Which would you choose? HAL Noordam or NCL Sun - 11 Days

[Hanclaluc]

Hi

I sailed round the Med last year on the Noordam. It is a lovely ship; the staff were excellent and the food was really good. I had a veranda cabin with my two daughters which was spacious. My only real negative was that as a young 44 year old I found the entertainment at night to be completely non-existent. Don't get me wrong, I don't want really loud competitions etc but after dinner it would of been great to chat to a few others in the bars etc. but, whilst my kids were busy in their clubs I was often the only one up listening to the string quartet (who were fab by the way). Most people seemed to disappear to bed after dinner. Whatever you choose, have a great cruise.

[iancal]

In general, we found the beds on HAL better than the beds on NCL if that makes a difference to you.

[Searching4Sun]

Having only sailed NCL and HAL, I give the edge to HAL. I prefer their food, service, and being able to find a deck chair by the pool on sea days. I don't feel nickel and dimed the whole time, and prefer to not have drinks constantly pushed at me. I do give NCL serious points for their entertainment, and actually just helped my niece plan her college graduation cruise on the Epic (she didn't want to dress up and wanted to see the Blue Man Group). BTW I am 33 and my DH is 41.

[edrosado1]

The only thing to compare is itineraries and cost, and not the cruise ships.
You have HAL a primeium cruise line, compared to NCL which is a mass market cruise line similar to Carnival and RCCL.

The choice should be very easy to make.

[DeRon]

Okay, on the Anytime Dining...can you eat breakfast and lunch for two as well? Or just dinner?

We have read many people that have said that the Lido cafeteria line is annoying and slow...especially when you want to just grab one item. We are thinking we would want to avoid this.

Thanks!

[vbmom87]

[quote name='DeRon']Okay, on the Anytime Dining...can you eat breakfast and lunch for two as well? Or just dinner?

We have read many people that have said that the Lido cafeteria line is annoying and slow...especially when you want to just grab one item. We are thinking we would want to avoid this.

Thanks![/quote]

Not sure about seating for breakfast and lunch as we did the Lido. I think you have to try the Lido to know if it is your thing or not. I did not enjoy it the day we went for dinner, but was more than fine with it for breakfast and lunch. I never found the lines to be annoying and slow, but then I am not a Type A personality. Any wait we experienced was more than acceptable. In our case it was a matter of compromise. I got my dinners in the MDR and my DH got his breakfast and lunch in the Lido. It worked fine for us.

[NMLady]

[quote name='DeRon']Guys...I am the OP..thank you for all your comments and help!! We are *leaning* toward the Noordam! I do have a few questions that are important to us:

In the Anytime Dining, is it easy to sit at a table for 2, or do they try to place you with other guests?

Is the Anytime Dining system very good (vs other cruise lines Anytime dining)?

How many formal nights would be on a 11 night cruise? Are the rest casual? Or semi-formal? Or a combination?

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!![/quote]

We used the 'anytime' dining on Amsterdam for our Alaska cruise. You are only placed with other guests if you ASK for shared seating. There is no problem getting a table for 2 although the wait might be a little longer.

Having used 'anytime' dining on HAL's Amsterdam and freestyle dining on NCL ships, we found HAL's open seating just as easy to use as NCL's.

I would think there'd be 3 formal nights on 11 night cruise but I'm not sure.
The other nights are usually smart casual. (collared shirt/blouse, nice slacks)

[NMLady]

[quote name='DeRon']Okay, on the Anytime Dining...can you eat breakfast and lunch for two as well? Or just dinner?

We have read many people that have said that the Lido cafeteria line is annoying and slow...especially when you want to just grab one item. We are thinking we would want to avoid this.

Thanks![/quote]

It is extremely easy to have table for two for breakfast and lunch.

Many of the people who complain about the buffet think you have to stay in line until it gets to the item(s) you want, but that's not the case. Just walk in, go to the item(s) you want and wait only for the few people who are also currently getting that item.

We often ate breakfast and/or lunch in the buffet and had no problem.

Also, we never were 'nickel and dimed' on NCL any worse than on HAL, and we never had drinks pushed at us. Our worst pushy sale was actually on HAL in the pool area where a crew member kept trying to sell us a book on how to make the towel animals.

[Hanclaluc]

[quote name='DeRon']Okay, on the Anytime Dining...can you eat breakfast and lunch for two as well? Or just dinner?

We have read many people that have said that the Lido cafeteria line is annoying and slow...especially when you want to just grab one item. We are thinking we would want to avoid this.

Thanks![/QUOTE]


re the dining, we ate in the dining room every morning bar two. it was easy to get a table for two as the dining room was always very quiet. I liked sharing a table for breakfast though; generally is a meal thats quicker than dinner so if you don't get on with your table guests you are away quicker, but actually I made firm friends this way and found people willing to share taxis/train travel. Always good in a group when travelling independently.

[funcruisingmom]

I usually cruise for the ports and I would have to go with HAL. I go with an open mind and always enjoy whatever cruise line I am on. My favorite ports are St Marteen, St Lucia and Barbados.

[DeRon]

[quote name='funcruisingmom']I usually cruise for the ports and I would have to go with HAL. I go with an open mind and always enjoy whatever cruise line I am on. My favorite ports are St Marteen, St Lucia and Barbados.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for your post. Others have also said "I would choose the HAL ports" but one thing is bothering me is that 4 of the ports depart at 3:00! That is SO early (in my opinion). Thoughts?

Also, I have heard that some feel unsafe on the beaches of St Lucia and Barbados from people peddling drugs...true? false? Do you feel safe at these ports?

We had a very dangerous and bad experience at Jamaica one year, so I am leery of unsafe islands.

Thanks!

[funcruisingmom]

[quote name='DeRon']Thank you for your post. Others have also said "I would choose the HAL ports" but one thing is bothering me is that 4 of the ports depart at 3:00! That is SO early (in my opinion). Thoughts?

Also, I have heard that some feel unsafe on the beaches of St Lucia and Barbados from people peddling drugs...true? false? Do you feel safe at these ports?

We had a very dangerous and bad experience at Jamaica one year, so I am leery of unsafe islands.

Thanks![/QUOTE]
The 3:00pm departing is early. Would have to get up and get going in order to be back to ship by 2:30pm. Wonder why they leave that early.
We didn't feel unsafe at any of the places. I have been to Jamaica and I know how it feels there.

[Murray's Pop]

As others have said, it really depends on what you are looking for on a cruise or a ship, so take this for what it is worth. We are a couple of years older than you, and we have been on both ships. To us there is no comparison - Noordam is by far our preference.

Baseball caps, tank tops and jeans in the main dining room is not really what I am looking for on a cruise, but that appeared to be more the "norm" on the Sun - in the premium steakhouse as well. By the way, the view out of the Sun steakhouse is the basketball court on the upper deck.

The layout of the ships are vastly different. Noordam is well planned and designed. The Sun was the first of the "Free Style" ships, and does not seem well designed. They may have gotten better on the later designs, but not on Sun.

The staff interaction on both ships were very good, but I would also give the nod here to the folks aboard the Noordam. They just seemed more natural in their interactions with passengers, while the Sun staff, while very cordial and professional, seemed more like they were doing this because it was their job.

We have cruised on the Noordam for a total of about 60 days, and on the Sun for 12 days. We will be cruising again on the Noordam, but probably not on the Sun.

Hope that this was helpful, and hope that enjoy your cruise, whichever ship you choose!

[SwissMyst]

[quote name='DeRon']Thank you for your post. Others have also said "I would choose the HAL ports" but one thing is bothering me is that 4 of the ports depart at 3:00! That is SO early (in my opinion). Thoughts?

Also, I have heard that some feel unsafe on the beaches of St Lucia and Barbados from people peddling drugs...true? false? Do you feel safe at these ports?

We had a very dangerous and bad experience at Jamaica one year, so I am leery of unsafe islands.

Thanks![/QUOTE]

Much in the Caribbean is not safe, almost all islands sponsor some degree of illegal drug trade activities. We were robbed in Antigua in sight of the ship. This was a surprise for us because we had taken a free-spirited approach to this our first trip into the Caribbean, until after we got home we did a little more investigation into what goes on behind the scenes on these islands.

I would primarily stick with ship shore excursions and in retrospect we were just plain lucky we only got robbed once, since we had naively approached our whole Caribbean cruise with independent port activities at almost every one of them - go out and walk the streets, see the people, use the local transportation, shop the markets sort of thing.

We did like a lot of what we saw and did on our own - take the ferry over to Nevis and explore Alexander Hamilton's roots and local sites sort of thing, but after Antigua and getting a more sober understanding of the "local economy" I would play it very safe in these islands now if we were to return again --- and we just might.

We became enchanted with its early European history roots instead of its sand and sun appeals. Plus the rubber tubing in Dominica ranks up there as one of the more fun shore excursions we have taken.

I would now err on the side of caution - stick with ship activities when ashore.

[bobnjeff]

I have sailed on NCL and HAL. One thing on NCL the waits for dining in the main and free dining room can be very long especially during peak times 6:30 to 8:00 pm and on most nights there is only one show time in the theater so you often have to get there very early for a seat or expect to stand. I have found the extra pay restaurants have gotten more expensive yet with lower quality food and service. The beds on HAL are much, much better. The service, food and quality of just about everything are much better on HAL. I turned 50 last fall and have sailed on HAL 3 times and am going on the Prinsendam in the fall.

If I want a NICE vacation I choose HAL. I choose NCL only when it is a lot cheaper that most any other line.

[DeRon]

[quote name='bobnjeff']I have sailed on NCL and HAL. One thing on NCL the waits for dining in the main and free dining room can be very long especially during peak times 6:30 to 8:00 pm and on most nights there is only one show time in the theater so you often have to get there very early for a seat or expect to stand. I have found the extra pay restaurants have gotten more expensive yet with lower quality food and service. The beds on HAL are much, much better. The service, food and quality of just about everything are much better on HAL. I turned 50 last fall and have sailed on HAL 3 times and am going on the Prinsendam in the fall.

If I want a NICE vacation I choose HAL. I choose NCL only when it is a lot cheaper that most any other line.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for your reply. Were your experiences with the long lines on a specific ship, or just NCL in general?

[bobnjeff]

On both the Jewel (3 times) and the Star (twice). During these tough economic times alot of people seem to avoiding the extra pay restaurants. On cruises we have done over the past few years the extra pay restsurants are half full at best some nights. On the Jewel 2 years ago Bistro, Cagneys and the others would be empty even on half rate nights. We went to Cagneys on one half price night we were one of three tables. The food was no better than the main dining room, which is hardly good at best and the service was even worse than the main dining room. If this is what other people are running into I can see why no one goes the expense of these restautraunts and why the long lines. Eight years ago on the Star, our 1st experience with Freestyle dining, the food was really bad in the main dining room we and our friends were returning things left and right. Then, the food and service was better in the Bistro and Cagneys but it has been all downhill since then.

As I said, we only sail on NCL when the price is really right and it is not a really important trip, just a cheap get away.

[thecook]

I would not sail on NCL especially The Sun. DH and I spent 12 days on her in the Baltic a few years ago. The food was awful from the main dining room to the buffet. The only venue we enjoyed was the one serving Fish and Chips. Our room was fine, but the towels were thread bare..and they ran out of tissues (DH had caught a bad cold). There were 8 of us that traveled together and not one of us cared to sail NCL again!

[lenquixote66]

[quote name='thecook']I would not sail on NCL especially The Sun. DH and I spent 12 days on her in the Baltic a few years ago. The food was awful from the main dining room to the buffet. The only venue we enjoyed was the one serving Fish and Chips. Our room was fine, but the towels were thread bare..and they ran out of tissues (DH had caught a bad cold). There were 8 of us that traveled together and not one of us cared to sail NCL again![/quote]


[B]One more vote for HAL .Martinique is one of the worlds natual beauties.[/B]

[Harris Jeffer]

Having been on both ships a few times, Hal wins by a mile!

[sealovers]

Cruised 7 days on NCL Sun, which was my first experience with NCL. Very, very happy attendants/employees...always helpful. Loved the bath layout on the sun, compartmentalized with shower on left of vanity/sink and toilet to the right; each closes with a pocket door. Worked well. Simple cabins of the 'Norwegian style". Too many speciality restaurants...all with a charge. Makes one feel they're missing something better than the dining room. I would sail her again, but since I am a foodie, I wanted to go back to HAL for another 11 day Southern, including Arua, Curacao and Bonaire, plus Samana, Half Moon Cay and GT I believe. The meals on Hal are incredible compared to other lines I've sailed (Carnival, RCCL, Norwegian (Sun and Dawn (awful food on Dawn for 11 days!).

[innlady1]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3]Absolutely the Noordam! :D We've done that same itinerary...twice...on 20 day Collectors Cruises, and it's wonderful. The Noordam is not stuffy...and the passengers are all ages.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[jameila]

We took a transatlantic on the Noordam and initially had the same concerns as the OP, we were also travelling with young children.

Granted there were not many kids on board but we made plenty of friends in our own age group, and the kids had a ball. Noordam is a nice well run ship.