Noordam - A Passage to New Zealand

[michael620]

16 hours ago, kazu said:

 

Interesting on the a la carte offering, Rich.  I hadn’t seen that one before.

 

thanks for posting it 🙂 

Do you think that the a la carte offering is free for passengers in Neptune suites or who paid extra for the new Club Orange?

[richwmn]

6 minutes ago, michael620 said:

On the Eurodam, passengers could use the photo area computers to create metal and acrylic pictures, luggage tags, mugs, etc. from their own photos. Does this now exist on the Noordam?

I just walked by, no one was using them so I don't know yet what their capabilities are.

 

[kazu]

19 minutes ago, michael620 said:

Do you think that the a la carte offering is free for passengers in Neptune suites or who paid extra for the new Club Orange?

 

No, I don’t.  I would bet $$ on it, in fact.   Usually there is lobster on the a la carte and a huge steak for a fee.   They are not free to anyone. 

[michael620]

3 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

No, I don’t.  I would bet $$ on it, in fact.   Usually there is lobster on the a la carte and a huge steak for a fee.   They are not free to anyone. 

Thanks. I wondered because the blurb for Club Orange mentioned extra offerings in the dining room. 

[RuthC]

9 hours ago, richwmn said:

@RuthC where was the library located? I'll check tomorrow.

It was on Promenade Deck, starboard side, immediately aft of the forward elevators. It was across from the Hudson, Half Moon, and Stuyvesant Rooms, forward of the shops area.  

Thanks for checking on this. It gives me hope for one more ship I can still sail on happily. 

[Himself]

Thanks for the report.  What is your next port of call?  It sounds like all of the updates are not finished yet.  That will happen on the nest dry dock.

[richwmn]

7 minutes ago, Himself said:

Thanks for the report.  What is your next port of call?  It sounds like all of the updates are not finished yet.  That will happen on the nest dry dock.

First port of call is Honolulu on the 20th, yes that is 6 sea days prior to a port call.

You can see the entire itinerary at http://travel.wa70.com/pacific/, and maybe some other pictures and comments

 

[Himself]

I hope you enjoy Honolulu.  If you can do it, get to the Arizona Memorial. It is well worth seeing.  The Missouri is also worth seeing.  Aloha!.  

[BarbarianPaul]

10 hours ago, richwmn said:

A walk around the public decks tonight brought some surprises. Let me start off by saying it has been a while since my last cruise on Noordam, but I have sailed more recently on other ships.

 

I was surprised at the lack of major changes.

B.B. King is in what was originally called the Queens Lounge and now goes by the BB King Lounge. It didn't really look any different than before. I didn't check to see if carpet and soft goods were replaced or just cleaned up.

A change I thought would happen didn't - Northern LIghts still exists and the casino is still the same size. No Gallery Bar which I enjoyed on Westerdam.

Across from the Casino is Billboard, which looks identical to the setup on Nieuw Amsterdam. No real changes other than putting two pianos there and moving the seating around. Where the piano bar was is now a larger bar.

What used to be the Explorers Lounge is now branded Lincoln Center Stage, but other than that, looks pretty much the same.

Where the photo studio was has about 16 touch screen computers set up, but they may only be to view the pictures you might want to buy. They had no keyboard or mouse so they would be difficult to use for general surfing.

The only act that was performing during my walk was BB King, and they sounded pretty good.

Tomorrow morning I'll take another walk with camera in hand.

@RuthC where was the library located? I'll check tomorrow.

Rich

Thanks so much for starting this. As Barb would say, only 6 more sleeps till we join in Honolulu!

Re the Crow’s Nest, did they move the excursion desk up there on the Starboard side, and install those interactive tables with the screens? Also, did they install that interactive display at the very front of the Crow’s Nest displaying all those ship stats? Frankly, I hope not, since it ruins the view and diminishes seating.

[kazu]

1 hour ago, michael620 said:

Thanks. I wondered because the blurb for Club Orange mentioned extra offerings in the dining room. 

 

Your welcome. 

 

Yes, Club Orange gets an extra entree choice but not the “for a fee” items.  

[richwmn]

Hope I got these right today, here are the activities for today!

 

[richwmn]

As requested, the newly refurbished Crows Nest

 

[richwmn]

my cabin pictures are posted at http://halfacts.com/vista-class/4084-noordam/

Edited October 14, 2019 by richwmn

[kazu]

12 minutes ago, richwmn said:

Hope I got these right today, here are the activities for today!

 

You did indeed 🙂 

 

Thanks for those and the great pics of the Crow’s Nest.  Much appreciated 😄 

[richwmn]

Billboard Onboard and Casino

 

[richwmn]

Northern Lights

[richwmn]

Queen's Lounge (aka BB King)

 

[lindaler]

Thanks for posting your blog Rich. I love to follow along. You do such a good job showing life on board the ship. Enjoy your cruise. 

[GeezerCouple]

Thanks so much for all of these photos.

This is our first time on the Noordam, and on HAL more generally, so we have no "comparisons" to make.

 

But everything looks so beautiful, we are even more eager to "get going" 🙂

 

Any other public area photos would be terrific, if you have the time/energy/interest.

 

If anyone might be able to post photos of a Neptune Suite, that would also be a nice extra.

 

That Crow's Nest looks like a *wonderful* place!

Is there a bar there?  Food?

 

MANY thanks!

 

Oh, about that "day of the week" on the elevator floor... the only other place we've seen this was in one of the big hotels in Vancouver,  at Canada Place. 

It will be especially helpful for cruises with a bunch of sea days, especially...

(Do all HAL ships have this "handy hint"?)

 

 

GC

[richwmn]

28 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

That Crow's Nest looks like a *wonderful* place!

Is there a bar there?  Food?

The final picture of the Crows Nest shows the full service bar. Other than "finger food" during happy hour or maybe some other occasions, there is no food.

 

30 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

Oh, about that "day of the week" on the elevator floor... the only other place we've seen this was in one of the big hotels in Vancouver,  at Canada Place. 

It will be especially helpful for cruises with a bunch of sea days, especially...

(Do all HAL ships have this "handy hint"?)

The Day of the week floor mats are a feature of every HAL ship and are very helpful on long trips like this one

 

Some other notes from last night. Questions have been asked about discounts on specialty restaurants, there was a card on the Lido tables last night about a 25% discount for Pinnacle and Canaletto last night.

 

For the person asking about hangers, I had 24.

 

FYI, I generally eat my meals in the Lido, questions about the MDR are best answered by others who will hopefully chime in.

 

Time to go out and about, M&G is at 11 in the Crow's Nest.

 

[SilvertoGold]

GREAT photos.  Surprised at no change to the Gallery Bar, but glad the Deck 3 Explorations Cafe and Library (huge space!) must still be in place!  Loved that area!

 

I expected o-l-d peach walls in the bathroom and the ancient sofa to have been updated.

 

The old Olive Bar, mid-ship deck 1:  has it been taken out along with the curved stairs in that area from deck one to two?

 

Thanks, Rich, for this interesting blog!

[BarbarianPaul]

1 hour ago, richwmn said:

Hope I got these right today, here are the activities for today!

 

Pleasantly surprised to see that there’s a production show tonight in the main theatre. I thought they were all eliminated.

[richwmn]

2 hours ago, RuthC said:

It was on Promenade Deck, starboard side, immediately aft of the forward elevators. It was across from the Hudson, Half Moon, and Stuyvesant Rooms, forward of the shops area.  

Thanks for checking on this. It gives me hope for one more ship I can still sail on happily. 

There is still a library and Explorations Cafe in that area. The library is now smaller, about half its former space taken over by Microsoft for the computer classes. At a glance, the shelves have few books than in the past. Many games on the shelves.

 

[St Pete Cruiser]

Wow, the Crow's nest lives on, at least on the Noordam.  I actually think someone is listening to us!  

I do prefer the Gallery Lounge to the Northern Lights, but it doesn't seem to get used.  Thanks, Rich, for the pics.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Wonderful pictures.

 

To the person who asked about food in the Crow's Nest.  We have sailed many times on the Noordam.  There was never any extra food other than during Happy Hour.  Mainly because the Library on this ship was never in the Crow's Nest thus no Explorations Cafe.  It is located on the Promenade Deck -- Deck 3.