Hopefully "Live" Noordam 28 Feb - 10 Mar

[Mtn2Sea]

Greetings! As many of you may recall, I did my first live review in December while cruising on the MS

Ryndam out of Tampa. Here we are again on a cruise ship; this time out of Ft. Lauderdale. We booked this ten day cruise eight days before departure. Since getting off the Ryndam, we’ve been talking about another cruise, but doctor/dentist appointments kept getting in the way. We finally saw a stretch of time with nothing on the calendar, so we started looking for a cruise. This Noordam cruise fit our schedule, so we booked it. We’ve sailed the Noordam one time, back in 2006. I’m interested in seeing how well she’s aged.

 

My review is getting started a little late, so let me back up a bit. We drove to Fort Lauderdale from Florida’s panhandle where we live. Since we’re retired, we decided to break the trip into two days – one of the advantages of being retired without a schedule. After spending the first night in Orlando, we stayed at a Residence Inn in Boca Raton, which is just north of Fort Lauderdale. On Friday morning, our trip to Port Everglades took 50 minutes (hotel parking lot to parking garage). I didn’t take the quickest route because I needed an easy place to stop to get our passports out, since I remembered we might need them to get past the gate at the port. Sure enough, we were asked for them at the port’s security check point. We arrived at Pier 26 at approximately 10:50, where I dropped DW and the luggage off. I then drove across the street to the parking garage. The embarkation process went smoothly. After going through security and check-in, we waited close to 30 minutes before our boarding number was called. We were in our cabin by noon. Our itinerary is called Southern Caribbean. We will visit five ports plus HAL’s Half Moon Cay.

 

Getting started with our cruise:

Until later!

Robert

[Krazy Kruizers]

Looking forward to your review.

[rothbury]

Great to be live with you on this cruise Mtn2Sea!! Looking forward to your review. I especially like that you are including the Explorer with your review!

[Mtn2Sea]

Our cabin.

 

 

 

 

 

Photobucket just shut down for maintennce, so I'll be back later!

[Mtn2Sea]

More photos from the cabin.

 

 

 

For those watching Noordam’s sailaway on Friday, you saw a private yacht get too close to the ship. I was at the aft of the ship watching the yacht and wondering what that guy was thinking. Suddenly I heard the thunder of some engines and then saw a Sheriff’s patrol boat coming from around the stern of the ship and then chasing after the yacht. After a siren wailing and a bull horn blasting, the yacht finally turned away.

Looking down the beach as we're leaving the pass.

After the ship was out at sea a mile or so, we headed to the lido pool area and ordered some drinks to celebrate our upcoming adventure.

Next up _ Pinnacle Dinner.

[Mtn2Sea]

As we did in December, we decided to eat at the Pinnacle the first night. Turns out, they did not have our reservation. Fortunately, I checked things out before our reservation time. They were able to get us a table at our desired time. I must say, we prefer the old menu, but we need have a nice evening. The dining steward, Rini, was very efficient, which was the opposite of what we experienced at the embarkation lunch in the MDR. At lunch, the staffing level was obviously too low. At the Pinnacle, I got the filet, which was extremely tender, but not a lot of flavor. But first, the cesear salad that I had.

DW tried the veal chop, which was favorable, but with a lot of fat. For dessert I had the chocolate soufflé, which was outstanding!! DW had fresh fruit with ice cream and a dipping sauce that was delicious. Because the souffle takes 15 minutes, Rini brought out some chocolates in case we were hungry.

 

[Sir PMP]

Great review, continue, thks

[Mtn2Sea]

After our dinner at the Pinnacle, we wondered around the ship, stopping at the B.B King Blues Club. Both DW and I enjoyed the music. Upon returning to the cabin, we noticed our phone indicated we had a message. Without explaining why, we were told to contact the Front Office and ask for a supervisor. Because the envelope that contained our excursion tickets, which was delivered during dinner, also contained several tickets for another passenger, we decided to go to the Front Office rather than just call. After explaining to the desk person I had received a message to see a supervisor, he looked at the computer and then went behind a curtain to speak to someone. He then asked us to wait a moment. A lady then asked us to sit down so we could talk – it felt like we were being called to the principal’s office for some unknown reason. The supervisor asked if we had noticed a large crack in the window next to the balcony door; it was hard to miss. The crack is almost as long as the window is high. A second crack almost goes side to side. A clear tape covers the cracks. We were asked if we wanted to move to another balcony cabin. They had two or three available. Having totally unpacked, we chose to stay. The window is double paned and the crack is only the inside piece of glass. I had checked online a day or so before we departed to see what cabins were still available; only inside and ocean views were still showing. I guess someone got caught up in the latest winter storm.

 

The rest of the Today program follows:

 

 

 

Now some information on the HydroPool.

 

[Mtn2Sea]

For our first breakfast, we chose to go to the MDR, where I had the frittata and turkey bacon. Both were very good. In fact, the turkey bacon was the best I’ve ever had. DW got gluten free waffles that required a lot of syrup, if you catch my drift.

Unfortunately, another ship, the Eurodam, was also at HMC during our visit. This is the first time we’ve been to HMC while another ship was here. Shortly after booking, I tried to schedule a clam shell at the beach, but they were waitlisted. We decided to go to the island late and didn’t leave the ship until noon. Upon arrival, we went straight to dining area, got a hamburger (with and without a bun), some fruit and potato salad. We found a nice cool spot under a shelter to eat. We spent almost two hours at the table eating and having enjoyable conversations with fellow passengers. We finally got to the beach and, after looking for a while, found two lounge chairs under some trees. After the time flew by, we headed back to catch the tender. Tonight is our first formal dinner, so we have to clean up a bit after a nice day at the beach. Some photos from HMC.

 

 

 

 

[Mtn2Sea]

 

 

[ger_77]

Great, another cruise to go on! Thanks for taking us with you - look forward to your reports.

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

[cruisinbulldog]

Thanks for taking us along...

 

Keep looking at the pics at HMC. Two ships and do not see many people on the beach?

[Mtn2Sea]

Keep looking at the pics at HMC. Two ships and do not see many people on the beach?

 

I think a lot of people were eating!

[Mtn2Sea]

We went to the MDR for our first formal night and probably got the worst table for two in the house. It was right across from a serving station. A main passageway to the back half of the dining room was between the serving station and our table. Anyone who thinks the stewards aren’t performing at a satisfactory level should sit at this table. They were constantly busy and I mean everyone of them. Here’s tonight’s menu.

We both had the lamb, which was very tasty. I had the chilled cranberry soup, which was very, very good. Our desserts, tiramisu and Cream Brule, were also good.

 

 

After dinner, we went to the show Rock Legends, which was performed by the Noordam dancers and singers. Neither of us was impressed with this production.

[Mtn2Sea]

We’re having a lazy morning while the ship sails to Grand Turk. Just before 9:00 we went to the MDR but, upon seeing the line stretch down the hall, we decided to go to the Lido for breakfast. Shortly after returning to the cabin, the captain announced the ship will dock around 11:30. More importantly, he announced they had seen an outbreak of noro virus and, since the ship was clean at Fort Lauderdale, they assume someone brought it aboard. Code Orange will continue until further notice. I guess we’ll be particularly diligent in washing our hands. If my posts disappear, you’ll know what happened to me!

Here’s Today’s activities.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for your wonderful review and all the great pictures.

[bajacali]

Thank you for your excellent posts and photos. It is helping me to overcome my "snow" blindness. I had almost forgot what blue water and blue sky look like. :)

[rothbury]

Loving your review! Hope the noro problem stays isolated and you have a great cruise!

[496and706]

Thank you so much for this review.

 

A HUGE thank you for the pictures.

[Shebba]

I'm thoroughly enjoying your posts! Love all the details. Thanks for sharing your adventures. Dh and I will be sailing on the Noordam in June, so this is especially interesting.

 

ETA: Loving your pictures, too!! Keep 'em coming!!

Edited March 2, 2014 by Shebba

[LuckyLoon]

Hi,

Thanks for your posts. Could you tell us which veranda cabin you have? We will be in 5170 next week. Just wondered if the damaged window was in our cabin.

 

Hope you don't pick up the norovirus.

[Mtn2Sea]

We attempted to go to the MDR shortly before 9:00, but the line was quite long, so we chose to have a light breakfast in the lido. After spending a little time in the cabin, we went to the Culinary Arts Cooking Show. The lobster salad and crème brulee from the Le Cirque menu were highlighted. We got a small sample of the crème brulee, but no lobster! When we returned to our cabin, the ship was just arriving at Grand Turk. Here’s a photo of the first line going ashore.

A look at the shore from the ship.

 

 

 

I'll discuss our excursion in my next post.

[Mtn2Sea]

Since we had never been to Grand Turk, we chose an excursion that simply took us around the island, with four stops. We stopped at a church, a small museum that is about a very old shipwreck (around 1513), a lighthouse, and finally to see some donkeys. The island has numerous donkeys that roam around. They were initially used when the island had numerous salt ponds for the collection of sea salt. When the salt industry closed, they just let the donkeys free to live off the land. Here are some pictures from around the island.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 3, 2014 by Mtn2Sea

[Mtn2Sea]

Here's tonight's menu.

 

For dinner, we both had the pot roast. I found mine to be very tender and flavorable. I tasted DW’s pot roast, which was prepared gluten free. Mine was definitely better!

 

 

 

 

After dinner we went to the Vista Lounge for the comedian. He was very, very good!

 

Until later.

[Mtn2Sea]

We’re sailing towards Samana, DR. Before going to find some breakfast, I thought I would go ahead and show Today’s program.