Nieuw Statendam: Embarkation

Today we board the beautiful Nieuw Statendam. We were up shortly after 6 am and I had in room coffee before getting ready for the day. First on the agenda is to get breakfast before gassing the car, returning it and taking a rideshare to the port.

Embarkation Morning

We decide to eat a lighter breakfast right at the hotel. I had a breakfast sandwich while E had a yogurt parfait. I thought I took a picture but apparently not! Anyway it was an overpriced breakfast sandwich. 🙂

After breakfast and getting ready, we left the hotel shortly after 9 am. I gassed up the rental car at the nearby Mobil station before heading to the rental car center. I had to circle around after entering on perimeter road to find the entrance to the rental car center but it was very easy to get it turned in.

Then we walked across to terminal one and at the end to the ridesharing pick up area. Tried to get a Lyft but went through the same rigmarole where a driver is assigned and immediately cancels.

The next driver assigned wasn’t even finished with their last ride so I cancelled and ordered an Uber. We had a great ride and were at the port early enough to pull right up to porter to unload our bags and no line getting through security or checking in.

Our assigned boarding group was 2.

The waiting room filled up before boarding started around 11:20 am. We were onboard within 10 minutes.

On the way to our cabin, we stopped at the specialty restaurant reservation desk to see about booking pinnacle grill one night. Well, they not only didn’t have menus for us to peruse so we could select the night, all the early times were taken for this restaurant with prebookings. We decided to skip specialty dining this week.

Embarkation Afternoon

I love that Holland America had the rooms ready at boarding.

Our cabin, 5200, was inside another door next to a suite. We were able to drop our carryons and check out the cabin before heading to lunch in the buffet.

One problem (we always seen to have) was the bed was set up as king instead of two twins as requested. My distilled water order was waiting as you can see it on the shelve in the back. The desk had information including mariner cocktail coupons and daily program .

The Celebrity Apex was right behind our aft balcony.

Embarkation Lunch

My first buffet go through was roast beef that was so dry I could only take one bite.

The rest was quite good though. I went to another station for a chicken taco with Mexican rice.

It was messy but tasty.

I loved the peanut butter silk pie but not this strawberry tart (although my brother did).

We tried to go to our muster station after the cruise director announced we should do it. Unfortunately our muster station was one of the ones not open because it was being used as the entrance to the lunch dining room. It opened at one.

We came back later and got checked in then walked over to the casino where my brother checked out the machines on this ship.

During my wanders I found this photo noting Oprah Winfrey as the godmother of the ship.

I went back to cabin and our bags came shortly after.

Sail away

Our room steward came sometime before dinner and separated the beds while we went up to the sailaway party.

I had to work hard to get a drink (other than the special Bahama mama’s they were selling). I had this aperol spritz which wasn’t that good because it wasn’t mixed.

We left about an hour late due to other ship traffic and I watched it from our aft balcony. First this ship carrying two yachts went by.

I had never seen yachts onboard a larger vessel before. Then the apex left around 3:30 pm.

This was followed by the Sky Princess which tooted the love boat theme song.

Then it was finally our turn with the Odyssey of the Seas leaving after us.

What a beautiful day to be on the water. It was a scenic sail away.

I started watching a movie, 10 Things to Do before We Break Up, before heading to dinner for our 5:15 pm assigned seating.

Embarkation Evening

We are assigned to a two top on the port side of deck 3. I appreciated the spacing between tables after sailing Royal Caribbean with their tightly packed dining rooms the last three cruises.

Here is tonight’s menu (click image for full menu).

We were brought a bread basket right away.

Our waiter introduced himself and took our drink orders. E had bought the soda package earlier today so he had a coke while I went with a glass of red sangria.

My first starter was the croquette.

I especially loved the spicy aioli. My brother started with the French onion soup. I then had the garden salad and ate every bit of it except the red onions while E had the Caesar salad.

For entrees, we picked the same thing “boneless chicken leg” which turned out to be a boneless chicken thigh.

It was very good. For dessert, I had the cheesecake which was okay while E ended up with the lemon torte although he ordered the brazo de mercedes.

He liked it though so didn’t get it corrected. I had added decaf coffee between courses and my dessert was gone before it came. Hope that doesn’t continue to happen.

The “show” tonight is the origin story of Holland America which I saw on Koningsdam last year and it’s not something you need to repeat so I skipped it. Back in the cabin we had tomorrow’s daily program, a Holland America bag, summary of excursions, onboard credit documentation and port map.