Noordam Southern Caribbean Seafarer Review March 1-11

[mickey89]

Sewer Smells were definately present everytime you passed the central lift area on Deck 3, by the invalid toilet.

 

This cruise was a major disappointment, I enjoyed past cruises aboard the Noordam, not any more. The quality has dropped to an unacceptable level, food in the MDR was at times a disgrace, very little choice as the Lido had the same menu every evening.

 

The number of people with sickness, coughing and spluttering was rediculous. HAL should be more careful at the vetting of people at embarkation as it turned out to be a Hospital Ship during this cruise.

[Tabbymom]

The sick people must have stayed away from me because I didn't notice that this was a problem.

 

My mom was also disappointed compared to prior HAL cruises (including Noordam III, not this one); more on this and MDR at the end of my review.

[Tabbymom]

March 5: At sea. Woken at 5:10 am by the captain announcing that we were turning NE towards Puerto Rico because an ill passenger required a helicopter evacuation. We were asked to not go on deck, and to not take flash pictures from the balcony because we would blind the helicopter pilots. The captain woke us again at 5:45 am (just as I was falling back to sleep) to announce the evacuation was over and successful.

 

 

Otherwise a quiet sea day, which I started with a mile walk on the promenade deck. After breakfast I did the kitchen tour. I think it was basically set up for a photo op with the chef. I had done the kitchen tour on the Mariner of the Seas and saw a lot more. On the Noordam, I thought I was heading to a second part of the kitchen when I realized I was exiting through the Pinnacle. I spent most of the rest of the day sunbathing at the Sea View aft pool.

 

 

 

Late in the afternoon I got the Ipod art tour from the librarian at the Explorations Cafe and followed along with the 36 minute tour, pausing to take pictures and move to different spots. It gave a lot of background information on much of the art in the forward part of the ship and the atrium, and is definitely worth doing. Among other things, I learned that the forward staircase had paintings of all four Noordams. Both Mom and a man at our dinner table made special trips to see those paintings. This was the second formal night.

 

 

Lovely room on the starboard side of the Crow's Nest. Painting is "Flower Still Life" Acryl on Aluminum, by Ru Vunderink, The Netherlands, 2005

 

 

Tour told me this is not five dolphins, but five stages of one dolphin leaping:

 

Annex room of the library, er Explorations Cafe. There's a lovely atlas on the marble table but when we tried to look up the ABC islands, we found that someone had ripped out eight pages of Caribbean maps. The librarian said that a new copy had been ordered.

 

 

Painting of the Noordam III, 1984-2004 (the one Mom's been on three times):

 

The most expensive art object on the ship, outside the Queen's Lounge:

 

Elevator door art deco detail:

[SeminoleFan]

Wonderful review, particularly enjoying your pictures of the ship. Thank you!

[sail7seas]

Wonderful review and great photos.

Thanks for sharing with us. :)

We're top on the list of those who Love Noordam. :)

 

[496and706]

Thank you for more pictures of all my favourite Noordam things.

 

The cabinet.

The library.

The elevator doors.

The dolphin sculpture.

 

 

 

~happy sigh~ Less than a week to go... :D

[IRL_Joanie]

.....<SNIP>....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.....<SNIP>....

 

LOVE Lester's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hubby and I always fly in at least a day early so that we can go to Lester's!!!

 

Never paid attention to the service speed as I was just happy to sink my teeth into their Rueben:)

 

Joanie

[Tabbymom]

I couldn't fit this in the last post, but I really liked this "paper diorama of a shipmodel of a merchant vessel, by Hopman, The Netherlands, 19th Century." It was hanging in the room on the port side of the Crow's Nest.

 

 

The next day I was taking pictures of Bonaire from the Observation Deck and passed the picture and discovered Klein Bonaire reflected in it.

 

[mickey89]

The sick people must have stayed away from me because I didn't notice that this was a problem.

 

My mom was also disappointed compared to prior HAL cruises (including Noordam III, not this one); more on this and MDR at the end of my review.

 

 

Didn't notice a problem where were you? Two coffins off-loaded in Aruba, 2 helicopter Emergency mid-seas recovery of sick people, Emergency Ambulance awaiting ship at St. Thomas. The ship was as near to a Hospital Ship you could find !

[Tabbymom]

Hmm - five medical emergencies on a 21 day cruise (please note I was on only 10 days) of over 2700 crew and (skewing elderly) passengers with no quarantines, no norovirus, no overt coughing behavior, no medical warnings or alerts, venues filled with happy healthy passengers - not what I would call a hospital ship.

 

True story - we boarded the ship mid-day on Friday. At breakfast in Lido Sunday morning, another passenger is complaining about the "orange alert" where passengers can't serve themselves. He proclaims "It's been 72 hours already; when is it going to end?" I could not convince him that it hadn't been even 48 hours - he kept saying, Friday, Saturday, Sunday - 72 hours. :rolleyes:

[cruz chic]

True story - we boarded the ship mid-day on Friday. At breakfast in Lido Sunday morning, another passenger is complaining about the "orange alert" where passengers can't serve themselves. He proclaims "It's been 72 hours already; when is it going to end?" I could not convince him that it hadn't been even 48 hours - he kept saying, Friday, Saturday, Sunday - 72 hours. :rolleyes:

I just have to laugh. Some people.........:D

[Tabbymom]

March 6: Bonaire.

 

 

I had reserved the 8:00 am Woodwind snorkel tour. It was about a 12 minute walk through a resort to the Woodwind pier. The staff on the catamaran was great. Dee looked through my glasses then brought me a prescription mask. She changed one of the lenses twice until we found just the right strength. It was a revelation; the first time I could see clearly underwater. They also provided fins, more comfortable than any I'd used before. We sailed over the the first snorkeling spot, being offered water, soda, and beer on the way. They divided us into three groups for drift snorkeling, where the boat followed along. Each group had a guide; mine (Isabella) realized I was fine by myself and concentrated on the other two people who had float jackets and were tethered to the guide - newbies I guess! The only time I had to kick was when I was afraid I was drifting too close to coral; otherwise just floated along on my own enjoying the coral and fish (and wishing it was sunny). Isabella checked on me a couple of times, and at one point advised me that a sea turtle was nearby. The Woodwind photographer and I both paddled over and I got a great picture with my disposable underwater camera.

 

After about 50 minutes we returned to the ship to go to the other spot. The water there was rougher and there was nothing different to see, so I only did about 20 minutes before returning to the catamaran. They offered snacks and more drinks, and we could watch the DVD of the Woodwind photographer. I decided not to spend $30 to get pictures of me photographing a sea turtle, among the rest. The staff took good care of us and gave the ladies detangler for our hair. Although it wasn't the most colorful snorkeling I've done (vs Hawaii), there was a wide variety of fish and coral and was a different experience than I'd had in the past and well worth the $65 cost.

 

 

 

I went back to the ship to shower and have lunch, then back off the pier to check out the craft stands and shops in town (and get a wifi signal in the plaza). It was a charming little tourist town. My objective was to get Bonaire sea salt for the table (vs bath or pedicure salts) which I found in the market. I got a few other souvenirs in town and sent a couple of postcards off; the art shop where I bought them also sold me stamps. The weather got sunnier as the day progressed so it got warm in town; the humidity (85%) was now higher than the temperature (79 degrees F).

 

 

Shot through the glass elevator on board:

 

 

After dinner this evening was the Lido Pool party; Mom wanted to go and it only took me 10 minute to track down a chair for her. (Took another 20 minutes to find me one.) We came straight from dinner so couldn't eat; didn't look like much of a buffet and pretty simple ice sculptures.

 

[profteedee]

What an interesting review and such awesome photographs! Love reading all about your experiences and seeing the pictures. Makes one eager for more!! Happy Cruising!

[Tabbymom]

Happy to hear people are enjoying this!

 

Hmm - how to limit to the allowed six pictures for Curacao...well, let's start with the Punda when the bridge was open:

 

 

March 7: Curacao. First words out of Mom's mouth on the veranda: "I'm so disappointed." We were docked at the MegaPier instead of the one across from town so no great view. I had reserved the 11:00 am IRIE bus tour and headed over early to make sure I could find it (their directions were from the other pier). I found a guy with a card with my name on it near the IRIE tour sign so knew I had the right place. While I was waiting I found free wifi inside the Renaissance Resort shopping center. When I came out I made a joke about the IRIE guy's Segway and he asked if I would like to use it. I'd been on one before so took it on a little circle of the courtyard. The bus arrived and the driver said not to worry about where we sat because we wouldn't be very full. We started off and the next thing we knew, the bus was being filled by passengers off another ship (the Grandeur out of Panama). They were a bit raucous for some of the tour.

 

Other than that, it was a very nice tour, especially for the $20 cost. There were plenty of descriptions and history in both English and Spanish. They had cold water, soda (no diet), and beer. We drove past the pontoon bridge, through the old Jewish quarter, across the Queen Juliana bridge, past more old homes and other famous landmarks, and a stop at the Curacao "factory" (actually store). IMO this was a bit of a waste; they don't manufacture there so all you really learned was the history and had the chance to try tiny samples of four flavors. It was also theoretically a bathroom break but the ladies room had TWO STALLS. You can imagine the line.

 

Back on the bus to the new housing developments, a view of Spanish Waters, and down to Seaquarium Beach where we got free admission for a 45 minute stop. We could opt to stay longer and have a later bus pick us up, which fortunately was the choice for the Grandeur passengers. It was a lovely beach with warm water; I just left my stuff on a chair and floated for most of the time. Then back on the bus, back across the bridge, and finished where we started by the pontoon bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

I watched the pontoon bridge open to let a freighter through. After it closed I walked over to the Punda side.

 

 

I relaxed for a while at Wilhelmina Park and had a snack from the ship, then asked someone to take my picture at the giant Curacao sign.

 

 

 

 

 

My next destination was the Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue where I paid admission and took a look around the sanctuary and museum.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I walked over to floating market and back to the shops in town where I bought a few souvenirs. I finally headed back to the ship, stopping near the dock to buy a small wheel of Gouda.

 

I went to "Caribbean Night" at the ship shops, "complimentary tastings of Rum and Tortuga Rum Cakes." This consisted of one woman behind the counter pouring thimble size helpings of one kind of rum, and 1/2 inch squares of a few flavors of cake. On RCI, they had a vodka tasting with three people pouring at least five kinds of vodka. Boo on HAL.

 

I didn't feel like getting off the ship and walking back to the bridge so got some night views from the Crow's Nest.

 

[Tabbymom]

 

March 8: Aruba. I had a leisurely breakfast then walked down the pier and across the street to the Arubus lot, where I caught a bus to Eagle Beach. It cost $2.50 each way. After a 15 minute ride, the driver announced "Eagle Beach, Amsterdam Manor". A couple got off along with me and we were all somewhat surprised to find ourselves at the side of an empty road. We started down the side road that the bus driver had pointed out and in about one minute were crossing the street to the beach.

 

 

It was a beautiful white sand beach with turquoise water, offering lounge chairs under palapa umbrellas for $15, a beach bar, and water sports. I didn't want to buy a chair so put my towel and bag under an empty palapa and spent a couple of hours mostly relaxing in water and chatting with other people. This was my favorite activity of the cruise. I started getting a bit sunburned and the wind was picking up and sandblasting us. The bus back to town stopped right across the road from the beach.

 

I took this to prove my new nail polish was indeed the exact color of the water in Aruba.

 

 

In town I wondered around for a while looking for Aruba Aloe. After many false starts(including directions to a now closed booth in the big pink mall, and another reference to try Far-mah-see which turned out to be a pharmacy), I finally found the shop tucked away in a back corner of the Renaissance Hotel behind the Starbucks. I got my products and headed back to the ship past a row of cheap souvenir stands. Right at the end of the gangway off the ship was a huge shed with several more souvenir shops. I found Mom onboard and convinced her she could easily walk to and around those shops so finally got her off the ship. Not very far off the ship, but we both regarded it as an accomplishment.

 

Then we had our own sailaway party on the verandas with a couple of cheese plates from room service. For a ship that prides itself on service, they were poor cheese choices and the bread basket was composed of Saltines, Melba Toast, and Rye Krisp. They should have been ashamed. The next day I assembled my own cheese selection from the lunch choices in the Lido, added some bagettes and bread sticks, and kept it in the fridge until late afternoon. So much better!

 

The Renaissance private island as we were leaving Aruba.

 

[cruz chic]

I'm enjoying your review and the pics:).

[grammie2maddie]

March 6: Bonaire.

 

 

I had reserved the 8:00 am Woodwind snorkel tour. It was about a 12 minute walk through a resort to the Woodwind pier. The staff on the catamaran was great. Dee looked through my glasses then brought me a prescription mask. She changed one of the lenses twice until we found just the right strength. It was a revelation; the first time I could see clearly underwater. They also provided fins, more comfortable than any I'd used before. We sailed over the the first snorkeling spot, being offered water, soda, and beer on the way. They divided us into three groups for drift snorkeling, where the boat followed along. Each group had a guide; mine (Isabella) realized I was fine by myself and concentrated on the other two people who had float jackets and were tethered to the guide - newbies I guess! The only time I had to kick was when I was afraid I was drifting too close to coral; otherwise just floated along on my own enjoying the coral and fish (and wishing it was sunny). Isabella checked on me a couple of times, and at one point advised me that a sea turtle was nearby. The Woodwind photographer and I both paddled over and I got a great picture with my disposable underwater camera.

 

After about 50 minutes we returned to the ship to go to the other spot. The water there was rougher and there was nothing different to see, so I only did about 20 minutes before returning to the catamaran. They offered snacks and more drinks, and we could watch the DVD of the Woodwind photographer. I decided not to spend $30 to get pictures of me photographing a sea turtle, among the rest. The staff took good care of us and gave the ladies detangler for our hair. Although it wasn't the most colorful snorkeling I've done (vs Hawaii), there was a wide variety of fish and coral and was a different experience than I'd had in the past and well worth the $65 cost.

 

 

 

I went back to the ship to shower and have lunch, then back off the pier to check out the craft stands and shops in town (and get a wifi signal in the plaza). It was a charming little tourist town. My objective was to get Bonaire sea salt for the table (vs bath or pedicure salts) which I found in the market. I got a few other souvenirs in town and sent a couple of postcards off; the art shop where I bought them also sold me stamps. The weather got sunnier as the day progressed so it got warm in town; the humidity (85%) was now higher than the temperature (79 degrees F).

 

 

Shot through the glass elevator on board:

 

 

After dinner this evening was the Lido Pool party; Mom wanted to go and it only took me 10 minute to track down a chair for her. (Took another 20 minutes to find me one.) We came straight from dinner so couldn't eat; didn't look like much of a buffet and pretty simple ice sculptures.

 

 

I'm sorry - this is going to sound like an asinine question. I know that 'they say' they sanitize the snorkeling equipment from person to person, but with all the viruses and other bugs floating around - pardon the pun - how can they really sanitize the equipment? I would really like to snorkel, but when I've investigated, I've just seen a big bucket with lots of mouthpieces, etc., jammed in and some not covered with solution. I realize it's my decision whether or not to pursue this, but I'd love to, but trying at all costs to avoid bacteria and bugs. Please try not to slam me for this question.

[SwissMyst]

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

 

When we were on the Oostedam with similar show hours, those of us with late seating dinner were encouraged to go to the early show. It was exactly one hour long and we finished just in time for dinner. Much better we thought, than trying to stay up to 10:00 to see the "regular" late shows.

 

So with this upside down scheduling, we had a nice leisurely dinner and a good show where we did not have to worry about falling asleep either waiting until it started or during it. (We are really a fun bunch, aren't we? But this really worked for us and we hoped all ships would make the switch)

[Tabbymom]

The Noordam had 5:30 and 8:00 fixed seatings, and mostly 8:00 and 10:00 shows. So with late dining the only option was the 10:00. And if the only show was at 9:30 (first and last nights) there was no option. I agree that having an early show for late dining is great; we did that on RCI ships.

 

how can they really sanitize the equipment?

To be honest, I didn't get too concerned about this since I'm relatively germ resistant. I had my own snorkel which I used for the first drift (with their mask) but was getting some water coming in. They offered me one of their own snorkels for the second drift; they swished it through a bucket which I believe contained disinfectant. You might want to bring alcohol or disinfectant wipes to clean their mouthpiece, or buy your own snorkel (much easier to pack than the whole mask and fins). As it turns out, I would have taken a much bigger health risk had I drunk any water on Grand Turk!

[lvz2cruz]

I am enjoying your review and LOVE love love your pic of the sea turtle. Your disposable camera did a great job.

[cruz chic]

I'm sorry - this is going to sound like an asinine question. I know that 'they say' they sanitize the snorkeling equipment from person to person, but with all the viruses and other bugs floating around - pardon the pun - how can they really sanitize the equipment? I would really like to snorkel, but when I've investigated, I've just seen a big bucket with lots of mouthpieces, etc., jammed in and some not covered with solution. I realize it's my decision whether or not to pursue this, but I'd love to, but trying at all costs to avoid bacteria and bugs. Please try not to slam me for this question.

I think you and I were separated at birth:D. I think it's nasty just thinking about it:eek:.

[kazu]

Just another thank you for your great review and simply fabulous photos.

 

Very nicely done.

[jimbri]

Beautiful photos. Thank you.

[Tabbymom]

Thank you for all your kind words; I really do appreciate them.

 

March 9: At sea. A quiet day (and the second formal night); mainly lounged around the Sea View pool and ate too much ice cream and cookies.

 

 

 

Self-portrait (reflected in the glass elevator) to prove that I really did walk the promenade deck for exercise, even if I was getting passed by passengers 10 years senior to me!

 

 

 

We did go to the Mariner's lunch and got our tiles. Mom was surprised that they didn't even offer our table coffee or tea with dessert. The last formal night. After dinner was the Dessert Extravaganza; some of the bread/pastry sculptures were looking a bit the worse for wear. I had a nice little crepe Suzette and tracked down a chocolate truffle hidden behind some marzipan.

 

Must be extravagant; milk AND white chocolate fountains:

 

 

 

This guy was making crepes Suzette:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ellieanne]

Thanks so much for the review. My parents were on this cruise and neither one has bothered to upload pictures...