Noordam diverts

We are booked on Noordam out of Sydney on 15 March. Just checked ships position. It sailed from Napier last night and is coming back to Sydney through Cook Strait, bypassing Tauranga and Auckland. It was supposed to be in Auckland yesterday but it was actually in Napier two days late.

Nz weather radar shows adverse weather around Auckland.

What is the story? Weather? Or some other issue?

Sounds like weather. Hopefully someone will post about it.

Keith

Digging a bit deeper on the 'net it seems Cyclone Hola was heading towards NZ and the captain obviously did not want to risk it.

How they spent the two days they lost getting to Napier remains, scenic cruising, or less likely, a longer stay in some ports.

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If you look at marinetraffic and also switch on the weather option, there is an area of high winds to the north of Auckland. Noordam just clearded the gap between the Northern and Southern Island and is currently inbound Sydney.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:165.2/centery:-37.2/zoom:6

Weather channel yesterday talked some about the winds over in that area.

Captain is doing his best to keep the people safe.

Looks like weather around Auckland is pretty awful on the tail of the cyclone with winds of up to 120kph so you can understand the ship taking another route.

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Just got home from the 14-day NZ Discovery on the Noordam which docked in Sydney on March 15. Here is my best recollection:

We were dogged by bad weather and rough Roaring Forties across the Tasman Sea and into Fiordland in early March. We had lots of rain but that gave us what was apparently the best waterfall display in Fiordland in the last five years, so there are some benefits to rain. Mixed weather but tolerable until we hit Napier, where strong winds prevented us from docking in the morning -- it's a pretty tricky port -- so we had an unexpected day at sea. A good day in Tauranga, but there we learned that Cyclone Hola was threatening the north end of the North Island, and we were being turned around and re-routed. We missed Auckland and Waitangi (Bay of Islands), but we did get back to Napier, albeit docking at 3:30 pm on a Sunday, so pretty much a waste. Then three sea days back to Sydney through the Cook Strait between the two main islands.

There were a lot of unhappy people on this cruise. But you can't blame the weather, it is what it is, and you can't blame the captain, as his job is to protect the ship and the passengers and crew, as no one with any sense would want to sail through a hurricane. But still there was this lingering feeling that Seattle was playing damage control all the time in the second week...

Thanks so much for coming to report, Paul. Much appreciated :)

Thanks for the update.

Too bad about the weather - but, what can you do?

Hope you enjoyed the cruise anyway.

Thanks for the update.

Too bad about the weather - but, what can you do?

Hope you enjoyed the cruise anyway.

We had four really good tours in the ports that we did visit, and we had a good time touring parts of Australia before and after the cruise (on our own). But overall I think this was probably the least enjoyable HAL cruise that we've taken. Not because of the weather, but because of the lack of activities in the program for active thinking people on sea days; and things were even worse on the 2.5 extra unplanned sea days.

There's another long thread on this topic I see (too long for me to catch up on with 4 weeks worth of work piled up!), but we found the daily program to be very thin and lacking even on scheduled sea days, and what was of interest (i.e. Maori cultural presentations) was usually packed full and often in unsuitable venues. Thankfully our very good location guide (Kelly) stepped up with some interesting extra presentations on the unscheduled sea days, and they even pressed the very, very excellent piano bar singer (Anna McBryan) into a matinee on the main stage. Other than that, I can't say much for this cruise director or whoever is responsible for the program. And we often couldn't find a quiet place to sit when the decks were closed due to weather, because the Pinnacle Bar was being used for snake-oil presentations on acupuncture and teeth whitening, and the Ocean Bar was being used for art auctions.

So I think it will be a while before we book another HAL cruise, and when that does happen it will have to be a very interesting itinerary that we can't get elsewhere, with minimal sea days.

We had four really good tours in the ports that we did visit, and we had a good time touring parts of Australia before and after the cruise (on our own). But overall I think this was probably the least enjoyable HAL cruise that we've taken. Not because of the weather, but because of the lack of activities in the program for active thinking people on sea days; and things were even worse on the 2.5 extra unplanned sea days.

 

There's another long thread on this topic I see (too long for me to catch up on with 4 weeks worth of work piled up!), but we found the daily program to be very thin and lacking even on scheduled sea days, and what was of interest (i.e. Maori cultural presentations) was usually packed full and often in unsuitable venues. Thankfully our very good location guide (Kelly) stepped up with some interesting extra presentations on the unscheduled sea days, and they even pressed the very, very excellent piano bar singer (Anna McBryan) into a matinee on the main stage. Other than that, I can't say much for this cruise director or whoever is responsible for the program. And we often couldn't find a quiet place to sit when the decks were closed due to weather, because the Pinnacle Bar was being used for snake-oil presentations on acupuncture and teeth whitening, and the Ocean Bar was being used for art auctions.

 

So I think it will be a while before we book another HAL cruise, and when that does happen it will have to be a very interesting itinerary that we can't get elsewhere, with minimal sea days.

There is a recurring theme in your comments, along with many others making those same points. Hope HAL management is listening. Converting the Maasdam into a high enrichment "InDepth" specialty cruise ship is one HAL management response, that some changes for the better are being made.

But I agree, they need to make regular cruise itineraries more in-depth enrichment too with a lot fewer sales pitches passed off as passenger "educational" events. Changes are happening, so stay tuned and I hope you put all of this on the cruise evaluation form. Your points are very valid.

Thanks for the up date Paul. Not much you can do about bad weather, but this is were the CD earns his money and makes the difference between boring & interesting. I've been an another cruise were the CD was just along for the ride, he had his girl friend with him & I think he thought he was on vacation.

Allan

We had four really good tours in the ports that we did visit, and we had a good time touring parts of Australia before and after the cruise (on our own). But overall I think this was probably the least enjoyable HAL cruise that we've taken. Not because of the weather, but because of the lack of activities in the program for active thinking people on sea days; and things were even worse on the 2.5 extra unplanned sea days.

 

There's another long thread on this topic I see (too long for me to catch up on with 4 weeks worth of work piled up!), but we found the daily program to be very thin and lacking even on scheduled sea days, and what was of interest (i.e. Maori cultural presentations) was usually packed full and often in unsuitable venues. Thankfully our very good location guide (Kelly) stepped up with some interesting extra presentations on the unscheduled sea days, and they even pressed the very, very excellent piano bar singer (Anna McBryan) into a matinee on the main stage. Other than that, I can't say much for this cruise director or whoever is responsible for the program. And we often couldn't find a quiet place to sit when the decks were closed due to weather, because the Pinnacle Bar was being used for snake-oil presentations on acupuncture and teeth whitening, and the Ocean Bar was being used for art auctions.

 

So I think it will be a while before we book another HAL cruise, and when that does happen it will have to be a very interesting itinerary that we can't get elsewhere, with minimal sea days.

We did a Noordam cruise in January and although we like the ship, daily entertainment was pretty thin on the ground. It did not bother us too much as we can entertain ourselves with reading (and sewing in my case) but for people without such interests, there was not a great deal to do. It's not a deal breaker for us but I can see it might be for some. HAL needs to listen to its customers and take action.

Thanks for the up date Paul. Not much you can do about bad weather, but this is were the CD earns his money and makes the difference between boring & interesting. I've been an another cruise were the CD was just along for the ride, he had his girl friend with him & I think he thought he was on vacation.

Allan

I agree. A good CD will have a stock of "rainy day" activities they can run with on short notice. We missed a port on our winter cruise and they announced a new "when and where" would be out shortly. It wasn't much different from the version for the port day.

We did a Noordam cruise in January and although we like the ship, daily entertainment was pretty thin on the ground. It did not bother us too much as we can entertain ourselves with reading (and sewing in my case) but for people without such interests, there was not a great deal to do. It's not a deal breaker for us but I can see it might be for some. HAL needs to listen to its customers and take action.

We did the same cruise in 2016 on the Noordam - and the Noordam broke down. We also missed the same two ports and had 2 nights in Napier. Our trip home was 3 non stop sea days also without any entertainment. We are readers so we were happy in the beautiful library but if you didn't read or do craft, you would have been bored to snores.

SAFETY is always first. I would never second guess a Capain's choic when there is a question of safety invovled. (Captain is responsible for a great many souls on the ship and a hugely costly vessel. Captain does know best in matters of ship's safety.

In October, we were late getting into Port Chalmers due to fog. Then we didn't leave port fast enough, and another fog bank rolled in. So we spent the night and left noon the next day. Many shore excursions were cancelled. Someone arranged for the shuttles to take us into town the next day.

And we missed Christchurch completely.

I agree. A good CD will have a stock of "rainy day" activities they can run with on short notice. We missed a port on our winter cruise and they announced a new "when and where" would be out shortly. It wasn't much different from the version for the port day.

Our CD last September-November seemed to spend a lot of time in his office, and not out and about.