we have cruised with P&O and Princess in excess of 25 occasions and have often seen Holland America ships alongside. We have admired the appearance of efficiency and cleanliness and decided on that basis to give them a try.
We took our 8year old granddaughter and 11 year old grandson with us as a special treat and initially were offered cabin 1036. This is under the nightclub and, as experienced ...
We really enjoyed our trip and had a lovely stateroom with balcony (7011). We have travelled Holland America before (Veendam, Vollendam and Statendam), all of which we enjoyed. We had never been on Noordam before and have to say that the ship design is not to our liking. Some bizzare planning meant that Greenhouse staff at reception desk were continuously interrupted by guests travelling through ...
We are a couple of 65 year olds, who have not sailed with HAL before, but this was our fourth cruise. The embarkation process at Civitavechia, Rome, was speedy and efficient. Our luggage arrived in our stateroom 6003, just as we did. Our cabin was specifically for a disabled traveller, as I have mobility problems and use a scooter. The stateroom was situated right at the prow of the ship on the ...
We were in a VB veranda on Deck 5 and have previously sailed with RCCL and Celebrity. There have been mixed reviews of the Noordam of late, but we found little fault and the experience exceeded that of our RCCL cruise and came close to that of Celebrity.
The stateroom was in fine condition with no faults of note and it was well attended to by Tee and Dodik. The air con worked efficiently and the ...
We are in our 70s, celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary and are 4 star mariners. We had a verandah cabin on the Verandah deck. We had a table for 2, early sitting. All the excursions we took were booked through Holland America.
All that being said, our cabin was wonderful as was our room stewards. Everything was clean, neat and in good repair.
We really enjoyed our meals in the main dining ...
We were on a cruise of 3 eleven day legs and if not for the ports, which is what we took this cruise for, the experience of Holland America and the Noordam would turn you off from ever wanting to go cruising again. We are not novice cruisers and have taken at least 15 cruises on other cruise lines but this was the first and last on HAL and have never experienced such treatment.
We were in cabin ...
I have been on a total of 10 cruises in the past 10 years (8 of which were in Europe), four on Celebrity, two each on Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, one on Princess, and this one. I was under the mistaken belief that HAL would be on a par with Celebrity. Not only was that belief mistaken, but Holland America is far worse than any of the others.
First, the good. Our stateroom accommodations ...
We could find nothing wrong with the Noordam, no worn carpets, poor paint work, stained cushions.
We cruise to visit ports and don't really use mainly of the facilities on board such as the casino - would never enter it; or other facilities. However we found the food to be good and the service excellent. The cabin was clean and not worn in anyway.
Overall a very good holiday. The one improvement ...
We have only cruised 5 or 6 times, but we have experienced a number of cruise lines. We anticipated that Holland America would be at the 'high end' of cruise experiences but that wasn't our experience. I should say that many of the issues stated in other reviews were not issues for us - the air conditioning worked; we had an aft stateroom with balcony and no problems with soot, and only very ...
We are big fans of HAL and were very excited about our first European cruise with the line.
First to get the negative out of the way: The staff was very pleasant but you could tell they were understaffed: long lines at the front desk, long hold times when calling guest services, sometimes not having the cabin cleaned until 4PM. Additionally, the ship was tired and worn- the toilet seat in our ...