My Review!Wang Wangs kicked my butt!

[IndyDenise]

This review is from the Noordam May 18-28th Eastern Med. Cruise ( the first one for this year ). I need to add a posting disclaimer here: I intend on also reviewing this cruise on my roll call where I will let my hair down quite a bit more, but for you lovely folks I am going to TRY to be an adult.

Background: 3 adult ladies. Denise ( me ) , Deb ( my sis ) and Andy ( our mom ) . Booked a VA, upselled to a SS, then a FREE upgrade to SB 7241 corner aft.

PreCruise: We booked, through, HAL a precruise stay in Rome at Visconti Palace ( by Prati ) . Nice Place! Our stay included transportation from the airport to hotel, then hotel to port. I checked into booking everything ourselves but HAL beat the price! The transfers were awesome. Great job HAL!One good thing about the hotel...we found ourselves literally closing down a cafe late one night by the Fountain of Four Rivers...( that was some good wine, by the way! ) and our taxi driver knew our hotel. Yeah! In our intoxicated state we did not have to slur directions.

The Ship Noordam: She is in fine shape. We boarded after the TA and found her clean and sparkling.

The Aft Cabin: Glorious, what can I say ? Loved the bathroom, the verandah, the sweet suite life! A couple of times we did feel the rock and roll of the Noordam, but all the better to soothe me to sleep.

The Ports:

Dubrovnik Croatia: stunning, we just walked and walked Old Town and had lunch by the sea . Lunch was NOT good, but I will not go into detail here and save it for the other boards.

Corfu Greece: Very nice! However due to Olive Tree pollen I had quite an allergic reaction in Old Town. Next time I would take my inhaler and a bio suite.

Kusadasi Turkey: Totally blown away here! Clean, safe, nice people and Ephesus was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! This was one of my favorite ports. We booked a tour through HAL and hated our guide though...very cocky and condesending. It got to the point ( after he snipped at a lady for not wearing her earpiece and" missing his great commentary" we took ours out to irk him too. Childish I know but we did have some giggles at his expense as I was NOT going to let the overbearing jerk ruin my day )

Athens: UGH! Dirty, dirty, dirty. Glad I saw the city though, it really puts the Greek issues in a visual. So sad really. I did enjoy the Acropolis, just not the hike to get there.

Santorini Greece: Picture postcard perfect. We actually changed port of call dates with Athens so that we could be there without a lot of other cruisers. Love the Capt. for doing this.

Rome: WOW! Mind blowing..BUT Paris is STILL number 1 for me

Next up : The Crew and Passengers and general thoughts..and oh yeah, the Wang Wang Butt Kicking thing.

Denise

[kazu]

waiting for more Denise - but wow:) an upsell to SS and then an upgrade to SB:):) I bet you are some glad you took that upsell. What a nice deal for you

[IndyDenise]

Hello, Part two of I am not sure of how many parts..I guess I will know after I am tired of typing and want to catch up on Deadliest Catch on Demand!

The Crew: This is where HAL is the best. The crew, most of them, are super. Our cabin stewards Gday and Danny were the best..as was the Neptune Lounge Ladies ( Ice and ? , can't remember her name, I need coffee! )

When I met Gday I thought he was telling me " Good Day " in a nice Aussie way( we had about 900 Aussies on board ) and I said to him " Thanks y'all " in my best Indiana accent..then I glanced at his name tag! LOL!

The Passengers: This is also where the smaller ship is nice, you get to know your fellow cruisers. We had a boatload, literally of Aussies on board, and had a great time. I did make some serious friends onboard, we just clicked ( Hi Suzanne and Stephen..and Terry , Georgie and the gang..) I am hoping to meet up with some of them when they do their next cruise in the US ( perhaps Vegas for their post stay ) . We always chatted with others and found people friendly.

The Meet and Greet: Perfect, we had a large turnout. I was in charge and stressed about this but it went well. Mark Pells, Hotman, spoke about the ports and we had a nice spread of food and Mimosa's ( which in my nervousness I spilled on myself! )

The Food: Okay, this is where I am going to get critical. I did not like it. Please keep in mind this is my opinion only. I found the lack of food in the Lido 24/7 is something HAL should look at. There were times we got back on board and other than room serice were out of luck. Sometimes we could not do room service because our rooms were not ready yet and we did not want to rush our stewards.

The Maining Dining Room: We had anytime dining which went south during our first formal night.

We went to the dining room ( had made reservations ) and waited about 15 min for a table. Then as we were escorted upstairs to our table there was someone already there. So the seater person left us standing there to find out where to put us. After 15 minutes of standing there, upstairs, surrounded by diners, the dining room manager noticed us...walked us around and seated us at a table. Then after 10 more minutes a waiter came by and asked us if we had seated ourselves at his table. We said no...and then he left..we decided to get up and just leave. At that point it was over an hour past our original dining time. The dining room manager saw us leaving...and seated us again, in a new section..we finally had our meal and literally were one of the few people still left in the dining room.

The dining room staff tried to keep this from happening again and gave us standing 7.30pm reservations. I appreciated this fact..but still...the above was quite embarrassing more than anything. To be left standing at someone's table, while they are dining, and then to be forgotten about was embarrassing for us.

I also did not like the Main Dining room options. Too much seafood and vegetarian options and not enough beef. The daily sirloin offering was ALWAYS over cooked, dry, and not good..and after 3 days of eating it I gave up. Now, I admit I am a picky, picky eater. I do not do duck pate, seafood, lamb, etc.

Twice, also, my salad had grit ( dirt ) in it. Yuck. Someone please wash the greens better.

It got to the point we would do the Lido because we had more options BUT even that got crazy.

The Lido:

At the Pasta center the server refused to serve meat sauce over spaghetti noodles but only over bowtie ones. He just kept saying " We can't do that" He was a real jerk, yet he just did it seconds ago for another passenger. Also, he was pissed when I asked him if he had any more garlic bread. He shouted " NO!!! " ..obviously someone was having a bad bad day and was trying to make mine that way too!!! So, the next night when I wanted it served the way I wanted ( and what the heck...is there a freaking shortage on spaghetti noodles in the Med. ??? ) I walked up and noticed an Officer standing there and ordered. Of course I got my food the way I liked...for the rest of the cruise we called him the Spaghetti **** and laughed about his antics.

Several times in the Lido ( at dinner ) they would run out of something ( like mashed potatoes ) and tell you that you would have to get it on the other side. So you have to run around like a rabbit to get your meal...and then when you finally have what you want the rest of your food is cold.

The Hamburger Station: The hamburgers would be good if they were hot. They were cooked earlier than put on the grill to warm up..but both times mine were still cold. The fries were hit or miss too..sometimes hot, sometimes ice cold.

Several times, early at 7.00pm , they would be tearing down lines so your options were even smaller.

Sorry to say that Carnival Cruise Lines handles dining options better...better choices, more choices, and food on the Lido and outside decks all of the time.

The food may be more elegantly presented and prepared on HAL but if it is something you won't eat ( or can't get! )

than it doesn't matter.

Enough about that. I am sure you all are sick of reading my dining woes at this point. Again, I understand that I am picky but in a way I am not...give me beef that I can eat and I will be happy. Simple.

I love the Night Life: What night life?? One this trip we had a port intensive, leg numbing, and early morning schedule. Most days we were up at 5.00am and off the boat by 7.00am...so early to bed for us. If this was a Caribbean cruise I would have been disappointed in the lack of night life as I would have been up later..

Things that make you go " HUH???"-

For the most part, crew and passengers were great. But every once in a while ( like the Spaghetti **** ) there was something that I would just be floored with...and I am sure my mouth dropped to the ground.

The Nasty OLD bikini girls: At the Aft pool you would find three older ( late 60's ) women who would wear these bikinis sunbathing/swimming. Then, with straps down, boobs unsupported they would walk around the aft pool area. I kept waiting for a full frontal boob escape as I quietly wanted to vomit in my beer. ..and let me tell you if one of these puppies did escape it could do serious damage. These were some largish ladies..both in weight and cupsize. If your going to walk around please make sure I do not see your side boob, front boob, or any boob escaping your bikini because you are to freaking lazy to put your straps back up...or to freaking stupid to realize that other people do not find you cute or acceptable.

On our HAL tour of Santorini one lady decided to eat lunch rather than re-join us. Her poor friend had to leave her and explain that she was fininshing her lunch and would be back on the bus shortly. Our poor tour guide gave her 15 minutes, and then we left both the friend and the missing lady and continued on our way. Our guide was in tears.

I really think the missing passenger was in a snit and planned this. During one stop everyone got off the bus but her and I ..and I didn't because I am scared of heights and did not want to look down a cliff...she said no, but that she did NOT want to be on this tour, had no choice in the matter as it was booked by her friend, and she was NOT happy. I think the lunch thing was a way to get back at the friend and to just be petty. YEAH! Thats the way! Hold up a bus full of people to show your crap.

This also happened post cruise, with airport transfers! We had to wait 45 minutes for people to get on our bus to leave the port. I guess they did not think anyone had a plane to catch or anything important to do that day like fly home. It's just so rude to hold up others because you are selfish.

This is a nice " HUH??" It was GREAT seeing the crew in ports, every where we went we were greeted by the crew. It was nice to see them enjoying time off. I love the fact that HAL gives them the time to do this...it was refreshing.

Looks like PART 3 will be my WANG WANG story...and I promise you it won't be nice..it makes me look like a total fool.....

[baggal]

OP: Enjoying your review. The bikini-wearing women were probably not Americans. Europeans, both men and women, have different standards than Americans when it comes to wearing bathing suits in public. And since you're on their turf, in a manner of speaking, you just have to go with it.

[IRL_Joanie]

And impatiently waiting for the Wang Wang woes:)

 

Joanie

[IndyDenise]

One night, we decided to skip dining ..and just have cocktails..

Okay, rule #1 if you are going to drink you had better eat.

Rule #2 Wang Wangs are good, and they do not hit you right way. They taste like Orange Julius'.

Rule #3 ANYTIME you order a Wang Wang be prepared to be asked how you know about this drink. Standard answer is Cruise Critic, of course, or you can make up some off the wall answer as " The Capt served them at his party last night " ( guaranteed to get a look of astonishment ) or " I saw it on CNN" . I just smiled and looked secretive...or as secretive as a middle aged typical American can.

Rule #4 In order to maximize your Wang Wangs start at the buy one get one for $1.00!! Then move on to the next happy hour bar. And the next..then go to the Aft Pool because you will need air at this time.

Rule #5.. revisit #1 and #2

After several Wang Wangs..we rounded up some cruisers and provided Lei's and those tooty horns you see on New Years Eve ( yup I actually packed those ) . Plus Tiaras! Yeah! We had a party, but ALAS it was shortlived.

While sitting at the Aft Pool bar, tiara clad..my mom became to tipsy to walk. Well, we got a wheel chair to take her to the room...party in tow. We dropped her off, returned the wheel chair ( and truth be known I don't remember where we got it, or how it appeared but we returned it to the Hotel desk ) .

I GUESS I wanted to sing Keroke...and instead tried to do a comedy show. OH GHEEZE!!!!!!!!!! TOTAL MESS UP, TOTAL STUPID DRUNK ANTICS!! I became one of those drunk passengers to avoid, I have a feeling.

After that, my sis and I headed to bed...waking up very hungover in Katakolon. We took it very easy that day..

There were some repersussions of course! Passengers we did not know ( or remember ) would talk to us like they knew us well. We just played along. We got a lot of questions like " how are you feeling today? " (( GULP!!! )) . We would just answer with a breazy " Fine, and you?" ..and cringe inside.

The worst came when we were dining in the Lido, 4 days later, and two Officers said " Hi Ladies, remember us?"..we assured them we did ( we did NOT ) and just tried to bluff our way through by acting like we were not fazed at all.

Let me tell you that even though we were some tipsy Wang Wang laden fools that night...we did have fun..

Lesson learned: Wang Wangs are good. Wang Wangs sneak up on you. Wang Wangs are to be feared, revered, but most of all RESPECTED. Do not try to beat the Wang Wang, they will win everytime.

Denise

[IndyDenise]

Sorry, I forgot..( and I forgot a lot about the cruise on Wang Wang night and I HOPE TO HECK that no one comes along and fills in the blanks for me!! more horror!! ) ..well I forgot to write if I would sail HAL again...

Yes and no..it would depend upon where I was going and what I wanted out of a cruise.

If I am cruising to see some great foreign ports...well yes. I have never slept better while on a cruise..and was so well rested ready to greet each day ( other than Wang Wang night ) .

You can not beat the crew..they take care of you...

Passengers are friendly and kind.

The ships are quietly elegant, you never feel crowded.

However, if I was going to the Caribbean, Mexico etc I would choose Carnival again. I like Carnivals fun spirit..movies under the skies, dance parties, laid back vibe, late nights...and food offerings. A lot of passengers on the Noordam sail Princess...and they told me they like Princess better...so I may try them next.

I don't regret cruising HAL. For my needs this was the perfect cruise. I would sail HAL again on any port intensive route. For a more carefree, laid back, late night cruise I would pick again.

Thanks for reading!

Denise

[portofrome]

I enjoyed your nice review. Thanks for posting.

[PGV]

Hi there! We are doing the same cruise on 27th June and was wondering which were your formal nights?

 

Thanks :)

[kakalina]

Warned you, I know I warned you about those Wang-Wangs. :D

[kazu]

Enjoyed all your review Denise - including the good, the bad (your dining) and the ugly (Wang Wangs):p:p We've not had issues on dining on HAL, but we have never booked any time dining. We always do fixed. I was tempted to switch to the other for this cruise but I think we will keep things as they are. :) thanks to your report:)

 

Welcome home and thanks for sharing your experiences

[Cruising-along]

Loved your review! :)

 

Too bad about your horrible experience with Open Dining. :( We have had Open Dining on 6 different HAL ships and never had an experience like that. It would have been upsetting to say the least. When you have a reservation, they're supposed to let you sit down on the bench near the podium at the MDR entrance until your table is ready. To leave you standing like that is, well, ridiculous. The few times we had to sit and wait, we never had more than a 5-minute wait. Usually we were taken to our table immediately.

[3rdGenCunarder]

Sorry, I forgot..( and I forgot a lot about the cruise on Wang Wang night and I HOPE TO HECK that no one comes along and fills in the blanks for me!! more horror!! ) ..well I forgot to write if I would sail HAL again...

 

 

Yes and no..it would depend upon where I was going and what I wanted out of a cruise.

 

If I am cruising to see some great foreign ports...well yes. I have never slept better while on a cruise..and was so well rested ready to greet each day ( other than Wang Wang night ) .

 

 

Umm, I think you mean the morning after Wang Wang night??? ;)

 

 

You can not beat the crew..they take care of you.

 

Passengers are friendly and kind.

 

The ships are quietly elegant, you never feel crowded.

 

However, if I was going to the Caribbean, Mexico etc I would choose Carnival again. I like Carnivals fun spirit..movies under the skies, dance parties, laid back vibe, late nights...and food offerings. A lot of passengers on the Noordam sail Princess...and they told me they like Princess better...so I may try them next.

 

I don't regret cruising HAL. For my needs this was the perfect cruise. I would sail HAL again on any port intensive route. For a more carefree, laid back, late night cruise I would pick again.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Denise

 

That sounds like a good plan. Different cruises for different reasons. We like HAL for their itineraries and don't mind the quiet evenings. But if you want a lively atmosphere at night, another line can provide more of that. Although you seem to have made your own lively atmosphere... :D (sorry, couldn't resist.)

 

Thanks for posting your comments. I am not a fan of the open seating dining, and have had some less than perfect experiences, but I've never seen anything as disorganized as you had. Being left to stand around in the dining room like that is terrible! I do agree that it would be nice to see some part of the Lido open 24/7. I know that there's room service 24/7, but if I want a snack, I prefer to go to the Lido for it.

[IndyDenise]

Loved your review! :)

 

Too bad about your horrible experience with Open Dining. :( We have had Open Dining on 6 different HAL ships and never had an experience like that. It would have been upsetting to say the least. When you have a reservation, they're supposed to let you sit down on the bench near the podium at the MDR entrance until your table is ready. To leave you standing like that is, well, ridiculous. The few times we had to sit and wait, we never had more than a 5-minute wait. Usually we were taken to our table immediately.

 

______________

 

I would not have minded waiting by the podium or benches for 30 minutes, if that is what it took.

But we waited, first, inside the dining room...then was taken upstairs, and left in the midst of all the taken tables..then walking around the dining area till they found an open table, well, I felt silly. Tottering on my heels ( and now small shoes due to swelling ) I am just glad I did not end up in some poor diners lap.

I chalked it up to failed communication , and even said so to the Dining Room Manager..and I did ask that the waiter who questioned ( and doubted ) our seating in his area not be " punished or otherwise repriminded " since obviously no one told him about us. That said, the waiter should not have questioned us is what the Manager said, and I do tend to agree with him.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

[Cruising-along]

______________

 

I would not have minded waiting by the podium or benches for 30 minutes, if that is what it took.

 

But we waited, first, inside the dining room...then was taken upstairs, and left in the midst of all the taken tables..then walking around the dining area till they found an open table, well, I felt silly. Tottering on my heels ( and now small shoes due to swelling ) I am just glad I did not end up in some poor diners lap.

 

I chalked it up to failed communication , and even said so to the Dining Room Manager..and I did ask that the waiter who questioned ( and doubted ) our seating in his area not be " punished or otherwise repriminded " since obviously no one told him about us. That said, the waiter should not have questioned us is what the Manager said, and I do tend to agree with him.

 

 

 

I agree! That would probably ruin Open Dining for me forever!

[SwissMyst]

.....

The Nasty OLD bikini girls: At the Aft pool you would find three older ( late 60's ) women who would wear these bikinis sunbathing/swimming. Then, with straps down, boobs unsupported they would walk around the aft pool area. I kept waiting for a full frontal boob escape as I quietly wanted to vomit in my beer. ..and let me tell you if one of these puppies did escape it could do serious damage. These were some largish ladies..both in weight and cupsize. If your going to walk around please make sure I do not see your side boob, front boob, or any boob escaping your bikini because you are to freaking lazy to put your straps back up...or to freaking stupid to realize that other people do not find you cute or acceptable.

.....

 

Uh, oh... there really is a fashion police on HAL ships. :rolleyes:

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for taking the time to post a review of your cruise. It was quite interesting and it sounded like you had a good time.

[George C]

thanks for the great review, great upgrade

[alibabacruisers]

Thanks for your review. I thought it was nice that you, your sister and your mother all went together. Sorry you had some bad experiences but glad you overall had a great cruise. Some of the ports you went to we had been and it was good to hear your views. I had never heard of Wang Wangs until now...so now I had to research...lol. Sounds like you really had fun. Thanks again for the review.

 

Barbara

[Himself]

Your review was entertaining. Thank you for sharing it.

[Saltdog]

One of the funniest reviews I've ever read. Thanks!

[catlady922]

Thanks Denise...I truly enjoyed reading your review. The Wang Wang story made me laugh outloud which caused my husband to ask why I was laughing and I told him I was laughing about Wang Wangs. I'll leave it at that lol. :)

[IndyDenise]

Uh, oh... there really is a fashion police on HAL ships. :rolleyes:

 

-------------------

 

Yup, and I am sorry that I didn't find the fact you couldn't put on your bikini straps properly to parade around the deck acceptable...but hey, at least you had a good time.

[Minoushka]

Could you please give us an update where you went,who with what you enjoyed in ports etc

I will be on the same in July .trying to get info

I hope food selections will improve before I get on . Princess usually has great food so I hope Hal measures up I.m not that fussy but taste must be in

I think I am a good cook so I expect nothing less from cruise companies I do not like the reheated stuff I like mine freshly done ok if I need to wait cold burgers not good

I thought and read Hal had great food ......wow I.m on for 20 days. Yikes

 

Michele