Virtually Live from the Maasdam

[CDRMark]

He said:
Greetings and Salutations!
Just a quick post to say hello from Maasdam. 28 CCer's met at 11:00 and exchanged pleasantries. Great group!! We took a group photo which we will post later. We had a (very!!) active roll call and knew one another well before meeting.
Fast first impressions:
First nite dinner at Pinnacle was outstanding, both food and service. One of the best steaks (Porterhouse, med rare) I have had. In its current configuration Pinnacle seats 64 (not opinion, I counted).
Room service breakfast this a.m. arrived exactly on time, as ordered and hot.
Don Whittaker (dewhit6959) says hello, and that he is a happy camper in his cabin. No a/c glitches so far. His battery operated blender is getting a workout.
Embark was smooth and fast. We actually departed about 10 minutes before the appointed hour. Weather is a little cloudy but sunny earlier and overall very pleasant.
HMC tomorrow. We are very much looking foward to it.
More later, and hopefully, pics.
Cheers
MarkB

She said:
(DW here - I have not posted before but have read most everything about Maasdam). The ship is even better than I expected. Staff is super. Our CC'ers group is also great - red fezzes and all (passersby were staring!).
Re: Pinnacle - Ditto Mark's praise. My Dungeness crab cakes were awesome.
Tonight is first formal night - can't wait.....
Carolyn

[Krazy Kruizers]

CDRMark

Thanks for taking the time to post. Glad to hear that you liked the Pinnacle and the Maasdam so far.

If you have time, keep us all posted and enjoy your cruise.

[Krazy Kruizers]

When you see dewhit6959, tell him we are all glad that his battery operated blender is working well.

;) ;)

[sail7seas]

Mark:

Thanks for posting during your cruise. I always appreciate cc'ers who are so thoughtful to share with us 'landlubbers'.


Carolyn:
How great you made this your first post to us! Thank you.

Glad to hear you are both enjoying so much.

Take good care of "MY" :) Maasdam. I love that 'dam' ship!!

Wishing you blue skies and calm seas....Have a great time.

[boards]

May I ask what you need a "battery operated blender" for?

[CaptData]

Thanks for the hello from Maasdam. Carolyn, I second s7s in her thanks for your first port. Do enjoy your cruise. Thank you and have fun.

[HeatherInFlorida]

Marc and Carolyn, thanks so much for including us in your journey! So good to hear all is going well. The Maasdam is my favorite HAL ship.

If they have the "cooking school" one day at sea, do go. They did that on the Oosterdam and the gave us the recipe for the crab cakes, made them, and gave us all a teeny tiny one on a huuuuuuge plate. It was quite fun.

Enjoy your experience! Tell all when you return.

[Ziggy7]

May I ask what you need a "battery operated blender" for?
NO! hehehehe just kidding :)

Mark,
Thanks so much for sharing your cruise with us! So nice of you! Tell all cc'ers we miss them and that the board is totally out of control with out them hehehehe.

Carolyn,
Welcome to the boards and thanks sharing a womens view with us :) Have a wonderful cruise!

[travelingduo]

Thanks for taking time to update us. We will be sailing on the 12/11 departure in an S suite and have been very concerned over what we have been hearing. Any word on the a/c? Are the "odors" in the hallways still there? We love the ship and have sailed on it several times. Every dinner at the Pinnacle has been great in the past on both the Maasdam and the Amsterdam. Hope it stays the same. Have a great cruise!

[slineberry528]

Greeting from sea,
This is Gary and Susan and having a wonderful time. We have a wonderful mini suite and are right next to Bajafred from CA. Everyone says Hi, wish all of you were with us. Don and Mark and their wives are so much fun and they have both hosted some get togethers in their suites.
More later from the Maasdam
Susan

[ivygems]

The ship is gorgeous, and I love the antiques and fresh flowers! The folks that posted here beginning with Susan's first Email are as interesting and funny as they seemed on the board. We are having a blast - wish everyone reading this that is not with us could be here. Note on the battery operated blender, there are no outlets on the balconies - it will come in quite handy!! The stateroom we are in is the biggest I have been in of any cruise line - it is a category D room, oceanview on the main deck. There is a sitting area in the front with love seat, and lots of closet, drawers, and liitle nook cabinet space. Hi CDR Mark and Carolyn and Susan! See you at the Crow's Nest!

[Orcrone]

I've been checking in on the Nov. 20 roll call. It's been pretty quite the last 24 hours. Couldn't figure out why.:D

Susan, I received a picture of a couple on a verandah yesterday. Is that you and Gary?

I drove friends of our to the pier yesterday. They almost missed the boat. Didn't get there until after 4. I was watching, green with envy, as everyone was assembling for the lifeboat drill.

[HeatherInFlorida]

This is not fair ... we are all jealous!!!!:( Boo hoo hoo ... I want to be in the Crow's Nest.:D

[the2ofus]

Boards - if you were serious with your blender question - do a 'Blender"search on this board. It's a long,long thread but you'll get a lot of laughs out of it.

[RuthC]

Thanks for checking in from your cruise. I want to hear all about it.
I'll be sailing for the first time on the Maasdam next summer and am taking in all the information anyone cares to post.

Have a great time, and keep in touch!

[slineberry528]

Dear Susan and Gary,

This is from your Mother and Lovely Sister Cindy in Norfolk, Va. While you are on your ship and having a splendid time please consider the less fortunate ones waiting for your safe return and feeling ill as we read every posting on what a wonderful time the whole gang is having.



Eat something for us would you?


Ann (Mom) and Sister Cindy In Norfolk, VA.

[CDRMark]

Yesterday was Half Moon Cay. Every bit as beautiful as it has been described. Weather was very good, sea calm for tendering. Tender trip is a mere 5 minutes. We arrived over an hour early (9:30 am vice 11:00) as we had to disembark a passenger who suffered a heart attack the previous night and we sped up to meet the medical helicopter as early as possible. No word since on the persons condition.
A/C seems to be working everywhere; have heard no complaints. The captain is VERY aware of passengers concerns in this area and specifically mentioned it in his address to the passengers prior to first formal night (between pix and dinner). Photographers are (relatively) unobtrusive and have never (yet) even asked if we cared to purchase any.
Someone asked about odors: have noticed only good ones! No garbage/sewage odors anywhere.
Maasdam is truly elegant. Crew is attentive and ship is spotless. Food is excellent and our tablemates are wonderful. Small glitch: we had asked (and received confirmation) of a table for 6 - we are at a table for 8 and couldn't be happier! So, positive glitch.
One major problem re: excursion at HMC. We had reserved a cabana (Green) and received two seperate written confirmations, backed up by a verbal when I enquired upon embarking.. Visit from Neptune concierge Sunday afternoon to let us know that it was given to someone else. It appears that not all hurricane damage has been repaired but missing cabanas were sold anyway. Since the number of cabanas was fewer than the number sold, they gave them to the earliest reservations. We are still fighting for some sort of acknowledgement of the problem from someone in the chain of command higher than the concierge. We were comped a clamshell, floats and snorkel gear, but are still working the problem quietly and respectfully. One should not sell something which one does not have.
Dress in the main dining room on first formal night was entirely in accordance with the code, with about 25% tux 75% suit (in my viewing). What a handsome group.
Weather today is lovely. Seas 2-4 feet wind about 15 knots. You know you are at sea but in an enjoyable way.
Have not been posting as much as I intended. I am sorry to say I am having too much fun.
BBL -any questions?
Cheers!
MarkB
ps edit. Non-disclaimer statement: neither my wife nor I are in the travel business in any way shape or form. This is our first ever cruise in celebration of her big 50 birthday. I spent 20+ years in the Navy, active and Reserve, including 10 years at sea. Ciao

[tomc]

This is our first ever cruise. I spent 20+ years in the Navy, including 10 years at sea. So you did cruise, and on your Uncle's yacht.

[sail7seas]

Mark.....


What wonderful posts!! I have so enjoyed the reading.

Hope you continue to enjoy yourselves and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you DW.
What a wonderful place to celebrate!

[Orcrone]

Mark,

Sounds like everything is going great. Did the captain address the entire ship regarding the A/C problems, or was it just the suite passengers at the suite reception?

If I'm not mistaken you were at HMC by yourselves. Is that true? We had to share it with the Oosterdam. I would imagine 60% less passengers would have improved the island for us.

BTW, wish your wife our best on her 29th birthday.;)

[HeatherInFlorida]

There is nothing sweeter than HMC on your own from the Maasdam. Our first trip to this paradise was on the Maasdam on our own and it was bliss.

It's good you're having too much fun to post too much! Keep experiencing the joy and forget about poor us here on land:D .

[Charlie2na]

AAHHH....... Sounds like things are getting back to normal ! I'm knocking on wood,and hoping the rest of the cruise goes well for you . HAPPY REVIEWS puts my mind at ease.......Enjoy !! 47 days till our turn on Maasdam.

[slineberry528]

Greetings from sea,
Nice sea today. Grace and Don, Mark and Carolyn are wondeerful in having us up in the their suites. They are such fun to be with. Donna and I have done many things together. Laid out in the sun, went to bingo, trivia, high sea, and played dominos. The food has been great. Looking forward to St. Thomas.
Susan

[slineberry528]

Orcrone,
yes it was a picture us.

[Orcrone]

Orcrone,
yes it was a picture us.Thanks, mystery solved.

We received the picture with no words. I called my wife upstairs and asked if she knew who these people were, assuming they were friends of hers, but she also drew a blank. Then I noticed what looked like a verandah door behind you.

[Ziggy7]

Mark,

I have so enjoyed the reading your posts. Thanks for sharing with us, have a good time and Happy BDay you the Mrs.:)

[Ziggy7]

Greetings from sea,
Nice sea today. Grace and Don, Mark and Carolyn are wondeerful in having us up in the their suites. They are such fun to be with. Donna and I have done many things together. Laid out in the sun, went to bingo, trivia, high sea, and played dominos. The food has been great. Looking forward to St. Thomas.
Susan

Susan,
Sounds like your having a great time! Its nice to make new friends and Pal around too! Thanks for letting us know how things are going :)

[CDRMark]

"Comfort Food - Master Chef's Favorite Meatloaf
soul-soothing loaf of tender ground veal and beef, gently kneaded with
copious onions, herbs and special seasonings and baked until deliciously juicy.
Sliced to order and slathered with a fresh mushroom sauce, served with
home-style mashed potatoes and crisp selected vegetables." (italics added)

After main course, (Venison; pretty good, but not rare enough. No choice as to 'doneness' was offered) conversation turned to the dreaded meatloaf subject. It does not appear many portions were served, so, unable to get a review, I ordered a plate and offered it around the table (consuming about half myself). Opinions varied, as opinions will, but the general trend was "Not bad. Not great, but not bad." Definitely not as bad as the boards reviews indicated, but the recipe seems different than previously described. Note mushroom sauce vice red wine sauce. There was definite texture to the slice; not pate-like (where is my accent grave!).
Other topics: Last night was an informal night, changed from a formal night, we are told, "so we can have Thanksgiving dinner as a formal night". Thursday is a port day (Antigua) so go figure. Not a few ladies who had made salon/spa reservations in prep for formal night were miffed.
Glad you are enjoying these posts. Let's see....
Orcrone: Captain's address re; A/C problems was to the whole dinner seating at his reception prior to first formal night, not just to suite guests. He also spent considerable time on how we can help him keep the sewage system in tip top shape. eewwwww.
Yes we were the only ship at HMC.. Very sweet. Population seemed to cluster nearest the tender pier end of the beach and crowds diminished as one went further down the beach.. Lovely day.
Tomc: yes I suppose I have "cruised" before: "Uncle Sam's Big Grey Boats".
Not enough time to "compare and contrast".
Saint Thomas today. Despite the fact that there are several (2 or 3) other ships in, we are scheduled at Havensite dock. Customs/Immigration here 10:00ish.
Be well groupers. (Not intended as a fish comment).
MarkB
oh yes: Brian, I do now know where MY bartender is.
Cheers
edit after reading main Board thread topics.: YES Stingrays and Horseback riding were available at HMC. I did not partake, but will enquire and ask for comments.

[gizmo]

Thanks Mark, I am enjoying your post. Lucky you, with only one ship in HMC.:)

Special thanks for the Meatloaf update. :D

[Orcrone]

Thanks Mark,

Having meatloaf so we can know how it is. Not that is above and beyond the call of duty. Interesting switch of formal and informal. On our cruise we had three formal (first three sea days) and the only informal night was Puerto Rico, as we were only there until 1. The other four port days were until 6, 8, 10 and 7. I'm guessing you'll wind up with three formal (first and third sea days, as well as Antigua) and two informal (second sea day, Puerto Rico).

This is the first of your four port days. Hope the weather cooperates and everyone has a great time.

[Burnsey]

Thanks so much for your messages from the ship. Love reading them and can't wait till we are on the Rotterdam in Feb. How far in advance did you book the Green cabana? That is the one we have booked for Feb. and I think we booked it August 4th 2004 for our Feb.2005 cruise. Hope we can get it!! Keep our group updated on the fun you are having... Wish we were there!!! Burnsey

[Krazy Kruizers]

I can't believe that people still remember the blender thread - after all these months.

[Krazy Kruizers]

boards

I tried to do a search for the blender under my name since I started the thread, but I see that only 500 of my recent posts are kept. And each time I post, another old one goes off.

[Orcrone]

Here's the Blender thread (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=58003).

[slineberry528]

We have just finished a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. We had turkey and apple pie with ice cream. I spent the day at the Pineapple resort with Mark and Carolyn and had a very nice day. Nice beach, good food and drinks. Tomorrow heading for St. Martin. There isn't anything so far that I have any problems with. Everything is great.
Yes, that was us. We got upgraded to a balcony mini suite and just love it.
Susan
it was a wonderful way to spend Thanksgivng and may make this a new tradition.

[slineberry528]

Great day in St. Martin, went snorkeling to shipwreck reft. Stayed on the dutch side and went over to the Divi Resort. Very nice there. Soon our cruise will be over.
Susan

[CDRMark]

Overheard another passenger (who is a HAL Mariner with over 50 cruises) say one I had not heard before: "Yep; you go on as passengers and come off as cargo". Dining room food is really quite wonderful. OK I guess I will try the satay. Thank you.

St Maarten yesterday. DW birthday. We did the America's Cup yacht race. Excellent. No negatives (our boat won). Antigua the day before. Spent the whole day at a resort beach which offers a day pass. At dinner birthday cake was offered (one candle, thank you very much) and the table staff sang "Happy Birthday". Very sweet. Carolyn was touched.

Interesting seeing other cruise ships close up in port. Four ships in St Maarten, including Westerdam making her first Caribbean port call. Westerdam is huge. No other word fits. Is jigundo a word?

San Juan today for a very brief stop. (Leave at 1:00), then the high speed run home. No promises, but will use this sea time to edit some of the 16 zillion pics and recap our thoughts.
Informal tonight (also Dessert extravaganza {"maybe just a slice thank you"}), final formal night (Lobster? Sure, don't mind if I do. Two? well I'm not sure. OK, just this one time) tomorrow.

Be well crewmates.
MarkB

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for keeping us posting about your cruise.

Glad your wife enjoyed celebrating her birthday on a cruise.

[ReneeC3]

Mark I have been hearing horror reports about the sailing you are on,ie severe sewerage problems in the Suites and balconies and that the food is inedible in in the dining room. THis seems to be the opposite of what you have written in your reports.. Do you hear lots of passenger complaints .. THanks

[Charlie2na]

CDRMARK, have you been offered the "express disembarkation" on your cruise . I hope they keep it . I'm gonna need it!

[slineberry528]

Food has been very good. Ordered room service several mornings. That was good also. the entire cruise has been great. Need to pack today to get suitcases out this evening. That is never nice.
No problems with our casib. We have 167 mini suite. It is wonderful having it. We have been on the port side when we have pulled out and it has been great being on our balcony for that.
I will post again when we get home for final thoughts. I don't know what I will do now that the cruise is over and I won't be posting to our message roll call.

[CDRMark]

Approx 300 miles from Norfolk; Hatteras Abyssal. Whitecaps in the Lido pool. Lido breakfast buffet much less crowded. Have heard very few complaints, and I have been actively inquiring of random passengers. Will detail them in a full review. Flooding in the Nav deck hallway starboard yesterday (not in any cabins). Probably from a hot tub above. Wet-dry vac brigade had it squared away quickly.
Last night was formal lobster night. (How they got tuxes on the lobsters I'll never know). Some lobsters were oversteamed, but still good. Several people at our table asked for and received a second helping of two tails. Second serving of lobsters were much better cooked. The food in both the main dining room and Lido has been uniformly excellent.
We are really sorry to see this great experience end. We have been offered express disembarkation, but are opting to remain onboard for a while, as we do not have a plane to catch.
Give us a chance to get settled and will try for a more coherent and detailed review.
Cheers
MarkB

[eyeleen]

Thanks for all your updates. They were very informative. We are leaving tommorrow on our cruise on the Maasdam from Norfolk so I sure hope you get in on time!

[Ziggy7]

Wow thanks everyone for your reports! It was like we were all there with you! Glad you made new friends and had a nice time! After reading some of the other Maasdam reviews on here today, sounded like the ship was falling apart and in ruins eeeeks! Welcome home and looking forward to you off the ship review :)

[slineberry528]

We should pick up the harbor pilot about 4am at Cape Henry shores and dock about 7am. Everythings looks good for being on time. It is a little rocky tonight. But it has been smooth the rest of the time.
Wish I were going again.
Susan

[slineberry528]

We are home. Checking out was great. We were off the ship by 9am and picked up our car at my mother's house about 9:30 and on the road. Home in about 4 hours.
Look for more postings later. Have to un pack and wash clothes. UGH!
But, it was worth it.
Susan

[CDRMark]

Lovely to go, great to be gone, good to be back.
Outstanding experience. Spoke with many of our CC group just prior to debark: expect multiple reviews from many varied viewpoints.
Cheers all..being chastised by cats.
MarkB

[RuthC]

Welcome home, all.

Thank you for the posts while you were supposed to be on vacation. We'll all be looking forward to any additional thoughts.

[slineberry528]

I will go ahead and post my review. I will try not to be too long winded. Embarking was very smooth. About 25 minutes from time we arrived to being on lido deck. Cabins were not ready yet. We arrived about 12:30. Our cabin was 167. A mini suite, we had other cc neighbors that are going to post. We loved our mini suite were able to keep the door open some, my husband smokes to let fresh air in. I did a lot more things than my husband did so I reviewing what I did.
First sea day was breezy and stayed outside some and then indoors to do some things and that is when we had our cc get together. We had arranged ahead of time to wear hats and it was such fun. Many people came by to look at us and remembered us during the rest of the cruise.
Formal night was nice and they had 70's in the disco which we attended and stayed quite late.\
HMC was quite and I snorked some, from the beach. Mostly laid in the sun. I love the sun. We were suppose to have the green cabana with Mark and Carolyn but were later reserving it than the others were and we got left out.
The next day was a sea day some of us girls played bingo, trivia and I have gotten hooked on mexican tiles. We played that quite a lot during the week.
St. Thomas, went with Don and friends on a small sail boat to several small islands and dropped anchor near Johnny Depp's island and snorked. great snorkeling. On the way back, I sat in the bow of the boat and almost fell off. Gave everyone quite a scare.
Antigua, went to the Pineapple Resort, spent the day in the water and in the sun. There were no vendors at all on the beach in front of the resort, you had to walk to them and they were not pushy at all. Good day.
St. Martin, went to Divi Resort with a friend and for $75 a couple you could snorkel off a boat to shipwreck reft, floating mats, chairs, umbrella, jet ski. Fun day. On the dutch side you could see the resort from the ship. I was in St. Martin over 6 years ago and you had to tender. Nice pier now and lots of nice shops near the pier. Only cruise line passengers can get in there. Ladies, go to the table cloth shop. Lost of pretty things.
San Juan, just shopped in the duty free shop upstairs at the pier.
Great cruise, would go again tomorrow if I could. I will have to wait until next year at least. I would recemmond it to anyone. All ages this cruise maybe due to holiday. 100 children total. Nice bunch of people.

Thanks to all the other CC members on our cruise that made my cruise a GREAT One!!

[slineberry528]

Tim and Amy, if you read this post send me your email address. I tried to post some pictures here but it was too big. I'll send one to you.
Susan
slineberry528@aol.com

[Orcrone]

Thanks for keeping us updated throughout. Loved hearing about it.

Susan - Got your pictures. Thanks a lot. You had 100 kids on board? On our 10/30 cruise I doubt there were 20 (probably 10 - 15).

[CDRMark]

Yes, about 100 children ranging in age from 6 months to 16 years (probably out for Thanksgiving holiday). They were, in fact, very well behaved on the whole. Even the ones playing with the elevators ceased when an adult presence was manifested (might have been the stern smile). On the final 2 sea daze, when adult supervision was lacking due to mal de mer, they were more visible in their running about. Probably bored. Even the ones with walkie-talkies were not annoying.
I am not 'child friendly', but I did not find any fault in their behavior on the whole. I do still get a chill when I see them travelling in packs, though.
Cheers
MarkB

[BajaFred]

We arrived back in CA around 7:30 PM on Tuesday. Very long day.
We had cabin 165. Embarkation at @1:30 took about 10 minutes. Cabin was ready and luggage was in the room when we got on. We did have a problem with AC the first evening (very cold) but engineering fixed it the next day and then it was fine for the balance of the trip. Same with the little refrigerator. It wasn't keeping drinks cold. Engineering came up pulled it away from wall, did something, and all was well.
I enjoyed sitting out on the balcony and had many naps. We orginally had 8:30 seating but asked the first afternoon to have it changed. They said there were 200 people asking for dinner time changes, but they were able to accommodate us and we were changed to 8:00 seating by Sunday.
By chance we met some of the CC folks Saturday night. Susan & Gary's cabin was right next to ours. Mark/Carolyn & Don/Grace invited us all up to their suites Saturday night for a drink. The cabins were beautiful and a good time was had by all.
We all met on Sunday for an hour or so. That was fun. We ran into many of the folks as we traveled about. We even ran into CC folks on the different excursions we took on our own. They were on different ships, but all agreed that having found the boards they felt they were smarter cruise travelors.
We played slots in the Casino and thought that they paid out more than in the past. Some nights we were winners and some nights - well things weren't so good, but we were entertained. In the past it has just been take. We ran into a lady in the airport who had won $700.00 on the nickel slots the last night.
The food was good. We did not try the Pinnacle. We did use room service every day. No problems. One day they forgot our coffee cups, but when I called they came right up. There was so much stuff on the tray it took me a few minutes to realize the cups were missing.
We ha a good time in the ports. We only stayed on HMC for about 3 hrs. We had lunch, went to the beach and got in the water, sat on lounges for 10-15 minutes and then went back to ship. The island is beautiful. We just can't stay in the sun that long and I don't swim. So 3 hrs was perfect. We took a tour with Godfrey's Tour when we were on St. Thomas and that was very interesting. We were not in the market to buy anything, so did not spend a lot of time shopping. We were going to take a tour in Antigua, but it ended up being a 14 passenger van and Fred decided that he didn't want to be that crammed up with other folks. We wandered around some and then got back on the ship and treated the rest of the day like a sea day. We really enjoyed St. Martin. We went to town for awhile and then took the boat ride to the French side.
San Juan is kind of a waste, especially if you have been there before. The shops do not open until 10-1030. The ship leaves at 1230. I just wandered around old town for awhile.
All in all, we had a great time. The next cruise though will be out of one of the local ports. We met a lot of folks from VA and other states within driving distance and I decided that was the way to go rather than dealing with the airports. Our flights home were delayed. The flights were full, so everyone was cramped. We had to walk what seemed like miles to get to our gates and driving to the port started looking better and better.
Oh, I forgot to mention that there were 3 other ships in port when we were in St Martin. 1 was the Westerdam, 1 I think was Celebrity and I don't recall the other. When I opened the drapes that morning, I was so surprised to see such a large ship. It was like looking at a large condo complex. They looked like beautiful ships, but I don't know that we would want to be on one quite that large. It would of been fun though if a person could go look at the different ships in port.
Hello to all my fellow cruise mates. It was great meeting you all. Thanks Mark for the advice in Williamsburg. Trellis was great. Thanks Don for the help in Atlanta airport - that is one big airport.
Carole

[BajaFred]

Mark, I agree with you that the children on the ship seemed to be well behaved. We did not experience any of them playing with the elevators. Once in awhile we heard them running down the hall, but that was in the afternoon and not a problem. I was surprised that there were so many young folks out of school, but I guess everyone has different vacation schedules and they can home school for 1 week. I think that is great for their parents.
Say hello to Carolyn .
Carole

[slineberry528]

Carole, send me your email address and I will send you a pic of our group. anyone who would like a pic send me your email address.
Susan
slineberry528@aol.com

[seagoingJLW]

We are sailing on December 11. There is some difference in the ports, however. We go to Dominica, not St. Martin.

What I am curious about is the activities on sea days. Someone told me that even though HAL promises lectures on any cruise over 10 days long, there are none on this cruise. I hope this isn't true since the HAL lecturers are really great.

I have also heard that the Java Cafe no longer exists. I hope this isn't true, as well. I know rumors are rampant.

We are leaving on Friday to drive down to Norfolk where we have reservations (which include transfers, breakfast, and two weeks parking). We should be meeting others on our cruise there since the hotel has a reception for the cruisers the night before we sail.

Have any of you stayed there? Is everything true? I hope so.

Best,

Joan

[Orcrone]

Seagoing,

Unless it disappeared in the last 3 weeks, the Java Cafe is still there.

I don't remember any lectures on our 10 day cruise. Most activities were board game/trivia contest activities. There was a total of about 5 hours of live music by either pool and a total of 15 minutes of pool games (the entire cruise). They had bingo and art auctions.

I went on the galley tour. Took literally about 4 minutes. They led us in single file and we want around the galley (horseshoe shape) and out the other door. On the way in they handed us a map with what each area is, but kept us going quick enough that I didn't get to look at it until the tour was over. Nobody described anything.

[slineberry528]

Java Cafe was still there on our ship. They do have a movie (fairly recent) showing 3 times aday. We had our own board games that we had fun playing. We were on the lido deck near the pool several days with them.

[CDRMark]

Good question on the lecturers. Other than the port orientation, I didn't notice any lectures. I'll review the daily programs and see if I missed them.
Cheers
MarkB

[seagoingJLW]

Good question on the lecturers. Other than the port orientation, I didn't notice any lectures. I'll review the daily programs and see if I missed them.
Cheers
MarkB

Others have told me there were no lecturers, yet HAL states there are lectures on every cruise of 10 or more days. What is the actuality of this?

Joan

[slineberry528]

I just pulled out some of my daily programs. There were some seminars on health and beauty. On the first sea day there was a bridge (probably cards) lecture. Maybe there is no interest for lectures on a daily basis.
Susan

[BrendaGard]

We were on the Nov 20th cruise also. We were rather disappointed in the activities during the Sea Days. Not much to do except go to art auctions or movies. Celebrity had lots of activities when we cruised their line. All the activites seemed to occur on the Maasdam from 2 - 4 each day so you had to pick and choose which one. Kinda disappointing but we managed to lay by the pool, drink, eat and have a good time.

[ivygems]

Look what I found this morning - A perfect cruising Christmas song by country artist Kenny Chesney! Here it is! Merry Christmas fellow Maasdam cruisers from 20 November, especially my buddies Susan, Carolyn, and Mark (and new readers!)

Ooooh, don't you think it's a pretty good plan
All I want for Christmas is a real good tan

All I want for Christmas is a real good tan
Take me to the islands
Put my feet in the sand
Rockin' to and fro with the rhythm of the ocean
Singin' silent night with the palm trees a blowin'

Ooooh, don't you think it's a pretty good plan
All I want for Christmas is a real good tan

Well if you're thinkin' ‘bout gettin' me a present this year
Let me put a bug in your cute little ear
How about two tickets to a tropical show
Where we don't have to wear these winter clothes anymore
Instead of turkey we'll have mahi mahi grillin'
And pina colodas in the blender chillin'

All I want for Christmas is a real good tan
Take me to the islands
Put my feet in the sand
Singin' silent night with the palm trees a blowin'

Ooooh, don't you think it's a pretty good plan
All I want for Christmas is a real good tan

Well everybody's prayin' for a Christmas so white
Come to think about it that would be alright
As long as there is sand nor snow on the ground
And everyday our skin gets a little more brown
We'll string some lights in a coconut tree
I'll rub some oil on you and you can rub some on me

All I want for Christmas is a real good tan
I can see us baby on the beach hand in hand
Rockin' to and fro with the rhythm of the ocean
Baby whats you say you and me we'll be goin'

Ooooh, I can almost feel my toes in the sand
All I want for Christmas is a real good tan

And don't worry baby we'll celebrate plenty
I'll buy you some shades a brand new bikini
We won't have to worry about the holiday rush
It'll be you and me fallen' deeper in love

Ooooh, don't you think it's a pretty good plan
All I want for Christmas is a real good tan

[slineberry528]

Way to go Donna, great song. I will have to try and find it.
Susan