This was our first cruise with HAL. We were excited to see how they differed from the Carnival Cruises we had taken before. The Cruise Critic message boards provided a lot of good information and we really enjoyed being on the roll call for months in advance as we prepared for the cruise.

We flew in from Denver the night before departure and stayed at the Courtyard Marriott on the Ft. Lauderdale beach. This was a great location down from Port Everglades and allowed us to walk to the beach the morning before the cruise as well as sit out on Las Olas Boulevard to see the sights the night before. Embarkation was really easy. We waited about 45 minutes and were on about noon if my memory is good.

We thoroughly enjoyed this cruise and Holland America. Some reviews warned parents with kids away from HAL. While it is true that the average age group is on the older side, my kids still had plenty to do on the ship and really liked it. I have two very active athletic boys who managed to entertain themselves quite well. They do not like participating in the cruise line kid clubs, whether on Carnival or HAL. They really liked the swimming pool on the Lido Deck. They thought it was much larger than the Carnival pools and because there were less kids - the pool and associated hot tubs were less crowded. The Noordam staff typically closed the pool dome at night which transformed the pool from an outdoor cruise ship feel - to more of a fancy hotel inside pool ambiance. They also really liked the Ship Flicks movie collection and their ability to check out DVD's for the room. There is also an arcade that had about the same number of games as those found on the Carnival ships. They used the basketball court a few times, but thought it was too windy at times. They did miss not having a putt putt golf course that is found on most ships. Read more