New to HAL, Help Please!

[lbendick]

Hi, I am knew to HAL and I am truly confused. I am currently looking at the Noordam ship and my travel agent is trying to tell me that it is new and just came out, she said she recently went to visit it in NYC. The thing is that is not what the brochure says, the book says it is a smaller ship than she is stating also. She says that is because HAL names all of there new ships the Noordam and moves that name around, so the book has the old Noordam statistics in it not the current one. Is this correct and if so how do I find the real statistics for this ship? Thank You for your help.

[jhannah]

Welcome!

If you have a brochure/book that shows the Noordam as a smaller ship, that is a VERY old brochure. The Noordam is a Vista class ship, the largest in the Holland America fleet. If you visit www.hollandamerica.com (http://www.hollandamerica.com) and click on 'fleet' you can select the Noordam and see what she's like.

Also, click here for (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=301270&highlight=inaugural) a thread by revneal who reported on the inaugural voyage of the Noordam.

Good luck.

[grannynurse]

Hi,
Your TA is wrong. HAL does not name all of the new builds Noordam. Each ship is christened with its name which is kept for as long as it stays with the HAL fleet.
The new Noordam was launched February 22 of this year.
GN

[Copper10-8]

She says that is because HAL names all of there new ships the Noordam and moves that name around, so the book has the old Noordam statistics in it not the current one.

Your TA is giving you big time bunk info! Hasn't done her homework and/or could be the result of working too many hours on the side for NASA designing and building rockets;)

The current Noordam IV, the last of four Vista-class ships, just started sailing for HAL this year. See Jim's tips! Her much smaller predecessor, Noordam III, left the HAL fleet in 2003

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sounds as though you need to be looking for a TA who knows something about cruising and ships.

If she was on the Noordam for a TA visit, she should have gotten information about it right there and if she knows anything about ships, she would have been able to see a big difference between the old Noordam and the new Noordam.

She sounds very inexperinced to me.

[satchiesmom]

I have to agree with the other posters. Any agent that books cruises and most regular cruisers would know this information, whether they cruise HAL or not. I cannot believe that someone in the business could be so uninformed, there is no excuse for it and it makes the rest of us who study and work hard to keep up with what's going on look bad. You've gotten the truth about the latest of the Noordam ships from the other posters, so I needn't add any more information about the new Noordam.
Thanks for letting me vent about unprofessional agents. As in any other walk of life there is no shame in not knowing, you can always get the correct information. But making it up as you go along. . . uh-uh.