VATRAVELLER

"...as you wish..."? :confused:

 

Both fixed seating and open seating have an entire deck each in the dining room (except on the Prinsendam).

There is no way that every single table is by a service station or walkway on both levels. There just aren't that many service stations or walkways for that.

Sadly, that was our experience on the Noordam. There is not an entire deck for the dining room on the Noordam. A portion of 2 decks near the rear of the ship is for the dining room. We spent 2 nights in dining room being on the walk by aisle in front of service area and constantly bumped, 2 nights in Italian restaurant where were had a good table, 1 night in Pinnacle we had a table where the sun shone directly in our eyes and waiter would not close the curtains or move us. We gave up and the remaining nights had room service. Terrible service, terribly executed concept.

Picture of the Noordam-cannot recommend this ship as a one who prefers Norwegian Freestyle cruising on the Pearl and Gem.

Noordam FEB 2013 cruise. The Dining option "as you wish" does not work. Reservations were only available for 8.30pm or later unless you go to Italian restaurant or Pinnacle; both have a service charge. Neither should have a service charge; it is simply not worth it. In the main dining room, the tables for “as you wish” diners are near the service stations along the walkways. Constantly being bumped and ignored by staff meant we used room service or went to the buffet. We missed many of the special dinners like surf and turf. Room service has a limited menu of sandwiches and salads. Other than breakfast, room service is slow and generally unresponsive. The room service can take 45 minutes or 1 hour 45 minutes. The pickup of the trays is delayed. Seven nights (of 12 nights) our dinner room service tray was not picked up. In the morning the breakfast guy could not take the dinner room service tray. We learned to put trays on balcony - oh well, sometimes stuff vanished in the night.