Nieuw Amsterdam’s Memorable Dedication Ceremony
Several of our bloggers at the yard sent in this post. Thanks to Rose Abello for writing it and Steve Simao and Rick Duval for providing photos.
The ceremony began with music and an extraordinary entrance revealing captains from all of the Holland America ships.
Resident shipboard quartet, Cantare, performed a moving rendition of 'The Impossible Dream.'
Stein Kruse then welcomed guests and told legends of the previous Nieuw Amsterdam and those ships storied name. This included emotional footage from the Nieuw Amsterdam II that showed it as a troop carrier in WWII when soldiers carved their names into the ship’s railing to commemorate their transit of the Atlantic Ocean. To re-create this legendary tradition, HRH Princess Máxima was invited to sign a wall that will be installed in glass on the ship (during the cruise, all guests and staff on the inaugural voyage will be invited to sign the Signature Wall as well). Her Royal Highness was escorted onstage by Captain van Zaane to join Kruse and officially name the ship.
Stein Kruse welcomes Princess Maxima to the stage.
After signing the wall, HRH Princess Máxima moved an antique bridge order telegraph that triggered a video of the bottle breaking on each of the fleet’s 14 ships ending with a live feed of the champagne bottle breaking on the hull of Nieuw Amsterdam.
The money shot! Welcome to the fleet Nieuw Amsterdam!
Another great Hal ship. Hope to sail on it someday.
Dear Stein Kruse, Captain Van Zaane en Hotelmanager Stan Kuppens,
My memories go back to the early seventies when I sailed as Assistant Purser on the ss Nieuw Amsterdam, The Grand Old Lady often referred to as the ‘fur coat’ ship.
The two years I spent on Her were the most memorable ones of my 7 year sailing career
and fun we had.
However if I see the pictures of the ms Nieuw Amsterdam where a lot of history has been implemented I am proud still to be associated with Holland America Line as a retired employee.
I congratulate management in Seattle with the new addition in the fleet end wish Captain
van Zaane and his staff and crew of the ms Nieuw Amsterdam ” Een Behouden Vaart”.
Hans Brinkhoff
What a beautiful ship! Wish I was sailing from Venice to Dubrovnik on the ms Nieuw Amsterdam than sitting here in windy, chilly Seattle.
Congratuations to the entire crew for a fabulous launch, photos and video of the event!
We can hardly wait! we will be on board for the 14 july ( 24 days) sailing! We watched with eager anticipation the ceremonies while watching Wimbledon simultaneously but Nieuw Amsterdam had our full attention.
FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING SEAS FOR A BEAUTIFUL SHIP
The female voice accompanying and introducing the video of the “Captain’s flotilla” sounded an awful lot like Capt. van Zaane’s wife and former HAL social hostess Appolonia van Ravenstein. Did I get that correct? Thanks!
John, you are correct! Good ears. It was Appolonia doing the voice-over for the flotilla.
It was a great pleasure for us to join the openingsceromonie and stay for one night on this beautiful ship. We hope to travel next year with one of the ships from Rotterdam to St Petersburg. Thanks for inviting us to Venice. Jim & Ron, The Hague, The Netherlands