Finally my 2/17 Noordam Review...

[littledylansmom]

I know its been awhile since we got back. Sadly on the last day of our cruise we got bad news that my grandmother passed away. My Parents were also traveling with us...so it was very hard for my mom to accept while being stuck at sea. The staff was wonderful and couldn't do enough for us. They told us to come to the front desk to make free calls home whenever we wanted for the remainder of the trip...Ok, now lets get to my review...

 

As I said we were traveling with my parents. My husband and I are both in our late 20's and were traveling with our 4 year old son.

 

Everything was very organized I thought. Was amazed at how smooth immigration was...compared to last year on Carnival...

 

We booked Cat VA 8106 & 8108. We had our balcony doors opened which made a nice size balcony. I was not impressed by the room at all. So many cruiselines are going to the down comforter and when I saw the "sheeted blanket" I was disappointed. Let me start by saying we gave our room stewart a generous tip at the beginning of the cruise...Big Mistake because we never saw him again. I never got a clean feeling when I was in the room...One day the blanket slipped out of the sheet and there was hair all over the blanket...:( I know its funny but I have a really bad "hair phobia". ---And I am a hair stylist...figure that one out... Everywhere I looked in the room I saw hair...It totally freaked me out. I think the cleanest spot in the room was the shower...that was cleaned everytime it was used. I did not expect the unclean feeling from Holland America...

 

We used the Minibar alot...when we could...when it was refilled. Took a couple of days to get it refilled.

 

Was disappointed to see aft pool bar close so early around 8pm on most nights.

 

We did not use Club Hal. This was our sons 3rd cruise and he has never gone to the kids clubs...So I can't comment on that.

 

The Lido pool was gross...There were so...many kids in that pool I wouldn't let my son get near it. One of the days It had to be drained...:eek:

 

The food in the dining room we thought was great...much better than other lines. Dining room was very slow for Breakfast but so was the Lido. The wait for an omlette was at least 15 minutes on a good day. Room service was quick but wasn't that great...

 

This is a big one...There was NO ATM on the ship!!! This was crazy I thought. I'm glad I brought enough cash with me, my dad wasn't so lucky so we had to share some of ours with him...

 

Our dining room staff was awesome! Harry & Hardy they were the best!!! The doorman AL was great too...My son wanted AL to come home with us...Everyone was so good to our son everywhere we went they were calling his name. It was cute.

 

What wasn't cute was the kids that were playing on the stairs in the dining room...playing musical instruments at the dining room table...And the parents...They were just sitting there watching them...Unbeleivable.

 

We did have a good time though at all of our ports.

Tortola Baths Trip was cancelled due to high seas...St. Martin and Barbados was beautiful as always. Dominica was my favorite...The emerald pool was amazing! Only one we weren't thrilled with was San Juan...

 

We really did have a great vacation up until the last day when we got our sad news.

[Seago2]

I'm so sorry for your sad news. That would be terrible for me to hear on a cruise.

 

On a trivial note, I can never understand why people wait in line at an omelet station. You can always see them, looking at others in their party nearly done eating, and they are standing there with a forlorn look, holding a plate. You can have an omlelet at home! It's not like it's filet mignon or something incredible!

[hammybee]

Thank you for making the time to share your cruise with us. How unfortunate that it ended on such a sad news from home.

 

As for the hair and an "unclean" feeling- yuck. It sounds as though you got the bad apple of the room stewards. I hope you made management aware of the situation, during your cruise, so they had an opportunity to address the problem to your satisfaction.

 

And I agree with you about the ATM-certainly seems silly to not have one, especially on an intinerary that takes U.S. $.

[caribbean girl]

Carla...like I said before, we think alike!:D I agree about the omlet thing. With soooo many other great choices, who has time to waste on another version of scrambled eggs? Cruising time is valuable time...no need to use it up standing on ANY line.

 

littledylan'smom...I'm also sorry about your sad news. No fun to get it anytime, but most especially not when one is away from home.

And there has been sooo much written about the unruly kids on that cruise. Such bad luck for all aboard the Noordam. We got off just before you and had an amazing ten days...just a few, well behaved kids, great weather and seas and lots of wonderful new friends. I guess it's just the luck of the draw. Welcome home to you and your family.

[jtl513]

This is a big one...There was NO ATM on the ship!!! This was crazy I thought. I'm glad I brought enough cash with me, my dad wasn't so lucky so we had to share some of ours with him...

I may be wrong, but I think you can get cash at the front desk, added to your shipboard charges, for a 3% fee. I've never tried it, so I'm not positive on that.

[caviargal]

I may be wrong, but I think you can get cash at the front desk, added to your shipboard charges, for a 3% fee. I've never tried it, so I'm not positive on that.

 

I did this last year on ZUI and it was a 3% transaction fee.

[happy cruzer]

Thank you for making the time to share your cruise with us. How unfortunate that it ended on such a sad news from home.

 

As for the hair and an "unclean" feeling- yuck. It sounds as though you got the bad apple of the room stewards. I hope you made management aware of the situation, during your cruise, so they had an opportunity to address the problem to your satisfaction.

 

And I agree with you about the ATM-certainly seems silly to not have one, especially on an intinerary that takes U.S. $.

 

Hammy, I agree. I surely hope HAL addressed the steward problem. And I hope they were given the feedback so that they could. I have a pet peeve of people telling all the people about a problem except the person that can fix it.

 

Anyway, I am so glad that OP was able to get over the bumps in the road to enjoy and support her family. I'm sure that having her near made a big difference to her mom.

[mommybunny21]

I never felt like our stateroom was clean.We were not on your deck so it couldn't be the same steward. The bathroom was never clean enough. I would recommend to future cruisers that they should pack Lysol-or maybe just bring your cleaning lady along!!!!

[SakeDad]

Let me start by saying we gave our room stewart a generous tip at the beginning of the cruise...Big Mistake because we never saw him again. I never got a clean feeling when I was in the room...One day the blanket slipped out of the sheet and there was hair all over the blanket...:( I know its funny but I have a really bad "hair phobia". ---And I am a hair stylist...figure that one out... Everywhere I looked in the room I saw hair...It totally freaked me out. I think the cleanest spot in the room was the shower...that was cleaned everytime it was used. I did not expect the unclean feeling from Holland America...

 

We used the Minibar alot...when we could...when it was refilled. Took a couple of days to get it refilled.

Did you complain to the Hotel Manager about the lack of mini-bar service? Did you report the stewards lack of housekeeping to anyone? What kind of response did you get from management if you did?

 

I never felt like our stateroom was clean.We were not on your deck so it couldn't be the same steward. The bathroom was never clean enough. I would recommend to future cruisers that they should pack Lysol-or maybe just bring your cleaning lady along!!!!

Again, who did you report this to, and more importantly, when? Did you get any response from the ship's managers? Did you report it the 3rd day or the last? Or on a survey as you left the ship?