Nieuw Statendam - Eastern Caribbean from Fort Lauderdale

Three of the four calls on this loop are Carnival Corporation property: Grand Turk's cruise centre, Amber Cove at Puerto Plata and Half Moon Cay are all compounds built or bought by Holland America's parent, and only Nassau is a public port with a town behind it. The order is a there-and-back: Grand Turk and Puerto Plata on consecutive days at the far end, a sea day to run northwest, then the Bahamas pair, Half Moon Cay and Nassau, on days six and seven with the short hop into Fort Lauderdale overnight. It is worth knowing that this is not the Nieuw Statendam eastern loop most posters describe. Threads from 2022 through 2025 about the ship's eastern Caribbean sailings all include San Juan alongside Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay, with St. Thomas as the fourth call in the 2023 and 2024 versions and Amber Cove in the November 2025 one, where San Juan was the port a reply singled out as the favourite; the catalog's current version has neither San Juan nor St. Thomas, taking Amber Cove and Nassau instead. That swap moves the loop from two real port cities to one and pushes it toward the beach-compound end of the Caribbean.

Posters who have sailed the ship in the Caribbean like it more than they like the line's reputation. A family off a ten-night western loop at Christmas 2023 reported a clean, well-kept ship, good food, sedate company and perhaps 40 to 50 children aboard in total, and went looking for something similar on another line; a 2025 reply called it their favourite ship, a mix of traditional and modern; and a November 2025 three-way against Norwegian Prima and MSC Grandiosa went to Holland America in the most-upvoted replies as the adult choice, with Half Moon Cay named as a favourite port. The recurring caveat is age and pace. A 2019 thread from a group of couples in their late twenties weighing this ship against Regal Princess got both answers: one reply said the live-music venues had been plussed up well beyond Nieuw Amsterdam and were the reason to choose it, another said that unless music was the point Princess was more fun, because Holland America went quiet after the 7pm trivia while Princess Live ran late. Families were steered off in 2024 and again in 2025 on the grounds that a 10- or 12-year-old would be bored, with one 2024 reply remarking that Nieuw Statendam looked oddly cheap next to the other ships on the list and that they would pick it were it not for the children.

On price, the ship's own western loop from Fort Lauderdale lists several hundred dollars below this eastern one for the same seven nights, and a western loop is what the archive's happiest Nieuw Statendam review describes. Among rivals, Eurodam shares three of these four stops (Grand Turk, Puerto Plata, Half Moon Cay) for somewhat less, Sun Princess covers Grand Turk and Puerto Plata with Puerto Rico added for several hundred less, and Nieuw Amsterdam runs the older Holland America eastern loop, with San Juan and St. Thomas, for about the same money on an older hull. This sailing suits couples and older travellers who want the newest Holland America ship and four low-effort beach days, with Half Moon Cay as the reward; it does not suit anyone who wants port cities, since Nassau is the only one, or families with children, whom most replies steer elsewhere.