Noordam Review 2/07/

[mamaofami]

First, I have never done cruise critic before, and I want to thank each and every one of you who responded to my questions on these boards.

You were very informative and helped make my cruise more enjoyable. My husband is especially thankful to whomever suggested finding out the wine served in the dining room so we could carry it on board and not have a corkage fee.. A great tip when you don’t have to fly.

 

So, here I am home, have attended to the mail and bought some food and unpacked my carry on and just can’t bring myself to tackle the large suitcase that has the way too much clothing that I bought along and that now has to be washed and ironed, etc. But, I wanted to write this while it was all still fresh in my mind and before reality sets in.

 

Embarkation: I actually saw the ship arrive in port the day we left via the Intrepid web cam and that was so exciting. We left our home at 11:15, were greeted dockside by porters who took our bags and we went inside to get a number for boarding. We sat and waited about 20 minutes until we were called and then went to check through security and board the ship. The whole process took about 45 minutes.

 

The Muster: It was freezing cold, and I was glad I had my winter coat and hat and GLOVES. My husband, who was recovering from pneumonia and hadn’t been outside for over two weeks, came to the muster station, explained his situation, and was allowed to return inside the doors where we first came out. This was one of my big worries because the cold air would have been very bad for him. We’ve done many Holland America life boat drills so that was very kind of them. The drill was done very quickly. The deck was filled with pellets of ice and salt from the previous ship’s voyage.

 

The Ship: She is beautiful. Beautifully decorated and a welcome relief from the glitzy Zuiderdam. I loved every inch of her, especially the library. A great place to relax and catch the couple of chaise lounges and stretch out with a good book. In fact, one day at the coffee bar, I saw a distinguished looking gentleman in his white uniform and asked what he did aboard. He informed me he was the Captain and we had a lovely chat. He told me about the bad weather the few trips prior to us had and assured me that the following sea days going home would be good and they were.

Another great place to read in the morning on sea days is the Crow’s nest. What a great feeling to stretch out there in the chaise lounges and read and watch the ocean. One of the crew turned on loud music at about 10.am and I thought one of the readers would "kill" him. He threatened to call the captain on him if he didn’t turn off the music since all of us in there at the time were reading and it was so nice and peaceful.

 

Cruise Critic: We had our meet and greet the first morning out, and as Innlady has reported already from the ship, they forgot to give us the coffee and cookies they promised. However, it was so much fun to meet the people we had talked to in preparation for the cruise and then to bump into them at various times of the day and night. You felt like you had a friend aboard.

We planned to have lunch together in the dining rom the last day and 10 of us showed up and had a wonderful time.

 

Entertainment: Outstanding for Al Katz ( a very funny man) Zeigfield and his "dummy" were great as was the magician whose name I think was Doug. The cast show of Las Vegas was well done too. Jason, the cruise director, was very upbeat and did a great job. He seemed to genuinely like what he does.

While the nightclub has some of the blind spots removed( if you were on the Zuiderdam, you know what I mean) the seats are still very uncomfortable.

They could have done a better job with that.

 

Food: There must be a God on that ship since I came home to find I lost weight. Imagine that. I can’t! The food was cooked perfectly, was always served hot, and the choices were many. On the last night I wanted ice cream with hot fudge sauce and had no trouble getting it, even though it wasn’t on the menu. Both the hot and cold soups were great. Don’t miss them. We were at the lower seating, table 104, a table for two on the wall with one seat a banquette. It was a fabulous table. We were three tabes of two and made friends with our table mates to the left of us and that was nice. You could talk when you wanted and be alone when you wanted. I was thrilled to receive the table for two that I had requested. I actually e mailed Kim at ship’s services to request it after we finished with the wine list. She was most helpful.

Our server, Cassidy, and the wine steward, Aaron were wonderful.

As always, the service in the dining room was outstanding.

My one complaint about the dining is one I don’t know how to resolve. We had two seatings on this cruise. The first was from 5:30 to 6pm arrival time. On days that we were at port, I always felt rushed. I know I could eat at the Lido, but I didn’t want to. If I take the late seating, I usually can’t stay awake for the shows. The late seating was from 8 to 9. It would be great if the arrival time of the early seating could be stretched to 6:30 the way it used to be.

 

The Lido: Food at the lido was also quite good, although I must say I don’t like the noise and confusion there. As a result, after the first morning, we had room service for breakfast. Always came on time and hot and exactly as we ordered it. We did eat lunch in the Lido and tended to hang out for that at the aft pool. They’ve done a nice job there adding a canopy for more shade than was on the Zuiderdam. The sushi was pretty good for a ship, the pizza great, the salad bar very complete. There is also a stir fry station, a pasta station, a sandwich station, a hot meal , cold selections of shrimp, scallops, deviled eggs, fruit, etc. Enough of a selection to make everyone happy.

In the afternoon, we discovered that the no sugar added ice cream was better than the other since it was Eddy’s ice cream.

We never ate dinner in the Lido as when on a cruise, I really want to be served and pampered in the main dining room. I did speak to people who said they had dinner in the Lido and ate outside and that it was quite nice.

 

Pinnacle Grill: We were treated to a dinner here by our TA and really enjoyed it. The filet mignon was done as well as at any good steak house in NYC.

Service here was great, but if the price seems a lot, the food and service were just as nice in the dining room.

 

Stateroom. We had a veranda cabin, category VB on the 6th floor. It was roomy enough and although there have been many complaints about the lack of draws, I found enough storage space between the shelves in the closet, the night tables and by the foot of the bed. the water in the bathroom was really hot, a luxury I haven’t had on the other ships. It was great having breakfast on the veranda and sitting there in the afternoon taking in the sea and the sun. the beds were great, the room steward never seen, but he always cleaned up by disorder.

 

Evening : We had two formal nights, one formal or informal as you desired, and the rest were casual. Although there were no gowns or very few, people were dressed very well . Some men wore tuxes, almost all the rest were in suits or jackets and ties. The women wore dressy pants or skirts with varied dressy tops. years ago, I used to see ball gowns, but not on this cruise. I didn’t see anyone attempt to enter the dining room in shorts. People were dressed with care every night and it made the meals more festive.

 

Excursions: We didn’t take any of the HAL trips as we had been to all the ports before(except Grand Turk) and knew what we wanted to do. The clam shells at Grand Turk are free, but it is hot inside them. They do shield you from the sun and even though I had it lifted up off the ground so the air could come in, it was still hot. My husband brought along his blow up raft and loved floating in the water which was warm. The beach there was great. We just hung a left after getting off the boat dock.

 

Tortola: We took a taxi($5 each one way) and went to Cane’s Bay Beach which is one of our favorite beaches. It wasn’t crowded, the water is wonderful and the sand heavenly. We met a couple from CC who had rented a scooter for their ride here. It broke down and they had to stop at someone’s home and call the scooter company who did respond and brought them another scooter.

 

St. Martin. Here we did our trip in reverse. First we went to Divi Bay beach club for the day which is at Little Bay. We heard about it from the CC board and my sister in law has a time share there. We rented two chairs and an umbrella for about $15 if I recall correctly. Some people we saw were eating lunch they had brought along and we had a bite in the small restaurant out in front of the Divi. The beach had lots of facilities and was quiet.

Then we took a cab to town and I bought a ring at Diamonds International which needed to be sized. They promised it would be ready at 5pm and we had to be back at the ship at 5:30. I was nervous about this whole operation, but the ship’s port ambassador was there and told me if I wanted to go back to the ship he would wait for the ring. We decided to wait for it ourselves and it was ready in the promised time.

 

St. Thomas. We took a cab to Magen’s Bay and spent a beautiful day relaxing on this great beach. Another of our favorites. $10 for two chairs.

San Juan: Just not enough time here to do much of anything. I would rather have a full day at another port. People who wanted to go to the rain forest couldn’t because we don’t stay long enough.

 

Disembarkation:

Fast, smooth and so efficient. We called the cab that was picking us up as we left our cabin. He arrived at the port just as we got outside. He called as he was pulling into port and we told him what number pole we were going to be at. Perfect timing, since he was there just as we went outside. A porter was there after we picked up our luggage and took it outside for us. Another good tip was all those $1 bills for tipping. Having them ready made this easy for boarding and leaving the ship.

 

So, summing up. The trip was wonderful, CC helped with the anticipation and planning, and it was over all too fast. My husband collected his chocolates and I expect he will put one on my pillow tonight. But who will cook dinner and clean up?

 

 

Carol

 

 

 

 

[earl_m]

Great review. I am glad that you enjoy your cruise. I did one similar

last year , almost same islands. they are beautiful islands

[OssieBear]

Thanks for the review. Can't wait until March 10th...

[Griff]

This was a excellent review,and I love your choice of type fonts, so very easy to read. Looking foreword to our Noordam cruise in 20 days. Your thought will be very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to post your review!

[mamaofami]

I am simply too tired to think about unpacking. It will have to wait till tomorrow. Off to make dinner. UGH!

[innlady1]

I am simply too tired to think about unpacking. It will have to wait till tomorrow. Off to make dinner. UGH!

 

I am, too, Carol! Fred just made dinner, steak & veggies, but it isn't too appealing...not after all the wonderful dinners on the Noordam! He gets an A+ for effort, though!

 

Getting up at 4 this morning so as not to miss Lady Liberty is catching up with me. And, instead of sleeping on the bus, I got into a book and read all the way to Boston!

 

I love your review! Great job, Carol! ;)

 

Enjoy your chocolates!

 

Sheila

[innlady1]

Carol,

 

I hope you post this in the Member Review section....you did a great job! :D

 

Sheila

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome home.

 

Glad you had a wonderful cruise.

[DH88]

Can you tell me the wines you brought?

[IKE]

Thank you for your great review. Glad you returned home safe and sound. Looking forward to Our Turn on 2/28. Can't wait to see this beautiful ship...

[mamaofami]

Sorry, I don't remember. I just know that at someone's suggestion I emailed Kim at kswenson@hollandamerica.com and asked that she send me the wine list served in the dining room. At first, I got the wine list you can buy, but then she found the correct one. Anything you bring on that is served in the dining room is ok. We just bought the bottle to the dining room the first night, the wine steward took it and said he would replace it with a cold one, and we continued to do that through the trip. I know my husband (I don't drink) likes Reisling, so it was one of those plus some port.

 

We had no corkage fee and it was really great. I wonder why HAL allows this?

[Sybird]

Hi Carol,

Great review. We have sailed 30 times but never with HAL. Booked Noordam for Jan 2008. You have truly prepared us for our cruise.

We are VIPs with NCL but had our worst experience last month during our sail on the Dawn,

NCL absolutely refuses to enforce their chair & table rules at the pool so we never sat the at the pool for the entire 11-day sail(reserve at 8:00 AM- show up at 2:00)

No where have I seen you or anyone else review conditions at the pool. Is everything so well run that no one saves seats all day(as the 20-21 chairs on NCL)

Please let us know and thanks again for your Noordam primer.

 

Sy

[mamaofami]

I would think the same problem exists at any hotel, beach, pool, boat, etc. People put books, beach bags, towels down and then go in the water, to get their lunch, etc. I didn't see that many empty chairs poolside, but I can't imagine that there is any way to enforce not holding on to a chair. It's really rude to do, but you can understand when someone leaves to get food, go for a swim, etc.

 

I really didin't hang out at the pool since I need to stay out of the sun. You can always find empty chairs on the promenade deck. One side is in the sun and the other in the shade. there are also tables and chairs in both the Lido pool area and the aft pool. I don't really think you have to be there at 8am.

 

Good luck and have a great cruise!:)

[iliv2cruz]

Thank you Carol for that great review! Good info and tips I will keep for 3/21...I cannot wait! Welcome home!

[innlady1]

:D

Hi Carol,

Great review. We have sailed 30 times but never with HAL. Booked Noordam for Jan 2008. You have truly prepared us for our cruise.

We are VIPs with NCL but had our worst experience last month during our sail on the Dawn,

NCL absolutely refuses to enforce their chair & table rules at the pool so we never sat the at the pool for the entire 11-day sail(reserve at 8:00 AM- show up at 2:00)

No where have I seen you or anyone else review conditions at the pool. Is everything so well run that no one saves seats all day(as the 20-21 chairs on NCL)

Please let us know and thanks again for your Noordam primer.

 

Sy

 

We were on the Noordam last week, too, same cruise as Carol. Lots of deck lounge chairs available every day as far as I could see. Same on the Promenade Deck. No problem getting a chair any time of the day. :D

Sheila

[IKE]

I have a question for you, Carol, where did you dock in St. Thomas? Was it at Havensight or Crown Bay?. Anytime I have gone to St. Thomas, We docked at Havensight and it was so convenient. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks ! Ike

[innlady1]

I have a question for you, Carol, where did you dock in St. Thomas? Was it at Havensight or Crown Bay?. Anytime I have gone to St. Thomas, We docked at Havensight and it was so convenient. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks ! Ike

 

I guess I can answer for Carol! We docked at Crown Bay. Last year we docked at Havensight and it seemed more convenient....but also more crowded than Crown Bay. We were the only ship there. There were three at Havensight (a Celebrity, Carnival & NCL).

 

Crown Bay is still in the process of filling the shops but it will be quite nice when it's completed. There are already some kiosks, a souvenier shop (a mug from which I am drinking my coffee at the moment!), and a Royal Caribbean (the jewelry/electronics store).

 

Our stateroom was on the port side, aft of midship. It was a great vantage point in all of the ports we visited.

[IKE]

Thank you so much for answering my question about where Noordam will dock in St. Thomas. I think I will miss the convienience of docking in Havenight. Post Office was right there and all the shops for a quick stop after returning from the beach. Do you happen to know if it is a long distance to walk into Charlotte Amalie from the Crown Bay site? We use to walk into the town from Havensight one way to get some exercise and taxi back. The new port facility sounds nice and will be even better I am sure when all the shops are opened. Do you know what the taxi cabs charge into Charlotte Amalie per person? Thank you for any info...... IKE