Noordam April 22-April 29 '08

[no.one]

Returned tired but full of great memories of our cruise. We enjoyed all our ports except for Toulon, France. We had a long ride to St. Tropez in a bus with no air conditioning. St. Tropez was OK, nothing to get excited about. Thoroughly enjoyed Tunis, Malta, Taormina, and Naples. No knock on HAL but we had private tours for three of the ports and got in and out of places way ahead of the ship excursion buses.

 

We loved the ship. Beautiful and spotless.Staff was friendly and eager to help. Food was very good especially the cold soups! Only complaint which I noted on my comment card was the inconsistency of the air conditioning in the staterooms. The thermostat controlled nothing. The air was biting cold or warm depending on the time of day/evening.

 

Looking forward to cruising again.............

[Solo Cruiser]

I'm so glad you had a good time and made the effort to write a review. For those of us not planning on a cruise anytime soon (that would be me :mad: ), just reading about them is pretty close and jogs many memories.

[mamaofami]

Thanks for letting us know you had a good time on the Noordam, and that she's doing well. We miss her here in NYC.

[cferro514]

I also miss her in NYC. It is nice you had a great cruise.

[BM64]

Did you have a private tour in Naples? We will be stopping there next summer and am trying to gather as much info as possible. Thanks

[no.one]

To BM64,

 

we did arrange for a private guide in Naples. It was Giovanni with benvenutolimos.com. He picked us up at 8AM and dropped us off at Pompeii. We were there when it opened and had a guide inside. I strongly suggest going when it opens at 8:30. It was empty and we were able to take lots of pictures before the buses arrived. We then drove to Positano and Sorrento and stopped along the way for photos. We ate lunch and then stopped at a cameo shop outside Naples. We had to be back at the ship by 4:30 so it was a quick day. He charged 600 Euros for the six of us. That is a bit high since we paid only 320 Euros for a private guide in Sicily with more stops at churches and such.........hope this helps you.

[BM64]

Thank You so much for the info. I'll be sure to go on line and look him up.

[rebeljohn]

Thanks for the report. We are sailing on the Noordam on Thanksgiving Day.......and looking forward to it........