This is my first cruise since 2018, so I am almost a newbie again! 🙂 As for the Noordam, the staff and service is fantastic. Wait staff is great, my stateroom attendant is almost supernatural in knowing when I leave, and keeps everything spotless while I am gone. I find eating in the Lido kind of a madhouse, and have been a fuddy duddy and eaten in the area with wait service or in a specialty restaurant when time isn’t of the essence. The voyage has been dogged by weather, we skipped one port entirely and for another (Kangaroo Island, big one for me) couldn’t tender till about Noon because of waves, and they cancelled half the excursions (including mine). Of course that isn’t at all the fault of HAL. As mentioned by Cunnorl, We were supposed to leave Melbourne over five hours ago, but there is a Gale Warning (and a sheep grazier’s warning, which was a new one on me) that I suspect is holding us in port. Hopefully it won’t mess with our port tomorrow! Incidentally, I thought our ship looked much better maintained than the P&O ship.
Despite my kvetching about the weather, I have been pleased with everything in HAL’s control, and would recommend the ship and Australia. I will come back and post a few more shots from the cruise later.