Nieuw Amsterdam in Cabo San Lucas
As the fourth ship in Holland America’s line to bear the name, the current rendition of the Nieuw Amsterdam was completed in 2010. Its maiden voyage set sail from Venice on July 5 of that year after being christened by Princess Maxima of the Netherlands on July 4. The ship weighs 86.700 GT with a length of 936 feet (285.3 m), beam (width) of 106 feet (32.3m) and draught (depth of the ship under the water) of 26 feet (7.9). It has 11 passenger decks and a passenger capacity of over 2100 people.
view of the back pool from a deck above
The size of this vessel is important in that it is within the old Panamax dimensions, which means it can fit into the original locks in the Panama Canal. Since we were on a Panama Canal voyage on this ship that directly affected our cruise. We traversed through the old section of the canal that the USA built with completion in 1914 rather than the new larger and more technically advanced locks built by Panama that opened in 2016. We did get slight glimpses of new parts of the canal at both ends, but not a full view.
the first part of our journey on the Nieuw Amsterdam
Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam is a signature class ship, which is the same class as the Eurodam. It’s very similar to the vista class, which includes Holland America’s directional ships – Noordam, Zuiderdam, Oosterdam, and Westerdam. (P&O’s Arcadia is also of the vista ship class as it was originally intended to be a Holland America ship.)
it costs extra to use the retreat
The main difference between the signature and vista class ships is the addition of a half-deck at the front of the ship. The vista class ships have the Crow’s Nest lounge on deck 10 above the spa and fitness center, but the signature class has staterooms on deck 10 in that extra half-deck area and has the Crow’s Nest located in an additional deck 11. The Nieuw Amsterdam also had a small outdoor sanctuary area called the retreat with sheltered cubicles and some open seating that people have to pay extra for on deck 11 and some pay to use cubicles taking up prime space in the pool area on the Lido deck.
Passengers on the deck 5 bow above crew on the deck 4 bow in a lock on the Panama Canal near the end of the canal journey when it wasn’t as crowded. At the first lock the bow was wall to wall people.
With the extra deck of rooms this ship had more people than the vista class, but less public space. Besides the paid cubicles taking up prime real estate on the pool deck, it also had less bow space for people to stand for a view in scenic areas. The big deck 4 bow was a crew area on this ship. Instead of an extra small bow above deck 4, the main big bow was on deck 5, though it didn’t go out quite as far as the deck 4 bow. That only left decks 6 and 7 for additional small bows. They all got pretty crowded when the ship sailed into the Panama canal. It takes a long time to go all the way through so later in the day the crowds thinned in all of the various viewpoints around the ship.
giant pot of plastic flowers
The décor is sleeker and more modern than on some of Holland America’s other ships. It looks nice, but has far less nooks and crannies for hiding ducks. A lot of places where other ships have statues this one had pictures or plaques. It still managed to have some strange statues though. Odd or ugly statues seem to be a requirement on nearly all cruise ships. This one had a couple of silver torsos minus any heads or the rest of the body.
giant silver apple
One deck had a giant silver apple hanging out of a wall. Giant pots of fake white flowers adorned elevator bays in public areas, but the tops were open and hollow. Plants fake or real are a popular duck hiding spot, but in these only the outside areas where the duck wouldn’t fall unretrievably down into the deep hollows of the giant pot worked for hiding ducks.
picture in a cabin hallway
Red was a prominent color in some of the décor. Unlike other Holland America ships we have been on which have different types of pictures from one cabin deck to another, this one had old-time black and white photos in all of the cabin deck hallways. Most of the photos were either old Holland America ships or old photos from New York. Often both.
stairway painting
It had paintings of various renditions of the Nieuw Amsterdam and other ships on one stairway, but the other two were more random in their stairway art rather than keeping with a theme all the way down like some other Holland America ships I’ve sailed on.
atrium centerpiece
Nieuw Amsterdam was the original name for the city now called New York when the area was under Dutch control. It was changed to New York in 1664 when the English took control away from the Dutch. That explains why a lot of the ship’s décor had a New York theme. The atrium centerpiece was a model of New York with buildings going up and underneath of each building an elongated version like a reflection of that building in the water going down. It was lit up with everchanging colors of lights. There were maps on some of the stairways and elevator bays of New York back when it was still Nieuw Amsterdam with the Dutch names for things on the maps.
show in the main theater
The ship’s theater spans the front of the three lower passenger decks with entrances to the main floor on decks one and two and the balcony on deck 3. There are stairways within the theater from the lower floor to the balcony as well as outside of it. Deck 1 is also home to guest services, future cruises, the lowest level of the central atrium, and some staterooms.
casino
Besides the theater, deck two contains the lower level of the dining room, several bars and lounges, the Pinnacle Grill, and the casino. On the Oosterdam a couple months before sailing on the Nieuw Amsterdam, the future cruise guy had warned us that as each ship went into dry dock they were going to get converted from completely non-smoking interiors to smoking casinos with the gallery bar getting taken over by the casino. Nieuw Amsterdam was a non-smoking ship when we booked the cruise, but went into dry dock the month before. Exactly as he had said, the gallery bar had been converted into part of the casino. It did have glass doors added on either end of that section. The official smoking policy for Nieuw Amsterdam was active players only on select nights rather than all of the time so it wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought it would be. In fact most of the time there was nobody smoking in there at all. We did smell it one night from the theater, which is near the casino, but that was it so apparently they rarely had it open for smoking. Coincidently the same future cruise guy was on the Nieuw Amsterdam.
if you forget what day it is the elevator will let you know
There didn’t seem to be consistent air flow throughout the ship, at least in regards to the temperature. They seemed to keep it so that the upper decks would be more comfortable, but the lower decks were very cold. It got colder the farther down in the ship you went and our cabin was on deck 1 so it was very cold. There’s a thermostat in the cabin, but it’s mostly just for show because if the ship’s air is on AC you aren’t going to get heat out of it no matter how far into the red section you put the dial. It’s also the sort that you can’t turn off so there was constant frigid air coming from a ceiling vent.
library
The ship had a new library like the other Holland America ships we have been on recently, but it was just a library like the Oosterdam had without the attached coffee bar like on the Noordam. The only all-day coffee bar was the one up in the Crow’s Nest, which was also a regular bar. The library has different sections for different types of books and is stocked with new books as well as a small book exchange section. Besides the library and theatre other things on deck 3 include the Ocean Bar, upper level of the dining room, some rooms used for meetings or events, the ship’s shops, and the outside promenade which runs all of the way around the ship and is a popular place for people to walk.
in case you get lost the carpet points out the way – and the arrow is green on the starboard side
Decks 4-7 are just cabins, other than the front bow balconies on decks 5-7 that are open when the ship passes through particularly scenic areas – like the Panama Canal on our Nieuw Amsterdam cruise. Deck 8 is also mostly passenger cabins other than the very front which houses the ship’s bridge.
main Lido pool
Deck 9 is the Lido deck, which has the buffet, and other free eateries, two pools, ping-pong tables, some hot tubs, a couple bars, the fitness center, and the spa and salon. We found out from one of the spa crew on this ship that the one cold ceramic chair that every ship has in the thermal suite isn’t actually broken like everyone thinks. It’s intentionally kept cold in case someone gets too hot in the heated ones and wants to sit there to cool off. Nobody ever does that so it’s really just a waste of a chair that someone who didn’t get one could have used in times when the thermal suite is crowded.
they’re called heated ceramic chairs, but one of them is cold
Besides the extra half deck of rooms at the front, deck 10 also hosts the kid’s club areas and arcade in the center. These two areas do not have indoor connections on that deck. It does have an outdoor walkway that goes between those areas as well as out near the stern where it ends with a view overlooking the outdoor pool area at the back of deck 9 and stairways between those two decks.
shuffleboard
Along the outside walkways on one of the upper decks there is a shuffleboard court and cornhole game.
view at the front of the Crow’s Nest
Deck 11 has the Crow’s Nest lounge at the front. It’s quite a large space with lots of seating including a row of comfortable loungers facing the front window, groupings of couches and chairs, and lots of tables with chairs. It’s a favorite hangout space for a lot of people. Shore excursions, a game room area (for board games and puzzles), the art room and of course a bar – that has a few small snacks which are often pastries in the morning and cookies later in the day are all found in the Crow’s Nest. The bar there is also the only full-time coffee bar on the ship. There are also a few passenger cabins and the outdoor pay extra retreat located on that deck. The center of deck 11 has the Tamarind bar and restaurant, a sushi bar, and the sports court. The center section is not attached to the front section at all. You have to go to a lower deck to get from one to the other. The sport court at the back is accessed from an outside stairway on deck 10. It was originally a basketball court, but now has pickleball there too. There is a very small outdoor sun deck above the front of deck 11, which is the entirety of deck 12.
painting in art class
Holland America always has art classes on their ships, which I had not participated in before. I was with my sister this time and it was something she wanted to do so we gave it a try and it was a fun way to pass some time. The classes included watercolors, doodling, dam dot challenge, adult coloring, and calligraphy with watercolors being by far the most popular. These generally occur in the art room at the Crow’s Nest. At the start of the cruise there was only room for 20 people in art classes, but they were so popular they rearranged the tables and expanded the capacity to over 40.
promenade deck
There were lots of deck chairs around the ship, but most of them were out in the sun. Other than any areas by the pool that happened to have some shade the only shady ones were on the promenade deck. There were way less chairs on the promenade deck than usual for these ships so they were in high demand. One day when we were walking around the promenade looking for any empty ones some crew came out and set up a few more so we got one of those. All of them were full nearly immediately with people claiming them before they were even done setting them up. The top decks have lots of deck chairs, but they are all out in the sun.
afternoon tea
This ship seemed to have more people trying to take your money than usual for Holland America. At times one could hardly walk through the shop area or past the art gallery without someone trying to get you to go to a jewelry store drawing or guess the weight or price of some art or buy a massage (the free massage samples are nice other than the part about trying to get you to book one). Overall though it’s quite a nice ship. For the most part the food was pretty good. We had a pleasant and enjoyable cruise.
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