I arrived in Miami Saturday around 12:30 pm and took an Uber up to my hotel (Embassy Suites) in Fort Lauderdale. Then many of us boarded a shuttle bus at about 10:15 am. It was towing a baggage trailer to the pier where our ship waited. Our baggage boarded separately. We had to go through scanning of our boarding pass, and of our passports and then go to a huge room full of chairs where I was given a card saying Group 17. That sounded ominous, but in fact the wait was barely 15-20 minutes and we were on the ship. Overall, the whole process from the hotel to the ship was barely an hour.
The Nieuw Amsterdam, to me seems a pretty big ship. Walking from one end to the other takes a good ten minutes or more. It has a capacity of 2100 passengers and 910 staff, giving you a passenger to staff ratio of about 2.4. This puts it in the Moderate Luxury class. Previously, we had sailed on Celebrity once and Seabourn twice. This seemed to be a step up from our experience on Celebrity, but of course with Seaborn’s ships being smaller and with more staff, you get a lot more attention (and pay more).
We were put in elevators to the 9th deck, where there is the Lido Market informal restaurant and bar. Here you can get drinks and a plethora of food from a buffet. They will also grill your hamburgers and hot dogs to order. On Holland America ships, you can get a drinks package that gets you up to 15 hard and soft drinks a day, or an all-in-one package which includes Wi-Fi in your cabin and a contribution towards one or more excursions and one premium dining restaurant. This latter cost about $350 a week (per person).
After lunch with a beer, I went down to the 5th deck to my “stateroom” just as my baggage was arriving. I also met our cabin steward, Anton, who made it a point to greet me by name and ask if I needed anything. This is a very nice touch. It had a nice veranda and chairs, but the room was pretty cramped.
I think if I had a partner with me, we would have been running into each other. I could have upgraded from Veranda Suite to Signature Veranda suite for about $2000, but since there was only one of me, it seemed extravagant. A friend of mine suggested I ought to upgrade to Neptune Suite with Veranda for about $4000 more. It comes with some privileges like free laundry and priority boarding and access to a private restaurant and lounge area. Might be fun, but for one, I didn’t think so.
About 125 of us were on this cruise sponsored by The Nation magazine, and there are talks morning and afternoon on sea days and in the afternoon on port days. The speakers included Sam Seder, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, John Nichols, Sasha Abramsky, Jeet Heer, Elie Mystal, Kristina Greer, Eddie Soufrant, Joan Walsh and Bhaskar Sunkara.
There was a welcome party at the Lido Market Bar and pool area at 4pm, with a DJ and a lot of menacing looking drinks for sale. One was a rum punch in a souvenir glass for only $18.75. I stuck to diet Coke.
Then there was a welcoming Nation reception with free drinks and snacks in the Crows Nest bar on the 11th deck at 6:15.
After a few sips of my innocuous punch, I felt rather dizzy, but it turned out it was the ship rocking, with the 11th floor amplifying the rocking motion. You could see the liquid in the liquor bottles sloshing back and forth. In these receptions, you really have to insist to get a soda or non-alcoholic drinks. They never have any right there for the asking.
Then we all went to dinner in the main dining room at 7:30, each with assigned seating so we could all get to know each other. Most of the diners at my table ordered the Mahi-Mahi, served with shellfish as shown. They all devoured it. I ordered the nightly special: pork belly served with mashed sweet potatoes and spinach. It was not the best example of pork belly I’ve had.
Among the desserts, we had a strawberry sundae, bread pudding and a chocolate tart. Only the sundae received much praise.
For breakfast this morning, I had a delicious room service American breakfast with perfectly done eggs and sausage, with orange juice and toast. They sent two by mistake, so I photographed one on the veranda.
Lunch on these ships is limited to the Lido Market, which is, in essence, a great big buffet. I have never liked waiting in line for food from a steam table, but I was able to pick up a delicious little premade sub sandwich, and went back for some ice cream for dessert. Very nice. There are always free tables, already set and helpful staff everywhere.
So far, I am having a great time. Tonight I’ll visit one of the fancy restaurants (Tamarind) and tomorrow, I’ll summarize the fascinating talks I heard from The Nation’s writers.