Dining Room

Dining Room

The dining room on the Noordam was usually good for breakfast or dinner, but lunch not so much. Between very slow service at lunchtime, quite limited menus, and food that wasn’t that good the Lido buffet was often the better choice. The first time we tried lunch in the dining room the menu said pork chop, rice and veggies. It said nothing about breading. The pork chop showed up with breading so thick around a very thin bit of meat that the breading accounted for most of the thickness of the entire pork chop even though neither the item title nor the description on the menu had mentioned any breading at all. John ordered grilled cheese with gluten free bread and each slice of bread was the thickness of two slices. It was just warm bread rather than toasted and the mountain of cheese inside was not melted at all. He also asked for French fries with ketchup instead of potato salad and initially they brought potato salad with no fries or ketchup, though they did bring those later. The dessert was good though. We had lunch there one other day and it was better.

gluten free pork dinner

We’ve not had much luck lately with ordering specifically gluten free food on ships and started out on as you wish dining where you can come any time while the dining room is open rather than at a specific set time on this cruise where it’s even harder so we just tried to order carefully this time. We’re not celiacs – I just have limited tolerance issues and John avoids it because of its inflammatory nature so a little bit won’t hurt us. That worked fine until one night when nothing on the menu without a lot of gluten in it appealed to me so I asked if they could make that night’s pasta gluten free. They did, but then brought the menu ever after to pre-order the night before for the next day’s dinner. It did actually open up additional options for the dinner courses since any breaded or pasta dish would be special made gluten free, but they didn’t make any of the menu desserts in a gluten free version.

flourless chocolate cake

They had standard options for gluten free of flourless chocolate cake, crème brulee, or the sorbet flavor of the night. They could do a gluten free fruit crumble too, but pre-ordering meant not knowing what kind of fruit it would have. Ice cream would also be an option for anyone who didn’t also have lactose issues, but dairy upsets my stomach more than gluten does unless it’s a lactose free version which ships rarely have. So in the end pre-ordering gluten free meant better dinner choices, but a lot of repetition in the dessert. After the first couple weeks or so people who tended to show up at the same time and sit in the same area every night were assigned times and tables rather than keeping everyone on the as you wish dining so we ended up with a table for six by the back window. Another couple we had made friends with also was assigned to that table. The last two seats sometimes had people in them and sometimes not.

Canadian Thanksgiving

We happened to be onboard during Canadian Thanksgiving, which is mid-October instead of late November like American Thanksgiving. One of the dinner options was turkey, with a meal pretty much the same as what would be served for American Thanksgiving.

afternoon tea

They had afternoon tea every day in the dining room at 3:00. Each table gets one or more little stands of sweets, scones, and tiny sandwiches and of course everyone has a cup of tea. Some days they would have a theme such as Indonesian tea rather than just regular afternoon tea. We did not ask for anything gluten free there.

Mariner Lunch Dessert

Mariner Lunch

Holland America has a special lunch in the dining room one day during each cruise that all return cruisers receive an invitation to called the Mariner Lunch. If there are too many people onboard qualified to attend they will have it on more than one day with some people invited to each session. The same menu is repeated in that instance since the people are different. There’s a limited menu with food that is upscaled from the usual dining room lunch fare. Some ships have better options than others. This one wasn’t my favorite with just beef, seafood, or a breaded vegetarian option for the main and the dessert was some sort of deconstructed something. The captain always gives a brief speech. The cruise director also did on the Noordam. At previous mariner lunches we’ve attended there was a tile picturing the ship at each place setting, but there weren’t any on the Noordam. Just the food. There’s not a dress code specified, but people usually dress nicely to attend. We did get tiles later in our seamail box, but rather than the usual one of the ship these were a 150 years commemorative tile. Maybe they changed that so that all of the repeat passengers get a tile and not just the ones who attend the Mariner lunch.

chicken dinner at the officer’s table

Officer’s Table

One night at dinner one of the dining room staff stopped by our table to say that we along with the other couple that regularly sits at our table had been invited to sit at the officer’s table a couple days from then. We don’t know why they pick who they pick to sit there, and prior to that didn’t even know that they had a table assigned for that purpose on a regular basis. One of the other officers we talk to sometimes mentioned having a dinner like that to go to one night, but we really hadn’t thought anything of it until we were invited. It’s a big round table and has a different officer with different guests each night.

dessert at the officer’s table

Besides the four from our regular table there was another couple there. The officer was a young engineer named Thomas. He said they sign up for that, it’s not something they are forced to do so the officer involved is someone who wants to be there. He was quite interesting and informative. He was from Amsterdam and said since the ship is flagged in the Netherlands and he is from there he has some perks to his contract like the pay for a year being spread out monthly rather than just while at sea for a steady income.

vegetarian starter

Like the bridge crew he works 3 months on and 3 months off, usually returning to the same ship each time. When changing ships they have a 2-week orientation period to the new ship that is not required when returning to the same ship as each ship is a bit different even when of the same ship class – more so the older a ship gets. The menu for the evening at that table is the same as for everyone else in the dining room and the participants are expected to dress nicely for the evening. The officers have a drink allowance that is apparently more than they would ever spend on themselves so they buy drinks for anyone at the table who wants wine or some other specialty drink with their dinner.

duck starter

We were also allowed to invite officers to our table and did a few times with various people we had met on the ship. That gives them a chance to eat in the dining room that they might not otherwise have and they always have interesting tales to share.

pastries at the breakfast buffet

Buffet

The buffet didn’t have a gluten free section, but the pizza station had gluten free items for the asking. In the morning it’s the waffle and crepe station and they could make gluten free crepes or toast and had gluten free muffins available as well. Later they could make gluten free pizza and had some sort of gluten free dessert out where people could take it. Usually just jello or a flan thing or sometimes the same flourless chocolate cake the dining room served. You could ask for gluten free cookies. They had some really good chocolate chip ones that were also dairy free, but quickly ran out and then they just had butter cookies.

Phad Thai and veggies at the lunch buffet

Besides a variety of beef hamburgers, the Dive-In poolside grill offered beyond beef patties, a veggie burger, and a chicken burger among their options as well as one with a lettuce wrap instead of a bun. They also had gluten free buns available for the asking.

nachos from the taco bar

Next to the grill in the pool area there was a taco bar that had a variety of different fillings and toppings. It had chips as well as tortillas and taco shells so people could make nachos, burritos, or fajitas there as well as tacos. It was a good place to get lunch and never had a line.

tables at the Lido Buffet

Canaletto

Canaletto is an Italian themed specialty restaurant at dinner time in a section of the Lido. The surcharge there is less than at the Pinnacle, but there still is an extra charge to eat there, which we did not do.

Pinnacle Grill

Pinnacle Grill

Holland America’s upscale restaurant, the Pinnacle Grill is often popular on short cruises, but on a cruise where people are booked for 34-48 days or longer it’s pretty hard to keep a pay-extra eatery full every day. Dinner saw a few more people, but even then walking past  often meant seeing numerous unoccupied tables, though more people than at lunch time. When we originally asked about reservations at first they said they weren’t sure if they could get us in because the computer system was down, but once we said it was for lunch rather than dinner they said no problem. They weren’t kidding since on the two days we had lunch there only 2-3 other tables had guests.

chicken lunch at the Pinnacle Grill

At less than half the cost lunch is a bargain compared to dinner. It’s not the same menu. The do have gluten free bread and buns available on request and they did sub a gluten free bun for John’s burger. Food there is a bit more upscale than the free venues offer. There are more options for mains than in the dining room at lunch, but not a very extensive menu for sides and starters and far fewer choices than at the Lido buffet. The dinner menu has more options.

coconut trifle dessert

The first time I had a salad for the starter that would have been better without the funky-tasting cheese. The prawns on my second visit were better. It was supposed to be bruchetta, but I ordered just the prawns without the bread. The chicken on my first visit was a bit on the tough side, but tasted good. On the second visit I had a chicken salad for the main. Both times I had the coconut trifle for dessert. It was tasty and not anything you could get in any other places onboard. Trifle as I remember my mom making when I was a kid had cake in it, but the Pinnacle version did not. It was more of just a layered pudding, in the American sense of the word pudding. You can’t go wrong with coconut and chocolate though, two of my favorite things.

Pinnacle Bar

Bars

There were some specialty drinks available at only one bar, but most things were offered at all of them. The coffee bar at Explorations Lounge and the one in the Crows Nest made specialty coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, which could be spiked if desired. They could also make other bar drinks at the Crow’s Nest, which was both a coffee bar and a regular bar. The Atrium Bar down on deck 1 by guest services and shore excursions looked to not be used any longer as it was void of anything to serve and never had anyone there, but all of the other bars on the ship had hours that they were open. Cruise ships always have lots of bars. Noordam had the Sea View bar, Ocean bar, Lido bar, Pinnacle bar, and bars at the Rolling Stone lounge and Billboard Onboard entertainment area.

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