Wonderful cruise & ports of call

Item: Noordam
Rating: 5
Author: nnvangie

Noordam Cruise Review

nnvangie

Contributor Level: Third Mate

17 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 42

Overall rating:

5 out of 5

14 Night Australia & New Zealand (Sydney To Auckland)

Sail date: November 09, 2019

Ship: Noordam

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 1078

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 4 years ago

Review summary

We had a great cruise & enjoyed visiting such great ports from Sydney to New Zealand. The crew & staff of the ship made it a special experience. Ship had to institute safety protocols due to norovirus, on day 2 of our voyage which lasted the rest of the trip. Only downside of the cruise but the staff & crew handled it well. Thank you to Lexie, the wonderful club HAL staff member who was fantastic with our kids! Also to John who was a friendly & outgoing bar staff who always made a point to say hello to our family & entertain our kids with a magic trick. Our kids nicknamed him Johndini....after Houdini :) Room stewards were also very friendly, helpful & accommodating. While this cruise line seems to generally accommodate a more mature age group, our family was made to feel welcomed & appreciated by the staff & crew of the Noordam.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

We really enjoyed all the delicious food on Noordam. Loved the taco bar until they had to shut it down due to the norovirus onboard. Only suggestion would have been to bring it into the lido as one of the food stations since the norovirus protocol that was enacted onboard shut down all self service food & drink. The main dining room was fantastic & our dinner servers were friendly & attentive. Loved the late night snacks, room service & lido. Dessert bar station was too good. Only tip is make sure you locate the fitness center on your first day of the cruise :)

Vista Dining Room

5 out of 5

Excellent service & staff. Excellent presentation & delicious food every time. Thank you

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Children's Programs

5 out of 5

My kids loved attending the kids club & a special thank you to Lexie who was the staff member responsible for our children while in club HAL. She was a joy to talk to & our kids were always asking when they could go back to kids club to play card games with her or just to hang out & watch movies or do just dance. Our cruise had only 7 total children on it with our kids being 2 of the 7.

Club HAL

5 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

We had great dinner servers. They were all very friendly & worked hard at being very attentive. Thank you Ichsan, Arman & Johan

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ship tip

Watch for the happy hours on the ship. The time & places change sometime daily. If you want your kids to enjoy kids club & you want to see a show without them make sure you select the early dining time. Weird tip from my kiddos.....If your kids like the veggie sticks & ranch dipping sauce appetizer on the room service menu you can order more than one order & have them put on one plate. (1 order is small) it’s also not on the late night room service menu so cutoff for this is 9:30pm ;) If you miss the charm bracelet deal of the day at the time listed in the planner, you can go to the shops & they will let you purchase it later in the day too or even sometimes the next day for the same price.

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