Noordam in Kona
For the most part the décor on Holland America Noordam is pretty tasteful, especially when compared to that found on some other cruise ships. Ships in Holland America’s Vista class, which includes the Noordam, were all originally done in something of an old world elegance style. While the Westerdam was modernized (to its detriment in my opinion as the modern furniture was quite uncomfortable and the new atrium centerpiece ugly), the Noordam seems to have retained much of its original charm.
Noordam atrium
I haven’t cruised on Zuiderdam, the 4th of Holland America’s directionally named ships, but the other three at least had atrium centerpieces of similar style, yet different from each other. The Westerdam’s crystal sailing ship was the nicest, but was replaced with an ugly gray spiral. Last time we were on the Oosterdam it still had the original crystal globe in the atrium. The Noordam had a less intricate and more colorful centerpiece, supported in a gold framework as were the others.
Noordam stairway art
Noordam’s stairway art was different on each of its three stairways. The front stairway had a sequential series with pictures of different renditions of the Noordam throughout the years, starting with the first Noordam and ending with the current one. There’s probably only so many ship names that end in dam. All of Holland America’s ships end that way (even the cruiseline calls them the dam ships sometimes.) When one ship of a particular name retires a new ship assumes that name so there have been a variety of different ships named Noordam.
stairway art
The middle stairway had encased ship models of old sailing vessels on most decks. Each one looked different in size and style. There were other models of old vessels in other areas of the ship as well. Old ships also appeared in some of the ship’s other artwork.
stairway flower painting
The aft stairway had old style Dutch flower paintings. These are likely to be found somewhere on Holland America’s ships, due to the tie-in with Holland. At least on their ships that we’ve been on anyway. Regardless of where our Holland America cruises start or end they all seem to end up taking place on the same few ships. The Noordam cruise was our first one not on the Westerdam, Oosterdam, or Veendam.
hallway painting
Pictures around the hallways to the staterooms seemed to have a theme around each deck, but not the same theme on all decks. Things like paintings of old-time scenes likely in the Netherlands, or old black-and-white photos from early sailings on ships from Holland America Line.
cruise ships love odd statues
Like all cruise ships the Noordam had lots of statues. Cruise ships love odd and ugly statues. Most of the ones on this ship fit in with the general old-time theme of the majority of the other decor around the ship. Around the elevators there were disembodied heads from various old Dutch royalty. Some painted with colors and some just gold. Other areas had things like faux ornate fish statues, or other things that all appeared old-world style.
whole statue and a close-up of a tiny duck hiding in its yellow ear
There was one multi-colored statue that did not fit in with the decor of the rest of the ship. It was a life-sized lady with random stripes of yellow, red, white, black and blue. This statue was a popular place for people to hide and find ducks. Mostly in its hands, but we did find a tiny one yellow one blending in inside of the statue’s yellow ear.
wall mural in a public hallway
Other artwork around the ship included large murals and carved wooden pictures, generally following the old-world scenes or sailing ships theme. This does not include the section with the art for sale because there’s always some really odd paintings there as well as some nice ones.
small vases of flowers
Flower arrangements around the ship initially looked perfect enough to be fake flowers, but since some of those flowers wilted and got replaced during the journey at least some of the flowers were real. Flower arrangements are also a popular place for hiding ducks. The ship had some really big fancy ones, but I neglected to take photos of anything but a small row of vases.
row of identical statues
Cruise Stories 