240424 The Promenade Deck
One of the things that Holland America cruisers like abut the line is that all of their ships have a Promenade Deck, Deck 3, that wraps around the ship. You can walk outside. On Koningsdam three laps is a mile. Deck 3 is my favorite deck
But when I read some reviews of the ship folks did not like the fact that the deck was narrow in parts not allowing for people to walk together. Others did not like the lifeboat positioning. On other classes of Holland ships the lifeboats hang above the deck giving promenaders a clear view of the ocean. On Koningsdam and her sisters the lifeboats hang outside the deck, better for the people in the staterooms above and possibly good for faster deployment, but no so good for broad ocean vistas except from certain parts of the circuit.
The ship has the nice wooden benches that all the Holland ships have but when you sit on them your view is of gear, and sometimes literally gears not of the broad ocean.55
I enjoy the walks around the ship and find the shadows that the lifeboats and their rigging cast on the teak deck interesting, and ever changing.
What do you think?
Here I am looking up at our balcony, Suzi watches as I walk by.
I have always loved sitting out on HAL’s promenade decks, by whatever name they go by on a particular class of ship.
To sit there and watch the ocean, study the pattern of the waves, look for sea life and other ships in the distance, is one of the joys of cruising.
This has all missing on the Pinnacle class ships. I’m glad there are people who like them, but I will never be joining their group. I want to commune with the ocean, and can’t do that on a Pinnacle ship.
Having logged many hundreds of laps on both Vista and Pinnacle class ships, Vistas are far superior for the width, the views and real teak decking. The teak wood is far friendlier to knees and feet. As noted the Vista class is far better for “fast” walkers because you can avoid the “conga line” of plodders clogging the narrow parts on the Pinnacle promenade.
complaining about life boats? They’d be sorry if they weren’t there (and easy to deploy ) if needed!
On the Pinnacle class ships I miss the deck chairs found on the smaller ships and the wider promenade decs. I never went out on the promenade deck on the Nieuw Statendam for that reason so I didn’t know that there were some breaks where you could see the ocean and that there were the occasional benches. Thanks for the great pictures.