ozcruizer

We have booked a HAL excursion for our September 13 cruise from New York to Quebec and now wish to cancel it as we've decided to do our own exploring. I cannot find anything on the HAL site (to be expected, I guess ;p) and phoning Seattle is not the easiest because we are in Australia and there is the time difference aspect. Any help would be appreciated.

We had the only aft deck cabin we've ever had and that was on Deck 8 of the Eurodam. Loved it but one night we heard a terrible din above us where deck chairs and furniture was being moved. We reported it and had no further trouble. I would not hesitate to have such a cabin again.

Looking to sail out of NYC next Sept. to Quebec. Does anyone know what kind of shape Zuiderdam is in? I've sailed her, but a long time ago.

Are you sailing 13-23 September? That is the cruise we're doing! I can't tell you anything about the Zuiderdam, never having sailed on her.

Thanks, everyone, for your replies on my questions about NYC. I'm sure they will come in very useful when we get down to the finer points of booking!

We are booked on a 10 day cruise from New York to Quebec in September, our first cruise since becoming 4-Star Mariners and we are very much looking forward to it. Coming from Australia, this part of the States and Canada is completely unfamiliar to us. Does anyone know where cruise ships depart from in New York? Some reasonable hotel recommendations would also be helpful. :)

Depends on how much you want to visit Australia and NZ. Living in Australia we are used to long flights and usually by economy. We've flown to Europe a number of times which is an even longer flight. Last year when I was 70 (with all the usual aches and pains) I flew to the US for a 2-week tour - well worth it, I thought. The bottom line is you need to weigh things up - visiting Australia/NZ v uncomfortable flight.

Are you talking about an earlier Statendam than the one that went to P&O as Pacific Eden?

Have a wonderful cruise on the Volendam, one of my two fave HAL ships. We went from Vancouver to Hong Kong on a repositioning cruise 18 months ago and had a fabulous cruise.

My favorite size sHIP S are Maasdam and Noordam. I have a very strong atttachment to both.

I feel the same about the Volendam and Noordam as most of our cruises have been aboard these ships. However, we've also enjoyed the Eurodam, Zaandam and Oosterdam.

Satin folders! I've never seen them so must have been prior to 2007 when we did our first HAL cruise. It seems to me that each ship has a different colour for the tags. We laminate them. The TA used to just send them in B&W but the last cruise they offered to print them for $$s!! I've never used their tags as I prefer them in colour. Just me being fussy :)

There are some library books on the Noordam but personally I would take some of my own, or alternatively some kind of e-reader. We were on the Noordam in January. If you're doing 38 days (Pacific crossing?) it's a long time without good books if you like reading.

We had four really good tours in the ports that we did visit, and we had a good time touring parts of Australia before and after the cruise (on our own). But overall I think this was probably the least enjoyable HAL cruise that we've taken. Not because of the weather, but because of the lack of activities in the program for active thinking people on sea days; and things were even worse on the 2.5 extra unplanned sea days.

 

There's another long thread on this topic I see (too long for me to catch up on with 4 weeks worth of work piled up!), but we found the daily program to be very thin and lacking even on scheduled sea days, and what was of interest (i.e. Maori cultural presentations) was usually packed full and often in unsuitable venues. Thankfully our very good location guide (Kelly) stepped up with some interesting extra presentations on the unscheduled sea days, and they even pressed the very, very excellent piano bar singer (Anna McBryan) into a matinee on the main stage. Other than that, I can't say much for this cruise director or whoever is responsible for the program. And we often couldn't find a quiet place to sit when the decks were closed due to weather, because the Pinnacle Bar was being used for snake-oil presentations on acupuncture and teeth whitening, and the Ocean Bar was being used for art auctions.

 

So I think it will be a while before we book another HAL cruise, and when that does happen it will have to be a very interesting itinerary that we can't get elsewhere, with minimal sea days.

We did a Noordam cruise in January and although we like the ship, daily entertainment was pretty thin on the ground. It did not bother us too much as we can entertain ourselves with reading (and sewing in my case) but for people without such interests, there was not a great deal to do. It's not a deal breaker for us but I can see it might be for some. HAL needs to listen to its customers and take action.

I would sail again on the Noordam, despite its present shortcomings. I can only go by our cabin, a balcony, which was in need of updating with new carpets etc. Otherwise I cannot see too much wrong with it. Shame it appears to be doing another cruise instead of dry docking.

Do you think this was just HAL’s style with the original Vista Class ships (as we have only sailed on Zaandam and Koningsdam) the dark, brooding drawing room style? Very classy in its own way, but you need to like the decor - always loved the fresh flowers tho. [emoji253]

Koningsdam of course is light filled bright and beautiful [emoji92][emoji93]

 

 

I can't speak for most of the ships as we've had a few repeats on just two and I can't remember anything very negative about the others. We've been on the Volendam a few times and I really like the library area - comfy and nice and light.

We were on the Noordam in January with a balcony room. I agree that the cabins of this standard do need refurbishing - new carpet, new couch and new TV at least. We are not fussy cruisers, either. The bathroom has probably not been redone since the ship hit the water, and the peachy coloured tiles are looking a bit past their use by date. The public rooms were fine but I don't really like the Explorations Cafe area as I find it too dark. Otherwise, we loved the cruise, our ninth and third time on Noordam.

Your tour of Ho Chi Min brought back a lot of memories of when we were there in 2012. I think our tour was almost identical to yours. Very much enjoying your posts and trivia questions.

We had a cabin under the Greenhouse area on the Noordam recently and had no problems whatsoever with noise. There are few people around that area at night so I don't think noise would be a problem. I would be happy to take the same cabin again.

The condition of the staterooms (as in ours) would not deter me from booking on the Noordam (I can't speak for the suites or above) but they do need upgrading. We have now been on the Noordam three times since 2014 and there don't appear to have been any major changes in that time. The only change was that the magnifying mirrors are now unlit and unattached. I actually found that good. We usually only eat in the MDR so I can't speak for the Pinnacle or Caneletto but I didn't hear any complaints! The Lincoln Center Stage was good but the space was too small so many people were unable to be seated. Otherwise, the music was as always. We only heard Stryker once in the Piano Bar but there was a lady playing there (her name escapes me) who was very good. I'm sure you will enjoy your cruise.

We have just been on the Noordam. Love the ship but the cabins (at least the balcony cabins and probably others too) definitely need updating. Our sofa looked to be past its use-by date.

We sailed with Capt Henk Draper on Noordam's inaugural voyage to Sydney. We loved his accent!

He captained three ships we've been on, the Volendam, Oosterdam and just lately, the Noordam. It was while on that cruise we were told of his pending retirement. He presented us with our Bronze Medallions on the Oosterdam a few years ago. All the best to him and his wife in their retirement. He will be missed - we were always amused by his instructions to "wash your hands!" every day.

A converter plug for the electricity as all of our chargers etc have Australian plugs.

We have just become 4-Star Mariners. It's taken a long time as we only cruise on average once a year. We started in 2007 and by the end of a cruise in 2016 we were 7 days off being 4-Star. Our latest cruise has done the job but I think we are not going to make it to 5-Star somehow! Now to do another cruise with the advantages - pity there isn't free Wifi!

From what I recall, we were off the ship around 9-9.30 as we were doing a private overnight tour to Beijing with another couple, so there were no hassles disembarking. We went with Beijing Discovery Tours and they were very good.

Recently on the Noordam, we used our own 4-digit code for the safe. It wasn't terribly large - we only used it for our passports and cash. The instructions were on the front of the safe.