HAL Noordam 10/25 my not at all brief synopsis

[Çay girl]

Hi guys. Vic the Parrot, if you read this, I'm semi -new to this stuff, so I feel bad if I'm stepping on toes by doing a new thread.

My husband, son and I had a great relaxing but adventurous vacation! This is my first cruise on HAL, and I had been on Celebrity only in the past, but I'd been many times because my husband worked for Celebrity for 10 years. With this being said, if you're actually going to read all my hoo-ha, you may understand why I hold my point of view. I'm partial to Celebrity and while I had a fabulous cruise, given the choice I'd stick to Celebrity.

BUT!!!!!! there are many many positives about HAL. First I must say the crew from especially Indonesia are soooo sweet. Honestly they seem like the most genuinely nice people. While the dining service lacked luster and polish, they blew me away with kindness and THAT I will say I prefer to Celebrity. A very VERY generalized statement with exceptions: Celebrity has the polish IMO, but lacks the genuine humble attitude of HAL.

 

I honestly can say I would go on another HAL cruise but not with my son because of the really bad Club HAL, I wouldn't do the Pinnacle Grill again because the food was pale in comparison to the specialty restaurants of Celebrity. :o

[Çay girl]

The CC people I met were awesome, it was great to have other people on board to say hello to and sometimes chat and run into in ports!

More positives:

I've never taken the route thru the islands that we did on this itinerary, or if I did, I was sleeping. It was absolutely breathtaking while seeing all the islands in such close proximity to each other the captain was on the speaker directing our eyes to the nearby islands, and navigated the huge ship thru a tiny channel. I loved this! I think this was enroute to Tortola - correct me if I'm wrong (I am alot!)

They had great movies to offer. I loved the sushi bar and asian cuisine, the chilled berry soups, my lobster and crab legs were cooked to perfection. Other than those mentioned I thought the food was good, but not at all Celebrity. Smaller portions, and not so great flavors in some of the selections. I'm not a curry fan, and that was used frequently in the dishes.

The cruise director was funny and clever and always entertaining. The DJ "Jazzy" also the same. In general the entertainment staff were great. I also loved the singers - they were fabulous. The dancers, the lighting and effects at the shows were phenomenal. AND our comedian / ventriloquest was hilarious. Loved him!

Ok and if you're still reading there was one steward in particular who greeted all of us by name everyday and had a new joke! What a memory and personality, I think I can't post his name on here, but I'd love to, he's incredible.

stay tuned for the bad.. sorry!

[jtl513]

Sure you can mention the steward's name!

 

I see that you've used a larger font in the second post ... now please elimnate the all-italics too for the sake of my old eyes! :p

[Vic The Parrot]

It's nice to hear other opinions .... feel free to share your experiences.

 

 

 

:)

[Çay girl]

My least favorite difference is Club HAL :mad: . I can understand they are trying to get up to speed on childrens programs, BUT, I feel they compromise the childrens safety and the adults / parents sanity by allowing the kids to roam the ship on multiple scavenger hunts throughout the cruise. It would be fine if they didn't require personal items found only in passenger cabins, ie. bikini top? a tie, comb. Any pedophile would be happy to "help" the children find these items in their cabins. Luckily my son came to our cabin for the goodies, but a fellow CC'er pointed out that in the past she's had a child knock on her door for these things. Celebrity had these scavenger hunts but required items from public rooms only.

 

Also Celebrity had a talent show, karaeoke, and lots of backstage / bridge / kitchen tours only for the children. I loved this! The program was very limited. The hours are also suckish on HAL they are from 9am-12, 2pm-5, which is all well and good, but there night hours are 8-10. What is this? Celebrity it's from 6-12pm and sleeping bags are provided, so if Mommy wants to go boogie, it's fine!

My son was happy enough there so I guess thats cool.

 

But also they require 8 yr olds and up to be allowed free run of the ship with sign in / sign out power on their own!!! NO!

If you the parent don't agree with this than too bad, your child has to go back to the little kiddie program. My 8 yr old is good but he's 8. I don't want him wandering around the ship when I think he's in the Club HAL safe. He thankfully didn't ever just run off, and my husband and I always made sure he knew where to find us.

 

But my ? for HAL is why the sucky hours and WHY these policies? If the program is open anyway just allow me to sign my son out! I promise to be ontime or earlier when the hours are over!

If he was a little older I may not freak out like this.

 

One more thing. I didn't use the "inport" program at all, however, I did want to because in San Juan after a couple hours in the old town I wanted to shop - my boy hates shopping, so I wanted to just have him stay there for 1.5-2 hours. I asked the Club HAL director if I could do this. She said he would be the only kid there and they may be needed elsewhere on the ship. Ok, well than don't advertise that Club HAL has inport hours. I realize my son would be alone, but to him that's a hell of a lot better than shopping he could play video games watch a movie, etc. Well I didn't go shopping. Booo hiss.

[kryos]

BUT' date=' I feel they compromise the childrens safety and the adults / parents sanity by allowing the kids to roam the ship on multiple scavenger hunts throughout the cruise. It would be fine if they didn't require personal items found only in passenger cabins, ie. bikini top? a tie, comb. Any pedophile would be happy to "help" the children find these items in their cabins. Luckily my son came to our cabin for the goodies, but a fellow CC'er pointed out that in the past she's had a child knock on her door for these things. Celebrity had these scavenger hunts but required items from public rooms only.

[/quote']

That is really wierd, and I don't blame you for being upset. Even with the adult scavanger hunts they had on my Hawaii/South Pacific sailing with the Amsterdam Survivor competition, just about all the items requested could be obtained in public areas ... a pack of seasick pills (front desk), a toothpick (bar), a piece of fruit (the Lido or a bar), etc. I can't imagine why they would ask the kids to find things that could only be procured in a cabin. True, they may have expected the kids to go back to their own cabin, but what if the kid didn't have a room key and couldn't locate mom or dad? What's to stop them ... especially the younger ones ... from arbitrarily knocking on cabin doors?

 

No, I think that's crazy ... and I hope you made plenty of mention about it on your survey form at the end of the cruise.

 

As for the hours of operation, I am shocked they don't have an evening program so that parents could go to a show and enjoy a leisurely dinner ... something it can be difficult to do with younger kids in tow. But, as for the in-port program ... I can kind of understand why Club HAL may not offer this. I don't know, but it doesn't seem too safe to me to have the kids on the ship and the parents in port. What happens if somehow you become separated ... i.e., miss the ship, etc.? The ship sails, you are left in the port, and your children are now onboard ship with no adult supervision until you can meet back up with the ship in the next port? Or conversely, what happens if your child becomes seriously ill and the Club HAL staff have no way of reaching you because you're on a half-day excursion on some island? While I am not a parent, this sounds to me like a recipe for potential disaster. I know that if I had kids, and I wanted to go into port, I wouldn't do so without having the kids with me. Otherwise, I'd just stay on the ship with them.

 

But, thanks for the review. Glad to see that overall you enjoyed your first HAL cruise.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Çay girl]

The ship IS gorgeous. Streamlined profile, beautiful colors. The decor overall is elegant.

 

My favorite little decorating touch is the fish bar stools at the pool bar - so cute. I want a couple in my basement!

I also loved the sculptures throughout the ship.

 

I feel overall the ship is wonderful, I'd do it again tomorrow - I WISH!!!-

but they need a larger theater/ the shows were packed, we had to stand at one show (the whole show!) I had to remove my 3 inch heels after 10 minutes. If they want more business from families with young people, they need more public rooms with a better variety. The pay as you go pool / spa is very tiny and not nearly as varied compared to Celebrity (again my only other point of view / comparison)

And again I'm sorry comparisons are inevitable! The nightclub was subpar, but the crows nest was pretty and huge! The pools are nice, The promenade jogging track was really nice. Celebrity always makes you run around the top deck and there's too many people there lounging around.

 

The guys keep this ship in top shape, it's so clean, which is comparable to Celebrity. But I love this. I like the smell of bleach! I'm weird.

 

Our cabin was great, nicely decorated, enough storage space for the 3 of us - and I always overpack! (I take a suitcase for shoes alone!)

 

I met lots of nice people, my son and husband also made friends who (hopefully) we'll remember forever and cherish our memories!

 

The itinerary was great, wonderful ports. I know it's all about the money, but our time in Grand Turk, Tortola (8 hours - but half were in the dark), and Puerto Rico was way to short!

 

 

Thanks for reading if you still are- :D !![/font][/font][/size]

[Çay girl]

That is really wierd, and I don't blame you for being upset. Even with the adult scavanger hunts they had on my Hawaii/South Pacific sailing with the Amsterdam Survivor competition, just about all the items requested could be obtained in public areas ... a pack of seasick pills (front desk), a toothpick (bar), a piece of fruit (the Lido or a bar), etc. I can't imagine why they would ask the kids to find things that could only be procured in a cabin.

 

A bikini top??:confused: I was not happy to have my Miracle bra bikini top paraded around the ship by my son!

 

No, I think that's crazy ... and I hope you made plenty of mention about it on your survey form at the end of the cruise.

 

OH I DID believe me!

 

I know that if I had kids, and I wanted to go into port, I wouldn't do so without having the kids with me. Otherwise, I'd just stay on the ship with them.

 

While I understand your point, it was only to shop for max 2 hours, and I would have provided my cell phone # in an emergency. Also, this was the only time in port I even thought to do this. It's commonplace on Celebrity. I agree if it's a family vacation my son is entitled to go into port also and enjoy himself, By the time we were done the fort, he wanted to go back to Club HAL and not stay in San Juan - which was my plan, -my foiled plan.

 

Thanks for reading Rita, and replying!

[betonic]

Hi Cay Girl!

 

I just wanted to comment on the HAL kid's program. I took my seven year old son on the Noordam Transatlantic and got a pretty good opinion of their program. Is Cristina still the director? There were only 5 kids on the sailing and there were many times that my son was alone in Club HAL. I was never told that he couldn't come even on port days. As for the night time hours, they did offer me after hours from 10-12am for $5 an hour. I only used it a couple of times but my son seemed to really like staying late.

 

There were no scavenger hunts on my cruise, I guess because there were so few kids. I don't think I would have felt good about my son roaming the ship alone.

 

The most important thing for me is that mys on had a great time. It might have been because he got sooooo much personal attention though.

 

Anyway, I'm glad you had a good cruise overall.

[Çay girl]

Yeah, it was her - Christina, she was the one I had a problem with. My son liked her, which is great. She definitely was the worst children's program person I've had to deal with.

 

 

Oh, and since I know now that I can mention names... the Lido steward's name was Bert. He goes by "Bert Reynolds" LOL. He was hysterical!

He wasn't our table steward but we found him in the main dining room on the last night to give him a tip at the end of the cruise because he was so nice!