Great Cruise
Noordam Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern
10 Night Southern Caribbean Wayfarer (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)
Sail Date: November 27, 2008
Cabin Type: Balcony
Traveled As: Couple
Reviewed: 8 years ago
Sail Date: November 27, 2008
Cabin Type: Balcony
Traveled As: Couple
Reviewed: 8 years ago
Review Summary
The Noordam was a beautiful ship and the service on Holland America is fantastic from the room stewards to the dining room stewards. The meals were excellent.Ship Experiences
Food and Dining
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ports of Call
The island itself was beautiful but beware of arranging your own taxi. We negotiated with a taxi driver named Yankee for a tour of the island and a visit to a beach for $80 for four people. After touring the island and stopping at the beach he demanded his beers be paid for at the beachside bar and on the way back to the ship he insisted that we pay him $120 plus tip. We did neither and paid him the $80.00. It was a bit scary driving with him after he was intoxicated and obviously had been smoking up as well. It would be advisable to book your tours through Cruise.com or Holland America.
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All the prices were in Euros so people didn't bother buying anything. Because there are so many US cruise ships stopping at this port, they would be well advised to have prices in US $s as well. The natives again were not friendly.
The beach we visited was beautiful but taxi drivers were fighting over fares and swearing at each other in front of the customers. The mood amongst the natives was quite ugly.
Half Moon Cay is always a favourite. Unfortunately there were two ships there at the same time making the beach very crowded but luckily there were not a lot of people in the water which made it nice for swimming.
This definitely was the best port. The people were friendly and the beach was awesome with beautiful views on the drive there. We negotiated our own taxi and although he couldn't pick us up at the end of the day, he did send someone else to do so.
Port was dirty including the water
Pros: The Ship and the Service
Cons: The mood on the islands seems to be changing with exception of Tortolla. The natives are not that friendly to the tourists. The other things about the trip we didn't like was having a crying baby at the 8:00 pm dinner sitting
