My First Caribbean Cruise

[carri cruiser]

Southern Caribbean on Ms Noordam

 

We were 3 sisters, all from Washington State, travelling on the Jan 6th, 11 day Southern Caribbean cruise along with our husbands!!

We had a small problem getting to our Hotel, because the shuttle driver didn't ask us if we wanted North or South! (we didn't realize there were 2 hotels by the same name) after getting to the correct hotel, we found the accommodations to be less than expected, so we just bit the bullet, and stayed since it was only one night. the best thing about that hotel was the take out Chinese food we ordered, for only $24.99 it fed all 6 of us and we had left overs! the name was Chen's I believe.

upon arrival to the ship, we were put into a rather long line for boarding, but it went quickly... We had decided to go to the Welcome aboard Mariner lunch, which none of the others had ever heard about!! we went in and had our lunch, and when we arrived back to our cabin, our suitcases were inside.

We were in cabin 1477 on the starboard sided of the ship, (which put our view always to the water side. My sister was in 1466, and their verandah was twice as long as ours!! same category!! I checked it out and 1466 and 1464 both have double long verandahs!! big problem there for my sister and DH, was they had smokers on both sides of them!!

Our cabin was the last cabin before the aft wrap deck, which also had smokers!) I found the cabin to seem smaller than the Amsterdam's OV, and not as much drawer space, the lighting for make up was terrible, and the desk top seemed small. The bed was as always very comfortable, and I had no trouble sleeping!!

Our roll call had an informal get together for sail away at the aft bar on deck 9

we were suppose to sail at 4:30, but were delayed because of the weather, many were having a problem getting to the ship, we sailed around 7pm

Our official roll call meet n greet was the next day in the crow's nest, we all had a good time, had cookies, coffee, juice, tea, etc.... we had a gift exchange where you were to bring something from the area you were from. I got something from the state I was from.

We had room service a couple of times, I find the food to be all one temperature when ordering room service, so usually we met my sisters and BILs in the lido.

my DH thought they might be training new omelette makers... they didn't get the omelettes looking like usual, they were kind of "broken", my favorite breakfast was French toast, and I liked it with powdered sugar and lemon, which they had, so I was happy...We always sat at an oval table on the end by the tile pictures.... never had a problem finding it open.

Our lunches were usually done separately, and sometimes not at all!

My one sister and I went to a few of the teas they have at 3:00, they had a dutch tea, a cupcake tea, an Indonisian tea, and a couple of others we didn't make it to. It seemed a little close to our 5:15 dinner time. We had a card in our stateroom upon arrival stating that we had the explorer 4, which had 2-$50 drink cards, and a note with all 6 of our names on it telling us that we should call to make a reservation for our pinnacle grill dinner. My sister called and made our reservation for Tuesday... We were celebrating our 40th anniversary on Wednesday night.... both sea days. My one sister had an OV cabin, and was suppose to only have Canneletto, but was on our PG grill card so the reservation was made for all 6 of us, which they said was fine.

We also had open dining, but managed to get the reservations for the same table in the aft of the MDR every night, with the same wait staff.

I found the beef on board was very tough, everywhere, not just lido or MDR, but also in the PG!! I have never been one to really think the PG was worth more than the MDR.....and this experience re affirmed that opinion!!

I ordered the lobster bisque, they came to our table and poured the bisque and made a smiley face in it with sour cream(?) it was just OK. my sister ordered a drink, and for some reason it never came until after the meal was being served.. she mentioned this, and it was credited to her card... We did all enjoy our "free" meal, but agreed that the MDR is just as nice. Our waiters in the MDR were fantastic, nothing was left undone... they were very attentive to us, and even had a magic trick thrown in one night. We girls were given a small gift from Bali by one of our waiters, he goes by the name of John Wayne, it was a key chain, how nice!! We never had a problem with anything or anybody in the MDR, I ordered French onion soup every night, and had a cuppachino each night. the others had regular coffee. I used my drink card for this each night, and always got a receipt telling me the balance left.

if a drink was ordered that was more than the amount allowed the difference went on your room charge. I went to the explorers café a couple of times for a latte, and twice their computer wouldn't take the drink card, so had to pay from my room key!! at the end of the cruise, I had $7.99 left on the card, so bought 2 cans of coke and had about $1.49 left on the card.

We went to the lounge for happy hour, buy one drink, get the other for 1.00

it was ok to share those drinks...

We asked if we could use the card to buy a bottle of rum for our room, but that was not allowed. I had to go to the "package store" to buy a sewing kit, it cost me $11.90 for one that many places give for free!! I also bought a stick of deodorant, secret.... for $7.99.. better to not forget some of those kinds of things.

We went to BB King show, but the music was soooo loud, we found it piercing, (maybe we are too old!!?) we went to all the shows except for the Indoneisian show, have seen it many times, and it was late, (casino calling). I thought the dancers and singers were very good, the costumes were really nice, and their last show with the trapeze rings and butterfly wings really GREAT!! the magician was good, the comedienne was excellent, we were at the first showing on all these nights. I didn't go to the Polish musicians show, but my sisters did and enjoyed it.

I booked a FCC on board. this was our first cruise to the Caribbean, as my DH doesn't like to fly, we purchased 3 seats for the 2 of us so he could be more comfortable, that was $300.00 cheaper than him going first class, and me in coach!! on our return there was a couple of empty seats on the plane and I was told to call if that happened and I would be reimbursed for that seat. I am expecting a credit to my charge card!! :)

We had a good time at all the ports, but the weather was cool in most places, we swam in all the bodies of water, and found the water rather cool, not warm as expected. The taxi cabs are all regulated and waiting to take you anywhere you want to go, I found that if you go a little out of the port a ways, you can get a better price.... we were a party of 6... In one port they were piling people in 6 to a row in a Safari jeep, it was too crowded for us, and we found that we could hire a taxi cab to take us to the same place, same amount of fare, but not ALL those people... our cab driver agreed to a time, and came back and picked us up!! every beach wanted to rent you a lounge and an umbrella for a minimum of $15.00, I thought that was a little much for a couple of hours of being at the beach... we did rent two chairs and an umbrella at one beach for $15.00!

We all agreed that we had a great cruise, no big problems, I had ordered a fan for our room, and it was there when we first got in, we did not get any of those HAL bags that we usually get, they said their shipment didn't come in.

My Husband and I received our copper medallions at the Mariner pre lunch, and a tile at the luncheon.

we had requested to be one of the last groups to leave the Noordam, as we didn't have a flight until evening... we rented a car stowed our luggage and took the water taxi in Ft. L, one of the best bargains around. $18.00 for seniors. We loved the views of all those million dollar + homes and the fun of sightseeing from the water, I never realized this water taxi was available, you could ride it all day and transfer from one run to another... We caught our plane and had a 6 hour plane ride home.... We got home around 12:30 am

[Cruising-along]

Thank you for your review, and also telling about your Explore 4 experience. :)

 

Very interesting that you were able to pick the day and time for your Pinnacle dinner, and that you were allowed to order drinks over $7, just paying the difference. It gives me hope that our experience may be the same.

[POA1]

Thank you for your review.

[carri cruiser]

Thank you for your review, and also telling about your Explore 4 experience. :)

 

Very interesting that you were able to pick the day and time for your Pinnacle dinner, and that you were allowed to order drinks over $7, just paying the difference. It gives me hope that our experience may be the same.

 

I didn't pay attention to the cost of the drinks, they were mostly just regular bar drinks, don't know that any of them were over 7.00! I do know that when the card ran out, the balance was put on your room card.... It seems to be a trial and error kind of situation!:)

[Cruising-along]

I didn't pay attention to the cost of the drinks, they were mostly just regular bar drinks, don't know that any of them were over 7.00! I do know that when the card ran out, the balance was put on your room card.... It seems to be a trial and error kind of situation!:)

 

Oh right. You had the $50 drink card for the whole cruise, and they may do it differently than they will for the $50/day/pp. I guess I'll have to wait and see. :)

[startwin]

Thanks for your review, and lots of good details.:)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for taking the time to write and post a review of your cruise on the Noordam.

[kazu]

Thanks for taking the time to share your review with us.

 

Interesting to hear on the Explore4 package and being able to book your Pinnacle Grill - thank you filling us in.

 

Sounds like you had a good time overall. No question that toiletries are a necessity to have with you so you don't have to purchase them.

 

Thanks again. very appreciated.

[jbhcw]

Thanks for the review!!

[carri cruiser]

Southern Caribbean on Ms Noordam

 

We were 3 sisters, all from Washington State, travelling on the Jan 6th, 11 day Southern Caribbean cruise along with our husbands!!

We had a small problem getting to our Hotel, because the shuttle driver didn't ask us if we wanted North or South! (we didn't realize there were 2 hotels by the same name) after getting to the correct hotel, we found the accommodations to be less than expected, so we just bit the bullet, and stayed since it was only one night. the best thing about that hotel was the take out Chinese food we ordered, for only $24.99 it fed all 6 of us and we had left overs! the name was Chen's I believe.

upon arrival to the ship, we were put into a rather long line for boarding, but it went quickly... We had decided to go to the Welcome aboard Mariner lunch, which none of the others had ever heard about!! we went in and had our lunch, and when we arrived back to our cabin, our suitcases were inside.

We were in cabin 1477 on the starboard sided of the ship, (which put our view always to the water side. My sister was in 1466, and their verandah was twice as long as ours!! same category!! I checked it out and 1466 and 1464 both have double long verandahs!! big problem there for my sister and DH, was they had smokers on both sides of them!!

Our cabin was the last cabin before the aft wrap deck, which also had smokers!) I found the cabin to seem smaller than the Amsterdam's OV, and not as much drawer space, the lighting for make up was terrible, and the desk top seemed small. The bed was as always very comfortable, and I had no trouble sleeping!!

Our roll call had an informal get together for sail away at the aft bar on deck 9

we were suppose to sail at 4:30, but were delayed because of the weather, many were having a problem getting to the ship, we sailed around 7pm

Our official roll call meet n greet was the next day in the crow's nest, we all had a good time, had cookies, coffee, juice, tea, etc.... we had a gift exchange where you were to bring something from the area you were from. I got something from the state I was from.

We had room service a couple of times, I find the food to be all one temperature when ordering room service, so usually we met my sisters and BILs in the lido.

my DH thought they might be training new omelette makers... they didn't get the omelettes looking like usual, they were kind of "broken", my favorite breakfast was French toast, and I liked it with powdered sugar and lemon, which they had, so I was happy...We always sat at an oval table on the end by the tile pictures.... never had a problem finding it open.

Our lunches were usually done separately, and sometimes not at all!

My one sister and I went to a few of the teas they have at 3:00, they had a dutch tea, a cupcake tea, an Indonisian tea, and a couple of others we didn't make it to. It seemed a little close to our 5:15 dinner time. We had a card in our stateroom upon arrival stating that we had the explorer 4, which had 2-$50 drink cards, and a note with all 6 of our names on it telling us that we should call to make a reservation for our pinnacle grill dinner. My sister called and made our reservation for Tuesday... We were celebrating our 40th anniversary on Wednesday night.... both sea days. My one sister had an OV cabin, and was suppose to only have Canneletto, but was on our PG grill card so the reservation was made for all 6 of us, which they said was fine.

We also had open dining, but managed to get the reservations for the same table in the aft of the MDR every night, with the same wait staff.

I found the beef on board was very tough, everywhere, not just lido or MDR, but also in the PG!! I have never been one to really think the PG was worth more than the MDR.....and this experience re affirmed that opinion!!

I ordered the lobster bisque, they came to our table and poured the bisque and made a smiley face in it with sour cream(?) it was just OK. my sister ordered a drink, and for some reason it never came until after the meal was being served.. she mentioned this, and it was credited to her card... We did all enjoy our "free" meal, but agreed that the MDR is just as nice. Our waiters in the MDR were fantastic, nothing was left undone... they were very attentive to us, and even had a magic trick thrown in one night. We girls were given a small gift from Bali by one of our waiters, he goes by the name of John Wayne, it was a key chain, how nice!! We never had a problem with anything or anybody in the MDR, I ordered French onion soup every night, and had a cuppachino each night. the others had regular coffee. I used my drink card for this each night, and always got a receipt telling me the balance left.

if a drink was ordered that was more than the amount allowed the difference went on your room charge. I went to the explorers café a couple of times for a latte, and twice their computer wouldn't take the drink card, so had to pay from my room key!! at the end of the cruise, I had $7.99 left on the card, so bought 2 cans of coke and had about $1.49 left on the card.

We went to the lounge for happy hour, buy one drink, get the other for 1.00

it was ok to share those drinks...

We asked if we could use the card to buy a bottle of rum for our room, but that was not allowed. I had to go to the "package store" to buy a sewing kit, it cost me $11.90 for one that many places give for free!! I also bought a stick of deodorant, secret.... for $7.99.. better to not forget some of those kinds of things.

We went to BB King show, but the music was soooo loud, we found it piercing, (maybe we are too old!!?) we went to all the shows except for the Indoneisian show, have seen it many times, and it was late, (casino calling). I thought the dancers and singers were very good, the costumes were really nice, and their last show with the trapeze rings and butterfly wings really GREAT!! the magician was good, the comedienne was excellent, we were at the first showing on all these nights. I didn't go to the Polish musicians show, but my sisters did and enjoyed it.

I booked a FCC on board. this was our first cruise to the Caribbean, as my DH doesn't like to fly, we purchased 3 seats for the 2 of us so he could be more comfortable, that was $300.00 cheaper than him going first class, and me in coach!! on our return there was a couple of empty seats on the plane and I was told to call if that happened and I would be reimbursed for that seat. I am expecting a credit to my charge card!! :)

We had a good time at all the ports, but the weather was cool in most places, we swam in all the bodies of water, and found the water rather cool, not warm as expected. The taxi cabs are all regulated and waiting to take you anywhere you want to go, I found that if you go a little out of the port a ways, you can get a better price.... we were a party of 6... In one port they were piling people in 6 to a row in a Safari jeep, it was too crowded for us, and we found that we could hire a taxi cab to take us to the same place, same amount of fare, but not ALL those people... our cab driver agreed to a time, and came back and picked us up!! every beach wanted to rent you a lounge and an umbrella for a minimum of $15.00, I thought that was a little much for a couple of hours of being at the beach... we did rent two chairs and an umbrella at one beach for $15.00!

We all agreed that we had a great cruise, no big problems, I had ordered a fan for our room, and it was there when we first got in, we did not get any of those HAL bags that we usually get, they said their shipment didn't come in.

My Husband and I received our copper medallions at the Mariner pre lunch, and a tile at the luncheon.

we had requested to be one of the last groups to leave the Noordam, as we didn't have a flight until evening... we rented a car stowed our luggage and took the water taxi in Ft. L, one of the best bargains around. $18.00 for seniors. We loved the views of all those million dollar + homes and the fun of sightseeing from the water, I never realized this water taxi was available, you could ride it all day and transfer from one run to another... We caught our plane and had a 6 hour plane ride home.... We got home around 12:30 am

 

Having just read over my written review, I realize the cabin # I gave were NOT correct, we were in cabin 4177, my DS was in 4166 and the other cabin with a double long verandah was 4164! sorry for the dyslexia!!

[RJ2002]

Thanks for your review. Appreciated all the details.

[carri cruiser]

Thanks for taking the time to share your review with us.

 

Interesting to hear on the Explore4 package and being able to book your Pinnacle Grill - thank you filling us in.

 

Sounds like you had a good time overall. No question that toiletries are a necessity to have with you so you don't have to purchase them.

 

Thanks again. very appreciated.

 

Yes, something I won't forget to list for a cruise is the sewing kit!! I bought a $10.00 hat:eek: on board, and wanted to sew the back up a bit so it didn't rub on my neck, the sewing kit cost more than the hat!!

[Thebes]

Thanks for the nice rev. We booked same room # 4166 for our 2015 same cruise on Noordam. How was the ship's condition ?

Too bad your DS had a nice balcony but smoking appeared to be a problem. It is what it is. Thanks again :)

[Typhoon1]

Thanks for taking time to share your thoughts.

[carri cruiser]

Thanks for the nice rev. We booked same room # 4166 for our 2015 same cruise on Noordam. How was the ship's condition ?

Too bad your DS had a nice balcony but smoking appeared to be a problem. It is what it is. Thanks again :)

 

The ship's condition was pretty good, considering how many cruisers pass over those decks!! Formal nights had the chair covers on, but we think the chairs look better without those wrinkled covers!! I don't recall any "day" rugs in the elevator! I hope you enjoy that nice big balcony!!

[boards]

I don't think the Noordam or the Oosterdam have the "day" mats. I remember seeing them either. The Maasdam still does.

Edited January 21, 2014 by boards

[erewhon]

Thank you for your Noordam cruise review.

 

Congratulations on receiving your Copper medallions.