore Excursions Desk; and Priority "Skip the Line" Tenders.
3. A dedicated concierge hotline
4. Premium In-room dining breakfast menu
5. An Exclusive Club Orange Tote Bag
6. Specialty Restaurant Reservations Service
7. A Premium Bathrobe to wear
8. A welcome glass of Sparkling Champagne with dinner on embarkation day.
STATEROOM VB7139 ON HOLLAND AMERICA'S NIEUW AMSTERDAM
For the same price of a regular balcony, with the Club Orange Package, which I believe was an additional $175 Canadian per person, we were able to upgrade to the highest rated premium balcony for no other additional cost. In other words, by being Club Orange passengers, we saved nearly $1000 dollars on a room upgrade, by only paying the club orange fee. It made sense to us to be Club Orange, especially because we love to have large balconies to relax on, especially on itineraries where the view is so scenic!
Our room was very spacious! It had a King Sized Bed, which had additional built in storage; 2 end tables; a pullout couch; a desk with a chair; an oversized storage unit for all of our clothes; a TV; a large washroom with a bathtub and room to maneuver around; and plenty of space to walk around without bumping into anything.
The room was also equipped with a mini fridge, convertible shelves in the closet; shampoo, conditioner, soap and lotion; a safe, a hair dryer, various styles of plugs, a TV, and blackout curtains.
THE BALCONY
The AFT balcony at VB7139 is oversized and contains two lounge chairs and a table. It is half covered, so that it is easy to avoid rain, or onlookers from above. It has walkout “garden” doors, so you actually feel like you are in a hotel room or apartment. What we also loved about our upgraded balcony, is that there was a lot of space to sit outside on the balcony, and order in your breakfast off of the premium Club Orange Menu, should you wish.
THE FOOD ON HOLLAND AMERICA'S NIEUW AMSTERDAM
Despite being on Holland America before, and being Club Orange members, we were still faced with many problems during the first couple of days. One of our major problems was that despite having a dedicated person who theoretically should have known about our dietary needs, there was nobody to actually oversee that we would be taken care of.
For example, when you go to dinner in the dining room, there is a special maitre de, who, in our case, knew that we not only were to eat from the upgraded "Club Orange" Menu, but that we also needed access to the regular vegetarian menu as well. The problem was, that we constantly had to repeat to different waiters and other staff about these menu choices, as nobody was really around to co-ordinate and save ourselves from so much repetition and continuous mistakes.
The Vegetarian and Club Orange Menu
In the dining room, you must ask for the “Vegetarian” menu in addition to the Club Orange menu. As we are plant based eaters, we still found that there were almost no options on either menu for us to eat, so we really had to be creative and examine the menu, and basically ask if the chef will make something out of the options that they had available.
So, for instance, we were looking at the menu and saw that a pork tenderloin dinner had a lot of sides that we could eat, so we ordered the pork dish WITHOUT the pork.
You also need to be careful on this ship, as many people do not know what we can and can not eat, so you will get a cream based soup and have to get specification as to what the ‘cream” was made from. Is it coconut cream? Regular Cream?
Another example, is that we had gone to the Holland America Private Island and they had a BBQ lunch. As cruise veterns, we went to the area an hour ahead and asked what the options there were for us, and to clarify if we had to place our order ahead of time, as in our experience they either never have an option, or it is not ready at the same time as everyone else’s food.
At the opening time, we had gone back to get the “Jamaican Black Bean Burger With Avacado” and guess what… it wasn’t there. Even though it was literally on the menu, nobody knew what it was. We waited for 24 minutes as everyone around us was getting their food, and we weren’t getting anything. We saw 3 supervisers, and asked 5 people about the burger and kept getting told to wait.
After 24 minutes, they brought ONE soggy, uncooked chicken looking thing on a white burger and said that it was the blackbean burger. It was light gray, it was uncooked, there was no avocado, and there was nothing that looked good about it. We just gave up and went back to our pavilion, and to our surprise, some man was sitting at the table that we picked out (every other chair was EMPTY), and he moved our stuff to the other end of the table!
It was really unbelievable.
This Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam ship, out of all of the ships that we have been on over the past year, was by far the most frustrating for us to be able to find anything to eat. One chef said that he CAN NOT cook for us today, and to come back tomorrow… So, did he want us to not eat for the day?
We did find other food to eat. There is a salad bar that is offered every day. There is fresh vegetable sushi, and white rice. We also ate the typical Indian food like daal and masala every day on the ship.
Lastly, we had a received an order of food that we were told that was made "special" for us, and we ended up sick as the chef served us food that he said we could eat, but it ended up containing ingredients that we couldn't.
All I am saying, is that you have to be VERY careful on ANY ship that you are on, and not be naive enough to think that everyone UNDERSTANDS your dietary needs.
THE DAILY THINGS ON HOLLAND AMERICA'S NIEUW AMSTERDAM
As a Club Orange Member, you do not get any special access to any shows, classes or anything. However, this ship offers some activities to keep their passengers “entertained”, such as daily trivia, live music, movies, and a handful of shows for no extra cost to their passengers.
In addition to that, you could wander around the ship and look into some of the shops, see the Art Gallery, hang out at the Sea View Adult only pool, or go to the spa and exercise room to keep yourself busy.
Many of their classes are now an additional cost. For example, if you want to do some Yoga, or a Guided meditation class, it would cost you an additional $20 per person! If you would like to do unlimited classes for the week, it would cost you $69 per person. (US Dollars)
For us, we felt like their gym was outdated, and didn't see the value of paying the additional cost for an exercise class.
ADDITIONAL COSTS ON HOLLAND AMERICA'S NIEUW AMSTERDAM
Gratuities: We stood in line at customer service and overheard many people not realising that there is an additional “gratuities” fee, per person, per day, that would be added onto your daily bill. I think that this always comes as a shock to first time cruisers. At the time of writing this, the balcony rooms are $16 per day per person.
Bringing On Your Own Bottle: We were shocked that we were NOT able to bring on a bottle of our own wine any more. EVERY bottle that you bring onboard, now has a fee of $25 US per bottle, otherwise they just hold your bottle for you until the end of the cruise when you get it back. We had always brought our own bottle onboard… up until this particular cruise.
Specialty Dining: There is a charge for some of the restaurants onboard. You do not have to purchase this, but if you do, you need to make reservations right away. The cost would be added to your bill.
Shore Excursions: There is a cost involved, and in our experience, it is more expensive to purchase an excursion through this cruise line.
Drink Package: Depending upon the number of drinks and coffees that you may want to consume, you may want to consider the package. One thing that most people do not realize though, is that if one person in the cabin wants the package, then EVERYONE in the room has to get the package… so you should try and calculate this cost before you make the decision. Many of the drinks are valued, at the time of writing this, at $12 plus gratuities of 18% each.
WiFi: This is averaging at $34 per day on this ship as of the day of writing this. For us, it was actually less expensive to just our own plan from Canada, as it was half of the price.
Have It ALL: Holland America has the “Have it All” package, but you must be careful, as it actually doesn’t give you it all. You would only be getting the Specialty Dining, the drink package, a credit for a shore excursion and Wifi Surf. You would still be paying for the gratuities, and any WIFI upgrade that you want in addition to this cost.
ENTERTAINMENT ON HOLLAND AMERICA'S NIEUW AMSTERDAM
The entertainment is very typical to this line. The music is the same, the shows are the same, the dancing is the same… you know what you get on this ship, and it doesn’t change.
There are one man/ woman shows; piano singing; a comedian; … you get the idea.
OUR OVERALL IMPRESSION OF HOLLAND AMERICA'S NIEUW AMSTERDAM
This cruise was pretty typical, bordering disappointing. At this point, after being on so many other cruise lines, we would be happy to keep exploring the other lines for now. Our favorite part of the experience was being in Club Class in an upgraded balcony stateroom!