BonitaCruisers Cruise Review on Noordam on May 20, 2018

Noordam Cruise Review

BonitaCruisers

Contributor Level: Second Mate

Reviews: 5

Helpful Votes: 111

Overall rating:

4 out of 5

Sail date: May 20, 2018

Ship: Noordam

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

Took Noordam from Vancouver to Seward then glass dome scenic trains to Anchorage and again for two nights at Denali,lastly a bus to Fairbanks. The weather while raining in Ketchikan got better each day and the land portion was sunny, cool, and clear, with Mt. Denali fully visible to those on the Park tour and partially seen from the dome train on the way in.We were just a step ahead of mosquitoes getting bad. The scenery from the mountain railroad in Skagway excursion, and in Glacier Bay, and from the dome train, and in the Park was spectacular! The included riverboat cruise and lunch in Fairbanks was surprisingly good and informative. Our accessible balcony room 6001 had lots of room, and was clean, comfortable, quite, and in good working order. Our cabin steward was attentive to the point of daily cleaning the glass doors. A balcony is so worth it as the windows all over the ship are not kept clean like this. We had done a HAL Glacier Bay Cruise 10 years ago with a window only room and this was so much better. We ate in the main dining room mostly and thought the food was good and the service wonderful. We loved breakfast there with the views and soft classical music. Their fruit plates were great as were the Swedish pancakes, salsa egg skillet, and they will customize. All salmon and other fish as well as beef, and rack of lamb, was delicious. Dinner fillet @ Pinnacle Grill was excellent but we happen this time to have a poor or perhaps distracted waiter who influenced our experience. Canaletto by comparison had wonderful service and very average food. Really enjoyed two musical groups: the young Lincoln Center piano string group is marvelous as is the consistent B.B. Kings. The only issues we had were with the land portion of our cruise tour. The early start times were ridiculous (5:30 AM tour, etc) and only at Denali we’re we placed in an accessible room, which was problematic.

6 Comments

BonitaCruisers 6 years ago

When going on the land portion at least when going by train HAL makes you put out all your suitcases the night before for an 11 PM pick up . One bag tagged meet me tonight and one or more tagged meet me in Fairbanks or wherever you are leaving from. Anything you will need that bed time and in the early morning departure before 6 AM ( they open the Lido at 5 that AM for breakfast) must be put in some very small tote. Like the bag the ship gives you or large purse or small backpack that fits behind your knees for the ride to Anchorage. You are given seat tickets . Two fave forward and two backward with a table between you for this part of train dome car journey. Luckily not filled up and we could turn ourselves around and as tall people stretch out in our unfurled space for 4. The dome train to Denali was much nicer with two seats forward facing . Great bartender and dining car below. Tip they take people for dining in tiny groups starting from the back. We were hungry and in our he front and did not get breakfast, which wasn’t that good until they started lunch right after us. We skipped lunch and used the very good bar menu that the guy brought to us with smoothies, large chips guacamole, salsa, pie. Others were wild about this chocolate dessert looking drink he makes up.

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