Confused Noordam Cabin Cat/Deck Plan

[kelelmel]

Oooh I am so confused. Back in June I booked cabins 5180 and 5181 cat VA on the Noordam according to my invoice. At the time Noordam's deck plan wasn't available so I based my decision on the Zuiderdam deck plan. Noordam's is now available on HAL's website. According to Noordams' deck plan my cabins are cat VC (not VA), are in a different location and have shower's only. These cabins are located at the aft of the ship on the Z (which I was really looking forward to) but are opposite each other on the Noordam. I guess I gambled on the location since the deck plan wasn't available, however, can they change my category (not a guarantee)?

 

Am I interpreting this correctly? If so, is there anything I can do?

 

:confused: Kelly

[sueclark]

Get with your travel agent and you may be able to rebook the cabins if there is still time and availability before sailing.

[kelelmel]

Sue, I took your advice and sent my TA an email, just in case.

 

Barry, thanks so much for that information, that has made me feel much better. I assume/hope HAL's website is wrong.

[kelelmel]

Kelly - My pleasure. Hope that it works out well for you. Please do let us know.

 

Whilst I was waiting for the brochure and before HAL had the deck plans on their web site I was a bit concerned and was told by HAL "Do not worry Noordam cabin locations will be identical to Zuiderdam".

Barry

 

I will let you know what kind of response I get from my TA. I am so relieved, I made the arrangements for my in-laws and would hate to have to tell them I screwed up.

[WNYCRUISER]

I don't know what would take preference, but if you look at the Noordam 2006 deck plans, and the Zuiderdam 2006 deck plans on the HAL website, they indeed show those cabins as being in two different locations. I would want to get some type of confirmation (maybe even in writing) that you are getting the cabins/ category you want!

[the2ofus]

Kelly,

You didn't screw up! You went with the information available at the time. Now, it is something you and your TA can work together to fix.

 

I'm sure you want the best for your family, but if you present it to your in-laws that the new deck plans show something not on the deck plans available to you at the time, how can anyone blame you?.

[Crescoia]

I wouldn't assume the Web site is wrong. It looks like they've added more cabins to the stern of most decks on the new Noordam. That accounts for the re-numbering you ran into. It looks like they did this by slightly reducing cabin size and reducing that big aft deck. The Naviagation deck the aft decks went from 68' to 34'. On the Rotterdam deck they went from 56' to 27'. The Verandah went from 23' to 17'.

 

Just a quick count the Navigation deck has 6 more VA cabins, 6 more J cabins; while the Rotterdam stern also has 6 more VA's and 5 more J's.

 

They also list the Noordam as a capicity of 1918 pax and the other Vistas as 1848 pax.

[kelelmel]

I am truly not worried about being blamed, I would just hate to disappoint them and I would be disappointed too. They are so looking forward to this cruise, as are we, and the aft cabin location. I know either way we will have a blast but I must admit I became very concerned upon discovering this. This would be a first for all of us, an aft cabin, I've always done mid-mid. I am feeling better now, but will await confirmation in writing from my TA.

[kelelmel]

Ken,

 

That seems to be a good explanation. Thanks for the info. I also noticed today the pax capacity jumped up on the Noordam.

[bepsf]

I wouldn't assume the Web site is wrong. It looks like they've added more cabins to the stern of most decks on the new Noordam. That accounts for the re-numbering you ran into. It looks like they did this by slightly reducing cabin size and reducing that big aft deck. The Naviagation deck the aft decks went from 68' to 34'. On the Rotterdam deck they went from 56' to 27'. The Verandah went from 23' to 17'.

 

Just a quick count the Navigation deck has 6 more VA cabins, 6 more J cabins; while the Rotterdam stern also has 6 more VA's and 5 more J's.

 

They also list the Noordam as a capicity of 1918 pax and the other Vistas as 1848 pax.

 

By Gum, You're Right!

It would seem that the aft-corner suites w/ the largest verandahs now are the two on Upper Promenade! (unchanged)

[Crescoia]

Besides the cabins changes noted above on the Navigation, and Rotterdam decks, I also note the other deck changes.

Upper Verandah - Deck from 33' to 21' and 4 more VB's and 4 more K's.

Verandah - Deck went from 23' to 17' with 2 more VC's and 2 more L's.

 

That's a total of 35 more cabins, thus accounting for the increase of 70 in total capacity,

[bepsf]

Ken--

I hope your TA can get it worked out w/ HAL that you get your aft-facing staterooms...

Please let us know what happens!

[kelelmel]

Thanks for the kind and encouraging words. I still haven't heard back from my TA; I just want to hear them say that everything is ok. I am glad that your cabin location appears to be unchanged. I hope, for everyone, that they didn't shave off too much space from all the cabins. That was one of my favorite things about the Z, the accomodations.

[kelelmel]

That is so very true, come April all these anxieties will be long forgotten. Just not soon enough! That would be great to meet up, we will have to make a point of it.

 

Please let me know what your TA says, maybe yours will get back to you before mine gets back to me. Thanks again for your assistance!

[bepsf]

Travel Agents are charging a higher price for SB and SC aft than SA because of the large balconies - and I wonder how they are going to react! Although guess it can be said the balconies are still larger than the side ones!

 

What TA would charge more for an SB or SC when HAL is charging more for SA's - and why???

[Joanandjoe]

We can confirm the comments about SA costing less than SB or SC. For our Noordam 11/25/06 cruise we asked our TA for an SB or SC, figuring SA was out of our price range. We ended up with a very central SA, at less than an SB or SC would have cost.

 

What do we think of adding 70 PAX (1918 vs. 1848) to a Vista ship, without adding any additional crew (800 vs. 800)? Sorry, our feelings are not printable on a family web site.

[bepsf]

Brian

I just rechecked the site for the Centre which offers cruise value and for the Noordam 10 day Eastern Caribbean sailing on 5th April 2006

SA is $2671.92 plus taxes and fees making a total $2755.31

SC is $2927.12 plus taxes and fees

SB is $3243.92 plus taxes and fees.

 

KELLY ...........Hope you have had some good news today and can now wear a big smile once again.

 

JoanandJoe I am glad that you too have had similar experience to me. Enjoy your SA.

 

CZ--

That's very interesting considering that pricing on the HAL site for the same cruise is:

SA - 3992/pp

SB - 3742/pp

SC - 3382/pp

...and on another website, their pricing is:

SA - 3009/pp

SB - 3659/pp

SC - 3299/pp

It amazes me the differences in pricing between agencies...

[kelelmel]

Uh Oh I am getting worried again. No response STILL from my TA so I emailed HAL too. Lets see what they say. :eek:

[kelelmel]

Thanks Barry. No response from HAL yet. I am becoming concerned because there are limited aft cabins left in cat VA. I may take you up on your offer if I don't hear back from someone soon.

[kelelmel]

I am breathing a sigh of relief. The following is my prompt response from HAL:

 

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the ms Noordam departing April 5, 2006. The category "VA" stateroom numbers on the ms Noordam have changed slightly since your reservation was secured and the ship nears completion. Your stateroom numbers are now "VA" 5184 and 5185 which were formally 5180 and 5181, the staterooms you reserved have not changed just the stateroom numbers. Please contact your travel agent for verification, as they have control of the bookings. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

 

Please feel free to contact us if we may be of additional assistance. We are confident our "Tradition of Excellence" will surpass your expectations. We look forward to welcoming you onboard in the near future.

 

I haven't heard back from my TA, however, I am going to cc them on this. I still haven't told any of those that will be accompanying me because I didn't want to concern them, now I will cc them on this too.

 

I am, of course, very pleased with the resolution of this matter. Thanks to everyone for helping me get through this.

 

This is a thread I will be happy to close :p

 

~Kelly

[Joanandjoe]

You have your adjacent aft-facing VA cabins after all. Decent size deck plans for the Noordam are finally up on the web site: no more squinting at one page with plans for all decks.

[bepsf]

Kelly--

What excellent news!

Now you can get back to looking forward to your cruise! :)

[kelelmel]

Well I finally came clean to my family. Everyone is pleased that our cabins are unchanged. They didn't know the original dimensions of the balcony, so I am not going to tell them it's changed. I know they will still be pleased with the accomodations.

 

I will await confimation from my TA. I would imagine that HAL is/will be receiving emails/calls from a lot of concerned cruisers.

 

I was so relieved that I had to do some cruise shopping last night to celebrate :p

[mushroom]

I've been following this thread with interest since I'm booked on the Noordam for September, 2006. I just want to compliment Kelemel on the calm and classy way in which he or she responded to these events. I'm pretty sure I would have exploded!

[kelelmel]

Mushroom, LOL and thank you so much. I've found you get more bee's with honey. Although I can't always keep my cool, I try to whenever possible. Not to mention that I remain heavily medicated :p

 

~Kelly