Question:
I toured the new HAL ship Amsterdam in NYC yesterday. Ship was verycrowded since HAL did an open house, especially the lido area. Still, itis nice to see aship line have an open house to the public. I was given an invitation totour the ship from Joyce Rachelson and toured the ship with Joyce, Sue,Gail, and Warren Davis. Later we met up with Ken G.

The ship was quite crowded, lots of people took advantage of the openhouse and toured the ship. After entering the ship the group went to thelido to eat. Since the line was long and I wasn't that hungry I decidedto tour and videotape the ship, then take still shots, and meet up withthe group later.

I started touring the ship from the top down, from the lido area to theCrow's Nest and pool and deck areas, to a few open suites, to the upperpromenade deck containing most of the public areas and the promenadedeck containing some public areas.

My initial impression of the upper area of the ship was favorable. Icould not really see most of the lido, due to the crowds of people, so Iwent to the Crow's Nest. Some familiar decorative devices were utilized.

First things first. HAL still builds quasi-traditional ships. They favorareas with small nooks and crannies; atria that are really just 3 decklobbies and not the atria of the Carnival/RCI type; loads of detailingin terms of patterned areas, ornate frames, antiques, inlaid marbledtabletops/flooring; and, importantly, there is a slight antique qualityin many areas of HAL ships.

So the decorative devices utilized is carrying a pattern over from onefurnishing area to another. For instance what was immediately noticed byWarren, Sue, Joyce and Gail (the group) was that the pattern for theceiling of the elevator landings was used on the walls of the elevator.In the Crows Nest, separated in three distinct sections utilizingdifferent colors and textures per section, the area in the middle andnear the bar, what I call the burgundy section used a fabric and patternon the table inserts, the chairs, the curved walls separating the area,on the bar itself under glass, on tables under the glass, on end tablesunder the glass. Some real clever and interesting use of this device isin the Ocean Bar where the same pattern fabric is used on the tableinserts under glass, curtains, and on the large irregularly shaped dancefloor under glass in leaf like sections. Another interesting place isthe piano bar called the Rembrandt Bar. I think this area is somewhatreminiscent of the Ambassador Lounge of the Rotterdam V, with quite astretch of imagination. Whether this was done intentionally or not I donot know. But lots of red accents are used and the room is purple and atype of pink, I guess. However swirlly types of colors used on thecircular dance floor are used on as small circular areas on the glasssurrounding the piano. Similar colors are used in the striped chairs inthe Bar area of the room. This room looks gaudy in photographs but Ithink shows much better on the actual ship.

I think an area where the device is used cleverly is where a patternused on the seating surfaces in the puzzle corner is carried out intothe adjacent room, the Half Moon Room, on the curtain. Same thing withthe Wajang Theatre, the seats and curtains in the back of the theaterused the same fabric. So I was pleased to find HAL's attention to detailin this regard. And I was pleased well enough with many of the patternsand choices of colors, they seemed refined and reasonably well matched.Lots of suede not only on seating surfaces but on the walls as well,this is a fairly common HAL feature. Unfortunately, though, there areareas of the ship that had less than pleasing fabrics, patterns andcolors which I will mention later.

A particularly stylish area, IMO, is the Kiosk opposite the Ocean Bar onthe uppermost level of the atrium. It is a nice quiet area for justrelaxation and watching the sea next to floor to ceiling windows. Somereally stylish seats, well done wood patterned flooring and moody, sandycolors are used.

Another very noticeable stylish aspect of this ship are the dancefloors. The Crow's Nest has a Lalique like glass floor, the Explorer'sLounge has a flowered patterned dance floor made of different coloredmatte - not shiny - marble and semi-precious stones, and I mentioned thelook of the Ocean Bar's dance floor.

One non characteristic look of the ship were the modern seats next totwo facing huge hung art carpets. Kind of a whimsical touch.

The Explorer's Lounge had some nice, comfortable, deep sand colored tubseating and wonderful floral banquette seating, very striking, I thinkmy favorite Explorer's Lounge of all HAL ships.

My favorite areas are the Crow's Nest, Ocean Bar, Explorer's Lounge,Kiosk, and I really like the Java Bar, classy, woody, lovely artwork andframes.

Most of the ship uses mahogany veneers in the corridors, the cabincorridors used a light colored wallpaper with some fabric strips. Iloved the deco look of the elevator doors. I love some of the stairwaysaboard as well that were circular. Art aboard was typical HAL though theship did not seem to have as many flowers as some other HAL ships.

As usual the deck areas, especially aft, are wonderful on the new HALship. She has lots of open deck area, teak, a full wrap aroundpromenade, a quiet aft pool that is a good size. She has traditionalrailings as opposed to glass.

Now for what I was found to be some of the least favorite areas.

Regarding the dining areas the lido area seemed typical HAL. To behonest I could not see it that well due to the crowding but I liked theplayful look of the lamps in the lido area, the flooring of the lidodeck near the pool, the grizzly bear sculptures, the Dolphin bar area.There seemed to be some Dutch styled tiling in one area.

The La Fontaine Dining Room for me was disappointing. I thought far toomuch brass, the railing pattern seemed heavy handed, I didn't care forthe flowers and faux stained glass on the ceilings and as a strip of thebase of the upper tier, the seats felt a bit clunky and covered with abit scratchy feeling material. The whole thing was too familiar and forme lack the richness of the Maasdam or Veendam. It lacked the art on thestarboard and port walls near the aft windows. I did not care for thecarpeting either, a strange blue with a floral pattern. Overall I thoughso-so.

Warren and I discussed the Odyssey. We agreed that the placement andlayout and some of the overall atmosphere was wonderful. I found it tobe fairly romantic. Warren did not agree with all of the fabric choicesof HAL. I agreed with him and found the reds a bit too bright, the goldsa bit too glimmery gold, the burgundies a bit too strong. Maybe it willlook better with age. The room seemed over-styled, over-detailed if youwill for me. It is a nice venue for sure but not quite on the mark forme. The gold really bothered me and gave the room a tinge of tacky. Theouter area of the room uses the same familiar gold leafed columns onefinds on all of the other Rotterdam class ships (including the Volen-and Zaan- dam).

Now for the really hideous. The Queens Lounge. Life-sized statues ofwoman holding gaudy bowl like things next to a silver and gold wall. Oneof these at the doorway would have sufficed but they adorned the wallsat just about every column and two of these creatures, even larger wereon either side of the stage. The seating surfaces, although full sizedand reasonably comfortable, used purple fabrics and a bright orange-redand gold shimmery pattern that was painful, at least for me, to look at.I don't understand the bubbling columns of water used, they made nosense to me. Some ugly pink lighting globs were used on the ceilings. Idid not care at all for this room, I found it Carnivalesque and wouldenjoy on a Carnival ship but not at all on this HAL ship. Warren thoughtthat the purple would fade and that the fabric choice used would causehavoc on formalware.

Now for the atrium. Well, again, this is a small area, a 3 deck lobby.The shore excursion/front office area was familiar and attractive in aHAL way. The seating areas used more glittery fabrics in areas, seemedto work well. I don't like the glittery, antiqued mirrors on the wallsof the stairs, I prefer the Statendam class solid materials. The clockthing for me was a bit much in that it was so detailed that it neededlots of space to show it off. This atrium was not enough space and I didnot care for the matte look of much of it contrasted to the mirroredglittery walls, did not work for me. I prefer the simpler Maasdamatrium.

One interesting thing about this tour was meeting and discussing theship with the group. After I photographed the ship I met up with thegroup and we were in pretty close agreement to what we liked anddisliked. We wanted to try some of the functional aspects of the ship sowe sat in a few seats to guage their comfort. Seats that surprised uswas the usually comfortable seats in the library. Most of the seats inthe library were uncomfortable in one way or another. The two largeseats that face the windows, usually very comfortable on this ship, werecovered with, surprisingly, a chintzy vinyl material. Why this materialwas chosen is a mystery the ship certainly had some wonderful fabricsused. But, I must say, there was evidence of cost cutting on the ship.The suites seem to use lesser materials, the bow was no longer coveredin teak though happily all of the other decks were. The ship used veryexpensive furnishings in some areas and not as nice furnishings in otherareas which is curious for a (co)flagship. Some of the other seats were,like on other ships, very narrow, good for my narrow body but does notwork as well on real sized people.

We liked the ship well enough. With the exception of Warren all of ushave been aboard at least 2 other HAL ships and have sailed aboard the

Answer: Since you very diplomatically summed it up very well I think I'll savemyself some writing and endorse your report as representative of myopinion of the ship.(I *told* you we thought more alike than not) It'simportant to emphasize once again that a ship walkthrough is not acruise and it is the entire package combined that makes or breaks it forme. Some ship interiors are best presented in the evening when lightingshows off the interiors to their fullest dramatic effect. I rememberhaving the same reaction to Mercury. I really thought she was a let downduring a daylight tour. But then I saw her at night she was stunning! Isuspect that the same holds true for Amsterdam.

I do want to add in some general thoughts. My overall impression wasthat if I had been blindfolded and not told which ship I was boardingand for which line, I would have guessed that this was a Joe Farcus**interpretation** of a Holland America Line themed ship for a new"upscale" Carnival Line flagship. I recognized many Carnival features.For instance turn the beds around and change the bedding and the cabinson Amsterdam are interchangeable with those on the Destiny Class ships.Even some of the light fixtures are the same including placement. Thebathrooms are identical down to the color of the tile andposition/design of the fixtures. Since cabins are all pre-fab modularunits assembled at a factory, it is obvious that Carnival took advantageof the benefits of scale by having them mass produced for both cruiselines.

Speaking among the group as we were touring, Gail and I came to theconclusion that HAL was attempting to overcome the line's reputation forattracting mostly seniors by adding in just enough flash and pizzaz toappeal to perhaps the newly wealthy 20-40 something year olddot.commers. Add in several features that evoke the traditional HAL ofthe past and they keep loyalists happy too. Another thought crossed mymind and that is that the design reflects a good progression for thoseCarnival repeaters that might eventually want something a little bitclassier. They can be sold on HAL without the culture shock of switchinglines. Believe it or not, I think this makes for good business. Thereare a lot more Carnival alumni than from HAL.

I expected Amsterdam to bowl me over the way Oriana did. She didn't.She's a nice ship and most of the features that I find important areincorporated (railings not glass, vast aft lido/pool, teak promenadededicated to strolling and relaxing on deck chairs rather, nooks andcrannies for quiet conversation and soft background music, etc) HoweverI don't think she's magnificent - and that means something different foreach individual. I think she's nice, but certainly not flagship.