SleepingUgly

9 minutes ago, colbe said:

Those cabins are under the carpeted seating area of the Lido. There should be no problem from above (we had 45 days on Maasdam earlier this year).

Thank you! This is very helpful to know and much appreciated!!

51 minutes ago, bcummin said:

I commend the choice of itinerary for your family to experience.

The good ship Maasdam has no kids club anymore, but your daughter does not need it anyway.  Hopefully your children will enjoy the informative lectures, etc.  (There is always bribery.  🙂 ) 

We were on the Maasdam for 2018 Christmas / NY, so we know that you have a wonderful voyage to look forward to.

Barbara

Thank you, Barbara!  I am really excited about this itinerary and think the kids will be thrilled.  And the hubby has always wanted to go to Australia so he definitely won't be complaining.

We actually found our recent Celebrity cruise to have been lacking in terms of lectures / educational talks; everything was so sales-oriented!  Glad to hear HAL will be different. Our little one is a nature and animal lover so think she will enjoy this adventure quite a bit.  I'm hoping to book this week!

Linda

I think the only ones available now are on Deck 10 - BB040 and BB042.  I'm surprised there is still a set of connecting cabins available, which is why now I'm wondering what's wrong with them!

BTW, how do the cabins on HAL connect?  Is there a door in the rooms?  On Celebrity, the two cabins shared a foyer (that could be closed off to the hallway with an outer door)so the connection was not INSIDE the rooms themselves, per se.

Linda

Thank you!  I am hoping any noise will wake the kids up earlier so they don't sleep the day away, as 21 and 18-year-olds tend to do quite easily. 🙂  Then again, they pretty much can sleep through anything so probably not an issue for us.

Appreciate the photos as well, Ann!  The "suite" looks like our concierge cabins (which are just regular balcony cabins) that we had on the Celebrity Silhouette last year so space will be fine.  Is that a large / extensive overhang over the balcony?  We had connecting aft cabins on the Silhouette and loved them but don't think the Massadam has these?

Thanks again!

Linda

Hello - I am looking at a 13-day southern Australia cruise for my family of five later this year (around Christmas / NY) and am looking specifically at two connecting suites on Deck 10.  Would someone be able to advise if Category BB cabins may simply be "normal" balcony staterooms on other cruise ships, in terms of size and amenities?  Also, should we be concerned re: noise from above as, according to deck plans, the Lido Market would be right above our rooms.

This would be our first cruise on HAL!  We've only cruised with Celebrity in the past and will be traveling with three children.  Two will be older (21 and 18) next year but the little one will be only 10.  I know Maasdam will be a smaller ship - and she is an experienced traveler so I am not so concerned about her not having enough to do (she is not a fan of the kids clubs) - but hoping young children would not be too out of place on this ship?

Any other thoughts / comments about the Maasdam would be much appreciated!  We are currently booked on a 12-night Celebrity Reflection cruise for the same time period but I'm getting a bit tired of cruising the Caribbean and touring Europe (#firstworldproblems) so a cruise around Australia would be an incredible experience for all of us.  This itinerary also seems to be extremely unique and think it would still keeps the kids engaged, as it's not just endless sea days of sailing through sounds, haha.

Thanks in advance for your help / insight!

Linda

Great review, thanks for sharing!  My husband would absolutely, completely agree with you about the World Class Bar.  He found that place on our third or fourth day of our 12-night cruise last year on the Silhouette and that became THE spot for him.  He loved the Old Fashioned they would serve him (he would get at least one every night before dinner) and has been replicating it at home as well (including the giant ice cube!) and everyone he's been serving it to has converted to this new format.  Definitely agree that we enjoyed that bar - and its environs - much more than the Martini Bar.

Glad you had a fantastic trip, and thanks again for a richly detailed review!

Linda

We did the river tubing excursion in Dominica through Celebrity last December as the time in port was a bit limited, and I wanted to be assured that the ship will wait for us if the tour was delayed in returning.  We also had some OBC to burn and there was a sale; two more reasons I booked through the ship, which I rarely do.  We all had a great time.  Our group was broken up into several small vans / buses, which was much better than having to be in a large bus with 50-plus other people.  There was a lot of driving and the roads can be windy, so make sure you take your meds if you get carsick easily.  The river tubing itself was great - lots of fun yet still very relaxing at the same time.  You can read about it in my trip report; link is in my signature below.  The section on Dominica starts on page 10, post #241.  BTW, we also visited Grenada during our cruise but did not do any excursions on that island.

Have fun on your cruise, no matte what excursion you may choose!

I wanted to respond to your post but you may want to post on the board specific for destinations - in your case, Hong Kong.  You may get better advice there.

I've never cruised into HKG but have traveled there often for work and always grabbed a taxi at the airport.  They are plentiful and the drivers pretty much always know where you are going.  If you need to get to a hotel, they should know it.  Most will not speak English very well, but just have the address written on a piece of paper (or show them the hotel information on your reservation printout) and they will be good to go.  HKG taxi drivers don't tend to make much conversation anyway, not like the drivers in a place like London who, in my experience, have always been friendly and talkative.  In HKG, they will drive you to your destination and that's about it.  They are very appreciative of even the smallest tips, though, so that is nice.

As for the size of the vehicles - they have been introducing more minivans to the taxi fleets of various companies but you may have to wait for one to come along int the queue (as you may in US airports as well).  There is someone at the airport directing all taxi passenger traffic so they can certainly help you out; their English is usually much better than the drivers'.  You may want to consider taking two taxi cabs for your group, if possible?

Anyway, from all the international travel I've done, HKG is probably one of the last places I would consider requiring a private transfer from the airport, unless you are looking for someone who can give you a tour or something more customized.  If you are looking for a basic, safe trip to your hotel, a taxi is easy to find, low in cost and very efficient and safe.

One other option - the HKG airport express, but that may depend on where your hotel is and the mobility of everyone in your group.  

Hope this helps!

Our two balconies - not sure if you can tell, but the first one has more room than the second one.  Note there is a bit more space on the other slide of the glass doors in the first picture, whereas in the other balcony, this extra space is not there.  We also had the divider between the two balconies opened up so we had more space, and the space itself felt more open.

Anyway, hope these pictures help!

I thought some of the more interesting aft views were when we were docked in port.  Here we are, backing into St. Maarten:

This is when we were docked in Grenada.  So peaceful and quiet:

This is what the hallway looks like as we step out of our room and start heading down the hallway, towards the first set of elevators / stairs.  The dark doorway at the very end of the hallway?  That's where those elevators and stairs are.  It looks really long and endless, I know, but it was manageable for us.  I'd say, at a regular pace - not too leisurely, but like you're walking with a destination in mind - it took a a good 45-60 seconds to get from our cabins to the elevator banks.

Here are a few pictures of the inside of our two, adjoining cabins.  One was our room, and our cabin steward pushed the two beds together for us.  We kept the beds in the other room separated for our two older daughters, and the little one slept on the sofa.

We booked two of these (concierge level) on the Silhouette late last year.  We all loved them!  Very quiet, no foot traffic at all outside of your cabin.  Yes, it is a "long" walk from the stairs / elevators, but it's all flat (not like it's uphill anywhere, haha), so very easy to do and also fun to walk by rooms if doors are decorated (which a lot were for the holidays).  The views were amazing, as you've noted - very broad and expansive and when the captain backed the ship into port at St. Maartens ... just incredible.  We never felt more movement in the cabins than anywhere else on the ship.  In fact, we felt a lot more swaying when we were in the Sky Lounge - higher up and forward.  Sometimes, when walking back to the room, the ship would sway a bit and we'd feel it then, but funnily enough, never in the rooms themselves.  We also never had a problem with soot on the balconies either.  Let me know if you want to see some pics!

44 minutes ago, Cruise a holic said:

Cannot believe those people weren't reported and put in "cruise ship" prison and dropped off at the next stop.  Smoking isn't permitted in hot tubs.  Not even sure if allowed on a cruise ship.

They were a pretty horrible group, to be completely honest.  We were in loungers right by one of the hot tubs on the first sea day and they were all vaping there.  My husband asked them to stop;; they told him to "F--- off".  I told my husband to just leave it alone because I was sure Celebrity would handle it.  Boy, was I wrong.  The servers and pool staff all saw them, and a few approached them and asked them to stop, but they would just change locations and start all over again.  Think Celebrity staff just gave up after a while.  That was the biggest disappointment - how Celebrity refused to stand up to people who openly broke the rules.  Believe me, with people like that on your cruise, just seeing a bunch of happy little kids skipping around the place would make my day.  

On 9/23/2019 at 8:15 AM, Nanjen said:

Hi Linda, just wanted to let you know I had followed your review when you had originally done it as my dh and I were going on the abc cruise in March (and we had a great time!).  Now we are doing the holiday cruise on Silhouette, so I’ve just revisited the review and have picked up some good tips for some shared ports. I in particular wanted to know what you had done in St Croix on Xmas and what some of the menus were like - I know they won’t be the same, but still an idea. Thanks so much for a wonderful review that was just as good the second time around! Nancy

Thanks, Nanjen!  St. Croix on Christmas Day for us was a really nice, low-key day.  At first, I was really upset the historical sites / National Park would be closed and no tours would be going on, but spending the day at Rainbow Beach turned out to be a really good idea.  The Santa / Christmas activities that morning meant we weren't one of the first off the ship, but that was OK because we weren't in a hurry to join a tour or meet up with a guide.  Our little one still got to enjoy time with Santa and we didn't feel rushed / pressured to leave the ship RIGHT NOW.  Instead, everything was done at a leisurely pace, which was so nice for Christmas. 

I hope you have a fantastic cruise!  We have booked the Reflection for next year's holiday sailing so it's still a while for me. 🙂

Linda

We were on the Sihouette last year for its 12-night holiday cruise and were told there were @ 400 children (under the age of 18) on board.  Most were teenagers, I believe.  I can't recall seeing hordes of children running amuck on the ship - that's a joke; I believe most of them were extremely well-behaved - but I do (not-so-fondly) recall one group of young adults getting quite wild and being rather obnoxious at times, including vaping in the hot tub, wearing t-shirts and shorts to the MDR on New Year's Eve, and yelling insults to other guests who they thought gave them dirty looks.  It was one large group with many families, and on the last sea day, they were throwing each other into the pool and security had to talk to them a few times, but they kept doing it.  Thanks to that group, I never noticed any kids!  Honestly, for future holiday sailings, I'd be more wary of large groups than children.  Seems like when some people travel in packs, they tend to think they own the place.  Safety in numbers, I guess? 

I've followed / read most of your other "live" threads on the Celebrity board, and had considered an MSC Yacht Club cruise for our family's holiday sailing for next year, but your review is starting to make me feel relieved we decided to stick with Celebrity.  Outside of the yacht club, does the ship feel crowded and how has the service been around the ship? 

I am also really enjoying your port reviews!  Thanks for taking us along with you!

Linda

Safe travels!  Can't wait to follow along b/c work has been a bear lately so it will be nice to live vicariously through you, haha.  And don't pay any mind to those who hurumph at "creature comforts".  I mean, we travel not only to learn more about other cultures and people, but to also more fully appreciate what we do have and not take them for granted.  I hope you have a fantastic flight later today, and looking forward to your cruise!

These pictures are bringing back wonderful memories so thank you so much for sharing!  I used to "have to" travel to London for work @ 1-2 times a month , and I hated it because it was - you know - for work.  I never learned to really appreciate the city until many trips in.  Have not been back in a couple of years and have really missed it.  Just goes to show you - you never really appreciate something until you don't have it anymore!  Thanks again for reminding me why I love the city so much!

I don't believe the Classic package includes mixed drinks, which is why we had upgraded our girls to the premium package on our cruise last year.  The premium package also includes stuff like iced coffee and certain juices.

HTH!  

Actually, here is the daily for Embarkation Day (post #36).

42 minutes ago, m8zenblue said:

Loved  your review, best I have ever seen !

But I could not locate your dailies.

Sorry, you have to scroll through all the pages as I posted them at the beginning of each day of our cruise (starting with Day 2, I believe).  Post No. 77 (on p. 4) has the first day so you may want to start there.  The only day that was missing was the last day; for some reason, I could not find the daily for that day. 

If you'd like, I can try to locate the photos again and post some here?  Just let me know!

Linda

I posted copies of most dailies from our 2018-19 holiday cruise in my trip report (see my signature), but the itinerary was different.  You may be traveling to some of the same islands, though.  Let me know if I can help with any specific questions!

Linda

Oh, goody, another Norris trip report!  And on the Silhouette too.  I've missed her and hope she treated you and your wife well on your cruise.  Really looking forward to following along!

Linda

What a fun review to read!  Thanks for sharing.  We were on a similar, 12-night itinerary in late December, also on the Silhouette, and we, too, love that length of a cruise.  Just enough days that you feel like you really were on a great vacation, but not too short that you are not ready to go home.  The seven days of ports, one right after the other, did get tiring, but made those last two sea days that much more enjoyable and relaxing! 

Appreciate your time to share your vacation and thoughts with us!

Linda