14 night Alaska

Item: Noordam
Rating: 3.5
Author: plaverr

Noordam Cruise Review

plaverr

Contributor Level: Second Mate

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 2

Helpful Votes: 22

Overall rating:

3.5 out of 5

14 Night Alaska Roundtrip Collectors Voyage (Vancouver Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 03, 2023

Ship: Noordam

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 5003

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 7 months ago

Review summary

Wonderful crew for the most part and the musicians in the Rolling Stone Lounge were the best part. We have done Alaska before so the ports are always the same. Alaska is always beautiful.

Embarkation

3 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

Explorations Cafe

2 out of 5

We stopped going there as our orders were wrong every time. Much preferred the Crow’s Nest. Good coffee and great service.

The Dining Room

4 out of 5

We had very good service in the MDR and the food was very decent. It would have been nice if the food was different on the second week, but we could live with that. Silmi and Sidik were very attentive servers and always enjoyed a little chat with us.

Piano Bar

3 out of 5

We have seen this singer before on another ship and did not care for his voice or performance. However the bartender Floro and his servers were excellent.

Ocean Bar

4 out of 5

Nice cocktails and good service! Hennessy, Oscar and Jethro were wonderful.

Lido Market

1 out of 5

We don’t usually do buffets and this ship it was no exception. The few times we did try to get something, we found the service was not friendly, slow and boring food.

Canaletto

4 out of 5

The food was excellent and Elly and Alaine were lovely servers.

24-Hour In-Room Dining

3 out of 5

Every morning there were items missing from our order

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Rolling Stone Lounge

4 out of 5

On this ship it was the Rolling Stone lounge and they were the best entertainment on the whole ship. Very good musicians and singers. Loved it.

Billboard Onboard

1 out of 5

Out of all our HAL cruises, there was only one cruise where the Billboard performers were excellent. All the other were very amateur performers with little talent including the two on the Noordam.

World Stage

1 out of 5

Boring!

Library

4 out of 5

I always bring E-books, so I don’t need a library, however I did find the selection on this ship was very good. Lots of current editions.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

The staff are definitely HAL’s strong point. Wonderful people who actually remember you from others cruises and seem genuinely interested in seeing you again and catching up. The only negative staff I encountered were some of the lido staff and our cabin steward who seemed more interested in ensuring we would give him a 10 out of 10 review. I know they work hard, but this guy was not the best.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

The layout was pretty similar to the other Vista class ships. Some areas had been modernized and other areas were in the old style. It could use an overhaul though. The cabins are dated and the beds need replacing. The plumbing was bad, the bathroom flooded and we had Luke warm water. The balcony door was broken so we couldn’t go outside and the hallway door self close was also broken. Dirty and ripped carpets in the Lido. The tiles in the pools need replacing as well as the decking around the pools. We also felt that the public bathrooms were not being cleaned as often. In two weeks we only saw an attendant twice in the bathrooms. There were a lot of sick passengers onboard and in my opinion the sanitation standards were not being met.

Cabin / Stateroom

2 out of 5

I covered this already. Not up to par.