Just back from 8/15 Noordam

[avalon1025]

We just returned from the 10 night Med cruise on the Noordam leaving Rome on 8/15. Overall we had a nice time, but this was not one of our best HAL cruises.

 

Ship: The Noordam is a nice ship, and is in good condition. I do prefer the smaller S and R class ships as they are more nicely laid out and have nicer public rooms. The Noordam felt like an endless hallway. Our cate SA suite was lovely and in great condition.

 

The Noordam felt very crowded, more so than any other HAL cruise.

 

Dinning: We opted for AYW dinning and thought it was awful. Each night at 8:00 there was a crowd waiting at the dinning room for a table. The dinning room never felt calm as there were always people comming and going. The dinning room is not set up for this kind of traffic as walking to your table you are walking past all the open service stations dodging waiters and other dinners leaving. We ended up with a set table at 8:15 in the AYW portion of the Vista Dining room, so much for AYW felxibility.

 

Overall food was dissapointing and service ranged from very fast to incredibly slow. At time we waited 15-20 minutes between some courses. Nothing was consistent except the waiters expressing their dislike for AYW dinning as they no longer get their 15 minute break between seatings.

 

Kids: There were many kids on this sailing and the middle pool was for families and renedered completely useless as kids took over this area, running and jumping. HAL staff do not know how to control theses masses of children (even when approached they just looked at you confused, some parents had to call the front office themselves from the pool for some supervision around the pool - parents also should be told they are responsilble for their children). No matter how they try to market to families HAL is not a family cruise line and their ships do not have the facilities to keep kids occupied.

 

We made the mistake of booking during school summer holiday...never again.

 

Nightlife: Dead by 11:00

 

Neptune Lounge: Heaven as it was the only nice peaceful area on this full cruise

 

The Midship pool was out of service the last day, 1900 passengers at the aft pool was not pleasant. Also one of the hot tubs was out of service the entire cruise as well as the staircase from the pool to the upper sundeck leading one to get dressed to go inside the ship to go up one deck and out to another sundeck with some quiet

 

Staff in the Crows Nest were tops, very nice and accommodating. Pinnacle grill was also a great escape. Concierges in the Neptune was also very pleasant.

 

Great ports and fantastic weather.

 

Overall a 6 or 7 out of 10, but not our best HAL cruise.

 

Thanks

[Jade13]

We just returned from the 10 night Med cruise on the Noordam leaving Rome on 8/15. Overall we had a nice time, but this was not one of our best HAL cruises.

 

Ship: The Noordam is a nice ship, and is in good condition. I do prefer the smaller S and R class ships as they are more nicely laid out and have nicer public rooms. The Noordam felt like an endless hallway. Our cate SA suite was lovely and in great condition.

 

The Noordam felt very crowded, more so than any other HAL cruise.

 

Dinning: We opted for AYW dinning and thought it was awful. Each night at 8:00 there was a crowd waiting at the dinning room for a table. The dinning room never felt calm as there were always people comming and going. The dinning room is not set up for this kind of traffic as walking to your table you are walking past all the open service stations dodging waiters and other dinners leaving. We ended up with a set table at 8:15 in the AYW portion of the Vista Dining room, so much for AYW felxibility.

 

Overall food was dissapointing and service ranged from very fast to incredibly slow. At time we waited 15-20 minutes between some courses. Nothing was consistent except the waiters expressing their dislike for AYW dinning as they no longer get their 15 minute break between seatings.

 

Kids: There were many kids on this sailing and the middle pool was for families and renedered completely useless as kids took over this area, running and jumping. HAL staff do not know how to control theses masses of children (even when approached they just looked at you confused, some parents had to call the front office themselves from the pool for some supervision around the pool - parents also should be told they are responsilble for their children). No matter how they try to market to families HAL is not a family cruise line and their ships do not have the facilities to keep kids occupied.

 

We made the mistake of booking during school summer holiday...never again.

 

Nightlife: Dead by 11:00

 

Neptune Lounge: Heaven as it was the only nice peaceful area on this full cruise

 

The Midship pool was out of service the last day, 1900 passengers at the aft pool was not pleasant. Also one of the hot tubs was out of service the entire cruise as well as the staircase from the pool to the upper sundeck leading one to get dressed to go inside the ship to go up one deck and out to another sundeck with some quiet

 

Staff in the Crows Nest were tops, very nice and accommodating. Pinnacle grill was also a great escape. Concierges in the Neptune was also very pleasant.

 

Great ports and fantastic weather.

 

Overall a 6 or 7 out of 10, but not our best HAL cruise.

 

Thanks

 

We were on the 7/26 Noordam and our experience was pretty much identical to yours with the exception that we booked 12 months in advance and got our requested 8:00pm 2 top. The food was average at best and we can only blame the Executive Chef. The Chefs can change from time to time. We had a good time because the itinerary was great! And of course HAL staff as nice as can be. They were short staffed because, as they told it, crew could not get tickets because of the Olympics. We were on Deck 7 and our Steward said it was his first time servicing guests. He was very nice but it showed. He forgot turndown one night and just wasn't that great at making those towel animals. Their shipment did not make it through in Liverno so we had almost no Elemis. We had one bar of soap for 3 day that had to be used at both the sink and shower and had to call thre diff days for shampoo etc etc.

 

We still had a good time but it was our most disapointing HAL cruise.

[avalon1025]

My cabin steward on deck 7, Ari, was wonderful, really great. I found the majority of crew to be very nice and accommodating. it was sad as I love HAL and this cruise just was not up to their normal standards.