The Ms Noordam Raises The Bar For The Cruising Experience With Luxuries Beyond Compare.
By Tom Crosby

Over the past seven years, Holland American Cruise lines has spent $1.6 billion building four state-of-the art Vista-class cruise ships, all basically similar but each evolving slightly to improve the passengers’ experience.

With the ms Noordam, the last of the four to be built and launched less than a year ago, premier cruise line Holland American (HAL) has its first ship originally built with every “Signature of Excellence” amenity.

The fleet now includes 13 ships, ranging from the 739-passenger ms Prinsendam to the 1,918-passenger ms Noordam. Vista ships are named for the four points of compass and the Noordam is the fourth HAL ship to have the name.

Taking a 10-day Mediterranean cruise recently with all of the Noordam cabins sold, it still felt like traveling with friends on an enormous private yacht - no lines, no crowding, no complaining.

One reason might be the data base of experience HAL gained carrying more than 10 million passengers over the past 132 years.

That experience helped spark a $225 million Signature of Excellence program in 2003 to upgrade all ships with major service enhancements such as culinary arts centers, Euro-top mattresses, internet cafes, flat screen TVs, verandah suite concierge service, spas and salons and a reservations-only dining room.

Having sailed on more than two dozen cruises, the Noordam showed me how cruise ships - and their operation - have evolved.

Some features are available on other ships but here is a sampling of what impressed me about the Noordam:

• Glass elevators midship offering sweeping views of shorelines and ports while traveling up and down from deck to deck. Everyone gawks, no one talks.
• The elimination of lines and confusion departing ports for shore excursions. Delivered outside the cabin door beforehand were colored stickers and your scheduled arrival time in the Vista lounge. Once there, everyone left on schedule with less than 10 minutes delay to their tour buses.
• Our shore options were excellent. Fellow passenger Lyyn Merignac, 51, from Weddington, NC, a veteran of 15 cruises, praised HAL’s itinerary. “There is such versatility in the places you can cruise to today,” she said. “I love only having to unpack once, and yet see different cities every day and meet different people. You can do whatever you want to.”
• Security was air-tight, yet unobtrusive. Using your room’s key card and a scanner, security personnel quickly see a photograph of you on their computer screen, allowing departure and boarding lines to move briskly. It also gave the ship’s captain an immediate count of who was on board - and who wasn’t.
• The same card is used when ordering drinks and other for-fee items. No one can steal your card and use it, unless they look like you.
• An updated culinary arts center with cooking demonstrations feeding the whetted appetites of those addicted to televised cooking shows. And the samples were delicious.
• The Greenhouse Spa and Salon is state-of-the-art with a hydrotherapy pool, thermal steam and aromatic room, plus various massage and body treatments. Slightly pricey but worth the rub.
• The Oak room for smoker’s opens onto the Observation Deck (Deck 10) so the smoke - and smell - dissipates quickly. The views are magnificent and the cigar selection excellent.
• Cabins, whether inside or one of the 85% with ocean views (67% have verandahs), include flat screen televisions, Euro-top mattresses, and cabin boys at nightly turn-down that leave towels shaped like animals, along with fresh fruit and flowers as needed.
• The new three-story atrium, like most ships, is eye-catching with circular frosted steps. The dining room has huge, pastel colored glass flowers hanging from the second-deck ceiling. The ship sports polished brass trim amidst swirling blue-green designs and touches of orange to create a warm ambiance.  Antiquities such as urns, ship models, and statues are tucked into hallway niches.
• Departing the Vista Lounge balcony after a show, passengers pass through the casino, nightclubs and bars purposefully clustered together to centralize nightly activities. It gave late night party types a rendezvous spot.
• The Pinnacle Grill is a reservations-only, private dining room with superior food and service that charges $20 extra for what was to me a memorable meal with a choice of steaks fit for a Five-Diamond New York restaurant. Diners are served on Bulgari china atop Frette linens and drink from Riedel stemware.
• There are four dinner seating times for the Vista dining room and you choose one before embarking and how many people you want to dine with. There is mystery in who your tablemates will be if you choose a table for eight.
• When at sea, high tea is served as violins play and a buffet table of petit fours successfully beckons.
• The Lido Restaurant now has a layout designed to serve different foods from different areas. It disperses breakfast and lunch patrons to their meal choices, instead of everyone going down one line and picking and choosing their items.  Room service is available 24/7; no one goes hungry.
• Explorations Cafe combines a cyber-coffee shop (serving the same Torrefazionne Italia coffee Starbucks buys), with more than a dozen internet screens, huge New York Times crossword puzzles and a library of books, CD’s and DVD’s. Small meeting rooms adjoin the cafe.
• The gym, two swimming pools AND the ship-around promenade deck offer exercise choices, plus on any given day there are several work out options, including tennis, basketball, golf, etc. Who has the time to do it all?
• The mailbox outside the cabin always contains good information about ports, activities, etc., including a brief New York Times news summary.
• The problem of how much to tip whom is solved with a $10 a day surcharge (you can ask for it to be removed) to cover cabin and dining tips. Drinks include a 15% service surcharge.
• In the two newest Vista ships, there laundry room is no more. While it may inconvenience guests (a laundry bag costs $19 for washing, no pressing), it allowed HAL to add cabins and eliminate a safety hazard.

Holland America has rewards for repeat guests, which often make up more than 50% of the passengers and are predominately members of the pre-boomer and boomer generations. Noordam Captain Hans Mateboer praised a gathering of more than 600 repeat passengers, members of the Mariner Society, by noting, “You can’t choose your family but you can choose your friends. Thank you for choosing Holland America.”

Echoed David R. Smith, 57, of Charlotte, a AAA member for 6 years, who was sailing on his first HAL cruise and is poised to become a Mariner, “This itinerary was great, the best. The accommodations are very nice and the service excellent.”