Holland America Line Noordam Cruise Reviews for Family to Europe - Eastern Mediterranean

We are big fans of HAL and were very excited about our first European cruise with the line. First to get the negative out of the way: The staff was very pleasant but you could tell they were understaffed: long lines at the front desk, long hold times when calling guest services, sometimes not having the cabin cleaned until 4PM. Additionally, the ship was tired and worn- the toilet seat in our ...

Chose this cruise as am not a good sailor & ship docked every day! This meant only nights on board. I found the cabin with balcony to be a life saver!bused the balcony heaps - arriving & departing ports was great to watch. Best exp was sailing into Venice - what a sight viewed from up high on the deckE had 2 days of sailing & were disappointed that there was no on board entertainment. We ...

My wife and I had cruised on seven previous occasions and this was our eighth in total and first with Holland America. We had been led to believe that we were in for 'something special''. Not so, in fact almost everything was very average. Our stateroom balcony cabin and attendant were excellent but everything quickly fell away after that. The ship was drab and dreary. The dining room staff were ...

My wife and I generally choose a cruise because of the ports visited and not the ship, however we did find the Noordam was a poor choice compared to other ships we have been on. Our verandah stateroom, 4016, was poorly positioned, jutting out from the decks above, resulting in coffee spills,wine spills, cigarette ash, etc from above. At times the verandah was unusable because of smokers above and ...

Being our second cruise and reading the positive reviews of HAM & the Noordam, we were looking forward in anticipation of at least the same standard ( if not better ) as our first cruise ( Dawn Princess 14 days Melbourne- NZ -Melbourne). While we did enjoy the cruise, the Noordam/HAM/crew disappointed. On arrival, there was no positive greeting, just formalities and a keycard. Looking forward to ...

We have cruised about ten times with various cruise lines before and have always considered HAL, along with Princess, among the better cruise lines for us (we are not exactly the younger generation). We last cruised with Princess in 2011 in Asia. This is our third cruise with HAL on their 11-day Ancient Mystery starting off from Athens. We were very much disappointed. Noordam is a smaller ship ...

We booked a Deluxe Veranda Suite through HAL and arrived at Civitavecchia around 2:00 PM for embarkation. We opted to take Italian rail from Rome at a little over 5 Euros each rather than the exhorbitant rates charged for transfer by HAL. The Civitavecchia train station is about a five minute walk from the port entrance, and there is a free shuttle from the port entrance to the ship. Absolutely ...

I booked this cruise ON MY OWN. I contacted HAL on several occasions to ask about the cruise, the facilities,the ports and I was ALWAYS met with half answers and fairly nasty attitudes. Their reply to me was to "Contact your travel professional for these answers"...HELLO! Because of their lack of information, I spent a great deal of additional time researching the ports and actually did quite ...

We went on 10 day Noordam cruise of Eastern Med in August cruising out of Rome. The Cabin was fairly good, and cabin staff excellent. The itinerary and weather were great. The other guests on board were fun and a great mix of ages and nationalities. However the entertainment was not very exciting. The only good nights showtime were the lady singer and male comedian magician (reminded me of ...

We sailed on the Noordam from Civitavecchia on June 10th. There were 4 of us, sharing a Verandah room, and we took the 10-day tour of the eastern Mediterranean. We had considered doing a 20-day cruise but given the size of the room, we decided not to. Instead, we stayed (post-cruise) at a bed&breakfast in Rome for 3 days and then at a small hotel in Venice for 3 days. The Noordam is very ...