Noordam Southern Caribbean Seafarer Review March 1-11

[Tabbymom]

This review ended up much longer than I planned - I'll submit it to the review section but thought it might work as a sort of delayed blog with pictures. I went for my mom's sake and didn't really have too many expectations but did want to say that the most impressive aspect of the cruise was the other passengers. The bulk of people were in the age range of 50's to 70's, the average a little older than me (61). Everywhere I went on ship or in port, I had the best time talking to my fellow travelers.

 

On with the first couple of days:

 

As a preface - I went on this cruise for my mom's sake. She is a four star Mariner who had cruised for decades - first with my father then for about 12 years on her own all over the world. She hadn't been for the last two years due to various health issues that make it difficult for her to travel alone. So I volunteered to go with her (twist my arm) , picked HAL because that was her favorite line, and chose the 10 day Southern Caribbean Seafarer because I was interested in the ports. Mom just wanted to see if she could still cruise and didn't mean to leave the ship. She wanted her own cabin (actually her own bathroom) and refused to put me in an inside cabin. I was able to find side-by-side veranda cabins behind the aft elevators. This was very convenient for dining but a bit of a walk for everything else.

 

 

We flew down to FLL the afternoon before the cruise. Mom had wheelchair assistance and boy that helps with security! Our flight was on time, we got a porter and our luggage at FLL, then called the Hampton Inn Cruiseport North for the shuttle. We had to wait half an hour for the next shuttle to come. The hotel was fine, a decent typical Hampton, and we booked the 10:15 am shuttle to the port for the next morning. I ran across the street to Winn Dixie for sun tan lotion and a couple of bottles of wine - they actually had a decent selection. Not Total Wines, but better than Walgreens. We took the hotel shuttle to Lester's Diner for dinner, a great classic diner with revolving pies (an old David Letterman routine) but extremely slow service. The shuttle came back to get us only about 10 minutes after I called, although when I called they said it would be half an hour.

 

March 1: The next morning we were up early and caught the 10:15 shuttle. Luggage was taken away, and we waited on a bench outside for about 10 minutes. The doors opened about 10:50; Mom declined a wheelchair for inside the terminal so we checked in at the VIP counter then waited in the VIP lounge. This was just a separate room, nothing fancy, but they did offer water, lemonade, and cookies. At about 11:30 they brought over a wheelchair (Mom didn't want to walk up the ramp) and due to her 4 star status we actually were the first to board! I thought this was very cool. After dropping Mom at her cabin, making sure everything was OK for her, and throwing my suitcase into my cabin, I ran around the ship taking pictures of all the empty venues.

 

 

Lido Pool:

 

 

 

 

Lido Bar:

 

 

 

 

 

Sea View Pool:

 

 

 

 

Atrium Stairs:

 

 

 

 

 

We went to the Mariner's lunch (I was one star due to my one Carnival cruise) and I had a nice chicken mango salad and a delicious chocolate mousse cake. Then we went to correct our table assignments - even though our bookings were linked, they assigned us to different tables (late seating). We then checked at the front desk for a few requests. I had read on CC that Mom could wait out the lifeboat drill at the bottom of the atrium but that was not the case; she had to attend. She was annoyed with me for making her go because she used to hide in the cabin but I told her they didn't allow that anymore. I went early and saved her a spot on the one bench in our muster area. She finally stopped complaining a couple of days later.

 

 

After the drill we unpacked, then watched sailaway from our verandas. We were on the port side, deck 6, and the people on the deck above us were flying a huge Union Jack. So we were able to tell brother/husband/son where to look and everyone saw us on the webcam! My brother got a screen shot; can't see our faces but we know it's us. Very cool.

 

 

 

We then went to the Seaview bar for margaritas and music. Mom went back to the cabin; I roamed the ship, had a snack at Lido, and set up internet so I could email my private excursions about the change in itinerary between Curacao and Bonaire. I have an ITouch so just typed up my posts in Notes and only went online to send it out as emails. I paid by the minute onboard and was able to access free wifi on Grand Turk, Bonaire, and Curacao. Altogether I used 15 minutes of internet so with the activation fee spent $15.20; not too bad. The rest of my communication was an occasional text via cell phone, $.50 outgoing and $.20 incoming.

 

 

We had a pleasant but slow dinner; I asked for a thick cut of prime rib and got a giant plateful. I wanted to see the opening show in the Vista Lounge but arrived as it was getting out. This was quite a problem for late seating - we were among the last tables to get out every night, and there were several shows that were timed so that late seating guests could not attend. I felt this was a very big problem; not that I would have gone to everything but that HAL did not care that a large share of their guests were prevented from attending entertainment due to the scheduling. Based on the Explorers, here are the shows that were impossible for late dinner seating guests to attend:

 

 

Night 1: 9:30pm, Vista Lounge, "Let Us Entertain You"

Night 2: 9:00-10:00pm Queen's Lounge "50's and 60's Rock 'n Roll Party"

Night 3: 9:00pm Queen's Lounge Karaoke Night

Night 4: 9:00pm Queen's Lounge "Call My Bluff" gameshow

Night 5: 9:00pm Queen's Lounge "Battle of the Sexes" gameshow

Night 6: 8:00pm Queen's Lounge Karaoke Fun

Night 6: 9:30pm Lido Pool Party - we could attend, but all the tables and chairs were taken

Night 8: 9:00pm Queen's Lounge "The Match Game" gameshow

Night 8: 9:30pm Piano Bar "Pop Music Trivia"

Night 9: 9:30pm Queen's Lounge "The Marriage Game" gameshow

Night 10: 9:30pm Vista Lounge "Variety Show"

Night 10: 8:00 pm Queen's Lounge "Majority Rules" gameshow

[496and706]

Thank you for the review and the pictures.

 

Just out of curiosity... what colour was the light in the atrium while you were aboard? In that picture it looks pink. On our last 2 cruises on the Noordam the light was stuck on blue. On our first cruise, the light was always alternating the colours. Has it finally been fixed?

[Tabbymom]

Yes, the light rotated and changed colors through all the rainbow. I took a video of it changing from pink to purple to blue. Here it is yellow:

 

[Love the beach]

We also had late seating & the same problem getting to the 9 & 9:30 pm shows. If there was something we really wanted to see we ate in Lido.

We all love the Marriage Game and it was held on Formal night :( so we missed out on the Surf & Turf, escargot, etc.

Don't know what the solution is but wish they would find one.

Marge

[496and706]

Yay!! It's so beautiful when it's working.

 

My husband and I will be on her again this coming Friday for the Trans Atlantic.

 

We have changed to early seating this time so we can see more shows.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report.

[Tabbymom]

Continuing:

March 2: Half Moon Cay. It was overcast and in the high 60's. I tendered over at 10am and walked for an hour - you can see the stingrays and starfish at Stingray Cove from about four feet above them without paying to go in the water.

 

 

Then I went up as far as the stables and over to the beach, where I watched "swim with the horses"; looked like they were actually in the water only 6 or 7 minutes.

 

 

I started back along the beach and tried out a hammock for five minutes until it started raining and the temperature dropped a few degrees. I chatted with people at the bar (including a couple from the Westerdam on their last day), had a tiny bite at the buffet, got chilly, and went back to the ship at 12:30 and right into the hot tub.

 

 

Had lunch and crafted wine charms, then went with Mom to her 4 star Mariner free wine tasting. I got in even though I wasn't invited. It really was a sales pitch for the wine packages although we did taste four lower priced wines.

 

Got dressed for formal night and had my photo done at all the locations, ate the "Captain Gala Dinner", and saw the show "Ballroom Blitz." (This show really made me appreciate the Royal Caribbean entertainment.) The HAL dancers and singers worked hard but were really only average; my comment was that they were at least as good as Bristol Palin. By this I meant that the routines were at the level of difficulty that made Bristol look good. I would have left but didn't want to disturb the people on either side.

 

Duck Pate:

 

 

I brought my own bottle of wine to dinner, prepared to pay the corkage fee. However, it was a screw top and the waiter brought us wine glasses. I kept both my bottles in the cabin refrigerator and brought them separately to dinners, poured ourselves, and never got charged. I think the wine steward may have seen it but never said anything.

 

March 3: Grand Turk. This morning was our Meet & Greet from the CC rollcall. It was a lovely layout in the Crow's Nest; they had endless mimosas, a chocolate fountain, pastries, and coffee. We met the rollcall, a very nice group of people. No free gifts from HAL; our RCI Meet & Mingles gave out ship stuff to the guests.

 

 

I went ashore at Grand Turk only to learn that my snorkeling excursion (HAL Ultimate Snorkel) had been cancelled due to high winds. I was extremely disappointed and it was even too cool to swim at Margaritaville. I did pick up wifi for a few minutes before it dropped, went back to the ship for lunch, then back onshore to get a bit more wifi at Froot. I shopped for a few minutes then returned to the ship as it started to rain.

 

Noordam at Grand Turk:

 

 

Mom wanted to see the comic after dinner (Julie Barr); she was decent but had too much interaction with one drunk in the audience.

 

I had planned ahead of time to re-re-rewatch the Lord of the Rings trilogy since they had the DVD's available. I did accomplish seeing all 12 hours. But odd story: three days after I rented the first DVD, that movie was playing on one of the channels on the cabin tv. And it was followed the next day by LOTR 2, and then LOTR 3. I watched the DVD's rather than the tv so I could pause where I wanted. But after I came home I checked the old tv listings and the movie did not appear to be showing on commercial or cable tv. Did my DVD rental feed directly into the ship television system? It wasn't just me; other people at our dinner table also could get it. It still bemuses me.

[aliaschief]

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing your cruise experience. Great pics!

[Seago2]

Thanks for the pics! Wow, what a CC spread. I can only recall ever getting cookies...

[tangerinebunny]

This is the cruise we'd expected to do next, then we kept hearing about sewer smells on the Noordam. Was I hallucinating?

 

Did anyone mention this on your cruise?

[496and706]

If a movie is shown in the ship's theatre one day, they play it in the rooms the next day. The ship seems to have control over some of the channels so that they can show various ship stuff (including "Good Morning Noordam" live every morning). They also show upcoming excursions and some lectures.

 

They also have a few cable channels.

 

That being said I think we have seen LOTR and the entire Pirates of the Carribean series numerous times on the ship.

[startwin]

Loving your review... thanks!

[Tabbymom]

No sewer smells. I did have temporary toilet problems in my cabin while in the first couple of ports: very delayed flushes, and what looked like some back sewage that I was able to flush. I didn't bother reporting it since it self-corrected. Nobody ever mentioned sewage smells. The only cabin hallways I traveled were on my deck six, and deck one when going to the front desk. I don't think I ever was in the hallways on decks 4, 5, 7, or 8.

 

So pure coincidence that I was watching LOTR on DVD and it also was playing on the tv. Whew! The channels I remember were TCM, TNT, CNN, Fox News, a couple of sports channels, the bow camera, the aft camera, a music channel, the ship movie channel, a channel that showed ship position and other statistics (I watched this one a lot; it showed us going in a circle between Bonaire and Curacao), a Spanish channel, ship shopping channel, and ship info channel (including Good Morning Noordam and port information). There may have been one or two more.

 

Movies on our cruise were right out of the Oscar ceremony and included:

Lincoln

Anna Karenina

Silver Linings Playbook

Amour

Life of Pi

Argo

Skyfall

Northern Lights

Alex Cross

[kazu]

Wonderful pictures and a great review. Thanks so much. Looking forward to more.

 

Curious as to the shows - didn't they have two different show times? Usually they offer an earlier show for the late dining?

 

Your cc meet and greet certainly had a nice presentation. Wow!

 

and welcome home:)

[Tabbymom]

didn't they have two different show times?

They only had one show on the first and last nights at 9:30. The other nights they had two shows at 8:00 and 10:00. So late dining would have to finish and race down the entire ship to see the 10:00 show.

 

I looked up my RCI Enchantment schedule from 2009 out of curiosity. The fixed dinner seatings were at 6 and 8:30. Most nights shows were at 7:00 (for late seating) and 9:00 (for early seating). A couple of times the shows were at 9:00 and 10:45. There were some game shows at 9:00, but their big game Quest was at 10:45. Clearly RCI stays up later than HAL! ;)

[Tabbymom]

March 4: Samana. I had room service breakfast which was delivered right on time as we approached Samana. After breakfast I walked three times around the promenade deck (one mile) and once around the Observation Deck.

 

Bridge and bridge:

 

 

 

I tendered over to Samana; it took about 20 minutes. Then I walked along the waterfront to the end of the craft stands and back. I vaguely looked for a larimar ring but no one had the style, color, and size I wanted. This was actually the only island where I felt there were true hand made native crafts. Not necessarily great stuff, but at least some of it seemed authentic. There were plenty of people trying to offer taxi tours, kids were selling shells at $1, and the vendors kept calling out "Hola lady, for you I give great deal!" I just kept smiling, shaking my head, saying no, and walking on. It was less intrusive than I'd feared.

 

 

Then back to the ship for (finally) some sunshine.

 

My husband asked where the baseball fields were so I showed him this picture; he said home runs would end up in the ocean.

 

Mom and I had been invited to the VIP Captain's "Cocktail or After Drinks" party at 7:30pm at the terrace off the Crow's Nest. Mom stayed inside and was served champagne and hors d'oevres. I went outside and got fresh made cosmopolitans and passed on meeting the captain and crew. (Our invitation advised us to "refrain from hand shaking at this event.")

 

Then we were off to Pinnacle for our 50% off dinner (nice traveling with a four star). It was a delicious meal and excellent service. One caveat, however, was that Mom and I were seated at a secluded romantic booth far to one end of the restaurant. It would have been nice to be more in the middle of the restaurant since it wasn't very crowded. You can have as many appetizers, sides, and desserts as you want, plus one entree. They started with a bread basket, three kinds of whipped butter, and three kinds of salt.

 

 

Mom had a great lobster bisque ("would you like brandy?" " Sure!") and we both had Caesar's Salad prepared tableside (actually just assembled tableside; I've had it made from scratch in my day and there's a big difference. But it tasted fine.) Mom had the Steak Diane and I had filet mignon with bernaise. Great cuts of beef. We got sides of onions, mushrooms, scalloped potato, and french fries. And sorry to admit that we got three desserts - the creme brulee (three great flavors), chocolate souffle (served in a junior size ramekin), and Baked Alaska flamed tableside with bing cherry sauce. I was a bit surprised to see soft instead of hard meringue, different from the Baked Alaska I've had in the past.

 

Pinnacle Creme Brulee

 

Baked Alaska about to be flamed

[startwin]

They only had one show on the first and last nights at 9:30. The other nights they had two shows at 8:00 and 10:00. So late dining would have to finish and race down the entire ship to see the 10:00 show.

 

I looked up my RCI Enchantment schedule from 2009 out of curiosity. The fixed dinner seatings were at 6 and 8:30. Most nights shows were at 7:00 (for late seating) and 9:00 (for early seating). A couple of times the shows were at 9:00 and 10:45. There were some game shows at 9:00, but their big game Quest was at 10:45. Clearly RCI stays up later than HAL! ;)

 

Ah yes - Quest. Such fun!!

[innlady1]

Enjoyed reading about your cruise, Tabbymom...your meet and greet looks lovely....your Hotel Director undoubtedly was Mark Pells...he's the only HD I've met who goes all out for CC meet and greets! Fabulous!!!

[Seago2]

Beautiful Pinnacle pics!

[cruz chic]

Thanks for the pics! Wow, what a CC spread. I can only recall ever getting cookies...

I've been to several CC meetings. The Noordam was the best spread of food. It's not typical.

[cruz chic]

No sewer smells. I did have temporary toilet problems in my cabin while in the first couple of ports: very delayed flushes, and what looked like some back sewage that I was able to flush. I didn't bother reporting it since it self-corrected. Nobody ever mentioned sewage smells. The only cabin hallways I traveled were on my deck six, and deck one when going to the front desk. I don't think I ever was in the hallways on decks 4, 5, 7, or 8.

I had flushing problems for most of my Noordam cruise (Feb 18 - Mar 1) in room 7004. It seemed to affect several cabins. It was out for several hours to several minutes. I know people love the Noordam but I thought it was so so.

[Himself]

I am enjoying your review.

[Typhoon1]

Great review with excellent pics. Thanks for sharing.

[beachbum6264]

Thanks for a wonderful review. I am enjoying this... even though it does make it more difficult to wait until Jan. 6! Looking forward to more pictures.

[JamesEM]

Thanks for sharing, were on Noordam in 2011 and had a great 11 day cruise.