Ship visit to Holland America’s ship Koningsdam in Amsterdam on the 3rd July 2016

Last weekend Holland America Line invited me over to Amsterdam for a whistle stop tour and lunch on board their newest ship. The ms Koningsdam was launched in April this year as the first of Holland America’s new Pinnacle class of ship. At 99000 tonnes she’s mid-sized and holds a guest capacity of 2650 with Amsterdam being her home port for the summer season as she sails to Northern Europe.

We stayed at the Mövenpick hotel the night before we boarded the ship which was perfect as it’s only a few minutes’ walk to the cruise terminal.

What I loved the most about the ship was the music theme. Everywhere you look there are really interesting pieces of art work, music memorabilia and the atrium is even designed to look like a harp!

Atrium

The pool area is stunning; spread across two decks it has everything you could wish for including an outdoor cinema screen and a fabulous snack bar serving the most delicious looking ice cream. Around the pool there are plenty of sunbeds and very tranquil cabana beds.

From the pool area you walk through to the Greenhouse Spa and Salon where you can relax with a treatment or just enjoy the thermal pool and spa.

Thermal pool

Heated ceramic loungers

The staterooms range in size with inside and outside cabins being from 170 square feet. It was good see that the larger ocean view cabins come with a sofa and some balcony staterooms have a much larger balcony due to their corner position on the ship.

Vista Suite

The lighting on board was really unusual and had some fantastic quirky pieces in the theatre and restaurants.

The buffet style restaurant offers an incredible choice of food; from sushi to burgers, fresh sandwiches and a salad bar where they make up any dressing or sauce you desire. It feels like a food market: modern and fresh with small touches that make the world of difference like vases of fresh lilies on the tables and quirky furnishings. Our thoroughly enjoyable tour ended with a delicious lunch served in the main dining room where it was spacious, the layout was good and the tables weren’t on top of each other at all.

The ms Koningsdam really impressed me; she was full of colour and light. She was also embarking passengers for a Baltics sailing; the average age seemed younger than I expected and there were a few children on board too!