Holland America Noordam
Holland America is known for having mid-size ships. They aren’t tiny expedition vessels, nor are they enormous mega-ships like some other cruise lines have. Holland America’s largest ships are the Pinnacle Class consisting of the Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam, and their newest ship, the latest itineration of a ship called Rotterdam. Names of Holland America ships are re-used for new ships as older ones of that name retire. The previous Rotterdam was a much smaller ship. These three ships carry 2650 passengers and are just over 983 feet long and nearly 115 feet wide, which is big for Holland America, but far smaller than the largest cruise ships in the world. The Noordam is smaller at 936 feet long and 105 feet wide with a passenger capacity of 1972 people.
atrium centerpiece
Holland America Noordam is one of their directionally named ships. Sister ships of the Vista class are the Oosterdam, Westerdam, and Zuiderdam. P&O’s Arcadia is also of that same ship design. Noordam began service in 2006 and is the 4th ship to carry the name Noordam. It’s also the 4th of the current line of directionally named ships. As the name sounds, Noordam is North. Westerdam is obviously west, Oosterdam east and Zuiderdam south. The atrium centerpiece appears to be the original. I haven’t previously been on the Noordam, but my last time on the Oosterdam it still had its original crystal globe that though not exactly similar to the Noordam’s centerpiece, the style resembles it enough for it to be original. Unfortunately the Westerdam’s original crystal sailing ship centerpiece (which was the most beautiful centerpiece of the three ships) had been replaced by an ugly gray spiral the last time we were on that ship.
views from the glass elevator
There are 11 passenger decks on the Noordam. 5 of these have at least some public spaces, 3 of which are fully public areas. 5 are filled entirely with cabins, other than the bridge at the front of deck 8. That only adds up to 10 because deck 11 isn’t a full-length deck across the entire ship, just a small section at each end with an observation deck at the front and sports courts at the rear. The center of the ship has glass elevators on either side which have a seaview on the upper decks, but when the elevator gets down to the lower decks it looks out on walls painted with birds, then lower down fish. The carpet on the floor in the elevator is changed daily so it always says what day of the week it is.
Lido Pool
Noordam has two pools, the largest of which is the Lido Pool. This pool has a retractable roof making it usable in cold weather as well as warm.
Billboard Onboard piano bar
The ship was refurbished in 2019 with upgrades to cabins and some entertainment areas, and the addition of the Billboard Onboard piano bar to the music walk area. Just before our cruise they added a new library to the Explorations Cafe, and on our boarding day the onboard internet system was upgraded to starlink.
top deck showing some of the radomes – big white balls for radar and sattellite equipment.
We left the port in San Deigo a couple hours late waiting for the starlink installation to be completed, but it was well worth it for better internet service, assuming people can connect – which was an issue for a lot of people at the beginning of this cruise until they got the new system fully working. It took a couple days before they got the system completely working, but once it was fully up and running it was the fastest internet we’ve ever had offshore. The internet got an upgrade, but there’s no longer any public computers onboard so anyone who didn’t bring their own device is now out of luck for internet use. Phones work for most things, but there are some things that worked on my computer that did not work on John’s iphone.
Library at the Explorer’s Cafe
The Explorer’s Lounge library remodel gave it the fanciest library I’ve seen recently on a cruise ship. Long ago ships all had a whole library room with cabinets of books and games, but lately it’s usually just one or two cabinets full of random old books on most of the ships we’ve sailed on. Noordam now has a series of shelves with new books, each shelf a different section for things like mystery, fiction, and young adults among others. There’s even a book exchange shelf where people who still bring physical books when they travel can trade in books they’ve finished reading for something different. The library seemed quite popular both with the books to check out and the book exchange. We just used it as a place to hide ducks since we use the kindle app on our phones for reading. Unfortunately some passengers were not careful with the ship’s brand-new books, just dumping them haphazardly in random places or throwing them in the hallway outside their cabin door for the crew to find when they finished reading rather than returning them to the book drop as they were supposed to.
ship model Christmas tree ornament
This is the first ship we’ve been on since covid that did not add hand washing sinks at the entry to the buffet. They also did not have anyone there to make sure people used the available hand sanitizer as they entered, another first since covid. They did however have ship model Christmas tree ornaments in the ship’s shop, which is the one thing I always look for there.
aft pool
One really nice thing about a lot of Holland America ships is having the only passenger smoking section under a little covered area outside on a top back deck on one side of the aft pool so the ship sails out of the smoke as it moves forward. There’s no indoor smoking and if you want to avoid it entirely just don’t go out on that back deck. We only ventured out there for a couple scheduled activities we wanted to attend or occasionally for the view off the back.
outside promenade deck
Another nice thing is having an outside promenade deck that goes all the way around the ship, which is a nice place both to get some exercise and to see what is outside. You can see in any direction other than forward from the promenade because it is closed-in as it passes around the bow. The best forward view is from the Crow’s Nest lounge on deck 10, which has floor-to-ceiling windows across the bow. There is an open bow on deck 4, but that is only available to passengers when sailing through particularly scenic places.
ship art on a ship
Holland America’s app started out more functional than some, but still had room for improvement. Apparently they were aware of that because at one point it said it had been updated to add new features and improve function, after which it quit working at all for a bit until they got that settled. When it worked for food it has daily menus, but does not say what time the venue is open so you have to go to the paper copy for that info. It also only gave menus for the current day so no option to look ahead and see where the worst menu is if you want to book a specialty restaurant sometime. It’s even less informative about the bars. Basically it just lets you know they exist. Some might say what deck they’re on, but not the specific location and others not even that. No menu of what sort of drinks are available either even though some specialty drinks are only served at one specific bar. This is the first ship we’ve been on in awhile that leaves a paper copy of the daily events in the room without having to ask for it, though it is significantly smaller than they used to be. The app does make an alert sound when you get a chat message, which is quite useful. Seems like an obvious thing to have, but when we were on Quantum of the Seas only the one person of our group with an apple watch got an alert, not any of the rest of us using phones.
games at the Crow’s Nest
There are no self-serve guest laundries on the Noordam, but they did offer a laundry special of unlimited laundry service for a bit over $200 for the 34-day cruise. For cruise ship laundry service that’s a bargain price, but still nowhere near as cheap as washing it yourself in the cabin. Other than inside rooms that just have a shower, all the other cabins on the Noordam have bathtubs so there is a bit more hanging space to dry laundry than on most cruise ships. That helps since the amount of laundry that can be washed at one time is limited by the amount of space you have to hang it to dry. I do bring extra laundry lines. Luckily there was structure on both ends of the tub to tie them to since the walls above the bathtub were not magnetic enough to hold a hook with wet clothes on the line. On some ships the shower is more magnetic than the cabin walls, but this one was the opposite.
promenade deck porthole
If you haven’t got a cabin with a window or balcony near the front of the ship, the large oval portholes on the promenade deck near the bow are a good place to watch for flying fish. I did one day see one from a window at the Lido buffet, which is at the back of the ship so it is possible to see them even if you aren’t at the front. On long ocean voyages flying fish are the most likely wildlife to see other than when near ports where birds are common and marine mammals might be spotted. We saw dolphins in Hawaii right near the ship, whales nearby in French Polynesia, and turtles and pelicans in Brisbane.
the Diamonds
Entertainment wasn’t the best on this voyage. There were no production shows. They did not even seem to have a cast onboard. Many of their guest entertainers were not all that entertaining, though they did have a few that excelled like the xylosynth guy. Some of the comedians were OK, others not at all. The first one practically assaulted someone who tried to leave the show early, leaving the stage and running up the aisle to grab the guy as he walked out the door. Some of the singers like a girl group from Australia called the Diamonds were good enough to listen to the whole show and even go back for the second one, but others were not even worth staying for one full show. We always picked easy out seats at the back of the balcony where we could slip out virtually unnoticed if the show wasn’t any good.
heated ceramic chairs in the spa’s thermal suite
Scheduled daily activities were also somewhat lacking in things we had interest in, and often if there was more than one thing we’d like they were all scheduled at the same time with nothing else of interest the rest of the day. Not everyone felt that way though as the things that were offered had more appeal to them. Luckily we are good at entertaining ourselves. We did splurge and book the thermal suite at the spa, which gives access for the entire cruise to the facilities there. This class of ship has a nice hydropool and heated ceramic chairs. The thermal suite also includes steam rooms. Not that many people booked it so it was never crowded and sometimes nobody else would be there at all.
pork dinner (not exactly per the description because substitutions are allowed)
The food was generally good, though gluten free dessert options were somewhat lacking. I tend to avoid most seafood, but John said the fish was better prepared and cooked to the correct doneness on this ship than most. That can change over time with a different chef and kitchen crew though. Dining room dress codes have gotten more casual over the years. Shorts, beach flip-flops, and jeans full of holes still aren’t allowed at dinner time though.
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