Noordam Cruise Reviews - Reviews

The cruise was the beat part. The land portion was great also. We did an on line review with Holland already and we let them know the 2 weak points on the land area. Two of their lodging experiences were very disappointing! One was a Hilton property and the other property was Holland's. The Holland property should be completely razed and rebuilt.

I would recommend this whole experience with the exception of the two locations.

Overall very good, bus from Seward to Anchorage was over 3 hours, rainy and foggy (it IS a rainforest) but pleasant. Cruise was a blast, go on the pub crawl! Shore excursions were great, saw orcas, whales sea lions, glaciers, eagles etc.       

Started out with a land journey.  All our research recommended this option.  Agree it was best choice.  Cruise portion much better orchestrated than the land portion.  Enjoyed warm, sunny Alaskan weather all but one day of cruise.  Activities and entertainment were good. Food was good with some nights having too many great choices that were not repeated.  Possibly due to hectic land schedule,  7 days did not allow us to get into the relaxed rhythm as we did on previous cruises. Glad we did see Alaska in it's finest.      

Food and weather were top notch...pedicure was best ever....line for tea was to to long. ..embark in Vancouver was a cluster no signs in city and itinerary were to go needs in providing ...

This was our first cruise and boy what a cruise it was!  The ship was amazing!  The service was over the top!  The weather was perfect!  There were many times I was just taking it all in and had tears in my eyes because I couldn't believe I was really in Alaska and being able to experience the beauty of the Last Frontier.  Our cruise planner took care of every detail and then some.  I would highly recommend taking an Alaskan Cruise in your lifetime.  Granted we were very fortunate to have wonderful weather for our cruise; but even in typical Alaskan drizzle and clouds, the sights will still be wonderful to see.

Overall, the organization of the whole cruise + land was excellent. Luggage was handled efficiently and arrived as per plan. Lodgings very good except the Anchorage Westmark hotel was a little old and run down. Dock positions were excellent compared to the competition, and land excursions worked well.

The organized embarkation & disembarkation made the cruise enjoyable from beginning to end.

Cruise staff did not burden passengers with constant announcements.

Room service was the difficult to work with.

I enjoyed the cruise, unfortunately I received incorrect information about a couple of very crucial parts of the trip that caused much unnecessary stress.  When I called with questions/help they were always very helpful and kind, unfortunately they didn't always give me the correct information.

The service from the Noordam staff was outstanding! 

95% of the food was outstanding.  The bread, desserts, and pastries were gourmet.  Steaks were not the highest grade of beef and tended toward overcooked. 

The room was well maintained and the view from the balcony was great. 

The fitness center was small and too hot - about 76 deg F.  Minimal free weights and few stationary bikes. 

Shore excursions - especially ziplining and snorkeling were awesome! 

BB King Blues Band was outstanding.

Onboard activities tended toward an older, sedentary, affluent crowd.  Would appreciate more onboard activities for younger, active folks.

Alcoholic drinks were expensive and the selection of bourbon and scotch at the medium to higher end were very limited.

Service was not as good as I have encountered on other cruise lines.  There was no one in the buffet to help my brother who was in a wheel chair.  There was no waiter by the pool area and very rarely in the Casino to get us drinks.  The service in the dining room was top notch but everywhere else seemed to be lacking!  The destination was great.  Alaska was beautiful.

I've taken 6 of my cruises to Alaska..loved everyone of then all the ports are different..the scenery is spectacular..the weather is cool and never snowy maybe some rain..the glaciers are slowly disappearing..so go quick for a great view of them..i will always pick Alaska as my best of 25 cruises.! I'll be back again...love Alaska!! 

Holland America really goes out of the way to make the cruise as good as possible. This was my first cruise and to be honest, I was skeptical. I have heard horror stories about rowdy drunk passengers, lack of cleanliness, noro-virus outbreaks, etc.  This ship was clean, most of the travelers on this cruise were not heavy-duty partiers. The staff went out of the way to be friendly and to provide great service. I will be doing this cruise again and maybe one in Australia or Europe.

This was a perfect way to see those towns that are only accessible by ship or sea plane. I want to travel the interior of Alaska at some point but this was a good introduction to the beauty and diversity of our country. Speaking of diversity, there was a variety of cultures represented on the ship. This brings me to the food which was fabulous. I couldn't believe the variety of foods that were offered. There were so many dining choices but I enjoyed the buffet style. I would like to offer some advice. There were many people who chose to have room service. That includes me and my travel partner. It totally overwhelms the staff and is not what cruises were intended to be. Please enjoy the company of others and avoid eating in your room. Before ending, I would like to say the ship was so clean. Every day you would see people cleaning! Do yourself a favor and book the Noordam. You won't be disappointed.

very very disappointing. service was mediocre, very slow. Food was not good.  

in room meals menu extremely limited. what was on the menu was nor what was served , ie smoked salmon with cream cheese, capers, and pickled red onin was in reality smoked salmon with lemon, mixed nuts became only peanuts.On day 2 we asked for the movie pack and were told "we are out, we have a lot of orders" really day 2, frankly poor planning. Was it a surprise how many people were on the ship?

Mini bar was not restocked with any degree of  regularity or consistency, some days they would add diet coke and others not. How do they charge if they are so inconsistent?

Shows were okay but not great. The piano bar and the Blues club sounded good but the rooms were so small we could not get in. Again it seemed there was poor planning for the number of people on ship.

Last day (docking day) we placed an order for breakfast to arrive at 6-6:30, at 7 I called and was told first there was no order and then when I said I saw them pick it up was told it was for 7, then I was told it was on the way. It never arrived. at the airport we ran into the people in the next cabin and they asked if we ordered breakfast. they had the same experience of not receiving their food.

a great number of the staff did not speak or understand English and were unable to assist us.

Extremely disappointing.

while we loved the scenery and the shore trips. I would not recommend Holland American for anyone and would not travel with them again.

We have traveled on Carnival before and had great food, great in room menu and great service.

I will go again// wonderful cruise, beautiful scenery breathtaking / next time  will go as far north to anchorage/   the weather was great also on my next cruise i want to do the dog sled excursion

Staff on this ship were friendly and efficient.  Entertainment onboard was good. We especially enjoyed having breakfast delivered to our stateroom every day. (This allowed us to avoid the main cafeteria.) The meals in the reservation-required dining rooms was quite good.  The stateroom was comfortable for 2, but would have been very crowded for 4, which was what it was slotted for. The only bad experience was the main cafeteria-style dining room, which had very minimal selections for a cruise ship, and the food was not tasty.  It was always very overcrowded, and it was difficult to find a table. The combination of overcrowding, limited selections, and food that was cheaply prepared and actually a bit gross in this dining room made meals there less than pleasant.  The drawback to eating at one of the other dining rooms was that they all required a reservation, and it was hard to get a convenient time, and sometimes difficult to get a reservation at all. They had a nice library with games and a good selection of books. Other than the food service, we enjoyed our trip!

My overall experience was very positive. The ship was very nice and well maintained. The staff was excellent. Very helpful and polite always going out of their way to accommodate each passenger. The food was very good, they just needed to have more variety. The shows were very good. I think they should spend more time in Ketchikan and less time in Skagway. The only negative was we were supposed to get a coupon book which we never received.

great sites, service. food very good. great cruise director. could not understand captain when giving announcements due to heavy accent. too long of lines when embarking

The first thing I must say is that the Noordam has the friendliest, most efficient crew I have ever experienced!  Our room steward and his assistant called me by name from the very first day to the very last day!

Our cabin was comfortable, with extremely comfortable beds, and more than ample room!

The shows were great, the food was great, but the slot machines in the casino were tight (no surprise there!).

All service was first rate!!!  

We have always heard good things about Holland America, and when we found this re-positioning cruise at a good price, we jumped on it.  Our first impression upon boarding the Noordam was how dark everything was.

New Zealand was beautiful, and we would like to return there someday to see more.  The ship had a mechanical problem with one of the thrusters, and we were forced to stay an extra day in Napier (which was nice, but not enough to see to warrant 2 days)  Then because of that delay, we had to skip the next two ports and spend an extra day at sea getting back to Sydney.

Holland america offered compensation in the form of a discount on our next cruise, but since we were not pleased with this cruise, we won't be taking another.

About the ship itself:  we had problems with noise in our cabin coming from the private cabanas on the deck above us.  This mostly occurred at night which was strange being as there should have been no one up there at night.  The crew kept telling us that they would fix it, but it continued to happen.

The atrium is small and cramped. Only thing it is used for is the front office and shore excursion desks.

In the buffet:  breakfast was good - lots of variety.  But lunch was very limited.  We don't eat pizza, pasta, sandwiches, asian food so we didn't find anything to eat there.  Hamburger and hot dogs by the pool were delicious, and the taco bar also.

Eating meals in the main dining room always took forever.  It seemed like the waiters were on top of everything, but the kitchen was slow.  Food was good, but not anything special, and breakfast was always the same menu.  We are used to the menu being changed daily.  

Service personnel always spoke to each other in their native tongue, which can get annoying.  We are used to other cruise lines where they always speak English around the passengers.

Cruise director was on the PA many times throughout the day advertising the various things for sale.  We have never heard so many announcements trying to sell us something.

To be fair, we did hear some loyal Holland America passengers say that this ship is not up to par with other ships.  But we won't spend the money to risk that another ship would be better.