Jumped Ship Today 2/7/14...Maasdam to Noordam

[GmaPajama]

Sheila, who was the HM on the Noordam before Mark came on? Just curious.

Actually, Mark Pells was Hotel Director for me on the previous cruise. I don't know how long he'd been aboard, but it was definitely before this Feb 7th cruise.

[July_Cruiser]

Oh Sheila

I am so sorry to hear that you did not have a great cruise on the Maasdam.

We have had Hotel Director on the Veendam and the Amsterdam -- and he was great.

Another person also reported about their bad cruise on the Maasdam -- cruise right before yours -- and how run down the ship is.

We were scheduled to be on the Maasdam -- have cancelled that cruise.

 

You are probably referring to our review and posting marked "just out of dry dock but ..." and we tried not to be too negative, but Sheila brought up some additional issues that we also observed. We were only in our cabin 2 minutes before we discovered a black stain on the pillow case. Our cabin steward quickly replaced and we forgave that due to quick turnaround no big deal. A week into the cruise we discovered a hand towel in our freshly cleaned cabin had a red stain, hopefully not blood, but that one hit the bathroom floor immediately!

 

Amazingly, the previous cruise we actually had water and lemonade in most ports, as I remember. Things went downhill from one sailing to the next! . Also, they had hamburgers on the January 17th sailing, but the wait for a burger was consistently 20 minutes, according to a man we met that was late for a mixology class. The burgers did smell yummy even though we don't eat ground beef ourselves. We do like pizza, however, and hubby was quite disappointed with no pizza on board.

[July_Cruiser]

Forgot to mention...the Internet was not working until the last couple days of the cruise.....due to transitioning to the new system.

Also, I had several people on the b2b from 1/17 that there was limited hot water on Deck 4 & 5. People were not thrilled having no hot water for showers.

This morning, when we disembarked, I heard about pipes bursting on Deck 5...from some people who came over to the Noordam with us.:)

There are quite a few of us.

The good news is that Mark Pells came on board Noordam today as the Hotel Director.

 

:(:)Thanks for the info. I hope things go great for you on the Noordam. We enjoyed our b2b in January 2013 on Noordam and hope you do even better this year. Sorry that we took Maasdam on January 17th this year. I think this will end it for us on Maasdam. One more cruise on HAL like that one would kill off the whole line for us before we earn our forth star. Ed and Jan

[mamaofami]

Actually, Mark Pells was Hotel Director for me on the previous cruise. I don't know how long he'd been aboard, but it was definitely before this Feb 7th cruise.

 

 

Thanks, Donna. I hope you and Jon had a great time on Noordam.

[gigianne]

I sure hope things improve on the Maasdam before our late March cruise - it is DH's favourite ship. I am surprised that even after drydock that there are comments about bedding, doors not working etc. You would think that they have a "to do" list when they head for drydock. I realize not everything can be taken care of in 10-14 days. Now about the internet - I for one will not waste my $$$ on second grade service. Come on HAL we are all paying good money for our cruises - we expect you to live up to our expectations. BTW - my expectations of the Maasdam have come down a couple of notches after reading the posts here on CC.

[Krazy Kruizers]

You are probably referring to our review and posting marked "just out of dry dock but ..." and we tried not to be too negative, but Sheila brought up some additional issues that we also observed. We were only in our cabin 2 minutes before we discovered a black stain on the pillow case. Our cabin steward quickly replaced and we forgave that due to quick turnaround no big deal. A week into the cruise we discovered a hand towel in our freshly cleaned cabin had a red stain, hopefully not blood, but that one hit the bathroom floor immediately!

 

Amazingly, the previous cruise we actually had water and lemonade in most ports, as I remember. Things went downhill from one sailing to the next! . Also, they had hamburgers on the January 17th sailing, but the wait for a burger was consistently 20 minutes, according to a man we met that was late for a mixology class. The burgers did smell yummy even though we don't eat ground beef ourselves. We do like pizza, however, and hubby was quite disappointed with no pizza on board.

 

 

Right -- it was your review that had us rethinking our Maasdam cruise.

DH takes quite a few medications and there are times when we needs to use a restroom more often than other times while having dinner. To be hunting for a restroom in working order is not good. I use a walker and can not get around easily to hunt a restroom in working order either.

On our last couple of couple of cruises DH tried the hamburgers and was disgusted with the amount of gristle in it. I won't eat HAL's hamburgers. Neither of us like HAL's greasy pizzas.

Air conditioning and plumbing are a big concern for us.

Having worn towels and sheets -- inexcusable.

[catl331]

Sheila: I think there was a recent review that the Noordam had poor food and the cruiser was very disappointed. Please report your thoughts. Thanks. Carol

[innlady1]

Oh my. I know you are definitely not a complainer, Sheila, so it really must have been bad. I just can't imagine the "no pizza or hamburgers".... What the heck was that about? And the broken door, dingy laundry and the broken phone sounds more like a run-down Motel 6.:eek: I hope you have a much, much better experience on the Noordam. You're quite famous now by the way - you got a shout-out from the webcam op (Lou or Dave) on the sailaway.:D

 

LOL...live on the cam? If so, that's a 1st. Or, in the sailaway thread?

[innlady1]

Sheila, who was the HM on the Noordam before Mark came on? Just curious.

 

Someone named Gerard O'Reilly. Ran into Mark in the Lido today and he told us he came on board on January 27. I invited him to the M & G and he asked if I'd buy him a drink...told him it depended upon what he was serving us!

His new bride is the Spa Manager so they work the same schedule. We saw them back in '09 or '10 in the Pinnacle Grill for dinner for Valentine's Day...very pretty young woman.

The fellow with whom I arranged the M & G told me that Mr. O'Reilly would be the Hotel Director for our cruise...one time when I'm glad Seattle was wrong!

[innlady1]

Carol...so far the food has been very good. Tonight was our 1st formal night and I had my usual rack of lamb, shrimp cocktail, and chocolate soufflé. It was excellent.

Another noticeable thing: On the Maasdam none of the staff/crew went out of the way to say hello (unusual for a HAL ship). Someone told me many of them were new. Noordam is the usual friendly ship...the difference is noticeable.

We talked with a couple on the tender back from HMC today and he mentioned that he talked with some people on Thursday from the Maasdam (both ships were there that day). Told me they were all disappointed in the cruise.

It was a very, very strange one. I don't know how else to describe it.

[POA1]

Carol...so far the food has been very good. Tonight was our 1st formal night and I had my usual rack of lamb, shrimp cocktail, and chocolate soufflé. It was excellent.

Thanks for the update. We're doing the 10 Day on the Noordam starting on Feb 28. Are you having 2 formal nights or 3?

 

DW has to update the packing list if it's three. Our documentation says two.

 

Enjoy your trip!

[erewhon]

Sheila,

 

Thanks for your update.

 

Sometimes on the Volendam during the 2013 Trans Pacific we experienced worn towels and bed linen, one day I was in the stateroom when the steward was changing the bed linen, he opened out a clean sheet to find a big hole in it, he muttered that the sheet should not have been sent out from the laundry, and fetched a replacement.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Sheila, when you do get a chance to talk to Mark Pells you will have to ask if he will be on board for the Oct 19th TA cruise ;)

 

Glad to hear this segment is going much better, I do know how he felt about the Maasdam, that kind of goes along with our Veendam cruise and how the crew were.

[startwin]

LOL...live on the cam? If so, that's a 1st. Or, in the sailaway thread?

 

Live on the cam!! You're special, LOL. I forget the actual words but loud and clear something like "come on, wave to Sheila from the sailaway gang"! Seeing as people from all the forums are watching the cams, they all likely heard it. Must check with Emmy over at RCI.:D

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sheila

Thanks for checking in.

Glad you are off to a great start on the Noordam.

[cruiseapril]

Have recently been looking at 2 Maasdam cruises and a Noordam cruise.

Have been on the Noordam (2011) and loved it. Will probably choose it again, but the Maasdam itineraries are so inviting. Hope things improve.

[mamaofami]

Sheila, so glad you're having a good time on Noordam. You and Fred deserve it.:)

[thecleave]

Sheila, just wanted to say it was really nice to meet you on the Maasdam. I hope you are having a great time on the Noordam right now!

 

I will try to put up a separate thread with my review, but I had a great time on the Maasdam, and want to hopefully quell some of the fears of her future cruisers.

 

Not sure what the burger policy was before, but you can get delicious burgers from what they are calling Dive In at the Terrace Grill. These are hand made real beef burgers and I loved them. The 3rd day of the cruise there was an incident with the grill, so until they were able to replace the part they were making them in the Lido. Once they replaced the part you could get them back out at the Terrace Grill. It is true they aren't doing pizza anymore - I think they got rid of the pizza oven during dry dock.

 

The upgraded internet service was just fine. They finally updated the MTN login from where you'd have to enter your first and last name, cabin number, etc. every time you wanted to get online. Now you choose a username and password. (Regent - I'm looking at you. Get it together with the annoying log in system.) It was the old system for the first 4 days of the cruise. They had a technician come onboard in St. Kitts to complete the upgrade, and after that was finished I was able to get the wifi signal in my cabin (Deck 4 cabin 820). A word of warning - there was an issue with using mail applications - like Gmail - on your iPhone or iPad. I had to resort to using the old Google app and reading my mail there. I had no issues with getting to Gmail on my Macbook, but the couple of times I tried to use the ships computers I wasn't able to access it. I know they are aware of the issues - hopefully they will get them sorted out and soon.

[RJ2002]

Not sure what the burger policy was before, but you can get delicious burgers from what they are calling Dive In at the Terrace Grill. These are hand made real beef burgers and I loved them. The 3rd day of the cruise there was an incident with the grill, so until they were able to replace the part they were making them in the Lido. Once they replaced the part you could get them back out at the Terrace Grill. It is true they aren't doing pizza anymore - I think they got rid of the pizza oven during dry dock.

 

 

Thanks for this update. Was hard to comprehend that they'd discontinue hamburgers! The pizza is not that great a loss, IMO. ;)

[imae39]

Andrea a review of your Maasdam sailing is really what we need to reassure us about booking on the Maasdam. Look forward to it. Thanks in advance.

[sail7seas]

Thanks for this update. Was hard to comprehend that they'd discontinue hamburgers! The pizza is not that great a loss, IMO. ;)

 

 

Thanks for your review of our wonderful Maasdam. So happy to hear you enjoyed so much.

 

As to the pizza, I agree Maasdam's was never really good. My hope is they are temporarily not serving it and are working on getting a much better pizza to serve. The worst I ever had was on Maasdam, during Code Orange and the cook at the grill had to serve it rather than the usual 'self-serve'. When he took a slice and put it on the grill, I knew I was in trouble. I told him no thanks I really didn't want a piece of pizza that likely had been sitting for who knows how long and was being heated on a grill!? :eek: I'm hopeful they are creating a great new pizza for us. :D

 

[Skipper's Mom]

Well.....guess we'll see how our cruise on 3/28 goes and then possibly reconsider our sailing on 11/21 from Rome....time will tell.

[innlady1]

Sheila, just wanted to say it was really nice to meet you on the Maasdam. I hope you are having a great time on the Noordam right now!

 

I will try to put up a separate thread with my review, but I had a great time on the Maasdam, and want to hopefully quell some of the fears of her future cruisers.

 

Not sure what the burger policy was before, but you can get delicious burgers from what they are calling Dive In at the Terrace Grill. These are hand made real beef burgers and I loved them. The 3rd day of the cruise there was an incident with the grill, so until they were able to replace the part they were making them in the Lido. Once they replaced the part you could get them back out at the Terrace Grill. It is true they aren't doing pizza anymore - I think they got rid of the pizza oven during dry dock.

 

The upgraded internet service was just fine. They finally updated the MTN login from where you'd have to enter your first and last name, cabin number, etc. every time you wanted to get online. Now you choose a username and password. (Regent - I'm looking at you. Get it together with the annoying log in system.) It was the old system for the first 4 days of the cruise. They had a technician come onboard in St. Kitts to complete the upgrade, and after that was finished I was able to get the wifi signal in my cabin (Deck 4 cabin 820). A word of warning - there was an issue with using mail applications - like Gmail - on your iPhone or iPad. I had to resort to using the old Google app and reading my mail there. I had no issues with getting to Gmail on my Macbook, but the couple of times I tried to use the ships computers I wasn't able to access it. I know they are aware of the issues - hopefully they will get them sorted out and soon.

 

Was nice to meet you, too! The only thing I tried to get into was my Yahoo and gmail email and that did not work...I gave up trying to get into anything else on the Net after that. My money was refunded for the package I bought which was nice. I was told that they stopped serving the burgers sometime during the cruise...midway maybe??? I don't go to the Terrace Grill (now Dive In) but was told they only had hot dogs. Glad you had a better experience than many of us!

 

Noordam is still the Terrace Grill and serving all the usual things. And, the pizza is excellent!

Edited February 10, 2014 by innlady1

[innlady1]

Noticed two bottles of wine on the liquor table when getting on the ship in Grand Turk today...and a sign. The sign stated that wine and champagne will be assessed the $18 corkage fee when bringing it on board...and they will be happy to store it for no charge until the end of the cruise....something along those times.

 

I took a photo of it and will try to figure out how to post it when I return home.

So...it appears the new policy is in effect.

 

Went to the wine tasting yesterday for the new Navigator package...the pricing seems to have been reduced and we were all given a new brochure with the wines available. I will buy a package tomorrow - I found one wine to my liking.

 

We tried the new Canaletto menu tonight...it was truly outstanding. A very pleasant surprise and a real improvement over the former menu (we had that on Maasdam last week). They gave me a copy of the menu that I will scan and post when I get home.

[GeriatricNurse]

Oh my. I know you are definitely not a complainer, Sheila, so it really must have been bad. I just can't imagine the "no pizza or hamburgers".... What the heck was that about? And the broken door, dingy laundry and the broken phone sounds more like a run-down Motel 6.:eek: I hope you have a much, much better experience on the Noordam. You're quite famous now by the way - you got a shout-out from the webcam op (Lou or Dave) on the sailaway.:D

 

'Signature of Excellence', of course! ;)