Noordam Review

3.5 / 5.0
829 reviews

Rather boring sea days and not very well organised.

Review for Australia & New Zealand Cruise on Noordam
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Patricia Robinson
10+ Cruises • Age 70s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Feb 2019
Cabin: Standard Interior Stateroom

We chose this cruise because we had not been to Australia or New Zealand and the itinerary was very attractive. Check in was somewhat chaotic. The ship was comfortable and our cabin was larger than usual. The entertainment was sometimes very good and at others poor. We enjoyed the shore days, the ports were all very interesting. Trips organised by the ship were very over priced and we made our own arrangements on arrival. Our main concern was that there was little or nothing to do during the sea days apart from bingo and trivia quizzes. There was no dancing, lectures, enrichment programmes, classes, craft - nothing at all. We therefore spent several of the days of our cruise sitting and reading, which is OK for a day but not for several. The food was varied and looked lovely, but was rather lacking in flavour and invariably drowned in sauce (sometimes more than one sauce on the same plate). The crew were excellent and the service, in the main, very good (there were one or two exceptions). The tendency to play loud 'background' music in public rooms even when there is no-one there was irritating, especially if people were trying to read. The charging of 15% gratuity on top of the cost of drinks as well as charging over £11 pp per day for tips is excessive. There were no laundry and ironing facilities and the only option to crumpled clothing was to pay rather a lot of money to have things ironed. I would not recommend HAL and would be unlikely to book with them again myself.

Cabin Review

Standard Interior Stateroom

Cabin N

Cabin was much larger than usual and although we had an inside cabin this one did have a window onto the top deck which was very pleasant. Disappointed that there was no tea/coffee making facilities and, although there was plenty of room there were no easy chairs to relax in. The bed was very comfortable, there was plenty of hot water and towels were changed regularly. Deck 10 is very quiet.

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