Our cruise was a complete disaster.

Noordam Cruise Review to South Pacific - Australia

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 43

Overall rating:

1 out of 5
Verified Review
Noordam

14 Night New Zealand Discovery (Sydney Roundtrip)

Sail date: March 25, 2016

Ship: Noordam

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 6027

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

Unfortunately, the Holland America cruise was a costly fiasco, and the worst cruise we've experienced. I'd like to point out only a few key examples of our experience aboard the ship, on our first day we noticed a bad combustible/ diesel like odor in our cabin, this was while trying to get some sleep, as well as a loud whistle-like noise throughout the entire cruise. Less than halfway through our cruise we had mechanical problems and the ship stayed in  Napier for two entire days which meant we missed two different ports and consequently missing some incredible and three of the best planned tours. This meant the ship was not at sea for the 4 days that was promised but for an entire 7 days instead.  My wife and I spent many months extensively planning this dream cruise, we were extremely excited to go to New Zealand, however this ship, its food or staying at sea were not the reason why we chose to go to New Zealand, that we wanted to get out of our trip to this beautiful location is to truly experience its world known geographical beauty and it's people.

 

We were offered a 20% discount towards another cruise by Holland America representatives, which was humorous and upsetting at the time especially when our cruise was a disaster and Holland America ruined our very costly and what we hoped to be our dream vacation. 

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

Ship Quality

1 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

1 out of 5

Ports of call

Sydney, Australia

5 out of 5

Cruise Milford Sound

5 out of 5

Cruise Fjordland National Park

5 out of 5

Port Chalmers (Dunedin), New Zealand

5 out of 5

Akaroa, New Zealand

5 out of 5

Picton, New Zealand

3 out of 5

Wellington, New Zealand

3 out of 5

Napier, New Zealand

3 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 43

6 Comments

Gwbigdog    2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.

Martisal    8 years ago

We were also on this cruise.  We had no hot water one night and had hot water on and off for the following 2 days, another maintenance job. Ordered beers to be in cabin on embarkation unfortunately they needed a bottle opener.  Told only one opener on ship. Eventually the opener arrived next morning.   Seems as though HAL use the last month of NZ cruise season for maintenance ready for the lucrative Alaskan season.  Yes the 20% discount on HAL next cruise was a bit of a laugh.  It felt as though it was a "Fawlty Tower" cruise, things just seemed to go wrong.

Madge01    8 years ago

Spent 13 days on Noordam in January and couldn't fault it, you never get to see that much of the countries you visit on a cruise, there isn't enough time.

gaylenesmith969    8 years ago

A cruise is part seeing different countries and part the experience of the shipboard activities. If it was so imperative that you be in New Zealand, you perhaps should have booked any number of land tours that totally encompass that wonderful country!

SvetlanaS    8 years ago

Sorry for your dreams, but did you read your contract? Port stops never guaranteed for a reason. Obviously some mechanical problems happened and ship was staying at sea. Yes, you missed ports, but how you could not enjoy ship life? Awesome food, superb HAL service? Nothing pleased you during 7 sea days?

laughrey    8 years ago

Sorry to hear of you and your wife's bad experience. our cruise in Aug will be our first cruise with Holland America.

Other reviews of this sailing