Your Favorite Cruise - Holland America Line:

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Holland America Line

MS Noordam

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Michael Collins
# previous cruises: 10 to 20
Date of Trip: December 7, 2003
Itinerary: Caribbean - Southern

For me, December 7, 2003 is another date the will live in infamy! First, please let me say that every other HAL ship I have ever been on (and I have been on many since the 1970's) are floating masterpieces, well kept, great crew and I have had great vacation and traveling experiences. However, the cabins and facilities on the NOORDAM, during this cruise, ruined my only vacation this year!

The shortcomings of this cruise ship do not include the bar-tenders, waiters and cabin stewards because they were great and they did all thing humanly possible to make us happy.

However, the Amsterdam Dining Room was hot, the Explorer Lounge was Hot and smelled like sewage and the movie theatre was hot and clammy. The main Hot tub was broken the entire cruise. My 14 day cruise was ruined by this ship! Don't waste your money. All I ever wanted was Air Conditioning! Is that too much to ask! After a day in the sun, I want to relax in a cool cabin or have a comfortable dinner with air conditioning! What else is a vacation for? On other HAL cruises, these minimal comforts were met, why not on this one?

As I said before, the service on this ship was great except that there was not enough help on the ship. The food was also top shelf. Good quality, great presentation and served HOT!

My wife and I ROASTED in our cabin for nearly ten days. It was hot, damp and the stale air gave us both headaches for the entire cruise (you can't just open a window). The bathroom had mildew in the shower the entire cruise. In addition, there was black stuff falling out of the non working airconditioning vent.

Many of the shows were third rate and geared toward seniors only. VAUDEVILLE IS DEAD!

The normal activities on HAL ships. Bingo, Bingo and yes, BINGO. Trivia contests and lame cruise crafts. This may be great for the over 80 crowd but I am more alive than that!

Our dinner table mates were absolutely marvelous people. They were all well traveled and from many parts of the world. We had a great time with them!

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