Noordam Review

3.5 / 5.0
829 reviews

Noordam 10day Cruise in Paradise

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Noordam
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rebeljohn
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Nov 2008

OK.............It's time to post my review of our Thanksgiving, 10 day Southern Caribbean cruise aboard the Noordam. 11/27/2008. Our cruise adventure began on May, 2, 2008, when I booked this cruise. We originally booked an outside cabin, but later upgraded to a balcony when the prices dropped. We chose this particular cruise for two reasons: #1 it was a HAL cruise,, and #2, we loved the itinerary. Four of the ports would be new for us. We immediately joined the already flourishing CC roll call, and I started planning for our ports. As usual, the Port-of-Call section of CC made my job easy. We called two of our friends that we met on the Maasdam in 2005, Don & Laurie, and asked them if they wanted to join us. They did! We called another cruise friend, Bob, that we met on the Century a few years ago, and he also booked the cruise. Two local friends, Rich & Christy had expressed an interest in joining our group, and they booked too. Rich had cruised before, but his wife Christy, had never cruised. She was a little nervous about cruising, but she became a believer, after 10 days on the Noordam. Rich was anxious to try out his new motorized wheelchair on a cruise ship. It worked perfectly for him during the cruise. PRECRUISE STUFF: We left our home in North Carolina, on Tuesday, Nov. 25th at 7PM. I work second shift, so we couldn't go anywhere until I could leave work. There were four of us, with luggage, aboard our specially equipped van, designed for wheelchair users. We drove about four hours that evening, and spent the night near the SC, GA border. The next day, we drove 9 hours to Ft. Lauderdale, where we arrived at our hotel, the Marriott, Ft. Lauderdale North. I had secured this hotel through Priceline a couple of weeks before, for $55 per night. We had 3 rooms booked. Definitely a Four Star hotel, IMHO, although Priceline gave it 3.5 Stars. The next morning, we drove a short distance to the port and had our first view of our home at sea.

EMBARKATION: I dropped off our luggage, along with my 3 passengers at the cruise terminal at 11:45am. I parked the van in the parking deck, and walked over to the ship. The porters had already taken the luggage, so we followed Rich(in his wheelchair) to get in line. The line was REALLY long! The computers had gone out earlier, and some of the passengers had been standing in line for an hour or so. One of the HAL ladies with the red jacket, told us to go over to the left, where special needs passengers were being directed. We went right through, and were on the ship in 15 minutes. Now, before anyone gets upset about us boarding with Rich, let me tell you that we had tried to get in the regular line and let Rich and his wife board, but the lady insisted we stick together as a party. So we did............ The only items we took with us were two small carry-ons, and two cases of adult beverages on our small hand truck. You've got to love HAL's liberal wine policy. It saved us quite a few bucks on the cruise. Upon entering the ship we were informed the rooms would be ready after lunch. It was a little after noon, so we went to see if our room was ready. It was. And, there was a nice gift that Rich had sent to me through ship services. CIGARS!!! We dropped off our stuff in the room and headed for the all important first meal of the cruise at the Lido buffet. The Lifeboat drill was held just before sail-a-way. CRUISE CRITIC PARTY: Our Cruise Critic Meet & Greet was arranged by board member, MSteve. It was held on our first day at sea at 10:30 am. We had 55 to attend. Several of the ship's officers, as well as the Cruise Director, Drew, attended. Hors d'oeuvres were served, as well as cookies, and the all important FREE drinks, which included Mimosas, Champagne, whisky sours, etc. A very nice party indeed! CABIN: We had room 6006................ A balcony cabin, second room from the front on the port side, Upper Promenade. Being on the front, I felt more motion than I normally do than when we have rooms in the middle of the ship. Bonine did its job, and I never felt sick. Cabin Steward was BamBang. He did a phenomenal job all week. He greeted us by name each time that we met him in the hallway. He knew our schedule, and we always returned to a clean room whenever we left. A different towel animal and chocolates awaited us each evening. The fridge was emptied of its contents upon our arrival, and we used it to keep our wines nice and cold.

SHIP & CREW: The Noordam is a great ship, in great shape. She was easy to navigate, and I thought the layout was fine. Crew were always cleaning, washing, polishing, etc. Towels and lounge chairs were always plentiful. Chairs around the pool filled up quickly, but the upper deck always had a lot of empty chairs. This was also the first ship where I did not use the pool. I dangled my feet in the cool water, but never took a swim in one. Don't know why, just never did. I never smelled any sewage odors, like I have on other ships. We did not donate to the Casino. I usually put 5 dollars in a slot, but never did on this cruise. There were plenty that made up for my lack of participation. My favorite room on the ship was the Oak Room. Three of us in our group are cigar smokers, so a visit there each evening was mandatory. We were serviced there from the Crow's Nest bar. They had a couple of cigar ashtrays available, as well as the standard cigarette ashtray. If the room became too smoky, there was a door leading to the deck that could be opened if needed. The Noordam is only one of two ships with the Oak Room remaining. We talked to several of the crew and some of the dancers there, that dropped in for a quick cigarette. The Noordam crew was quite friendly. They smile a lot. When I had exhausted our wine glass supply in our room each day, I would hit the bar staff up for more. They would hand them over with a smile.

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Cabin 8H
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