Add a review of your last cruise for a chance to win £100 in Amazon Vouchers*

Noordam, Australasia

We sailed on Noordam on a 35 night circumnavigation of Australia, followed by a 16 night cruise around New Zealand. Embarkation was great quick and no problems we were in our inside cabin on deck 7 straight away.
We sailed out of Sydney from White Bay so did not get to have a great view of the Opera House.
Our room steward introduced himself straight away and advised us there would only be a morning clean of the room, no turn down service due to Covid restrictions.
All in all the cruise was good, the ports were amazing. We did miss a couple of ports due to storms but weather will be weather!
Food was great for my husband who has no restrictions, how ever for me with a dairy intolerance it was tough. The first 3 weeks were littered with many issues. Wrong orders, salads with cheese in them, lost orders. several episodes of severe diarrhoea where I was unable to leave the cabin due to lactose contaminated food. After many discussions with guest services, Maitre'd restaurant managers it was all sorted out in the end and my food was good. I had informed Holland America about my food intolerance prior to sailing and on boarding. My second problem was the coffee shop I had 3 instances where I had symptoms after having a soya coffee, so much so I was starting to believe I was developing another intolerance but no! I witnessed the barista putting the soya milk into the same jug the cows milk had been in, problem solved. I spoke to the barista and the manager and explained how wrong this action had been and how they had caused me health issues and was reassured this would not happen again. After three weeks of food problems we were given a set table with a senior waiter and our own Maitre'd. The Chef came down to speak to me to ask what kind of foods and deserts I liked. He even took my recipe for dairy free pancakes and made them for me on numerous occasions.