This is my 4th cruise and also a 4th cruiseline. (I cruised with Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian before this). Travelling with my parents, in-laws, DW and my 3 year old. Booked a VF Balcony and got upgraded to a VC.

From seeing the ship 3000 feet above as we are coming in for landing at La Guardia to actually boarding it some 3 and a half hours later, the ms Noordam is just as beautiful as I had anticipated. On the other end, the embarkation process was worse than I had hope for, which is really the only negative thing I want to write about.

We got to the pier around 11:50 and was given a number and was told to sit and wait until the number was called (some 2 hours later). Finally got to the check in line (yes, they call your number and then you go line up to check-in!!). Didn't get on the ship until 2:30PM. So much for early boarding. Read more