Holland America Noordam Noisy Cabin

[Utahborn]

My wife and I have been on the Noordam since 8 Oct 2022 and have yet to get one good night's sleep. There is a very loud, sharp and metallic pounding from the ceiling. It sounds just like someone hitting a solid steel object with a hammer. I have measured the noise to be as loud as 80 decibels. We have complained constantly about this but the ship's staff does not seem to care. Guest Services has offered a couple of cabins for us to switch to but we can't do that. Our cabin selection is based on someone with Motion Sickness and if we are unable to book one of the lower, mid-ship and inboard cabins we do not book a cruise. The offered cabins are way to one end of the ship which means maximum movement. We would never have booked this cruise if we had to select one of the offered cabins. 

It has been a great disappointment that the staff will not send someone to hear and evaluate the noise. After 25 years of cruising we have never heard anything like this before. Attached is a recording of the sound.

[CruiserBruce]

I think the crew cares if they offered you a couple of other cabins to move to.

 

 

[AKJonesy]

There is NO WAY I could stay in a cabin with that noise.  You have to decide between noise and getting sea sick.  How are the seas?  Calm?  You should be able to do a night only move.  That is, I've heard before people saying they were sleeping in a different cabin but everything still left in original cabin.  

[Sea42]

I would at least try one of the offered cabins. At this point what do you have to lose?

[Hlitner]

A real bummer for the OP (we have had our share of noisy cabins).  But it does sound like the staff is trying to meet you half way and you have rejected their offers.  As to the sea sickness issue, some folks are just not cut out to cruise.  Noisy cabins can happen on almost any ship and they can certainly ruin a cruise.   Ironically, we generally avoid cabins that are on lower decks near the center of any ship because the major mechanical systems (i.e. engines) are located near the ship's center of gravity.  To us, the quietest cabins are generally forward of the forward elevators (few mechanical systems except for the seldom used thrusters).  Any extra movement felt towards the bow just rocks us asleep.

 

Hank

[StLouisCruisers]

I would never be able to sleep with that noise either so I suggest you do as others have said, and tell Guest Services you will accept another cabin to sleep in at night, leaving your belongings in the noisy cabin.  You would have to adjust to getting up in the morning and heading back to your first cabin for bathing, dressing, whatever though.  We did that a couple nights when our cabin carpet was soaked from a problem in the next door cabin on Maasdam.  You have to have some sleep!  I can't believe you've been able to cope with this a month already.  Just think about it.  You may not have any problems with sea sickness at all in the extra cabin and could just move there for the remainder of your cruise.

[ActuallyOrange]

Wow, that's a terrible noise! It would keep me awake, too. Is it possible to purchase ear plugs on board? While not ideal, it would at least dampen the sound so you can hopefully get some sleep.

[Iamthesea]

I'd move! I would have been out of there after two nights.   And the fact that no one will come to your stateroom to hear the noise makes me think that they are well aware that it is a problem.  Have you talked to your neighbors to see if they also hear the noise?  Is it all the time, or only at night?

 

Since you have been onboard a month, your equilibrium should be adjusted to movement.  At least give it a try for goodness sakes!  Also, please post your stateroom number to warn others.

[Wakepatrol]

[crystalspin]

15 hours ago, Utahborn said:

My wife and I have been on the Noordam since 8 Oct 2022 and have yet to get one good night's sleep. There is a very loud, sharp and metallic pounding from the ceiling. It sounds just like someone hitting a solid steel object with a hammer. I have measured the noise to be as loud as 80 decibels. We have complained constantly about this but the ship's staff does not seem to care. Guest Services has offered a couple of cabins for us to switch to but we can't do that. Our cabin selection is based on someone with Motion Sickness and if we are unable to book one of the lower, mid-ship and inboard cabins we do not book a cruise. The offered cabins are way to one end of the ship which means maximum movement. We would never have booked this cruise if we had to select one of the offered cabins. 

It has been a great disappointment that the staff will not send someone to hear and evaluate the noise. After 25 years of cruising we have never heard anything like this before. Attached is a recording of the sound.

My husband has a history of motion sickness. With patches in hand, we booked a top-floor forward cabin (just behind the Crows Nest) for a TransAtlantic, on the Noordam's sister Zuiderdam. He never had to use the patch!

 

Please, disgard your "knowledge" about the location of cabin and MOVE.

[cruisn71]

Wed have had a noisy cabin on the Noordam on the maindeck midship.  It was 1074.  Different noises than what you have.  What cabin number are you in?

[dmcfad2]

Can you give us the cabin number?

[Guest ldtr]

ON the Noordam the only lower deck center inboard cabins would be on Deck one under BB King.  Not exactly a location for a quiet night.

 

From the floor plan it looks like that there may also be space between the cabins that might be used (potentially storage for carts, maybe even some crew spaces).  If the noise is in time with ship movement rising and falling it could be something bumping the wall or hitting together up above.  Part of the issue is that these cabins are not exactly known for being quiet to begin with (due to BB King, the Casino, etc) located above them.  Thus the offer to move, instead of coming to diagnose a problem.

 

Best bet if you are not willing to move is ear plugs.

Edited November 11, 2022 by ldtr

[Utahborn]

On 11/10/2022 at 7:31 PM, cruisn71 said:

Wed have had a noisy cabin on the Noordam on the maindeck midship.  It was 1074.  Different noises than what you have.  What cabin number are you in?

We are in cabin 1073 just behind 1074. I have been able to speak with the occupants of all the cabins around us. The only one who faintly hears it is across the corridor from us.

Unfortunately, my wife is super sensitive to the motion so our choice has been to remain in our current cabin. She loves cruising and we have been doing so for 25 years. Not including this cruise we have been on 39 cruises totalling nearly 500 days.

The Guest Services staff have been great in trying to assist us. We have even submitted very positive comment cards on their behalf. It's a rough situation but not one to get nasty about. If they come up with something fine, if not, also fine.

Interestingly we have gotten somewhat immune to it and it appears to have diminished some. If it is the piping as they say then maybe they are modifying their usage a little to alleviate sudden changes in flow. Since both my wife and I worked in Engineering all our career this has become a challenge to us to try and identify exactly the cause.

[Utahborn]

On 11/12/2022 at 5:12 AM, ldtr said:

ON the Noordam the only lower deck center inboard cabins would be on Deck one under BB King.  Not exactly a location for a quiet night.

 

From the floor plan it looks like that there may also be space between the cabins that might be used (potentially storage for carts, maybe even some crew spaces).  If the noise is in time with ship movement rising and falling it could be something bumping the wall or hitting together up above.  Part of the issue is that these cabins are not exactly known for being quiet to begin with (due to BB King, the Casino, etc) located above them.  Thus the offer to move, instead of coming to diagnose a problem.

 

Best bet if you are not willing to move is ear plugs.

We are far enough away from The Rolling Stone lounge so that it is an extremely low level sound. I always do an overlay of deck plans before we select cabins. Not only that this sound is definitely a banging, not music, and the band does not play at 2:15 AM  or 5:00 AM two times when the sound is most prevalent.

We have also gone into the areas behind and above our cabin. The area behind is the staircase for the crew and above is is the Sound Engineers space for the Rolling Stones lounge. That area is essentially empty.

Edited November 16, 2022 by Utahborn

[rodndonna]

Sounds like a door (or something) flaping against something like a wall to me - that would be my guess.

 

Hope you solve it - very curious 

[ColonyGirl2]

When we were on the Eurodam last year, we had a metallic bang in the wall behind our bed.  I reported it to our room steward and he asked us to try to grab him when we heard it.  We did and he listened, and said it was from the infrastructure and couldn't be addressed.  My husband noticed if he pressed on part of the wall it stopped.  We were able to "fix" it by stuffing cardboard "shims" in the crack where the wall meets the ceiling.  

Wasn't pretty and it sounds weird, but it solved the issue for our trip.  

We were in the popular 4166 with the double balcony.  There was a stairwell for the crew behind our wall.

[SilvertoGold]

26 minutes ago, ColonyGirl2 said:

When we were on the Eurodam last year, we had a metallic bang in the wall behind our bed.  I reported it to our room steward and he asked us to try to grab him when we heard it.  We did and he listened, and said it was from the infrastructure and couldn't be addressed.  My husband noticed if he pressed on part of the wall it stopped.  We were able to "fix" it by stuffing cardboard "shims" in the crack where the wall meets the ceiling.  

Wasn't pretty and it sounds weird, but it solved the issue for our trip.  

We were in the popular 4166 with the double balcony.  There was a stairwell for the crew behind our wall.

Those shims, all wooden, were in evidence in each cabin on the three HAL ships we sailed on this year.  We saw shims many times pre-pandemic, so this problem/solution has been around for quite a while. And it works!

[12cruise2]

We just got off the Nieuw Amsterdam last week after four weeks on board--two in 4149 and then moved to two weeks in 4139.  The second week of 4139, seas got rocky-rolly; we had a LOUD, bang/pop, then two more, then maybe one-two more in the wall between the sofa and the balcony, the interior/exterior wall, and up near the ceiling.  Finally I went to guest services and one of the nice chaps came with me to the cabin as the sea was rocking; he, too, agreed the noise was definitely inside the wall.  I insisted this need to be fixed, especially for future guests in the stateroom.  I know several of the ladies, including two supervisors, who work at the front desk, from prior cruises.

Two "maintenance" men showed up with the infamous shims--no, it's not a vibration sound, tho we had two of those, one of which I fixed myself.  It definitely is in the high wall, and the next door cabin also was complaining.  It was loud enough to awaken you and went on during the day as well when there was motion in the ocean.  By now, we are 2-3 days before the end of our four weeks, and the seas calmed down.  Of course, the maintenance guys agreed the noise was coming from inside the wall, that it wasn't a shim-repairable vibration noise, but said they couldn't just open the walls, that they had to talk with their bosses.

As per usual, guest services left us a letter late that evening saying "they'd tried to reach us but couldn't"--not true, no phone message, nothing; this wording has occurred on previous cruises re resolution to a problem.  Anyway, I knew we didn't want to move with only two days left, and the seas had calmed, so we remained in the cabin; I did not contact the front desk to hear their resolution; had we been going to be on longer,  definitely I would have pursued their probable "remedy".

So, stay away from 4139 on the NA; 4149 was fine, tho we had the smoothest two weeks I've had on a ship in 4149, so who knows!

Edited December 18, 2022 by 12cruise2

[MikeD4134]

Have you tried ear plugs?

[Hlitner]

These things can happen on the newest ships.  Once, when on a Princess cruise (on a new vessel) we would hear this annoying sound in our ceiling which sounded like something rolling around.  We got our cabin steward in the cabin and he also heard the noise.  The following day a few engineering staff came to our cabin.  They opened a ceiling panel in the corridor (just outside our cabin) and a relatively short crew member went up into the small crawl space (between decks) and disappeared.  A few minutes later he was back with a large steel bolt!  They figured it was left there by workman at the shipyard.  Problem solved :).

 

As to shims, as a long-time cruiser I have shimmed many panels with a few pieces of folded cardboard :). 

 

Hank

[AKJonesy]

22 hours ago, 12cruise2 said:

It would be great if you put this on Halfacts.com for the stateroom number so people know to avoid.  I also had a room on a cruise where the room was popping and cracking and you could already see when looking up that they had tried to fix with shims.