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Just back from 10 days on Noordam

brichar499

By brichar499,
in Holland America Line

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brichar499

brichar499

Posted
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A few quick notes:

1. Our 5th HAL cruise. Noordam was in great shape. Our first 10 day cruise. Almost all retirees on board. Oldest but nicest group we have ever sailed with.

2. We did go Code Red from day 3 to day 9. Captain reported a total of 50 novovirus cases but it obviously did not get out of hand and the extensive precautions worked. Minor inconviniences for guests such as longer lines in the Lido. They did throw a nice rum punch party with generous amounts of free drink on the last day as compensation.

3. We thought cruise director Eric and party planner Kyle were among the best we've seen on the line.

4. Regarding the tragic earthquake in Haiti. We were abeam Haiti as it was occuring-maybe 15 miles west of the most western point of the island and probably at least 50 miles from the epicenter. Turns out I was actually taking pictures of Haiti about the time of the quake. About 45 minutes after the quake, we were preparing to go to dinner and had CNN on TV. They broke the story that included a tsunami watch. Shades of Poseidon Adventure. There was no announcement on board until the next day. The captain commented on why he did not announce and he said that in deep water, tsunamis have no effect and that he did not want to alarm anyone.

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bloofer

bloofer

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I'll be doing the same itinerary on the same ship in early March. I have read several negative things about Samana. I've been to the DR (though not Samana) and have no desire to return. That'll be a "balcony" day for me!

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roothy123

roothy123

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Did you make it to Grand Turk on Tuesday? Just curious, because we on Oceania were scheduled to dock there, and the captain tried and bagged it - too rough. Someone told me that there was another cruise ship near by trying to get in, so I was curious if it was your ship. The cruise calendar I consulted before getting on the ship listed Westerdam as docking same day we did, but sometimes those calendars aren't accurate.....

 

No sickness on Oceania - one reason I love that line (no sickness yet and no jumpers - knock on wood!)

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brichar499

brichar499

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We arrived Grand Turk on Wednesday, no problems and no other ship. It was a little rough at HMC on Tuesday, Jan 5, but we tendered in. Saw a Princess ship stop at Princess Key that day and it left within an hour.

 

Samana seemed too primitive for most people's taste. Rough roads made any tour unpleasant and there is little to see in town except for a small, new minimall. Tender ride in is about a mile.

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roothy123

roothy123

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I'm not the original poster, but I was just in Samana on Oceania Regatta Monday, so I'll comment. While I did the horseback ride to the waterfall and will remember it for a long time, it's a bit hairy and scary, so not for the faint of heart - at least not when it's pouring, as it was on Monday. Most people didn't like Samana at all. The DR, after all, is a very poor country, almost as poor as neighboring Haiti. In Samana, you are not at a resort town, just a simple town on a beautiful peninsula in a poor country. Whale season hadn't started yet, so there were no whale excursions for us to go on - but in March you should be good to go. The whales are legendary, so that's a big plus for Samana. Another plus is that the tour guides there seemed to be exceptional, especially for a poor country like the DR. Minuses are the condition of the town (torn up, uneven streets, garbage, etc.) and there's not much at the dock and no historical sites. However, if you're into shopping (we're not), there's a little strip shopping area near by where you can shop in the new and brightly colored shops. There are also vendors set up along the shore, and a large park nearby. I was not hassled by anyone as I walked around the town and in the park. It was a real place, not a fake beach place, and a nice change after being in St. Barts and other more upscale places. Cayo Lev. looked beautiful, but in the pouring rain, nobody much wanted to go there. I have to admit that I loved Samana (although perhaps for the wrong reasons) and will remember it far longer than I will the other places we visited (Tortola, Virgin Gorda, St. Barts, Antigua.

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roothy123

roothy123

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Thanks, Brichar. I think the impending earthquake in Haiti had the water a bit shaken up, if that's possible. I was disappointed to not make it to Grand Turk on Tuesday, but understand that those things happen....

 

Mama, I think there's a local beach in Samana, but I'm not sure where, or how to get to it. While I was walking around along the shore, someone offered to take me, but I declined. (I wasn't interested in beach days, and wasn't about to get into a stranger's car.) If you crave sun, I'd stay on the ship. Be aware, however, that Samana gets a LOT of rain, so you may not have a good day for that! Personally, I'd take a whale watching excursion. You may want to check the Dominican Republic board under the ports of call section on cruise critic for more info.

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LordSpain

LordSpain

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We were in this same cruise. Although we’ve read a lot about Code Red on these pages, we’d never lived through one until this cruise. We still had a great time, and if you overlook the inconveniences that a Code Red causes, you can still enjoy the cruise. While we were rolling with it, there were others who were clearly bothered. In our opinion a Code Red is much harder on the crew than it is on the passengers. The amount of extra work they do in constant sanitization, food service etc is incredible. We found ourselves giving those who took care of us extra tips for their effort.

 

About Samana: We had a shore excursion scheduled through HAL caled the “Samana Mini-Speedboat Adventure”. The skies were heavily overcast. Only two other couples had signed up for this trip which is advertized as a tour of the shore areas of Samana in a two-person speedboat. During the trip we were to stop at a sandbar located in a very scenic area where we could either walk on the sandbar or swim in the blue water. We arrived at the pier and were told that our Speedboat guide would arrive momentarily. We were immediately greeted by a cute little puppy dog nearby who loved to be petted. Then another cute little puppy dog arrived, and another and another. Apparently the Dominican Republic has a feral dog problem, and after so many years all the dogs have morphed into a single homogenized Dominican Republic Mutt – they were everywhere. After about 30 minutes our guides arrived and took us down to the shore next to the tender pier. They said our speedboats would be arriving in 3 – 4 minutes – they were being towed to our location. 30 minutes later the HAL shore excursion manager arrived to tell us that the boats would be delayed 3 – 4 minutes longer, apologized for the delay and offered us refunds if we’d like to cancel. We all decided to stick it out for a few more minutes – the shore excursion rep from HAL was very conscientious and right on top of it.

 

About 15 minutes later we were told that the speedboats would not be arriving, but rather we would be driving to the speedboats instead. The six of us piled into a cab and we drove about 20 minutes to a remote beach to get to our speedboats. This was a really interesting trip. The main mode of transportation for the locals seemed to be motor scooters or small motorcycles. They could be seen driving basically anywhere they wanted, and any direction they wanted on the roads. A common sight was two or more people on a motorbike belching smoke as it strained up a hill. Very few regular vehicles other than the taxis could be seen. Most of the areas we traveled through were full of idle folks of all ages just sitting around. We even saw a local cooking along the side of the road in a big pot. We couldn’t tell what it was exactly they were cooking but we all noticed the chicken feet (not drumsticks folks – actual chicken feet) sticking out of the pot.

 

After arriving at the speedboat embarkation area we immediately noticed that there were no speedboats there. We were told they would be arriving in 3 – 4 minutes - that they were being towed to our location. Several minutes later the boats arrived after being towed from the place we were originally waiting. These were not new and shiny speedboats, rather they were showing their age with several bondo jobs on the fiberglass. After a 10 second crash course in the operation of a mini speedboat and safety briefing we took off. We drove up and down the coast following the guides for about five minutes when our boat broke. The engine just sputtered and died. Since we were the last ones in the line of boats we just sat there as they drove off into the distance. Eventually the guides realized that one of their mini-speedboats was missing and came back to assist us. The guides took apart the engine which was smoking from being overheated and reported that we had run over a plastic garbage bag which subsequently clogged up the water intakes which in turn caused our engine to overheat and stop. After about fifteen minutes of work, they restarted the engine and we resumed our tour, although our engine sounded pretty sick the rest of the way.

 

We got to drive around our ship, jump some big waves in the boat and got really wet. We came back to where we started and began wondering as a group just what happened to the sandbar experience. We were told that we could get a couple of drinks from the bar that was over there on the sand if we wanted to or we could go back to the ship’s tender area. We learned from observing during our cab rides and our boat trip that the Dominican Republic is a very poor country. Grand Turk was poorer, but everywhere we went – even our off-the-path trip to a pharmacy there, Grand Turk was clean. This place is very dirty - garbage is piled up along the sides of the streets and strewn along the shorelines. The plastic bag we ran over was one of many floating around, and unsanitary conditions were evident everywhere. We all opted to return to the ship because we were all getting hungry and thirsty and had collectively agreed that we would not be eating or drinking anything on this island. In spite of the weather and the little difficulties along the way though, we all had a pretty good time.

 

Aboard ship we heard similar complaints about cleanliness in port, so we’re not sure how we’d handle a Samana port of call in the future.

 

Bruce & Pat

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English_in_Spain

English_in_Spain

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Your itinerary is the second part of our B2B2B. Just a few questions if you don't mind.

Which nights were formal nights?

Where did you dock in Curacao? Was it the pier in town or the new one?

There is a HAL excursion in Samana DR called "Dominican Experience and Shrimp Fest". It is a folklore show and lunch on the beach. The cost is $79. Did you hear of anyone taking this excursion? Did anyone say if it was worth it or not?

 

Any ideas what there is to do in Aruba and Bonaire for an older couple who are past snorkling etc?

Thanks

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wyaz

wyaz

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DW & I went to Samana on Norwegian Jewel in late March 2008. We had found, on line, a privately organizable tour to Playa Rincon. I am sure any one can find out information about this tour by googling Playa Rincon. We were picked up at pier after tendering in, by an eight passenger van. Driven to a place where we boarded small open boats and taken to Playa Rincon. Beautiful sandy beach, beach chairs, people barbecuing shrimp and "lobster" and selling to tourists. Food was not great but good, beer was great and beach was pretty and comfortable. It did not compare to Jost Van Dyke but was a good place to go in Samana. Drive to and from small boats showed extreme poverty of the island but was also informative as to how these people live. Samana is not the best stop in the Caribbean but you can make it worthwhile.

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localady

localady

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I have read on these boards that you can take a taxi to Tortola instead of doing anything in Samana. Does anyone know how far Tortola would be or how long of a taxi drive?

thanks,

next trip?

 

That would have to be a WATER taxi as they are not on the same Island......;)

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roothy123

roothy123

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I was on Oceania, but I assume Holland will use the same local vendors. I saw several different tour buses. We were driven to the El Limon area (maybe 20-30 minutes away) in a large, fairly modern bus without a bathroom. The bus that transported the Royal Carib. cruise line folks looked similar, just bigger. I also saw small vans, and open-air bench-type shuttles - but all looked fairly modern and comfy. If you're familiar with the "safari buses" used in Virgin Gorda and the like, I'd say the bench-type shuttles I referred to are a step up in terms of how well they're maintained, comfort, etc. However, you DO have to take a big step up to get onto them! The guide we got was excellent - spoke great English, was very friendly, etc.

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next trip?

next trip?

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thanks for the info. It is a new port for us too and there doesn't sound like there is much to do unless you book a private excursion. There is quite a bit of info. if you look under "Caribbean" Islands on this board and then click on Domican Republic.

thanks for you help

next trip?

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LordSpain

LordSpain

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While I can’t answer all your questions I’ll try with a couple. This cruise had a couple of dress codes we’d never seen before. This cruise was 1/4/2010 to 1/14/2010. Evening #2 1/5 was “Formal”, evening #5 1/8 was “Formal Optional”, evening #7 1/10 was “Tropical Casual”, evening #9 1/12 was “Formal” and all the other evenings were “Smart Casual”. We’ve never noticed the Formal Optional or Tropical Casual designations before.

 

In Curacao we docked at the mega-cruise ship pier and had to walk into town. On the day we were there, we did our shopping the afternoon because we did the Curacao Beach Express excursion in the morning. It was REALLY hot in the afternoon sun walking to the downtown area. If it’s a sunny warm day I would suggest doing your walk to the downtown area in the morning. If you’re considering the Curacao Beach Express let me know as there are a few things to tell you that would be helpful.

 

Bruce & Pat

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Krazy Kruizers

Krazy Kruizers

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I was on Oceania, but I assume Holland will use the same local vendors. I saw several different tour buses. We were driven to the El Limon area (maybe 20-30 minutes away) in a large, fairly modern bus without a bathroom. The bus that transported the Royal Carib. cruise line folks looked similar, just bigger. I also saw small vans, and open-air bench-type shuttles - but all looked fairly modern and comfy. If you're familiar with the "safari buses" used in Virgin Gorda and the like, I'd say the bench-type shuttles I referred to are a step up in terms of how well they're maintained, comfort, etc. However, you DO have to take a big step up to get onto them! The guide we got was excellent - spoke great English, was very friendly, etc.

 

Thanks for the information -- I will have to check once we are on the ship what type of bus/van/safari bus we will be on for our tour.

I know all about the safari buses having been to St Thomas and all those islands many, many times. I am no longer able to get up that high step. The last couple of times we were in St Thomas we either used the Pirate Boat to go over to Havensight or took a regular taxi into town.

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