Noordam Southern Caribbean Seafarer Review March 1-11

[wldflr]

Tabbymom,

 

Great review & pics!

 

I too took a snorkel tour on the Woodwind with Dee and her crew on Bonaire and this very nearsighted gal was beyond thrilled when I was fitted with a prescription snorkel mask. I am so going to buy one before my next cruise! But I purchased the CD/pics that their on-board photographer took and I was very glad I did - they snapped a pic of me free diving among the coral - and I had no idea they did it until I saw it afterwards. Friends back home couldn't believe it was me!

 

I also took the art tour and do so on all the Holland ships...a floating museum if only passengers would stop and notice!

 

Hope you got to meet Mark, the bartender in the Crow's Nest.

 

I would go on the Noordam again in a heartbeat!

[Tabbymom]

ellieanne - maybe I got some pictures of your parents - what do they look like LOL?

 

wldflr - I did not meet the bartender although I'm sure I saw him. Maybe he's in this picture of the staff "goodbye" at the disembarkation talk.

 

 

March 10: At sea. Mostly a repeat of the day before except for packing (suitcases had to be in the hall by 1:00 am). We also got preliminary copies of our bills to make sure everything was OK and I bought a couple of formal portraits. I thought the HAL packages were very rip-off. They printed "sheets" - for formal posed portraits, each sheet had one 8x10, one 5x7, and two wallet sizes - it cost $39.95. Each informal sheet (like pictures at embarkation, dinner table shots, and at the ports) was half the size and half the price. You could buy six formal sheets for $199 and six informal sheets for $99; each included the DVD of those prints. You could buy all pictures taken of you for $349 which included a DVD. I don't know if it's changed since 2009, but on RCI you could buy a variety of packages that included a mix of different sizes and both formal and informal. It was clear HAL was mainly pushing the expensive packages. I would have spent more money if I could have gotten more variety.

 

This afternoon I ran into the youth director on the elevator and said she must not be too busy; I had only seen about six children. She responded, "But I see those six children ALL THE TIME!" :eek:

 

At dinner, we were just being served our entrees when the "Baked Alaska parade" started. This consisted of a number of waiters and chefs marching around and two people carrying Baked Alaskas. Then the head chef made a short speech, they all sang a goodbye song, and marched off.

 

 

I call this picture, "This is Shane Your Cruise Director". Since he started every announcement that way!

 

 

And a stunning sunset for the last night.

 

 

[JamesEM]

Thanks for the review and photos, and have a safe trip home.

[ellieanne]

ellieanne - maybe I got some pictures of your parents - what do they look like LOL?

 

You may have seen them, they spent the night before the cruise at the Hampton Inn Cruiseport North as well. Onboard, they would have been the couple with a book with them everywhere but the dining room. :)

[portofrome]

Thanks so much for your wonderful review and photos.

[DFD1]

About the most thorough review I've read. Thank you for the work you put into it and for the beautiful pictures.

 

I sense that you're not happy with HAL. Too bad.

[Tabbymom]

Onboard, they would have been the couple with a book with them everywhere but the dining room. :)

Oh sure, that narrows it down! ;) Did they spend time in the library? I forgot to mention how great that was; I did check out some trashy romance novels to re-read and felt a little guilty that I didn't take advantage of their extensive nonfiction selection.

[Deb922]

Great review, thanks! This is an itinery I am interested in.

 

About the snorkel, I have my own. I have a fancy one where water won't come in, I bought it at our local dive shop and paid $30. My H has a basic snorkel, his was $20. They are not that expensive for peace of mind. My H got prescription lenses for his mask, it's great. I just wore my contacts and I was fine.

[Tabbymom]

The itinerary was great but the weather really messed up the first few days. I was very happy to see the ABC islands.

 

No pictures for disembarkation; what a zoo! If there's something on the ship I haven't posted, I might have pictures and would be happy to post. We got a new camera last fall and I LOVE it - used it for the Rose Parade and now this cruise. It's a Canon SX260 HS; small enough to fit into a pocket or just hold in my hand, good zoom and low light pictures, and not too expensive. I admit most of these pictures have been edited!

 

I will do some final thoughts including my mom's opinions (since she's the four star Mariner!).

 

March 11: Disembarkation. We had gotten Pink 1 tags for our luggage, which was supposed to be priority wheelchair assisted early disembarkation. We were told our time was 8:15 to 8:30, and that we should be in the Pinnacle bar 15 minutes early. So we arrived there well before 8:00 am and found half a dozen passengers waiting in wheelchairs in a line, and another couple of dozen passengers waiting for wheelchairs. I asked the man in charge what to do, and he said to have a seat for a while. How long is a while, I asked? Half an hour, he replied; he was having trouble getting customs to clear his staff to take the wheelchairs off the ship. We had a 10:55 am flight from FLL. Mom said she was prepared to walk off the ship rather than wait. We already knew from embarkation that they had different people to handle wheelchairs in the terminal. We kept getting conflicting information about whether we could walk off. First they allowed off the people carrying their own luggage, then they started the Luggage Direct crowd.

 

At that point I basically bullied our way off the ship, although they claimed our luggage wouldn't be available. We walked off into the terminal and took the elevator down to luggage claim. I noticed a Pinnacle employee from the ship with an empty wheelchair and we started walking in his direction. A security guard saw us coming and insisted the ship guy put my mom in the chair. We went over to luggage where I did find our three suitcases. Then I looked for a porter; a port employee claimed they were unloading luggage but we espied one man with a cart and grabbed him. The wheelchair was handed off to a delightful older gentleman who worked for the terminal who took us on an end run around the lines and right to the head of customs, where we breezed through. Our little entourage headed out and down to the taxi line, where we were in a cab and arriving at the airport at 8:15. I consider this my great triumph in manipulation and believe if we'd followed all the contradictory instructions on the ship that we'd have missed our plane. We checked our luggage at the curb and Mom got a wheelchair almost immediately. Another skip to the head of security and we were at our gate with two hours to spare and I could stop worrying.

[gelo7]

Excellent review and photographs.

[Tabbymom]

The postcard I mailed March 6 from Bonaire arrived today So two weeks.

[Tabbymom]

General thoughts: Mom claimed this was her last HAL cruise although I suspect with time she'll change her mind. She thought the ship was too large and that venues used to be more open and accessible. She also thought everything was becoming separate cost centers rather than a cohesive experience. Her only complaint about the room was that she remembered long desks with drawers; I pointed out the four night table drawers and she was OK. She liked the coded room safes much better than the old card system. She slept very comfortably. She liked the pump bottles in the shower and enjoyed the veranda. She enjoyed the Pinnacle Grill which was her first specialty restaurant dining on a cruise. She found her favorite Clinique cream in the shops.

 

 

I only had my RCI cruises to compare but thought that HAL came off poorer in entertainment and also the openness of some venues. For example, the piano bar was in a separate room next to the casino rather than somewhere you could easily drop by. The ship itself was attractive and the staff were very friendly and generally tried their best to be helpful. I caught each of the music groups at least once and they were all OK but nothing special. I most enjoyed the steel drum player at the SeaView pool. I much appreciated the cold water and towels when returning to the ship from ports. And the public restrooms were great.

 

The dining room food varied from mediocre to excellent and you never knew what you would get so choices were a gamble. The menus were inaccurate at times and the waiters not that well informed. As an example, one appetizer was described as pineapple spears with coconut flakes. The pineapple was topped with peppercorns instead of coconut. Another time the chocolate dessert was supposed to have a dollop of whipped cream - no dollop. Herbs and spices were not always as described. Our servers were very nice but our service took much too long. This was even after they promised to put us first on the third night and I complained on the sixth night. It's a good thing we liked our tablemates! I had breakfast in the MDR once and it was good but extremely slow service. I also noticed both that day and at the Mariner's lunch that you heard and felt the engines much more on the lower level than on the upper level dining area. I would not have liked to experience that every night so was glad we dined upstairs.

 

I liked most of the food I ate at the Lido for breakfast and lunch but didn't get many of the hot dishes. Nice sandwiches made to order, quite decent pizza, good omelets (although the line was too slow), good salads, dangerous ice cream and cookies (I only gained three pounds on the cruise and hold them mostly to blame. Well, that and the bread and butter). Terrible coffee, though. I had to wait a few times for pastries and cheeses to be replenished. I appreciated being able to carry food out of the Lido and back to the cabin or my chair by the pool, and the free 24/7 room service and being able to bring my own wine on.

 

I was always able to find a chair at the Sea View pool (the Lido pool looked packed), and also eventually was able to always find a place at Lido restaurant, although sometimes that took a hunt. One morning I thought a fist fight was going to break out between two women. One said, "That's my table, you moved my purse off it" and the other replied, "You moved the four glasses of juice I had put there." Luckily the stewards jumped in to straighten it out. When I was alone, I brought a book to leave on the table while I was off getting more food, and draped my napkin over the back of the chair and never had trouble.

 

The cabin was plenty big enough for me! The bed was very comfortable although the sheets were clearly low thread count; slightly rough to the touch. There was lots of storage; I used the space inside the round desk chair to store the larger bottles from the fridge. That made room in the fridge for my wine and some snacks from the Lido . The lighting at the desk was not very good for drying hair - one vertical light to one side facing me and the rest behind me - but the outlet in the bathroom couldn't run the hair dryer so I made the best of it. I figured out how to work the DVD player (they should have provided instructions though). We had the door opened between our verandas and it made a nice long "porch", as Mom said. We were very lucky that there were no smokers anywhere near us so we could enjoy sitting out on the verandas with no problems.

 

 

But as a I noted at the start, what surprised me the most was how much I enjoyed the other passengers. Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but everyone I talked to was so friendly and nice. On RCI, people were pleasant but more focused on their own families and groups. But HAL passengers were happy to reach out - maybe HAL has more couples and singles traveling? Anyway, I suspect I'm not really meant to be a cruiser but if I went again, I'd look for a smaller ship that can go into smaller ports or maybe the river cruises; it's getting too chancy with the bigger ships these days what with weather and germs and breakdowns.

 

A couple of the pretty flower arrangements:

 

 

[Sandi3667]

Thanks for the review & pics. This is one of the two itineraries we're looking at for next year. Have been on Oosterdam with an obstructed ocean view, but we'll be getting neigboring verandah cabins for our Noordam cruise, either 2/28 or 3/10 of next year. Your pics will help me show our friends what the verandahs will be like.

[Ice slider]

Great reading- after seeing the sailway picture and reading through your reviews and pictures I am sure my wife and I were next door to you in cabin 6120 for this trip. I enjoyed the trip, except for the first few days weather, and reading your review.

 

General thoughts: Mom claimed this was her last HAL cruise although I suspect with time she'll change her mind. She thought the ship was too large and that venues used to be more open and accessible. She also thought everything was becoming separate cost centers rather than a cohesive experience. Her only complaint about the room was that she remembered long desks with drawers; I pointed out the four night table drawers and she was OK. She liked the coded room safes much better than the old card system. She slept very comfortably. She liked the pump bottles in the shower and enjoyed the veranda. She enjoyed the Pinnacle Grill which was her first specialty restaurant dining on a cruise. She found her favorite Clinique cream in the shops.

 

 

I only had my RCI cruises to compare but thought that HAL came off poorer in entertainment and also the openness of some venues. For example, the piano bar was in a separate room next to the casino rather than somewhere you could easily drop by. The ship itself was attractive and the staff were very friendly and generally tried their best to be helpful. I caught each of the music groups at least once and they were all OK but nothing special. I most enjoyed the steel drum player at the SeaView pool. I much appreciated the cold water and towels when returning to the ship from ports. And the public restrooms were great.

 

The dining room food varied from mediocre to excellent and you never knew what you would get so choices were a gamble. The menus were inaccurate at times and the waiters not that well informed. As an example, one appetizer was described as pineapple spears with coconut flakes. The pineapple was topped with peppercorns instead of coconut. Another time the chocolate dessert was supposed to have a dollop of whipped cream - no dollop. Herbs and spices were not always as described. Our servers were very nice but our service took much too long. This was even after they promised to put us first on the third night and I complained on the sixth night. It's a good thing we liked our tablemates! I had breakfast in the MDR once and it was good but extremely slow service. I also noticed both that day and at the Mariner's lunch that you heard and felt the engines much more on the lower level than on the upper level dining area. I would not have liked to experience that every night so was glad we dined upstairs.

 

I liked most of the food I ate at the Lido for breakfast and lunch but didn't get many of the hot dishes. Nice sandwiches made to order, quite decent pizza, good omelets (although the line was too slow), good salads, dangerous ice cream and cookies (I only gained three pounds on the cruise and hold them mostly to blame. Well, that and the bread and butter). Terrible coffee, though. I had to wait a few times for pastries and cheeses to be replenished. I appreciated being able to carry food out of the Lido and back to the cabin or my chair by the pool, and the free 24/7 room service and being able to bring my own wine on.

 

I was always able to find a chair at the Sea View pool (the Lido pool looked packed), and also eventually was able to always find a place at Lido restaurant, although sometimes that took a hunt. One morning I thought a fist fight was going to break out between two women. One said, "That's my table, you moved my purse off it" and the other replied, "You moved the four glasses of juice I had put there." Luckily the stewards jumped in to straighten it out. When I was alone, I brought a book to leave on the table while I was off getting more food, and draped my napkin over the back of the chair and never had trouble.

 

The cabin was plenty big enough for me! The bed was very comfortable although the sheets were clearly low thread count; slightly rough to the touch. There was lots of storage; I used the space inside the round desk chair to store the larger bottles from the fridge. That made room in the fridge for my wine and some snacks from the Lido . The lighting at the desk was not very good for drying hair - one vertical light to one side facing me and the rest behind me - but the outlet in the bathroom couldn't run the hair dryer so I made the best of it. I figured out how to work the DVD player (they should have provided instructions though). We had the door opened between our verandas and it made a nice long "porch", as Mom said. We were very lucky that there were no smokers anywhere near us so we could enjoy sitting out on the verandas with no problems.

 

 

But as a I noted at the start, what surprised me the most was how much I enjoyed the other passengers. Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but everyone I talked to was so friendly and nice. On RCI, people were pleasant but more focused on their own families and groups. But HAL passengers were happy to reach out - maybe HAL has more couples and singles traveling? Anyway, I suspect I'm not really meant to be a cruiser but if I went again, I'd look for a smaller ship that can go into smaller ports or maybe the river cruises; it's getting too chancy with the bigger ships these days what with weather and germs and breakdowns.

 

A couple of the pretty flower arrangements:

 

 

[Tabbymom]

I am sure my wife and I were next door to you in cabin 6120

Yes, you were on the other side of Mom! Small world - you were very good neighbors for her.

 

A couple more ship pics:

 

 

[Boytjie]

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!!!

 

That has been my experience too!

[Ice slider]

Small world indeed-

Yes, you were on the other side of Mom! Small world - you were very good neighbors for her.

 

A couple more ship pics:

 

 

[Boytjie]

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.

 

We have been to Lester's Diner a few times too. The memorable one was in 2010, the winter of many snow storms. People had problems flying to Ft. Lauderdale (we got out a day before one hit New York) and we picked up at Miami airport friends at 6:00 am on the day of departure. By then we already knew that the Eurodam was arriving late due to problems raising the anchor at HMC the day before. So after a few hours sleep we headed to Lester's for lunch since our boarding wouldn't start till 3:00 pm. Well, there was a power outage in the area around Lester's and we ate in the semi-dark and the menu was limited to what they could cook without electricity!

 

All of that was an interesting start to the cruise, but luckily that was the end of the mishaps and we had a great cruise. :)

[wishful thinking]

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

 

Hi Tabbymom. That was me on the balcony with the Union Jack! Glad it was useful to you too :D

[Tabbymom]

That was me on the balcony with the Union Jack!

Can't thank you enough, wishful thinking - I had taken screen shots from the previous sailaway and circled where our cabins would be and the guys still had trouble locating us. Then I glanced up, saw your flag, said "look for the Union Jack and down one deck" and ta-da! Apparently at one point the camera was zeroing in on your flag and everyone could clearly see us on our cell phones. Cheers!

 

Now I just need to hear from the people below us and on my other side :D. What a great community on the HAL threads!

[wishful thinking]

Can't thank you enough, wishful thinking - I had taken screen shots from the previous sailaway and circled where our cabins would be and the guys still had trouble locating us. Then I glanced up, saw your flag, said "look for the Union Jack and down one deck" and ta-da! Apparently at one point the camera was zeroing in on your flag and everyone could clearly see us on our cell phones. Cheers!

 

Now I just need to hear from the people below us and on my other side :D. What a great community on the HAL threads!

 

 

You're Welcome!!!!!! Geez, not liking being back in the cold and snow that's for sure.