Cruise Lines

One of the things I liked most about Holland America Line's new ship Nieuw Amsterdam was the New York theming (in case you're wondering why, Nieuw Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement before the British arrived in 1664, kicked out the Dutch and renamed it New York).

There's the chandelier that shows the skyline of New York - I watched for ages from all sorts of angles in the hope of seeing Liberty's torch light up, but to no avail - all sorts of montage art work and even an authentic New York cab in the kids' club.

Luckily there were no children around when this big kid sneaked onto their club room to have her picture taken in the cab!

Although Nieuw Amsterdam is a clone of Eurodam, I liked this new ship better. Maybe it's the artwork, more likely it's because I have only ever seen Eurodam under the grey skies of Northern Europe - first in Southampton and then on a very rainy mini cruise from Dover last year.

Certainly the cabanas on deck 11, pictured below, looked a whole lot more attractive with the Adriatic sun shining on them - and there were sun loungers on the deck for anyone who wanted a bit of sun - and I began to see why passengers might shell out the $75 to book one for a sea day ($45 on a port day).

Well almost. It is still an awful lot of money for just one day.

I was delighted to see the Silk Den is back again - what a lovely bar with its comfy sofas and whispy curtains - but was really quite disappointed by the service, which was more than slow in the restaurants. And getting wine to go with an evening meal was a real challenge.

In the Pinnacle Grill, pictured above, myself and a well-known fellow blogger asked for our steaks to be well done. When they arrived, the waitress asked us to cut them to see if they were to our liking. Both looked good on the outside but inside they were still moo-ing.

Now you can look at this two ways. Either a) it was good service that she asked us to check the steaks while she stood and watched or b) chefs in a steakhouse should be more skilled at cooking a steak.

I know what I think.

Of course it's a new ship and of course service will improve.

While on the subject, I must put in a good word for our room steward Rony, who managed to get my super chilly and super noisy air-conditioning repaired in super fast time. A huge relief.

Keep a look out because my video from Nieuw Amsterdam will be posted shortly.