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

[richandkathynaplesfl]

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

The sea was angry that day my friends…yes 20 foot swells and 60 knot winds from the west…It was a rough night with the barometer dropping and the wind whipping up the swells, the Noordam took it all in style…the wind from the southwest really pushed the ship around and the Captain closed all of the outer decks…the public spaces began to look like hospital triage centers with people all trying to find a spot that didn’t move…

Best spot was on deck 2 in the center of the atrium near the front desk.

We ordered room service and it was right on time, hot and ready. We didn’t order anything that wasn’t on the menu, but the ham and cheese omelets really hit the spot.

We had the meet and mingle in the Crows Nest which was really rocking and rolling at 10:30 am…HAL offered very nice refreshments but no staff showed up, maybe they were getting their “sea-legs.” It was great to meet all of the people on the roll call, especially Carol and Sheila who carried the roll call for all these anticipatory months.

Since my Family was ill with the “ Swell Disease” I had a pretty good day relaxing around the ship. Lunch on the Lido Deck then found a place to near Explorations Café to chill out for a couple of hours.

My Son and I did attended the Art Auction at 2:30 which was traditional Park West fare.

After the auction I headed to the gym which is on deck 9. The place was rolling a bit so there were very few working out, but the gym is well equipped and relatively spacious with panoramic views of the ocean, free weights and nautilus equipment.

The dinner service this evening was much better than our first night, that might have been the problem, first night jitters…..everything was well prepared and the service was good.

Our tablemates did join us after they was a mix-up the previous night. They are a delightful couple from Manhattan.

My poor wife headed to the cabin and I headed to the casino, so far so good….

 

*No self serve laundry, but the cloth bag for 15 bucks fits quite a bit.

[Vic The Parrot]

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

The sea was angry that day my friends…yes 20 foot swells and 60 knot winds from the west…It was a rough night with the barometer dropping and the wind whipping up the swells, the Noordam took it all in style ...

 

 

 

Of course, I miss the best voyages! :D

 

 

(From a cold and raw Freehold, NJ ... )

[sungoddess]

Hammy,

 

You're right; I just called it the crew side because not everyone who eats there is an officer. :)

 

SG

[Mr Veendam06]

Wow looks like a fun ride down !! Can"t wait unitl next week !! I know what it feels like we were on the Carinval Maracle during Katrina !!! We couldn"t get back to Tampa they had to take us to Ft Louderdale !

[rzdj96]

Just came back onboard and no salt and pepper shakers in the Lido. YUP! We're in CODE RED for the next 72 hours. As long as there's no more outbreaks, we should make it to St. Thomas okay. :(

[mamaofami]

Yes, we're sailing with the dreaded noro, but DH knows the nurse from when he was a dentist on the ship and she said we only have low single digit numbers, but we have code red in effect. Library closed, but computers working.

 

last night was first formal night and 99% of people were dressed very well. Only about 10% of men were in tuxes, but others wore suits and women were all in gowns and formal attire.

 

Tonight we've been invited to the captain's cocktail hour if they don't cancel it.captain is on loud speaker as I write announcing all precautions.

 

a woman fell on the gangplank this am in Grand Turk and broke her hip. No other info.

 

Sailaway now so going to watch.

[bUU]

Code Red on Noordam (again).

 

The cellophane has been put up, preventing any self-service in the Lido, and crew-members are dishing out salad for you, etc. It’s a major inconvenience, of course, not made any better by the somewhat strange manner in which some of the measures are applied. For instance, despite clearly being understaffed to handle personally dishing out everything that folks would normally dish out for themselves, the Noordam still has crew-members insist on carrying the trays to the table for even the most able-bodied women. It seems to me that a few less crew-members on that duty, and a few more behind the counter serving food, would remedy some of the unfriendliness surrounding this unfortunate circumstance.

 

Working backwards a bit, we managed to fit in lunch in the Lido, after our morning excursion in this, our first stop, Grand Turk. With the salad bar set up for a Code Red, the queue was simply too long, to bother with. I had corn fritters and green beans for lunch; and the way folks are rushed through the queue made it difficult to secure a reasonable portion for lunch. Even a child would eat more than three small corn fritters and perhaps a dozen and a half French fries. No matter; I made up for it with warm bread pudding and ice cream. The bread pudding, incidentally, was very good.

 

I wish I knew that the dining room was open for lunch today; that clearly would have been a much better experience.

 

Working back a bit further, our excursion today was the glass bottom kayaking and snorkeling excursion. In case anyone thought the glass bottoms were a good idea, well, sorry, but they’re not. They are “clear” but not actually see-through. You can see a lot more and a lot better by looking over the side of your kayak. The area you kayak in is a relatively small park. There are a few small sea critters to see if you pay attention to the guide’s talk before you head out onto the water. We passed on the snorkeling half of the excursion but from the reactions of some of the guests who did go out, it was very good. One commented how on previous snorkeling experiences, no one ever took the time to explain how to do it as well as the guide did this time. The guide was just that, too… a guide. He kept the snorkeling group together and pointed out various items of interest at each stop.

 

Grand Turk is clearly just getting started understanding how to capitalize on tourism. It is a very small island, with clearly a lot of promise, but also, as you can well-imagine, a lot of challenges as well. The water is beautiful, though, and if they can make the interior of their island more picturesque, I think they’ll be very pleasantly surprised by how popular the island could become to tourists.

 

Yesterday was, of course, our second sea day, and the day after that horrible storm that sea-sickened many passengers and crew. Since I was totally wiped out by sea-sickness the day before, we did plan to take it easy, but we still managed to get five miles of walking in; three miles in the morning and two in the afternoon, mostly on the wrap-around promenade. There were a lot of folks utilizing the promenade to keep active, include some ignoring the “No Jogging” injunction.

 

I relayed our experience with breakfast in my previous message. We had lunch in the dining room as well, on Day 2, and this time with the Cruise Critic crew, thanks to Carol’s diligent calling of all the members of our roll call. It was a very nice meal, and we noted significantly better service that we had received up to then. Robbie’s snapper was nicely spiced, and my pastrami was lean and tasty, if not particularly hot. Yellow mustard instead of brown, though. A strange place to economize, IMHO.

 

It was during lunch that the group realized that a lot more Cruise Critic folks had gone to the M&G than originally thought. Half were on the port side, while half were on the starboard side. Those on the starboard side also were joined by a cranky woman, whom we all thought was in the group until the lunch meeting. Yikes! We’ve made a point of ensuring that we are a bit more specific about the location of a third Cruise Critic get-together, to be held towards the end of the cruise.

 

This third night of the cruise was the first formal night, the Captain’s Dinner. We had a 5:45 PM reservation for dinner in open seating, and we were accommodated immediately. The service was again quite good, as was the food. Robbie had crab legs, which were very nicely done, and not at all dry. I had rack of lamb, which was especially moist and tasty. Excellent. One thing we noticed is they don’t seem to serve warm bread. I thought this was just a compromise you have to live with in the Lido, but it is the case in the Vista Dining Room as well. We think this is rather strange. The rolls aren’t especially good-tasting, either, however, there’s a real tasty wheat/grain bread.

 

After dinner we went to the show. It was mildly entertaining. It was the kind of thing that Simon Cowell talks about disparagingly during the American Idol auditions. Some technical talent, surely, but it wasn’t something you’d go out of your way to see. Hopefully, tonight’s show will be more interesting.

 

 

 

 

Live from the Noordam, 21 deg 25.67 min N, 71 deg 8.80 min W, 1:48 PM, Atlantic Standard Time

[welove2cruise232]

Thanks to all of you who are posting live from the Noordam -- we'll be aboard in four weeks, and love to hear all you have to offer! Sorry to hear about the Code Red -- I guess it's been quite rampant in NYC, so not surprising, but I hope it's under control before we sail.

 

Can anyone tell us about the on-board entertainment -- not the shows but the lounge acts? Just wondering if anything's changed since we were on board in November.

 

Strange to hear about the temperature of the food and rolls -- everything was always served at the perfect temperature when we were on board. There was a gentlemen who fell under the hotel director/food and beverage manager -- his name was Sam -- sorry, I can't remember his last name, but does anyone know if he's still aboard?

 

Hmmm, maybe I won't rent that tux for DH this time around...

[innlady1]

Reporting in here from the ms Noordam.

 

As others have said, we're in Code Red. :( We went into Grand Turk, and came back to have lunch in the Lido at 11:30. Needs to be on the ship at least an hour before sail-away...preferably more! Doesn't want to "miss the boat!" He was already at the pool; I went inside to grab some lunch.

 

First "head's up" was when I got off the elevator and a member of the crew came over to give me some of his hand sanitizer...self service wasn't good enough. Then, noticed the signs on the food stations that the crew would assist with food selection (no self service) and the cellophane along the open areas. Asked the man behind the counter if there was salt and pepper on the tables...he handed me some packets, and my fears were confirmed! I didn't need S & P...that was just my way of confirming! O remembered that jrzebird mentioned that on their cruise.

So, we've gone from major seasickness on board to Code Red. And who knows...perhaps some thought it was seasickness when it was actually the Noro. :confused:

Luckily those of us on CC are aware enough to take the necessary precautions to try to prevent Noro...and cross our fingers. So far, so good for DH and I.

Supposedly, it's 8 pax and 3 crew...Captain Scott came on before sailaway and gave the scoop. Didn't mention "noro." Referred to it as a gastrointestinal illness.

Yesterday, there was a galley tour which was wonderful, and then had a nice lunch in the dining room with 22 members of our Roll call...after the disaster with our M & G, Carol and I split the list and called everyone to meet for lunch.

 

We're going to have another M & G on the last sea day...this time in the Piano Bar instead of up in the heavens in the Crow's Nest! Hopefully, the seas will calmed down.

 

At 7:30 tonight there's a cocktail party with the Captain in the Crow's Nest, and I haven't heard yet that it's been cancelled. We're planning to attend.

 

The AYWD is working out beautifully for us. We've had the same table/same stewards each night, and the dining and wine stewards greet us throughout the ship by name...can't ask for more than that. We've been pleased with the food...as we know, that's totally subjective.

 

If you're a reader, make sure to bring reading material with you. I haven't taken anything out of the library and notice that the books are now under lock and key. I know Carol mentioned that as well.

 

Other than the rough seas and wondering where this Noro will go, it's been a great cruise. It's such an added bonus to have Cruise Critic and to recognize and stop and chat with so many familiar faces around the ship.

 

We seem to have a fairly vocal group...so I'm sure we'll keep you posted!

[tomc]

As others have said, we're in Code Red.

Nothing we did; the ship sailed germ-free for our cruise. Hope you folks get it under control real fast.

[jrzebird]

Reporting in here from the ms Noordam.

 

As others have said, we're in Code Red. :( We went into Grand Turk, and came back to have lunch in the Lido at 11:30. Needs to be on the ship at least an hour before sail-away...preferably more! Doesn't want to "miss the boat!" He was already at the pool; I went inside to grab some lunch.

 

First "head's up" was when I got off the elevator and a member of the crew came over to give me some of his hand sanitizer...self service wasn't good enough. Then, noticed the signs on the food stations that the crew would assist with food selection (no self service) and the cellophane along the open areas. Asked the man behind the counter if there was salt and pepper on the tables...he handed me some packets, and my fears were confirmed! I didn't need S & P...that was just my way of confirming! O remembered that jrzebird mentioned that on their cruise.

 

So, we've gone from major seasickness on board to Code Red. And who knows...perhaps some thought it was seasickness when it was actually the Noro. :confused:

 

Luckily those of us on CC are aware enough to take the necessary precautions to try to prevent Noro...and cross our fingers. So far, so good for DH and I.

 

Supposedly, it's 8 pax and 3 crew...Captain Scott came on before sailaway and gave the scoop. Didn't mention "noro." Referred to it as a gastrointestinal illness.

 

Yesterday, there was a galley tour which was wonderful, and then had a nice lunch in the dining room with 22 members of our Roll call...after the disaster with our M & G, Carol and I split the list and called everyone to meet for lunch.

 

We're going to have another M & G on the last sea day...this time in the Piano Bar instead of up in the heavens in the Crow's Nest! Hopefully, the seas will calmed down.

 

At 7:30 tonight there's a cocktail party with the Captain in the Crow's Nest, and I haven't heard yet that it's been cancelled. We're planning to attend.

 

The AYWD is working out beautifully for us. We've had the same table/same stewards each night, and the dining and wine stewards greet us throughout the ship by name...can't ask for more than that. We've been pleased with the food...as we know, that's totally subjective.

 

If you're a reader, make sure to bring reading material with you. I haven't taken anything out of the library and notice that the books are now under lock and key. I know Carol mentioned that as well.

 

Other than the rough seas and wondering where this Noro will go, it's been a great cruise. It's such an added bonus to have Cruise Critic and to recognize and stop and chat with so many familiar faces around the ship.

 

We seem to have a fairly vocal group...so I'm sure we'll keep you posted!

 

I'm so sorry to hear about the Code Red. But, glad that the Captain is being pro-active and started it before it got too far out of hand. Actually, after the first day of becoming accustomed to doing things differently, I didn't mind the Code Red. After all, who can object to being served? (Glass half full mentality helps :D .) Like anything else, there's a learning curve for passengers as well as crew (although, the crew already knows what to do and how to do it). And I noticed a lot of resistence and grumbling from passengers the first day, but things smoothed out and people made their adjustments accordingly by day 3. I hope that none of you let this minor glitch ruin your entire cruise experience.

 

And, Bicker, after a day or so they pretty much stop carrying your trays in the Lido. That was the only thing I missed. When you look around, they even have the entertainment staff, including the dancers and singers, pitching in to serve coffee and such.

 

I do think that most noro comes from either flights to NYC or NYC hotels, where it is almost epidemic at this point. It was day 3 when we started our outbreak in January. Just enough time for those who stayed over for a few days in NYC to show symptoms.

 

Enjoy the cruise, and keep posting! I love it!

 

Maureen

[cruz4evr]

The posts from the Noordam are wonderful to read and thanks to everyone for such a thorough recap of the day's activities. I hope Code Red will be lifted within 48 hours, that is, if no new cases emerge. We were at sea also and on the third day the Captain announced that we had 6 cases of Noro including one crew member. Nevertheless 2 days later, to everyone's relief, it was lifted.

 

Enjoy the beautiful Noordam and the islands........everything will work out fine. :) :)

 

 

Andrea

[mamaofami]

Captain's cocktail party was great and so was dinner in the Pinnacle Grill. I had my chocolate volacano. Yummy. captain hopes we've contained the noro, but we will see. having a great time and I love my aft cabin.

[innlady1]

Jrzebird...we're not letting the Noro impact our cruise (knock on wood!). But then, I'm a "glass is half full" kind of person, too.

 

We, too, were at the Captain's Cocktail Party tonight and Carol and I (and DH's) talked to Captain Scott. Seems they're trying to nip it in the bud early...very wise decision. Better to be safe than sorry. I'm sure it's a pain in the neck for them to have to take these special steps. Going from the dining room tonight up to the Crow's Nest, we saw many crew members scrubbing down the railings with disinfectant.

 

A lot of work for them to go from taking care of the seasick passengers to dealing with Noro. One right after the other.

[Copper10-8]

Jrzebird...we're not letting the Noro impact our cruise (knock on wood!). But then, I'm a "glass is half full" kind of person, too..........................

 

 

Good for you Sheila! Enjoy your cruise!

[mariner]

There have been quite a number of Noro cases reported by hospitals in north Jersey.

 

Keep washing those hands people.

[sail7seas]

There was noro so bad in two Boston hospitals several weeks ago, they had to close whole floor in one of them until they got it cleaned up. :eek: Things are back to normal now.

[richandkathynaplesfl]

Day 3

Much calmer day today. The passengers are coming out of their cabins and things are getting back to normal. This is another sea day before we reach the Turks.

My family is back on their feet and we are taking advantage of the excellent facilities on the Noordam.

My DW and I got up pretty early since they pushed the clocks ahead tonight, so our usual 7 am became 6 am.. The upside of course was the later sunset which was beautiful off the southern Atlantic coast.

I spent most of the day at the Lido Pool on deck 9 which has the retractable roof. They finally opened it around 1 pm and the sun was shining. ( side note ) I headed to the indoor pool around 9 am and all the chairs were taken with books or towels, no one was there but all the chairs were taken. Around 12 pm, 8 people who had pool side chairs left, and didn’t return until 3:30pm. My DW and I had to share a chair all day long. This is a definite problem on most cruises and in particular winter runs from NY where covered pool seating is prime real estate.

The Lido deck has all of the buffet dining including a Burger Bar, Asian Cuisine, a sandwich bar as well as the usual buffet fare. I opted for the Burger today, which is always a consistent favorite comfort food.

There were activities at the pool including a golf pitching contest. The pool was filled by 1 pm and was warm for swimming.

My son and daughter in law joined our dinner tablemates, Fran and Norm for trivial pursuit in the Crows nest where we came in a tie for 5th place.

After that we headed to the gym and then went to our cabin to get ready for our first formal night. As usual we met for cocktails at 7 pm in the Deck 3 atrium Bar where the bar staff, including Cesar ( pronounced SAY- ZAR), Venus (no kidding) and Edsel ( also no kidding) have shown us an excellent time.

Master Chef Rudi Sodamin’s Recommended selections for the Captains Gala dinner included Melange of Tropical Fruit ( with balsamic reduction ), Cream of Four Mushroom Soup and Over Roasted New Zealand Rack of Lamb.

I opted for the Cream of 4 ( not 3 ) Mushroom soup, Seared beef Salad and the Rack of Lamb.

Side Note--- The first night we purchased wine off the wine list, a 75$ Pommard and a 40$ Pinot Grigio…tonight I brought to the table wines that we had brought on board, they did charge me a corkage fee for 2 of the 3 bottles they opened, no problem but no Quid Pro Quo. I am anxious to see how thing are going forward.

After Dinner we headed to the casino so I can’t comment on the post dinner musical entertainment.

Next Stop-- Jimmy Buffets private island…and Code Red?

[bUU]

Good Sunday morning from the Noordam.

 

I want to update something I mentioned earlier. We are able to get a very low-level wireless Internet signal from our cabin 8021. It is good enough for what we’re doing, but it is definitely a lot slower than what we can get by relocating ourselves to either the Explorations Lounge or the Crow’s Nest, and again, as I mentioned in my first message, the signal is so weak here that with the Gem two piers over, with, unfortunately, the same exact SSID, that signal was more powerful and I was unable to connect to the Noordam’s network (and, of course, the Gem wouldn’t recognize my credentials).

 

I also meant to mention the coffee in an earlier report, but forgot to; even in the dining room the coffee is nothing to rave about. Without cream, I wouldn’t drink it.

 

Since I last wrote, we had another good experience with As You Wish’s open dining. Another easy reservation for 5:45PM, and another walk-in to dinner at the appointed time. This time, we were seated at a table for four with another couple – very nice folks. We had a great conversation. Robbie thought the strawberry soup was very good; I loved the split pea soup, which was presented hot, as it should be, which was appreciated in the somewhat-cool dining room. Robbie and I enjoyed Indonesian and Indian entrées, both of which were very well-spiced; a very nice change of pace from the more traditional offerings. Dessert was a “chocolate tear drop” – a dark chocolate shell with what they called chocolate mousse filling, but it seemed more like chocolate marshmallow to me. We also took advantage, again, of the complementary cappuccino after dinner. Unlikely the regular coffee, the cappuccino is very good.

 

One note about the lower level of the dining room; it shakes quite a lot when the ship is at full-speed. I wonder if that is also the case on the upper level.

 

We didn’t bother checking out what we figured would be a mob-scene at the Lido, given that we’re still Code Red.

 

The show tonight was excellent. I think the name of the show was Mysterique. It was a mixture of acrobatic dance and magic. It was something folks who appreciate things like Cirque du Soleil would like, and indeed, the soundtrack of Quidam was the background music before Mysterique began. A lot of the magic was stock illusions that many of us, I’m sure, have seen many times before, but that doesn’t mean we know how they do it, and if nothing else, for folks looking for something new and original, it surely was nothing but pure magic how Angela managed to change costumes so quickly, often, literally, in the blink of an eye.

 

We sat on the lower level of the theater for this show and that is a much better vantage point.

 

One thing that strikes me about the Vista theater is that it is significantly more opulent than many other aspects of the Noordam. They seem to have spared no expense in crafting a top-notch theater for the ship, in terms of technical capabilities, visual appeal and elegance, and also in terms of audience comfort.

 

So that’s two nights in a row we’ve caught the shows aboard Noordam, whereas on Serenade of the Seas and Majesty of the Seas we didn’t catch any. I’m proud of us! :)

 

We did have a little scare last night. Our dry cleaning was returned, short Robbie’s dress. Long-story-short, it turns out that (apparently) men’s and women’s clothes are dry cleaned by different people. (?) There was no legible indication of this on the dry cleaning slip, though there was some ominous writing in red. No matter – later in the evening our steward tracked the dress down and all is well.

 

We took advantage of room service this morning to have some coffee delivered before the dining room opened for breakfast. They are so quick and efficient, that the server was gone before I had a chance to hand him a gratuity. I’ll have it set out ahead of time, next time. One minor annoyance, though; we ordered by regular coffee and decaf, and indeed two carafes were delivered, but with no way of telling the two apart, one from the other.

 

Given the Code Red, we again eschewed the Lido for the dining room, for breakfast this morning. Another walk-in experience; we haven’t had to wait for a meal anywhere, so far, except in the Lido, and then, only because of the Code Red. The breakfast itself was very good, omelets well-prepared, served hot, and not at all greasy. The toast, however, is cold, as is the butter, making the combination unacceptable from my standpoint. Either provide me toast hot enough to melt the butter, or butter soft enough to spread on cold toast, please (though preferably, of course, I’d prefer hot toast and soft butter).

 

A note about the Internet service: You do pay the same amount for online time, regardless of whether or not you use their computers or your own laptop. I highly recommend the latter. The computers in the Explorations Lounge are severely restricted. No right-click. No Ctrl-N to launch an extra window. No Firefox. No IE7 with tabs. With my own laptop, I'm able to launch multiple windows and tabs, and have them all load simultaneously, thereby optimizing my alloted time. I'm finding, though, that 100 hours would probably have been enough. (We opted for the longer 250 hour service... probably a waste of money, given our usage so far.)

 

 

Live from the Noordam, 18 deg 31.52 min N, 65 deg 4.40 min W, 8:51 AM, Atlantic Standard Time

[rross613]

Thanks to everyone for posting. Hopefully it will be smooth sailing from now on!

 

I have a question about cell phone usage. Has anyone used their cell phone on the ship, and if so, what were the charges?

[Mr Veendam06]

Thanks for the update .Looks like the code red is not as bad as last cruise was ! I just got purel and started getting in the habit of using it alot before i head out on the Noordam next week !! Are they keeping people in there cabins ?

[SeaMatesNYC]

Day 3

I headed to the indoor pool around 9 am and all the chairs were taken with books or towels, no one was there but all the chairs were taken. Around 12 pm, 8 people who had pool side chairs left, and didn’t return until 3:30pm. My DW and I had to share a chair all day long. This is a definite problem on most cruises and in particular winter runs from NY where covered pool seating is prime real estate.

 

Sir, watch it for 30 minutes then hand the stuff to a crew member and tell the person who may come by that the chair was empty when you sat in it an hour ago!

 

NO CHAIR HOGS!

[cruz chic]

Sir, watch it for 30 minutes then hand the stuff to a crew member and tell the person who may come by that the chair was empty when you sat in it an hour ago!

 

NO CHAIR HOGS!

 

That's a good idea. It's becomes tiresome when people hog chairs all day and maybe sit in them for a 1/2 hour.

 

I feel guilty when I get up for 2 minutes to use the facilities.:eek:

[hammybee]

 

 

I'm finding, though, that 100 hours would probably have been enough. (We opted for the longer 250 hour service... probably a waste of money, given our usage so far.)

 

Oh my stars, Bicker. 250 hours ????? Please get a life. Pay attention to your lovely wife. Warm those buns. :D

 

( well at least you know I am reading for content)

[Copper10-8]

Oh my stars, Bicker. 250 hours ????? Please get a life. Pay attention to your lovely wife. Warm those buns. :D

 

( well at least you know I am reading for content)

 

 

Whose buns are you referring to Madam?;)