New retail stores on Maasdam

Does anyone know if the new retail stores and Fuji Photocenter roll-out has begun on the Maasdam? The Holland America website said it wouldbegin after the Veendam was finished.

Yes. We were on Maasdam on the Hawaii, Tahiti and Marquesas cruise, leaving San Diego March 25. The stores were closed for the first few days, and then they had a big grand opening.

I am doing a review of that cruise, and plan at some point in the next few days to post some photos of the new shops.

Dave

Thank you so much for the quick reply. I have been enjoying your posts and photos the last couple days. :)

We had the new stores on the Oosterdam in April. With all the hoopla, I expected something great, new and out of the box. Sadly, it was nothing new! Same jewelry sections with lots of expensive (overpriced?) items. The "main" store offered nothing new and exciting. In fact, IMO, the offerings were very blah, boring and dated. I kept visiting, thinking they were continuing to add exciting items - sadly no. I love shopping and love to buy unique gifts, cruise/resort wear and trendy items Looking forward to more comments, feedback and refreshing of the offerings for my numerous future cruises! I added my comments to the end of cruise review.

I honestly am surprised they don't convert the stores into something that generates more revenue. The traffic in them is usually almost non-existent. I guess the profit margin must be HUGE on the few items they sell.

I guess our issue with shops on most cruise lines is that they no longer offer any bargains, and if you later have a problem with a purchase it can be difficult to return an item.

For example, we used to buy good watches and booze on cruises. But now, we can generally find better prices for watches (or other jewelry) on land or the internet. As to booze, the prices on ships have become a big joke, We live in Pennsylvania where all the liquor stores are still controlled by the State and are prices are high because of taxes. But the prices for high end booze such as good Scotch or Cognac is about the same here as it is on cruise ships. Two weeks ago, while on the Golden Princess, I was looking at some Cognac when the shop manager stopped to chat. I told him that their prices were within $1 (and this was a $60 item) of PA prices...so why would I bother buying on the ship.

What is sad is that the ship's shops purchases the booze Duty Free, has no taxes, and yet costs as much as in a State where our booze taxes top 25%. Go figure.

Hank

How many square feet of revenue space did the store occupy? They have to produce the revenue, as I am sure you realize. :)

In late March we were on the Rotterdam and the gift shop seemed to be remerchandised. I liked the new clothing options as I felt the quality was better and prices a bit lower. Not a HUGE change however.

Just got off the Westerdam and I was disappointed in the new shops. I found the selection very poor and prices high. Had to walk through the new Sofia jewelry stores everyday and probably saw maybe a handful of people looking, never saw anyone buy anything.

The stores were very quiet. I usually buy something but nothing leapt out at me....lol

Even the $10 tables were sparse and not much action.

As I indicated in post #2, I took photos of the new shops on Maasdam. I just posted them to my review thread. I don't want to make anyone wade through the review to find the posts about the shops, so I've copied links to the three single posts to contain the photos:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=56044635&postcount=83

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=56044664&postcount=84

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=56044678&postcount=85

Dave

Just got off the Westerdam and I was disappointed in the new shops. I found the selection very poor and prices high. Had to walk through the new Sofia jewelry stores everyday and probably saw maybe a handful of people looking, never saw anyone buy anything.

The stores were very quiet. I usually buy something but nothing leapt out at me....lol

Even the $10 tables were sparse and not much action.

Agree about the Westerdam. The merchandise looked much the same as usual, except the prominently displayed bags and purses with dogs on them were new (and hideous).

The staff looked and acted quite desperate for customers, too. Might help if the booze shelves had pricing, as that area used to draw the customers quite well.

One thing I noted: accustomed to seeing pax, especially late in the cruise, walking around with purchases in bags. Not this time. A few with photos, but not with bags from the shops.

As I indicated in post #2, I took photos of the new shops on Maasdam. I just posted them to my review thread. I don't want to make anyone wade through the review to find the posts about the shops, so I've copied links to the three single posts to contain the photos:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=56044635&postcount=83

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=56044664&postcount=84

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=56044678&postcount=85

 

Dave[/quote

I was just looking at them in your review. Thanks for posting! Did you happen to see if the Fuji Photo Center was open yet on the Maasdam?

As I indicated in post #2, I took photos of the new shops on Maasdam. I just posted them to my review thread. I don't want to make anyone wade through the review to find the posts about the shops, so I've copied links to the three single posts to contain the photos:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=56044635&postcount=83

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=56044664&postcount=84

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=56044678&postcount=85

 

Dave

looks just like the Westerdam

Agree about the Westerdam. The merchandise looked much the same as usual, except the prominently displayed bags and purses with dogs on them were new (and hideous).

 

The staff looked and acted quite desperate for customers, too. Might help if the booze shelves had pricing, as that area used to draw the customers quite well.

 

One thing I noted: accustomed to seeing pax, especially late in the cruise, walking around with purchases in bags. Not this time. A few with photos, but not with bags from the shops.

I agree, saw more bags from shopping in ports than on the ship.

If HAL is looking for new shop partners, may I recommend UNIQLO - a Japanese company - great items for travel in any climate, excellent fabrics, good standard sizing and low prices.

... Did you happen to see if the Fuji Photo Center was open yet on the Maasdam?

 

I saw the photo center and took a photo. I did not notice if it was called Fuji or anything (I can be Obliviman sometimes); to me it was just the photo shop. Since we never pose for photos anymore, we never visit it.

 

 

 

 

Dave

Very surprised to see that they are still displaying hard copy photos for display/sale.

Very surprised to see that they are still displaying hard copy photos for display/sale.

I like that they are still printing the photos. There is no way I would stand to wade through the hundreds of digital images of strangers to find myself. Having the printed photos makes me more likely to buy them and thus more likely to buy the digital package as well.

You don't wade through images. They are displayed in a similar manner to prints.in the picture.

You simply jot down the number that you want and it will be printed for you. Or you can have it on a disc.

You don't wade through images. They are displayed in a similar manner to prints.in the picture.

 

You simply jot down the number that you want and it will be printed for you. Or you can have it on a disc.

So I have to have paper and pencil to jot down photo numbers that I might get wrong? Nope, give me the physical prints to pick up or not every time. And because they are already printed I don't have to worry about the colors being off because of the monitor or trying to see what they would look like at 4x6 or 8x10.

There was a post on Cruise Critic on March 8th about the new

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=8473

The point is that going to digital presentation greatly reduces the amount of chemical and paper waste. Not to mention that it most probably reduces costs for the operation.

I have to assume that if you order it and the colours are not true you will not have to lay for it.

I cAn only imagine how many hundreds of unpurchased photos are discarded on each cruise. In the past 20 plus cruises that we have taken I can recall only purchasing one, perhaps two.

Just off Maasdam this morning. I agree with the other posters; the new shops are terrible. The only one I really ever shop at anyway is the one with the ship's/line's merch in it and that was just awful. Two or three different shirts in three different colors--white, navy blue, and orange (was surprised the orange ones were selling and that they were not being worn for Koningsdag but otherwise were actually being sported around the ship). There are no longer any good magnets, no Dam Ship shirts that I saw. Lots of hats if that's your thing (ball caps and beach hats). Playing cards and shot glasses with Holland America Line in blue and not even the Dam logo! The shop next door had some grand voyage-y kindof shirts and magnets, some generic beach attire, and a bewildering array of bags and wallets with various breeds of dogs (which are pictured in the wonderful Maasdam thread by RetiredMustang). There was no lido sale (as in discounted merch; they did sell very expensive Panama stuff on canal day). The jewelry shop I thought looked pretty much the same as before although they now have a ton of perfume. All told, aside from the special Panama merchandise, I bought one t-shirt from the store. Very disappointing.

😞 sad. Looks the same to me also!!

We got off on March 25th and all shops closed up on 3/19 for inventory.

I was told expensive shops were coming!! All looks the same.

Nothing changed in duty free shop at all.

Denise:)

The point is that going to digital presentation greatly reduces the amount of chemical and paper waste. Not to mention that it most probably reduces costs for the operation.

 

I have to assume that if you order it and the colours are not true you will not have to lay for it.

 

I cAn only imagine how many hundreds of unpurchased photos are discarded on each cruise. In the past 20 plus cruises that we have taken I can recall only purchasing one, perhaps two.

It must be a huge savings in both dollars and environmental issues.

I don't know how it will work on HAL, but I've experienced the digital photo selection on QM2 and it works well. They do put some photos in racks, usually the first ones taken, to lure you in. After that, you go to a computer kiosk and find your pictures. You need to know when it was taken and where--like first formal night, staircase--and select that and then scroll through the photos. They may even have time parameters, like 7-8, 8-9, etc. I found it easy to locate our pictures. They're watermarked, so you can't take a photo of the screen. Once you find a picture you want, you order it right from the console. (I forget at what step you enter your cabin number). Once it knows what you look like, the system uses facial recognition to match your other pictures to your account.

We had one printed and something was askew, like the paper went through the machine crookedly. Someone should have noticed it and reprinted it right away, but I suppose the machine just keeps spitting them out and the workers slap them into folders. Anyway, I looked at it, saw the problem, and went right back to the desk. They saw the issue and reprinted the photo, no charge for the bad one.

You do have to learn the system, but photo staff circulate around the room and are helpful, but not pushy about buying. And although they close the racks during not-open ours, the computers are available all the time. I don't remember if QM2 had the option to do the mugs, etc that HAL is selling.