3rd time's the Charm

Well, here we are docked at Turks and Caicos and my first chance to post my thoughts on this 3rd time on the Nieuw Amsterdam. Keeping in mind that of the 4 Vistas and the Nieuw Amsterdam are the only DAM ships I've been on to date, with Nieuw Amsterdam being my least favorite.....I do have to say that this, the 3rd time aboard her, is turning out to be a very welcome surprise:) Now the Noordam is in last of the 5 ships and only because of 1 small thing I disliked about her.

Embarkation was a breeze!!

We arrived at the entrance to the terminal (21) to find the doors wide open and immediate check in about 10:05 am. Did not have to have our pictures taken for ID purposes because we are still in the system.

After receiving Key cards and being given an S (Suites) card we were sent on upstairs to join one of our favorite HAL Shore Operations ladies, the famous "Eleanor," in the VIP section.

11:30 exactly another of our famous HAL Shore Op ladies, "Yolanda", let us board the ship.

went directly to the stateroom and have been in heaven since:)

Our sole Room Steward, "Supera" lives up to his name, he is SUPER!!!!

BTW, before I forget There is/ NOT/has NOT been any Code orange!!! Nor is there any pushing of the purell dispensers.

OK, time to get off this and go back to just lazing my day away in my version of a penthouse:)

Joanie

Thanks for reporting in, Joanie. I hope you and Crew News continue to have a wonderful cruise!

Hope the rest of your cruise is fantastic too.

Have a great cruise!

All good news, enjoy the rest of your cruise.

So Joanie - What do you have against the Noordam?

Have a great cruise. :)

Thanks Joanie for checking.

We also did not have Code Orange on our Noordam cruise.

Yup our pictures were still in the system as well.

Isn't the CEO on board the NA this week? If so, I'm sure it has all the staff on their toes :D

I do have to say that our room stewards on all the lines we've sailed have always been great. We always show our appreciation of that in green above and beyond the auto-gratuities. :D

Thanks Joanie for checking in, glad everything is going well and you are enjoying your 'penthouse'.

Isn't the CEO on board the NA this week? If so, I'm sure it has all the staff on their toes :D

Special lobster in the PG the first night and a PG-style amuse watermelon gaspacho in the MDF. The executive group, including Rudi Sodamin, took over the Culinary Arts Center for presentation/meetings.

We learned how Hunky Dory got his promotion in 2010.

Joanie was recognized by one of her bar stewards from the Zuiderdam and hugging ensued.

FWIW Joanie met a group of ship's chefs and we will be receiving FOUR chocolate purses tomorrow afternoon in our stateroom.

Joanie asked the pizza chef if she could get different toppings that were not on the menu on her pizza slice. She was made an entire pizza with double pepperoni, bell peppers, onions, double anchovies, and double cheese. It lasted for lunch and dinner.

JTL513 and DW came over from their aft wrap to spend time discussing the history of Cruise Critic during the sailaway from Grand Turk.

More later.

Thanks for checking in. Enjoy the rest of your cruise in your "penthouse." ;):D

Special lobster in the PG the first night and a PG-style amuse watermelon gaspacho in the MDF. The executive group, including Rudi Sodamin, took over the Culinary Arts Center for presentation/meetings.

 

We learned how Hunky Dory got his promotion in 2010.

 

Joanie was recognized by one of her bar stewards from the Zuiderdam and hugging ensued.

 

FWIW Joanie met a group of ship's chefs and we will be receiving FOUR chocolate purses tomorrow afternoon in our stateroom.

 

Joanie asked the pizza chef if she could get different toppings that were not on the menu on her pizza slice. She was made an entire pizza with double pepperoni, bell peppers, onions, double anchovies, and double cheese. It lasted for lunch and dinner.

 

JTL513 and DW came over from their aft wrap to spend time discussing the history of Cruise Critic during the sailaway from Grand Turk.

 

More later.

Oh I am so jealous...........;);)

Thanks for your positive report.

What is the "small thing" that you disliked about the Noordam?

Thanks for your positive report.

 

What is the "small thing" that you disliked about the Noordam?

I will try to repeat what Joanie told me: The balcony connecting door between 6164 and 6166 is "secured" which required the balcony cleaners during our B2B to climb on the railing to step around the closed door. One slip on a wet railing would have been a drop down to Deck Five as a minimum for a crew member.

The passenger who slipped on Embarkation Day and had to leave the ship before the sailaway returned to the ship today. All of the medical and transportation expenses were paid by HAL.

Thanks for your post! So jealous-I'd love to be in the Turks & Caicos! Love how you are being spoiled by the crew (4 chocolate purses:D) Enjoy your heaven.:)

Looking forward to meeting you in a few months.

Very much enjoying your review . My dear GF and i will be on the NA in January for an east/west carib b2b in the exact cabin you are in I believe . Sail away featured an excellent close up of you and yours on the veranda as you left FLL i think . We were very excited to see a great view of our "penthouse" . Thank you Frank

Before I answer any of the questions above, or write my thoughts in this post, I want to take this moment to say a kind and heartfelt thanks to Host Jane and Admin. No elaboration of that comment will be forthcoming, so please understand that:)

So now as it is only 7:15 am or thereabouts, on Wednesday, 12 December 2014, and we will be in San Juan in a few hours.

I am in 7th heaven. The cruise has been fantastic and the only negative, to date, was right after the "Passenger Safety Drill." That negative is/was caused by my losing my temper and grabbing a CSD crew member to ask for his help in getting the mobility challenger into the 4 aft elevators. I, and many others observed and were pushed around and out of the way when we were trying to board them after the drill by passenger who were not mobility challenged or absolutely needed to use them. I witnessed 3 older folk, 1 on a single crutch, 1 being pushed by his wife in a wheelchair and 1 with a cane (and very old) who were at the door to an elevator being pushed away by a few people so that they could grab the elevator for themselves. Also witnessed passengers going down the stairs and getting on the elevators so that they filled it before it could get to us. It was worse than I've ever seen before and after about 20 minutes of this bad behavior, for want of a better word, I blew and requested assistance for those of us that absolutely needed the elevators.

OK, in answer to some questions asked....The only reason the Noordam has slipped to next to last in my ship favorites is because our stateroom 6164's verandah divider to the aft cabin beside us was welded completely shut. It appeared to me (untrained eyes) that this was the way it was originally made/installed. I do not know if this was the same on any of the other Aft Wraps on the Noordam, I can only report about mine.

The only reason that the NA has moved up one spot is because the divider is not welded and the weather has been perfection 99.99% of the time, so far.

I still do not care for the interior decor, just not my taste, but it is growing on me. Hehehe

I must apologize. Yesterday I said our Stewards name was Supera, which in fact is incorrect. His name is Suparto, and that is important because if any of you ever have him for your steward, you'll know you have a GREAT Steward!!

Roger mentioned John and Carol are on the ship with us and let me tell you that are FANTASTIC!!

Oh yeah, before I forget again, yes the new CEO of HAL as well as many, many other of the top Execs of the line are on board with us this week, though I've only seen any of them one time, and that was yesterday as they were having some to do in the Culinary Arts/Queens lounge. Rudi Sodimin (Spelling?) was due to leave the ship yesterday in Grand Turk. I have no idea if he did or did not.

Hubby has just awakened so guess I'd best vconnect to the internet again and post this.

Again before I forget, the wifi on my verandah seems to be exceptional. It is definitely much faster than any of the hotel wifis that I've used over the last few years:)

More another day:)

I forgot to post this info:

The Absolutely Awesomely Wonderful Day of the week elevator mats are in each and every elevator!!!

Joanie

The mats in elevators is great news to me! Oh how I missed those!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Jonie .... your JOY is contagious ... thank you for sharing it with all of us!:):)

Jonie .... your JOY is contagious ... thank you for sharing it with all of us!:):)

Yes! In many ways, Joanie has risen above some "stuff" and chosen to be happy - and she quite generously shares it! She is one of few people I hope to meet on a cruise one day.

Thanks Joanie for checking in and glad everything is going well, including the weather.

The Absolutely Awesomely Wonderful Day of the week elevator mats are in each and every elevator!!!

So glad to hear it - without those mats, how would any of us know what day it was? I relied on them during our trans-Atlantic!

Smooth Sailing ! :) :) :)