Boarding Noordam in NY

[Synchronaut]

Hello,
We are booked in January and have never sailed HAL out of NY. What would be the best time to arrive (we live in NJ) and are there seperate lines for different cabin categories? We also would like to know the dress code for dinner in the Lido restaurant. I understand there will be 4 formal nights on our cruise and I'm not sure we'll avail ourselves of all of them. I've read very helpful hints on these boards and I thank you all in advance!

[GrammaZ]

We did the Noordam out of NYC last January. We were at the pier to board around 10:30 but because of bad weather the ship was delayed and we were not able to board until after 5:00 p.m. But if the ship had been there we would have been able to board around 11:00 or so. We were on the 12 day cruise and only had three formal nights. The dress code in the Lido is casual, just no bathing suits etc. during the day and encourages no shorts in the evening, but we saw plenty of people in shorts and it didn't seem to be a problem.

[RuthC]

I've sailed the Noordam out of NYC twice. Barring unforeseen problems check-in is supposed to start at 11:00 AM with boarding beginning at 11:30. There's little point in getting there before that.

Dinner in the Lido is considered "casual dining". Dress can (and does) run the gamut. The dress code is for the evening in the public areas, however, no one will object if you are not dressed to code in the Lido, pool area, or outside decks.