Noordam 03/10/2007 – 03/21/2007

[scaaty]

Disclaimer – This is our opinions/observations and not intended to either agree or disagree with anyone! About us – DH 68 (retired), me (55) and still working.

 

Overall we had a great cruise. Plenty to do and had to remind myself that I was on vacation and should just sit back and relax! Special thanks to Turia, John, Terri and Bob our fellow cc’rs who added to the fun and enjoyment of the cruise!:D

 

Ship – The Noordam is a lovely ship. We found the ceilings in the public areas to be low and some layouts a bit confusing. I was surprised it took me almost a week to learn my way around the ship since on larger ships I’ve had it down pat in a day or two! We always managed to turn the wrong way when coming up the mid level stairs!

 

Crew – The absolute friendliest we’ve ever encountered at sea, from the Captain down to the folks doing maintenance. There was always a greeting and a smile from everyone. I’ve seen some complaints about the spa and shop staff, but I also ran into friendly and helpful folks in both of these areas as well. The Captain, Hotel Manager and future cruise coordinator all attended our CC meet and greet on the first sea day.

 

Embarkation – Arrived at 12:30 was in our room around1pm (they had just announced the cabins ready as we boarded). I even booked the cooking class before going to the room. We had all of our bags within 2 hours of boarding!

 

Muster Drill – Very confusing and I’m glad we never had a real emergency! We couldn’t even get near our station due to the large number of folks blocking the deck and halls. I much prefer Princess’ use of the lounges.

 

Culinary Arts Center – We were lucky to have a guess chef on board, Marcus Samuelsson from Aquavit in NYC. He also has a show on Discover Home called “Inner Chef”. I went to both of his demonstrations and they were great. He’s very personable and he didn’t skip a beat when he was cooking lamb and the assistant he picked happened to not like lamb! The demo also turned into a comedy show and I was laughing so hard I was crying. I was disappointed that the cooking class later in the cruise was with the Pinnacle chef, but it was still fun to do and I felt worth the fee.

 

Vista Lounge – We went to a couple of the production shows in the Vista lounge and enjoyed the HAL singers and dancers. I appreciated the fact that they didn’t try to sound like the artist who’s work they were performing but stay within their own range and it was enjoyable. We didn’t go to any of the other shows (magician, John Denver impersonator and concert pianist). You do have to watch where you sit as low ceilings and polls do take away from the view of the stage.

 

Other Lounges – We never made it to the Crow’s Nest at night, did find the temperature there to be rather cold during the day when I went to trivia. We found Northern Lights to be too loud for us to stay for any length of time. Enjoyed the three piece combo in the Ocean bar a few times, but our absolute favorite was Kory in the Piano Bar.:D We were there every evening. I also appreciated that during his breaks instead of disappearing Kory mingled with the folks in the bar. Great entertainer, great personality and fun to pick on!

 

Spa – I had a manicure and a facial. Both times the staff person was friendly and neither gave a “hard” sell. They both graciously accepted the fact that I wasn’t buying anything.

 

Dining – Breakfast was either in the dining room or room service. I prefer to be served than stand in line when on vacation. We appreciated being able to get hot entries for breakfast and really appreciated having room service the morning of disembarkation!

 

Lunch – Most days we don’t do lunch just a snack around 3 – 4 since we have late sitting. This was always at the Lido or terrace grill. We did enjoy the ice cream daily.

 

Dinner - While we weren’t overly wowed with the menu, we certainly didn’t starve. DH is from Italy and he’s very particular about his food. Our dining room captain graciously showed DH the menu for the next evening each night and he made adjustments as needed (e.g. just a filet instead of Wellington). I was frustrated by the spices. I would often see something I thought I would like until I read the description and the item just contained too many hot spices for my taste. I only had one meal where the description was totally different than what I received. I did taste it, but didn’t like it and sent it back for an alternate dish.

 

Ports – We didn’t do any ship excursions and explored on our own.

 

Tortolla – We were not impressed and after buying spices returned to the ship.

 

 

St. Thomas – Docked at Crown Bay and took a 5 minute cab ride to Emerald Beach and enjoyed the day laying in the sun and swimming.

 

 

Dominica – Walked to the Botanical Gardens to see the parrots only to find the exhibit closed for breeding season! We walked around Rousseau exploring local shops on the back streets as well as the tourist shops on the main road. People were friendly and we felt very safe.

 

 

Barbados – We took the Silvermoon I catamaran which I had read about on the port of call boards. It was fantastic and I highly recommend it to everyone!

 

 

St. Marteen – This was our shopping day. We hadn’t been here in a few years and were surprised by many of the liquor stores with one price for cash and a higher price when paying with a credit card. We did have some cash with us so we were able to get some really good deals, but had to pay extra for using the credit card for the rest of the liquor. Even then, the prices were still better than what we would pay in NJ.:D

 

 

San Juan – We were here for only a few hours on Sunday morning, so stores were closed and it was too hot and humid for us. I stopped by an internet café to check some email and then we came back to the ship.

 

Disembarkation – We stayed on the ship as long as we could! Enjoyed a room service breakfast and didn’t leave the cabin until 10:25am. We were in one of the last groups, maybe even the last since there wasn’t a lot of luggage to search through. Found our bags and were in the limo just before 11 and sadly home by 11:30 and on a conference call for work by noon. Tough jumping right back into reality. :(

 

 

Any questions, I’ll be happy to try to answer for you.

[CruzinTamela]

Thanks so much for your review! I'm so glad you enjoyed your trip!

[Lynne Myrna]

Thanks Dianne for that great review. We were on the Noordam for the Christmas cruise, & we are going again this coming Nov. My only complaint was the muster drill, I thought that it could have been better organized. When we went on Disney, it was held in one of the lounges....so much more comfortable, without the megaphone blaring in our ears, the whole set up was better. Happy to hear that you had a good cruise, & thanks again.

 

Lynne

[SakeDad]

Thanks for the review! It cracks me up that the food on Noordam was too spicy yet you bought spices on the islands!:p

Also glad to hear you say the culinary classes were worth it. Sounds like you're a REAL cook like me and enjoy good demonstrations. Can you tell me more about these? How much were they? How long? What did you learn from them, if anything?

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome home. Know what you mean about too many spices on the food. I can't handle them either.

[scaaty]

Thanks for the review! It cracks me up that the food on Noordam was too spicy yet you bought spices on the islands!:p

Also glad to hear you say the culinary classes were worth it. Sounds like you're a REAL cook like me and enjoy good demonstrations. Can you tell me more about these? How much were they? How long? What did you learn from them, if anything?

 

SakeDad,

The spices I bought were oregano, cinnamon, mustard and paprika. The menu items that I stayed away from were curry and Jalepeno. It's the HOT spices that I stay away from. I like flavor, not having my mouth on fire:eek:

They also used alot of cilantro, while not hot, I'm not crazy about the flavor.

 

There was no charge for the cooking demonstrations which lasted around an hour. I went to the two demos by Marcus Samuelsson. He did rack of lamb and chocolate pancakes. I did learn some tips from both demos. I also have the recipie cards. There was a third demo by one of the HAL chefs for Mexican. I skipped that one.

 

The cooking class was $29 and we learned how to make trouffles. We received aprons, a six month subscription to food and wine, the recipie and got our gloved hands messy.

 

If you're interested in the recipies send me an email at scaatynj@yahoo.com I don't have a scaner so it may take a few days before I type them into the puter.