LIVE from the Noordam (February 6, 2008) - Merger of several threads

[bUU]

We're here!!!

 

We got underway a bit late today, because there was a power outage on the pier (apparently there was some sort of transformer explosion). The ship, actually, powered the pier!

 

We just finished dinner in the Lido (we're a bit tired, probably from the four and a half hour drive and the stress associated with that, so we decided to pass on the dining room tonight).

 

The room looks a bit smaller than we thought it would be, and seems a bit smaller than our cabin on Serenade of the Seas, but we're getting used to it.

[bUU]

(More later!) :)

[Opensky]

Looking forward to hearing about your cruise, I will be first time on Noordam next year.

[CRUISNDIVA]

Can't wait to hear all about your travels!!!

 

I'll be on the same ship three weeks today :D

 

Happy sailing....and please come back and tell us all about it!!

 

Cheers!

[enymarsh]

Hey there!

So glad you've started another thread... thanks! We'll be boarding on the 16th when you return... but don't think about that right now! what category cabin are you in?

[hammybee]

Hey-hey. You are on your way. Looking forward to hearing from you.

[susiefay]

Glad you guys are on. Looking forward to your posts, thank you in advance! We will be on the 2/27 sailing. Hope you have a fabulous time:D

[jtl513]

You're in 8021, aren't you? How's your wireless speed? On the Zuiderdam it was slower than dial-up, so to get better speed I would go out and sit on the chair near the elevators. :D

[JoanneF]

Bicker-I see you are from Burlington, MA. My 5 friends are on the Noordam with you. Glad you got off OK today. Hope the weather warms up soon and you have a great cruise.

Joanne

[mamaofami]

Not Tomc, but I'' do my best. There was an explosion in a manhole on 57th street yesterday and the terminal lost power.The Noordam had to use it's power to light the terminal so we didn't leave till 5:45. After watching sailaway every 10 days on the webcam, it was great to be here in my aft cabin.

 

We have 18 ft. seas and 60knot winds. It's a real rock and roll. Sheila put together a great meet and greet but out of 44 people only about 12 showed up. Lots of folks are seasick. I'm doing well except for the walking which is shaky.

 

It's so great to be on board after waiting all this time.

 

Ther's finally a chocolate on my pillow!

[cruz4evr]

Carol, it's good to hear from you and understand your excitement to finally be on the Noordam. Hopefully the 60 knot winds won't last as long as ours did when we were coming back to New York.:(

 

Looking forward to your next post and don't eat too many of those chocolates! :D

[patnjohn]

Sorry about the seas. That should end soon. Then it will be smooth sailing for all of you. I love those chocolates on my pillow.;) Have a wonderful wonderful cruise.

[GmaPajama]

Oh My! 18 foot seas, and I can barely handle 8. Hoping that passes soon, and and the winds let up as well. I just love the Live Froms, so will anxiously await your next posting. Thanks SO much for doing this!

[FIRELT5]

Not Tomc, but I'' do my best. There was an explosion in a manhole on 57th street yesterday and the terminal lost power.The Noordam had to use it's power to light the terminal so we didn't leave till 5:45. After watching sailaway every 10 days on the webcam, it was great to be here in my aft cabin.

 

We have 18 ft. seas and 60knot winds. It's a real rock and roll. Sheila put together a great meet and greet but out of 44 people only about 12 showed up. Lots of folks are seasick. I'm doing well except for the walking which is shaky.

 

It's so great to be on board after waiting all this time.

 

Ther's finally a chocolate on my pillow!

 

As you head further South towards the Bahamas, sea should gradually subside according to realtime Data Bouy info. Seas are a running about 7"

North of The Bahamas and East of the Georgia Coast

 

 

 

 

 

Conditions at 41048 as of

(2:50 pm EST)

1950 GMT on 02/07/2008: Unit of Measure: English Metric Time Zone: Station Local Time Greenwich Mean Time [GMT] British Summer Time [GMT+1] Eastern Greenland [GMT-1] Azores [GMT-2] Western Greenland [GMT-3] Atlantic Standard [GMT-4] US/Eastern Standard US/Central Standard US/Mountain Standard US/Pacific Standard Alaska Standard [GMT-9] Hawaii-Aleutian Standard [GMT-10] Samoa Standard [GMT-11] International Date Line West [GMT-12] Western European [GMT+0] Central European [GMT+1] Eastern European [GMT+2] Moscow [GMT+3] USSR Zone 3 [GMT+4] USSR Zone 4 [GMT+5] USSR Zone 5 [GMT+6] USSR Zone 6 [GMT+7] China Coast [GMT+8] Japan Standard [GMT+9] Guam Standard [GMT+10] GMT+11 International Date Line East [GMT+12]

Click on the graph icon in the table below to see a time series plot of the last five days of that observation.

 

Wind Direction (WDIR): SW ( 230 deg true )

Wind Speed (WSPD): 19.4 kts

Wind Gust (GST): 21.4 kts

Wave Height (WVHT): 6.9 ft

Dominant Wave Period (DPD): 7 sec

Average Period (APD): 5.5 sec

Mean Wave Direction (MWD): WSW ( 255 deg true )

Atmospheric Pressure (PRES): 30.03 in

Pressure Tendency (PTDY): -0.03 in ( Falling )

Air Temperature (ATMP): 70.5 °F

Water Temperature (WTMP): 69.1 °F

Dew Point (DEWP): 66.9 °F

Combined plot of Wind Speed, Gust, and Air Pressure

Continuous Winds TIME

(EST) WDIR WSPD

2:50 pm SW ( 230 deg ) 18.8 kts

2:40 pm SW ( 231 deg ) 19.0 kts

2:30 pm SW ( 231 deg ) 20.2 kts

2:20 pm SW ( 232 deg ) 20.0 kts

2:10 pm SW ( 233 deg ) 19.4 kts

2:00 pm SW ( 235 deg ) 19.6 kts

Supplemental Measurements Highest 1 minute Wind Speed

Time (EST) WSPD WDIR

2:24 pm 21.6 kts SW ( 229 deg true )

 

Previous observations MM DD TIME

(EST) WDIR WSPD

kts GST

kts WVHT

ft DPD

sec APD

sec MWD PRES

in PTDY

in ATMP

°F WTMP

°F DEWP

°F SAL

[hammybee]

Thanks for checking in. Stay safe and come back when you can.

[dr1ce]

Have a great time! We're going on the Noordam on 2/27 from New York (our very 1st cruise). I love the live reports from on board! I was watching the webcam of your departure, but I missed it. Saw it sitting there, then it was gone. Hope the waters calm down a bit. Bon Voyage! ;)

[Susie51]

Thanks for posting live. I hope sometime during the cruise you get to meet your fellow CCers who were too sick to come to the meet party.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Oh Carol, I am so glad you have checked in. Oh My 18 ft swells:eek: Well at least you know you are actually on a ship at sea;)

Be Careful out on the aft verandah with those winds. I am sure once you get farther south things will calm down.

Have a great cruise:)

[grannynurse]

Have a great time on Noordam Carol, it is now my DH's favorite HAL ship. We found nothing to complain about, a lot to laugh at, had the world's best table companions and mahvelous food. Suite perks were superb, I even found some new ones. I'll be writing a review after i recover from the world's worst traveling day; we had two flights cancelled out from under us, and were delivered to the wrong gate twice by wheel chair in Dallas after waiting more than 7 hours to board in NY. I can really understand why people object to flying, what a nightmare!!!

GN

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for checking in.

 

I always worry about those BIG waves and walking knowing how bad my knees are. Have been on ships when the seas were so high, elevators were shut down and everyone was ordered back to their cabins for their safety.

[waiting2retire]

Thanks for posting Carol! I was just three months ago that I stood on the balcony of my own aft cabin watching New York sail away (okay, it was ME sailing away, not New York :o ) Isn't is a wonderful experience?

 

Bonnie

[richandkathynaplesfl]

February 6, 2007 MS Noordam

Our car service dropped us off at about 11:45 on Wednesday morning at the Manhatten Port for the start of our 10 day Eastern Caribbean cruise. This was our first trip on Holland America so we were interested to see how it compared to our other cruises. We’ve been avis cruisers for several years now and often preach the benefits of cruising to anyone who will listen.

The pier was very busy and there was quite a bit of traffic this cloudy warm February day in New York City. The Noordam dwarfted their NY nemesis Norwegian Gem at the dock, and the crew was very proud that they had caught and beat the Gem into the harbor after last weeks Medical detour.

We unloaded our baggage at the Curb and the Porter was right there with the cart to take our tagged baggage. I tipped him 20 bucks for 6 bags and everything got to the rooms in good order.

We entered the terminal and filled out the mandatory health forms. We were given a yellow card with the number 10. They give every 50 or so the next number so it goes pretty fast.. You then hand in your medical to a HAL rep and then show your passport ID to the Immigration Agents. Next go to the X-ray machines and walk through the metal detectors. I had no trouble bringing on 2 bottles of Champaign, 4 bottles of red, 2 whites and a case of coke.

Next stop was to check-in. Make sure you complete all your doc’s online as the pre doc line moved pretty fast. They took out pics right at the counter, gave us our key cards and sent us on out way. We skipped the first Pic opportunity and bypassed that line and headed on to the beautiful Noordam.

Overall about and hour and 20 minutes and we were on the ship.

When we got on, there was an announcement that the staterooms were not ready and to head to the Lido deck for lunch…with all our carry-ons…We headed south to deck 2 and had an excellent lunch in the Vista dining. Don’t follow the crowd. The place was empty and the service was great.

We headed to the room after an announcement by the cruise director, Drew Murdock, that they were ready and waiting.

Embarkation was delayed by about an hour due to a power outage on the pier. I heard that the Noordam used its battery power to power up the pier to get the waiting patrons on the ship and get underway.

Since the embarkation was delayed, so too was the Lifeboat drill until 5:15. In fact all the programs were pushed back an hour, but not dinner, that was right on time.

We went to the lounge before dinner and found two great bartenders, Cesar, pronounced say-zar and Venus. We like to sit at the bar when we cruise, always busy and always fun.

We chose the late traditional seating at 8pm and found our table, #69 easily. The traditional dining is in the upper dining room. It was a table for 6, but no one joined us. We’ll see if they come tomorrow night.

Dinner was well prepared with a good variety including non-meat entrees for those celebrating Lent. No complaints on the food, but the waiters did not impress us tonight, we’ll see how things go from here. We ordered a couple of bottles of wine and the Steward was also not too impressive, again this was the first night so I’ll be interested to see how the next 10 day’s go.

We strolled the shops after dinner. I got one of the DAM SHIP T-Shirts.

So, fat, dumb and happy, we headed back to cabin # 5021.

February 7, 2008 Noordam at Sea Rough Seas Ahead..stay tuned....plus meet and mingle…..

 

[ASIWISH]

Keep us posted! Thanks!

 

What time would you think would be the BEST time to check in?

[jrzebird]

Thanks for posting! I was on the Noordam in January and loved every minute. I do think that you'll find the dining room staff is much better on day 2 and forward. The first day seems to be a bit of a madhouse all around.

 

We had Drew for our CD last year and really enjoyed him. He was missed on our cruise this year.

 

I really look forward to future posts!

 

Maureen

[jrzebird]

I'm looking forward to your posts. Hope things calm down soon and you can enjoy that veranda on your aft cabin!