Review - 17 Lucky Days on the Noordam

[Netta7]

We are a family of four with a teen and a tween. This is our fourth cruise and first on HAL. We had a fabulous time on our 17 day cruise. I have tried to be detailed, so my apologies if this is too much information. I'll add port information for those that are interested in separate posts below.

We reserved 2, small interior connecting K cabins and requested “no upgrade” since we wanted to keep our rooms together. Despite checking many times, we were never able to get the larger, square interior cabins everyone writes about so positively. We had booked our July/August cruise in January and the trip price went down several times before our final payment. Each time we called our TA and the price was lowered. Ultimately, we were thrilled with the bargain price. We were even more excited that we received onboard credit from our online TA and the CCL stock ownership credit for both cabins.

Arrival day: We had a driver that had the required special port permit to drive us right up to the ship. Although the check in line looked long when we arrived, we were on board within an hour or so and our bags were already in our room when we arrived. Our rooms were tiny, as promised, but once we unpacked and put our suitcases under our beds, everyone was happy. Since it has been asked on this board many times, I will say there was not a hint of smoke odor in either room upon arrival.

Tenders: Our first tender port was Santa Margherita. The tendering started late, but HAL extended the departure time to make up for it. There was some tender problem that day, and it took over an hour and a half from when we got the tickets to when our feet hit the ground in Santa Margherita. After that the tendering went more smoothly.

The Staff: Well, consider us HAL converts and the staff is one of the big reasons. We loved the staff. We were amazed by our cabin stewards Joe and Sodiq. Our wine steward, Rey was outstanding and we all fell in love with our dining staff including Made, Puto, and Arno.

Food: We were very happy with the food on the ship. We thought the food was much better than on our Princess cruise two years ago. We ate in the main dining room most nights and went to the Pinnacle, once for lunch and twice for dinner.

Room Service: The biggest disadvantage of our small room was that it was a very tight space for in room dining. We tried room service breakfast for 3 different mornings when we had very early excursions. It was just ok. Not once did our food arrive at the time we asked and each time something was missing from our order. We learned to expect breakfast early and to check our trays for all of our items before the server left our room. Despite these minor glitches, we think it is a nice service HAL offers.

Fixed vs. Anytime dining: For the first 7 days we had anytime dining. On the second night we made a reservation for the same table and same time for the rest of the 7 day cruise. We were allowed to skip the line and walk directly to our table. This worked very well for us. At the end of the 7 day segment, our dining staff was rotating so we thought we would try fixed dining. Now that we have done both, I can say we liked the anytime dining with a standard reservation better. During the fixed seating our dining staff was dealing with everyone arriving at the same time, and they were busy, busy, busy. With our standing reservation downstairs, we had the advantage of staff who knew us. They also had a bit more time with us since everyone wasn’t arriving at once. Also, the food service was a bit faster with our “anytime” dining reservation. Again, I expect this is because everyone isn’t arriving at once.

Lucky Part: Well this was the cruise for luck for us. My tween won bingo, I won bingo AND we won the win a cruise raffle! We just couldn’t believe it. I have taken this as a sign that we should always sail HAL :)

Entertainment: We were busy with ports so we didn't spend a lot of time on the ship's entertainment. We didn't really care for the HAL cats as the songs seemed dated even to us and we are 40s/50s. Similarly the production shows were not for us either but we really enjoyed the mind reader. We also enjoyed the guitar player/singer, Dave Compto. We wish his times moved around a bit, because he was always playing while we are at dinner. Due to smoking we passed on the casino and nearby bars.

Disembarking: This was very easy for us. We walked off with our luggage at 7:15 and our driver was waiting for us. We were at the airport in an hour from when we shut our cabin door. The driver was not inexpensive, but after we had seen some of the people trying to DIY it on turnaround day, we immediately confirmed a ride to the airport with an independent driver. My husband and I may have tried DIY with just the two of us, but with the kids it seemed too much of a hassle for the savings.

Minor things we didn’t like in interest of full disclosure: We had a great time, but feel we need to be fair and mention the one or two things that could be improved. My DH had a massage and once he was nice and relaxed there was a very hard sell for products followed by more hard sell for future appointments. He said buying a used car with a pushy salesman would be more relaxing than the last 10 minutes with his spa person! Much has already been said about photos and photo pricing, so I won't say much other than to say they could really improve their electronic service and pricing.

Next up - ports.

[heidik]

What a nice review to read - thank you!

[bermuda triangle]

Congrats on your bingo wins and have fun on the cruise you won!! Lucky Ducks!!

Laura

[Netta7]

Pre-cruise: We stayed 2 nights in Rome pre-cruise at Hotel Lancelot. The hotel had the most wonderful staff and it was perfect for a family. We would definitely stay there again. We hired a private guide for our full day and were very happy with our guide, Marta Marsili. Having a private, licensed guide is the way to go. I am so happy we did not waste money on one of the car/limo/driving tours. Marta arranged our tickets in advance and was able to go into all of the sites with us. Her being with us and her explanations, made everything come alive for the kids and us. She knew just where to walk to avoid lines, stand to get the best views and had many great secret short cuts that allowed us to see a lot in our day.

Santa Margherita: We walked to Portofino. We enjoyed the walk, but it is 3 miles and about 2/3 of the walk was in the sun. Since it was July, it was quite a warm walk. Portofino was pretty but there wasn’t much to do with our kids unless we wanted to walk around an expensive shopping district. There are no beaches in Portofino. The water taxis in the Portofino harbor wanted 100 EU for a 30 minute tour. Instead we went back to what we thought was the prettiest beach we past during our walk in Paraggi. While pretty, it was also expensive. There was a free, very tiny, very crowded, public beach with no toilets. The least expensive hotel beach wanted over 100 Euros for us to be admitted and have a chair. Instead, we sat on the crowded public beach, went for a swim and walked back to Santa Margherita. We were there on the last Sunday in July, which may have contributed to the crowds and prime season pricing.

Cannes: We walked along the harbor, past the theater and went to the main beach strip. This was much nicer than Santa Margherita for a beach day. There were vendors offering water skiing and other rides, which the kids enjoyed. Both hotels and the city had beach chairs and umbrellas for rent. We rented from the city beach for a very reasonable rate (under 8 Euros for a full day for a chair or umbrella or under 4 for a half day). As you walk along the promenade look for the blue and yellow umbrellas for the town beach. When we were ready for lunch we walked 3 blocks up to the main shopping street for lunch and bought some great French wine to take back on board the ship.

Barcelona: Fabulous day. Rather than taking the HAL shuttle bus at $5 a person, we took a taxi for 11 Euros for all of us. The taxi was cheaper and faster. In fact for all of the ports where HAL offered a town shuttle for a fee on this trip, a taxi was break even or cheaper if you had 3 or more people. During the morning we went on the Fat Tire Bicycle tour. This was a lot of fun and a great way to see the city with the family. Next up we took a taxi to the Barcelona stadium (Nou Camp) and Barcelona team museum for a tour. Our youngest DS is a huge European soccer fan, so this was a highlight for him.

Tunis: We were worried about this stop before we left and were worried about safety given the US State Dept warnings. It turns out our worries were unneccessary. We had another great day and felt safe the entire time. We had a fabulous guide, Boutheina DeRouiche, and driver. We went to Tunis and saw the sites of the Jasmine revolution, the Medina, and the exterior of some of the mosques. Our guide was wonderful with the kids and answered all of our questions so nicely. After Tunis was Carthage, the Punic harbors, Carthage museums, the American Cemetery, and a quick stop at Sidi Bou Said. We loved choosing our itinerary and being able to stay as little or as long as we liked at each stop.

Palermo: One of our favorite days with Eduordo of the Addiopizzo travel group. While we were planning our trip the NY Times travel section had an article about the anti-mafia travel company (Addiopizzo) in Sicily. Thinking this might be fun and educational for the kids I reached out to them. They planned an excellent bike tour for us and we learned a lot about the local culture. We appreciated that the company only frequented businesses that refused to pay the standard kickbacks/protection money to organized crime. We were met at the ship and taken to a bike shop nearby. We biked about 20 miles over the course of the day seeing the sites of Palermo and then heading to Mondello for some beach time and a delicious lunch. Once Eduordo found out our son was a soccer/football fan, he changed our route on the return trip to make sure we had a stop at the Palermo stadium for a quick look and a jersey souvenier stop. Thank you Eduordo!

[Netta7]

Back to Rome for turnaround day: This was a complete DIY day. We took the free port shuttle which was very crowded with many people disembarking. Once in town we easily found the bus station for the bus to Tarquinia. Finding a bus ticket was harder because the shop decided to quit selling bus tickets early in the morning. There was a group of tourists from different ships waiting for the bus and none of us had tickets. A nice Italian woman explained the situation to the bus driver and he let us all on the bus for free. Tarquinia was a nice medieval town, but was not our kids’ favorite place. The museum does not have any of its signs in English it and features artifacts from tombs. The Etruscan tombs are ancient painted tombs. There are about 20 tombs open to the public spread over a hillside area. Each tomb has a small building above it to protect the tomb from the elements. You walk down a stairway to a door with a window at the bottom and look at the tomb through a window in the door. Although my DH and I found it interesting, the kids said no more museums or places focused just on cemeteries.

Dubrovnik – We went biking in the Korvale valley in the morning and spent the afternoon in the city. The afternoon on the walls was very not so it may have been better to reverse the order of our day.

Corfu – Rented a convertible/open top jeep from Sunrise. This was the easiest car rental experience we have ever had in any place in the world. Sunrise didn’t even require a credit card. We drove all over the island spending time at a couple of different beaches and taking the grotto boat tour. Our only theft/crime problem happened here. While we were lunching at an outdoor restaurant with the car nearby and someone lifted a bag from the car while the top was down. I hope the person who took it is enjoying our HAL tote bag with 3 HAL towels and a couple of half used water bottles. I wish I could have seen their face when they saw what they took!

Katakolan/Olympia – We reserved a tour with George the taxi driver. Since this was a half day stop we didn’t want to take the time to try DIY. We were one of the first people at Olympia and had a wonderful time with George. In addition to Olympia and the museums there, we went to a winery, George’s village, the beach and had a quick drive on the sand before returning to the ship. So glad we went with him.

Santorini – Rented a car from Tony’s and had another positive car rental experience. Drove to Oia first and then red beach and the black beach in the afternoon. Driving here was much easier than we imagined. We had a great time and were glad we had the car. Even with 7 ships in port we had no trouble getting around and finding parking. Looking at the people waiting for the bus and trying to get on one confirmed this was the right choice for us. At the end of the day we arrived at the cable car station 45 minutes before the last tenders. We thought 45 minutes would be sufficient time, but he line was very, very long. We had to walk the donkey path back down in order to get to the ship on time.

Ephesus – Private tour through Kasogans. We are glad we went with this company. The Kosogan’s only work with very experienced guides in Ephesus and you get to plan your day as you see fit – no carpet stops or other sales experiences unless that is what you want to do. We had Taner Kara as our guide and he was outstanding. We went to Ephesus, the Terrace Houses, the site of the temple of Artemis, a mosque that dates from the 14th century, the village of Sirince for the best lunch we had the entire trip at the Ocakbasi Restaurant, and then back to port. If you go to Sirince it is a great place for shopping for locally made items including wine, soaps, olive oils, etc. We got many of our gifts from this small village. It does not have the knock offs, carpets, and T-shirts that you see near the port.

Athens – Taxi drivers at the port were a bit of a bother. They only wanted to take people for tours rather than the quick ride to meet our walking tour that we wanted. The dispatcher had to help us get a taxi and then we were on our way to meet our walking tour we had scheduled through Athenswalkingtours. This was not our favorite tour, and we would not recommend it. Fortunately, we had all been to Athens before and had seen the sites then. After our tour, we had an outstanding meze/tapas lunch in the Plaka area at Sholarhio Ouzeri Kouklis. This restaurant is in many guidebooks and deserves to be in them.

Messina - We sent to Taormina with a tour booked through Mario Astone. We would go with him again. We were in Messina for a public holiday (the Assumption of Mary) and we only had 1/2 day in port.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Great review.

 

Thank you for taking the time to write it.

 

Bingo winners --- free cruise winner -- congratulations.

[aliaschief]

Enjoying your comprehensive review. Thank you very much for sharing your cruise experience with us and congratulations on your good fortunes while aboard.

[janeo]

I enjoyed reading your comprehensive report - just wondering about the car rentals in Santorini and Corfu as we will be visiting these ports next May. Did you book in advance and approximately how much did it cost for a day's rental?

[Softball20]

So glad to hear good things about Tunis -- I also did see your post in response to my inquiry on that board as well. I have been emailing with Taha and it sounds great. Did you have any hesitation about prepaying for that one? Also curious about the food there - did you get to try a local restaurant?

 

Thanks

[Netta7]

In response to the questions above:

 

Car rentals - Since we were a family of four we did not book the least expensive car. For both Corfu and Santorini we rented a soft top/convertible jeep and elected to pay the optional 10 euro full insurance premium. We reserved in advance from companies that had been recommended on the CC boards. One rental was 80 Euros including the extra insurance and the other was 60 something. You might find lower prices in May.

 

Tunisia - Because we were nervous about Tunisia we booked through Toursbylocals rather than trying to reserve directly with a guide. We had checked out toursbylocals and decided to rely on their refund policy. Taha did not get paid until after the trip when we replied to an email from toursbylocals that all had gone well. I forgot to add in my review that we also went to the Bardo museum, which was very nice. Lunch, other than beverages, and all museum and entrance tickets were included in the price. The lunch was a local lunch and everyone was satisfied with it, but it was not memorable like our great food in Turkey and Athens. On the shore talk on the ship, the cruise director mentioned that you don't go to Tunisia for the food. I don't know whether this was just his opinion or a common feeling about Tunisian restaurants.

[Softball20]

Thanks. I didn't realize that the price included the admissions, etc. I did like the info provided by Tours by Locals, and Taha has been really good about answering my questions, etc.

[kazu]

Great review and wonderful posts on your ports. Thank you so very much:)

[scopewest]

I laughed when I read about the hard sell after the massage. We tried a couples massage, and my therapist starts the hard sell on me and I pulled the "you have to ask my husband" routine. DH wasn't amused but we finally escaped.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[erewhon]

Netta7,

 

Thank you for your interesting review.

Did HAL charge you for the stolen towels?

[sail7seas]

Great review. Thank you.

 

[ruswit]

Great comprehensive, up to date review. We are travelling on a similar cruise leaving on 5 September and I you have given us much worthwhile information.

[Netta7]

No charge for the towels from HAL. We told one of the boarding officers about it when we came back on board, and they said not to worry about it. Other cruise lines we have used required you to check out and check in towels. HAL's approach is so nice. There is a large tables of folded towels right next to the gangway, and you just take what you need for the day.

[erewhon]

Netta,

 

Thank you for your reply.

[sail7seas]

Netta....... Do you (or does someone else) know who is currently the Hotel Manager on Noordam?

 

Thanks.

[Netta7]

James Deering was there. I think he is the hotel manager, but I wasn't tracking titles. He came to the CC meet and greet and some of the collectors events. Since our 17 day cruise was really a 7 & a 10 day put together, HAL offered a collectors brunch and a cocktail party for guests staying on board for more than 1 segment.

[taxmantoo]

We are boarding the Noordam on August 26. Would you remember who the musician was in the "Piano Bar" for your voyage?

[LuvSushi]

Thank you for posting. It was great to read your review. I was already getting excited about my upcoming cruise on Noordam, now I can barely contain my excitement!

 

Are we there yet?

[Himself]

Thank you for sharing the review with us.

[shandryl]

Thank you for the review! and for sharing!! :D