Our cruise was a complete disaster.
Noordam Cruise Review to South Pacific - Australia
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
Onboard Activities
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ports of call
Cruise Fjordland National Park
Port Chalmers (Dunedin), New Zealand
6 Comments
Gwbigdog 2 years ago
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
gaylenesmith969 8 years ago
SvetlanaS 8 years ago
laughrey 8 years ago