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Big Al B
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Posted: Sat Nov 3rd, 2007 03:17 pm | 1st Post |
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I will probably split this into several sections.
First to let you know where I am coming from, my wife and I are both retired elementary teachers 59 and 64. This was our seventh cruise, the third on HAL. We are not into much drinking nor do we dance  . I booked this cruise a year ahead because of the good Mariner price and the itinerary. We usually travel with another couple, but this time it was just the two of us hoping for a relaxing getaway. In this respect, the cruise fulfilled all our expectations.
We were booked into a VE Veranda room on Deck 5 midship and also took a pre and a post night package at the Sheraton New York and Towers. Taking a bus from eastern PA we arrived in NYC in the morning and checked into the hotel. Our room was not yet ready (had not expected it to be), so they checked our luggage and we went off to wander in the city. When we returned and checked in, we were given instructions as to when and where to meet for the next day's bus to the pier. (We had done a pre-cruise with NCL and had gotten nothing at the Holiday Inn). There were also HAL reps there that night and the next day to answer questions.
Embarkation: We were picked up at the hotel at noon and boarded a very ratty Academy bus (torn seats, broken seat backs, etc). There was more luggage than space and some people had to bring luggage into the aisle. It was only about a 15 minute ride to the pier, so not a big problem.
Upon arrival at the pier, we identified our luggage to the longshoremen and proceeded into the building. There the misery began. It seems that for some reason (perhaps a previous novovirus outbreak on repositioning) that the embarkation was changed from 11 to 1. (Some people had gotten notified of this, we hadn't). I talked to some who had used HAL's home city bus service and they got to the pier, were turned away, and had to go sit and wait (bus took them to small park near a McDonald's). Anyways at 12:30 the entire center and one side of the hall was filled with people sitting in chairs. There was a huge line winding around the perimeter. We joined the restless mass and slowly moved forward. At one point they were saying something about health forms. I went and got some for us to fill out as we stood. Form was certifying that you weren't sick, again result of novovirus I think. Slowly, very slowly the line moved until finally we were at a desk where they checked our names and gave us a number. A lot of people had blue plastic squares with numbers, we got a post-it note with number 61. As we entered the central area I heard them call number 21! There were drinks and snacks available here and we got some water and found a seat. Finally our number was called and we were able to get in another line to go through security which enabled us to go in another line to check-in. We finally put a foot on the gangway at 3:30.  I am sure some folks didn't get on until much later. We were also late in leaving to the point that at dinner everyone was given a free glass of champagne. I heard later that the longshoremen were goofing off instead of loading the ship.
That was by far the worst of the trip. Next time, I'll try to give my impressions of the ship itself.
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Stupidity got us into this mess, and stupidity will get us out.
HAL Zaandam Hawaii - October 2009
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hstrybuf
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Posted: Sat Nov 3rd, 2007 04:20 pm | 2nd Post |
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| Embarkations sounds like a nightmare! I can't imagine being in line so long. We've never tried HAL and I know very little about the line other than what I've read in reviews and comments. I'll be following along as you post.
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Deb
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
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Big Al B
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Posted: Sun Nov 4th, 2007 02:37 pm | 3rd Post |
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The Ship: The Noordam is a beautiful, well-maintained ship. The main public areas were on decks 2, 3, 9, and 10. Deck 1 has a small area with the Front Desk and Shore Excursion Desk. Deck 2 held the Casino, Piano Bar, Culinary Center, Pinnacle Restaurant, and several lounges along with lower dining room level and lower show lounge. Deck 3 had the upper dining room and show lounge balcony, the Explorations Cafe, shops and meeting rooms. Deck 9 was the Lido buffet, two pools, hot tubs, spa, and gym. Deck 10 was the teen areas and the Crow's Nest lounge.
Bars: As in all cruise ships, you are never far from a place to get a drink. Cocktails ranged in the 5-6 dollar range (at least what I drank). There was a drink of the day each day. Service was excellent and I couldn't believe they actually remembered what I had ordered before. We enjoyed the Piano bar. The player/singer Ian has a different voice but is a friendly guy. He indicated sing along, but sometimes his playing (which was good) had a few too many riffs for easily singing along. There are several bars outside (the Lido bar has stools that look like the tails of fish). The sports bar (which was packed often on World Series nights) looked to be very smoky.
Show Lounge: The show lounge was similar to others we have seen. Individual chairs in front of stage, rows of benchlike seats going up the back and a balcony with rows of the bench seats. We sat in the balcony and since we would get there about a half-hour early for early show had good front row seats. (I always sit in the balcony because I have no desire to wind up on stage.) There were a number of seats where you would be looking at the back of a pillar (especially in the balcony). The stage had many moving parts that would rise up, turn, or even descend to be set up.
Casino: We only went to the casino once. It seemed the standard cruiseship setup. There were penny and nickle slots along with the higher value ones, the usual electronic poker etc, and craps, roulette, and cards. The Texas Hold-em table was computerized (no dealer). Needed three people to play. You could play the slots 24-hours a day while at sea. If you won a jackpot that was too big for the payout from the machine, you could lock the machine and fill out a form to be paid later.
Shops: Shops sold the standard jewelry, clothing, liquour. There were several sales of various kinds during the voyage. Can't say more because all we did was walk through them to get somewhere else .
Pools: There are two pools, the main covered one and an outdoor one in the stern. We don't hang out around the pool, but whenever I walked by they didn't seem to be too full. There always seemed to be a deck chair available. Again I didn't hang out there so can't say. There are lots of deck chairs all over the upper decks and great wooden loungers along the promenade.
Explorations Cafe: This is the combination library/internet area. There is also a coffee bar that sells lattes, etc. You get free pastry when you buy a coffee. This was one of my favorite areas; comfortable chairs, listening stations, nice views and an excellent selection of books including ones on cd that you could play on the dvd player in your room. They had tables with large NY Times crossword puzzles under plastic that you could work on. There were enough internet stations that I never had to wait, although the service made my old dial-up seem blazing fast.
Dining Room: We ate in the lower dining room and to be honest, I didn't roam around so I can't speak too much of it other than it seemed fine to me. I will say that the area we sat in was a bit crowded together it seemed.
Spa: Never used it, didn't look inside. Can't say a word. It did seem to be getting a lot of business.
Gym: The gym had all the normal machines, a nice view and my DW liked using it.
Lido Buffet: I'll discuss this more in the Dining section as to the food. It is laid out with the food service in center and tables on the two sides. The aisles on each side are not all that wide and sometimes got kind of congested. Also some of the tables were placed so that if you had someone sitting behind you, it became a Mexican standoff to get out. The back of each chair would be actually touching.
There is art all over the ship and you can check out an ipod from the library and take a guided tour of all the different pieces which was cool. Colors are subdued and very restful. Even some of the ceilings are decorated.
Stateroom: We had a VE category veranda on deck 5 midships. It was spacious enough for the two of us easily. The bathroom had a tub/shower and medicine cabinet for storing things. There were nightstands with two drawers on each side of the bed, three closets which had shelves that could be folded up or down depending on how much hanging stuff you had, some space over the closets where the life jackets were kept, two drawers under the bed, and two cabinets over the sofa. We stored our suitcases under the bed easily. The balcony had two chairs and small table. We could not look straight down along the side of the ship because of the lifeboats, but I didn't find that to be a problem.
____________________
Stupidity got us into this mess, and stupidity will get us out.
HAL Zaandam Hawaii - October 2009
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Catnip
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Posted: Sun Nov 4th, 2007 04:28 pm | 4th Post |
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Great review!! The embarkation does sound like a nightmare, though.........
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33 previous cruises..
Next up: Celebrity Solstice 1-09/Jewel of the Seas 3-09/ QM 2 11-09/ Queen Victoria 1/10
**Triangles Are For Losers!**
When only cops have guns, it's called a "police state"
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Big Al B
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Posted: Sun Nov 4th, 2007 08:03 pm | 5th Post |
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| I think that the embarkation might have been a bit of an abberation although the poster doing her review from the Noordam now said it was not fun for them either on the 31st.
____________________
Stupidity got us into this mess, and stupidity will get us out.
HAL Zaandam Hawaii - October 2009
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leet44
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Posted: Mon Nov 5th, 2007 04:48 am | 6th Post |
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Keep it coming Al
Great review
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Lee
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Big Al B
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Posted: Mon Nov 5th, 2007 01:02 pm | 7th Post |
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Dining: When we made our reservation we were given early upper large table as a preference. Our ticket said early upper dining. Our boarding pass said table 181 which was early lower and a table for four  . Actually it worked out very well. The table was near the entrance, was oval shaped and actually a soft bench seat and two chairs. Our dining companions were a very nice young couple from Colorado on their delayed honeymoon (also first cruise). Only complaint was that my wife had to get up and move everytime someone wanted to go behind her. Minor inconvenience.
It looked like the upper dining room was filled with traditional diners which served at 5:45 and 8:00. The open ("as you wish") dining was most of the lower (we were in a small area that was traditional) and began at 5:15. If you had as you wish, you could just show up and ask for a table size. If they had one, you would be seated. Otherwise you would be asked if you wanted to wait or join other people. You could also call for a reservation each day beginning at 8am. (You couldn't reserve one table for the trip though, had to be done daily). The people I talked to seemed to have no real problems with it. I did read where some were annoyed at having to sit down as others at the table were getting the appetizer. To be honest, that wouldn't bother me at all. We did that with our companions a lot as they were late often  .
We ate breakfast and lunch in the Lido. We tended to get there early and never had a problem with either seating or standing in line. I did see there were long lines at times though. There were two main serving lines and some small areas. In the am they were an omelet station, an express breakfast, a waffle station. In the pm they were an Asian station, pizza pasta and a deli. There might have been one more that was a duplicate express breakfast and deli. There was a separate salad bar, ice cream and dessert area on each side (was juice in the am).
Food choices were adequate from my point of view. I stayed with omelets in the morning (if you wanted potatoes, bacon, etc you had to go to two lines - omelet then regular) and the Asian station for lunch. DW varied and always found something.
Dinners were all very good. We enjoyed the food and felt the choices were fine. The menu was in three basic parts. Starters, Entrees, and the Chef's selection. Starters listed the appetizers, soups and salads. (you could order any which caused some confusion; people thought only one of each). There was always a seafood entree, a meat, a fowl, a entree salad and a vegetarian. The Chef's selection was three different choices.
You could get many of the same choices in the Lido. We ate there the first formal night when I didn't want to dress up. Had basically the same appetizers and soup which we served ourselves. Then we ordered our entree and were seated. The entree was brought to us.
There was ice cream available all afternoon, a terrace taco bar and grill open in the afternoon and a very good room service including full breakfast for any cabin.
Dress: There were three formal nights on this cruise and I am NOT a formal type. I own one suit for 5 years and have worn it 4 times. I did pack a navy sport coat and DW some nice things. After observing the first formal night, I just put a pair of bone Dockers and a coat and tie together and was fine.
Service was excellent.
____________________
Stupidity got us into this mess, and stupidity will get us out.
HAL Zaandam Hawaii - October 2009
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FundyGirl
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Posted: Mon Nov 5th, 2007 04:40 pm | 8th Post |
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Big Al B wrote: I heard later that the longshoremen were goofing off instead of loading the ship.
C'mon Al, you know they were only rumours. 
____________________
Kathy
Do Life
NCL Gem 3/21/09
NCL Jewel 10/30/09
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gsc500
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Posted: Mon Nov 5th, 2007 06:50 pm | 9th Post |
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FundyGirl wrote: Big Al B wrote: I heard later that the longshoremen were goofing off instead of loading the ship.
C'mon Al, you know they were only rumours.
Maybe they heard that the famous Paulie was gonna be in town that weekend and were all outside on the look out for him!!!
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Seahorse123
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Posted: Mon Nov 5th, 2007 06:59 pm | 10th Post |
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You have DIAL-UP:holymoly:
Great review. I have not been on HAL in a very long time and you make me want to go again.
____________________
Ann
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"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."~~~~~Thomas Jefferson
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Big Al B
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Posted: Mon Nov 5th, 2007 08:54 pm | 11th Post |
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Actually I had dial-up a long time ago and the ship was even slower.
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Stupidity got us into this mess, and stupidity will get us out.
HAL Zaandam Hawaii - October 2009
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Seahorse123
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Posted: Mon Nov 5th, 2007 09:21 pm | 12th Post |
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Big Al B wrote: Actually I had dial-up a long time ago and the ship was even slower.
:oops:I read too fast, I see now you were comparing it to the "Dark Ages".
____________________
Ann
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"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."~~~~~Thomas Jefferson
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leet44
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Posted: Tue Nov 6th, 2007 02:20 am | 13th Post |
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gsc500 wrote: FundyGirl wrote: Big Al B wrote: I heard later that the longshoremen were goofing off instead of loading the ship.
C'mon Al, you know they were only rumours.
Maybe they heard that the famous Paulie was gonna be in town that weekend and were all outside on the look out for him!!!
They were waiting for him to arrive on Sunday.
I believe a breakfast to be remembered was given to him
Longshoremen ROCK
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Lee
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Big Al B
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Posted: Tue Nov 6th, 2007 08:37 pm | 14th Post |
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Entertainment: As I mentioned, we would usually drop into the Piano Bar after the early show, then wander around listening. There was usually karaoke or disco in the Northern Lights, a dance combo in the Ocean Bar, a string quartet in the Explorer Lounge, and the show band would play in the Crow's Nest (we never made it up there in the evening  ). One night the four singers from the stage show did a performance with the band in the Queen's Lounge, which was packed. The band also did a show with a female singer whose name slips my feeble mind there also once.
We went to most of the evening shows with the exception of the comedian on the first night. After the embarkation, we were dragged out and opted for R and R on the veranda. He also did another show in the Crow's Nest the next night, but we missed that too.
The other shows consisted of two production shows, a magician, a juggler, a guitar player, a female singer, a ventriliquist, and a pianist. I thought I wrote names in my journal, but didn't . The magician was good as were the ventriliquist (I swear I saw him on an NCL cruise) and the singer (I did get her name, Jeri Sager). She has been on Broadway and did a lot of show songs. The juggler was all right. He did put an audience member on his shoulders as he rode around on a unicycle. Oh, the insurance! The pianist was billed as a comedian, but I didn't think he was that funny. Good pianist though.
The guitar player, Justin Miller was excellent. He also was a musical scholar who had interviewed many songwriters or their families. He told interesting stories behind the music. During the cruise, he gave several talks on song writers which were very interesting.
The production shows were typically high energy and enjoyable. I was very surprised at one of them that they did not mention no photographs. There were flashes going off all during the show. Later someone I talked to said she overheard one of the dancers saying she was blinded by a flash and almost lost her footing.
During the day there was a band playing at the pool, but only for an hour or so from what I saw in the daily listing. There were craft classes, spa activities, some deck games, along with the sales and port talks. A lecturer, Chris, gave talks on the islands we visited along with pirates and rum. He was good. There was also a movie each day in the Queens Lounge.
Two days there was a cooking demonstration by the executive chef and there was a wine dinner (extra cost), cooking lesson (extra), and the mixed drink classes (extra).
Last edited on Wed Nov 7th, 2007 03:18 am by Big Al B
____________________
Stupidity got us into this mess, and stupidity will get us out.
HAL Zaandam Hawaii - October 2009
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Big Al B
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Posted: Wed Nov 7th, 2007 01:46 pm | 15th Post |
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Ports of Call: We stopped in Tortola, St Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St Maarten, and San Juan. Tortola and San Juan were short stops.
In each port except Tortola we took a ship's excursion so my impression of the ports is based on that. In Tortola we just wandered a short time in the town (not really exciting). I must say we shop very, very little. Also, we had been in all the ports except Tortola and St Maarten. We are not big for sitting on the beach either.
St. Thomas: we went to Coral World, which is a park containing several aquariums, a bird area, some sea turtles, etc. There is also a place built out over the reef where you can go down stairs under the water to view the reef. We enjoyed ourselves. There were iguanas all over the place. We saw one scare the hell out of a little girl by climbing up on her chair in the snack area. They offered helmut diving here and we will definitely try that the next chance we get. It looked like fun and the people we talked to raved about it. Especially good for those of us who can barely see the water without our glasses on.
Dominica: we took bus around the island to Trafalgar Falls and the Emerald Pool among other things. It's a beautiful, lush island. Both the falls and pool require walking along a dirt path and then climbing down to get up close and personal. Both places had a vantage point where you could view them without climbing, which we used .
Barbados: We took the tour of the Banks Brewery and the Mount Joy rum distillery. They were both interesting and we were able to imbibe a bit.
St Maarten: we did a combination bus tour and boat ride to the French side. It was raining so everything was kind of dreary, but we did get good unlimited rum punches on the boat . Lots of shopping in the French area.
San Juan: we were there on a Sunday for a short stop so we just took a bus tour of the city. It was pouring so again, that worked out. We went into the capitol building and the fort. Most of the shops we saw were closed. The ship had to wait for a late returning Yunque rain forest tour as well as 4 people who had gotten lost in the forest 
Most of the folks we talked to enjoyed each of the island stops. One activity that seemed to be really enjoyed was the 12-meter yacht race on St Thomas. St. Maarten also had that activity using some of Dennis Conners America's Cup boats, but the weather cancelled that one.
So that brings us to Disembarkation: This was much easier than embarkation. We were a bit unusual in that we had taken a post-cruise hotel with no air transfer needed. We got Orange-2 tags and waited in our cabin after having breakfast in the Lido (was the same as all cruise, not shortened in choices). After about an hour and half, we were called. We walked right off the ship, no line. I asked where the orange area was and was pointed to the left - found nothing. Asked again and was told they hadn't used orange that trip. Pressed the issue and finally found Orange - was only our three bags. Found a waiting van and off to the hotel.
____________________
Stupidity got us into this mess, and stupidity will get us out.
HAL Zaandam Hawaii - October 2009
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Big Al B
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Posted: Wed Nov 7th, 2007 01:51 pm | 16th Post |
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I guess that about covers what I could think of for this cruise. Was it perfect? No. Did it meet our expectations? Most certainly. Would we sail on HAL again? No doubt.
I have tried to emphasize that we are pretty easy-going travelers who don't demand a whole lot to keep us happy. Hell, just being away from home makes it great ! I am sure that HAL may not provide enough games and activities for some people. I did see a much wider age range than our earlier HAL cruises.
I'll be glad to try to answer any questions.
____________________
Stupidity got us into this mess, and stupidity will get us out.
HAL Zaandam Hawaii - October 2009
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hstrybuf
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Posted: Thu Nov 8th, 2007 12:43 am | 17th Post |
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| Thanks Al! You sound like us: easygoing and undemanding. I'll have to keep HAL on my list of lines to consider in the future.
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Deb
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My pics: http://community.webshots.com/user/hstrycrsr
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gsc500
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Posted: Thu Nov 8th, 2007 01:22 am | 18th Post |
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Great review Al - thanks for taking the time!!!!!!!!
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leet44
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Posted: Fri Nov 9th, 2007 02:51 am | 19th Post |
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Thanks Al
Really enjoyed your review
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Lee
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