Noordam Review

3.5 / 5.0
829 reviews

Relaxing and comfortable cruise with mostly excellent ports

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Noordam
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Tabbymom
2-5 Cruises • Age 70s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Mar 2013
Cabin: Deluxe Ocean-View Verandah Stateroom

(Please note I put this full review in the HAL boards with many photos.) Mom is a four star Mariner who had cruised for decades. She hadn't been for the last two years due to various health issues that make it difficult for her to travel alone. So I volunteered to go with her (twist my arm) , picked HAL because that was her favorite line, and chose the 10 day Southern Caribbean Seafarer because I was interested in the ports. Mom just wanted to see if she could still cruise and didn't mean to leave the ship. She wanted her own cabin (actually her own bathroom) and refused to put me in an inside cabin. I was able to find side-by-side veranda cabins behind the aft elevators. This was very convenient for dining but a bit of a walk for everything else.

We flew down to FLL the afternoon before the cruise. Our flight was on time, we got a porter and our luggage at FLL, then called the Hampton Inn Cruiseport North for the shuttle. We had to wait half an hour for the next shuttle to come. The hotel was fine, a decent typical Hampton, and we booked the 10:15 am shuttle to the port for the next morning. I ran across the street to Winn Dixie for sun tan lotion and a couple of bottles of wine. We took the hotel shuttle to Lester's Diner for dinner.

March 1: The next morning we were up early and caught the 10:15 shuttle. Luggage was taken away, and we waited on a bench outside for about 10 minutes. The doors opened about 10:50; Mom declined a wheelchair for inside the terminal so we checked in at the VIP counter then waited in the VIP lounge. This was just a separate room, nothing fancy, but they did offer water, lemonade, and cookies. At about 11:30 they brought over a wheelchair (Mom didn't want to walk up the ramp) and due to her 4 star status we actually were the first to board! I thought this was very cool. After dropping Mom at her cabin, making sure everything was OK for her, and throwing my suitcase into my cabin, I ran around the ship taking pictures of all the empty venues.

Cabin Review

Deluxe Ocean-View Verandah Stateroom

Cabin VB

Solo traveler so plenty of room. Good location for dining, long walks for other ship venues. Lovely veranda. Behind aft elevators but no noise. Very comfortable beds. I used the space inside the round desk chair to store the larger bottles from the fridge. That made room in the fridge for my wine and some snacks from the Lido. The lighting at the desk was not very good for drying hair - one vertical light to one side facing me and the rest behind me - but the outlet in the bathroom couldn't run the hair dryer so I made the best of it. I figured out how to work the DVD player (they should have provided instructions though). We had the door opened between our verandas and it made a nice long "porch".

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