Nordam to Auckland, Sep. 2017

we are taking the Nordam to Auckland, New Zealand from San Francisco in September its a follow on tour in Sydney for a total of 45 days. We are participating in the CC Roll Call, but wonder if other CC members have taken this, or similar cruises in the past and have various insights they would like to share. In particular are the MDR menus (better or worse than other HAL locations), entertainment, lectures, and excursions.

DD

Have a wonderful time! I looked longingly at that itinerary. [emoji4][emoji41]

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We did Auckland to Vancouver on the Noordam in March this year. That was our second HAL cruise, the first was a collector voyage, Mexico/Hawaii a few years ago on the Veendam. We'll be boarding the Zaandam from Vancouver to Rio in just 61 days and we are counting down.

We liked the Noordam, it is about as big a vessel as we would want to be on.The MDR food was great, we had dinner there about 70% of the time. I only had one bad meal, the very first meal, the steak would have been better suited as shoe leather. All the rest of the meals, without exception, were fine and some were excellent.

We do dress for the formal nights and did notice some guests not observing the dress code, much to the quiet displeasure of the staff. Service in the MDR varied, the majority of nights it was perfectly acceptable, on 3 or 4 nights it was a little slow and drawn out, not sure if the issue rested with the kitchen or wait staff but the dining room staff were not standing still!!!

We always chose open seating to meet different people. We also had another couple that were long time friends travelling with us. As we were in Neptune class we had the services of the concierge which in theory meant we should have been able to book a table for the four of us with some priority. The reality was that if the four of us went to the dining room and just declared a party of four and happy to share a table with others we were seated straight away. The Concierge booked table seldom met our time request and so for the majority of our meals in the MDR we defaulted to our intent of meeting interesting people and just went to the no reservation side of the dining room entrance.

Being a big blues fan I was really looking forward to the BB King Club. The style of music was not my definition of blues, it was more funk and pop than classic blues but darn good all the same, we were there for all sets for quite a few nights.

The main entertainment venue was all over the place, some was very good and some we walked out on. (I'm an avid audio/music person and I found the quality of the sound reinforcement in the main theater to be some of the worst for live performances that I have heard, I am very picky on this aspect.)

We fully enjoyed the lectures/shows on Polynesian, Aboriginal and Maori cultures they were very good and informative. (Hope they have the same didgeridoo player we saw, great sense of humour, funny and very interesting)

Just hope you have as much fun as we did.

Old Mike,

Thank you for our post. I see that this was your first post. Welcome to Cruise Critic. We have gotten a lot of good info from this site.

DD

we are taking the Nordam to Auckland, New Zealand from San Francisco in September its a follow on tour in Sydney for a total of 45 days. We are participating in the CC Roll Call, but wonder if other CC members have taken this, or similar cruises in the past and have various insights they would like to share. In particular are the MDR menus (better or worse than other HAL locations), entertainment, lectures, and excursions.

 

DD

Usually some Maoris will board for the New Zealand ports of call, they will give insights into their culture and language.

You will have a wonderful time. We did the Vancouver to Auckland two years ago. Enjoyed it all except for the ports in Fiji which are unattractive. You might want to consider taking a shore excursion out of the towns here.

New Zealand is just gorgeous, every port was outstanding. Don't miss Giants House in Akaroa. You can walk there from the ship...no need for an excursion. I would also recommend the Tourist Bureaus city walking tour in Dunedin.