Maasdam Holiday Cruise - Fantastic!

[WeLoveCruising]

I had some problems posting for the last few days, and started a new thread since this board wasnt accepting updates to this one. Now that the problem seems to be resolved, I'm copying my post there to this thread so its all in one place. I'll use only this one now.

Dominica - a new port for us

This was our first time to Dominica, and it was a real treat. It was unlike most other islands we've visited. If you've read our Barbados car rental adventure on the first thread, you know that we like to rent cars and explore on our own. Not so in Dominica - and I'm glad we didnt. The island is very undeveloped, and most of the interior roads are unpaved and steep. We had a great time with the taxi driver we hired. We visited Trafalgar Falls, sulphur spring, and a few other beautiful views. We really enjoyed all the views and flowers in the rain forest.

 

Problems in Indonesia

Thought I'd mention that while we were on the cruise Indonesia had both a ferry accident and a plane crash. We met a few crew members who were worried about friends/relatives. We really felt for them.

 

Food: Lido

We ate all of our breakfasts and lunch at the Lido. As an either new (or I never noticed before) offering they had an international buffet poolside on sea days. On different days we had Indonesian, German, Mexican, and a few others we didnt attend. I was happy to see the Indonesian as I remember a few years back they used to have an Indonesian lunch buffet on one side of the Lido, and I missed that. Breakfasts were good, with a nice variety of offerings. Being from the NE I wished they had real maple syrup, but the dont. Lunches were very fresh and well-prepared. I usually had one of the two different stir-fry offerings each day.

 

Food: Dining Room

We found the food to be a few steps above what we have had recently on HAL. Most things were consistently good, a few things excellent. My favorites were a lobster appetizer on Christmas, the Shrimp Provencal, Hazelnut encrusted brie, and a seafood plate that included king crab and lobster.

 

Drinks:

A special mention on the drinks - over the past (18-24 months?) HAL has changed their drink recipes to incorporate some modern choices, made with fresh juices. I really love the grapefruit cosmo and green apple martini. The cucumber lime smash is also great and refeshing on a hot day. The prices are around $6 (less when they are a drink of the day special), and I would be happy to have any of these drinks at a land based restaurant/bar where I think they would cost a few dollars more.

 

Sorry this review is taking a long time to complete....I'm back in the full swing at work and trying to write a little more each day (almost done!)

[WeLoveCruising]

Half Moon Cay

Our favorite port in the Caribbean and a pleasure to visit again. This time we were there with the Volendam. It made it a wee bit crowded, but still enjoyable. We rented the orange cabana. Ziggy who posts frequently to this board has so much info on the cabanas that there isnt much I can add to that, only my own opinion. I sometimes read that people dont want the orange cabana because they'd prefer a more soothing color. I wouldnt worry about the color at all. In fact, all the porches are white, and arent we all looking outward instead of in anyway? The color wouldnt matter to me at all. If you have your choice of cabana (and my experience is that we dont book far enough in advance anyway to have our choice) I would choose more by location than color. The orange cabana is between the sky blue and turquoise, near the food area and water sports area. Its pretty convenient, but not the most private. It all depends on what you want. We did the cabana option without the butler ($219) which included priority tendering, 4 liters bottled water, 8 sodas (our choice), chips/salsa, veggie crudite, and fruit plate. The staff did a good job of checking on us throughout the day. The cabana had a table with four chairs, two lounge chairs with misters, a shower, and float mats. It was supposed to have snorkel equipment, but it didnt. No one was particularly helpful at helping us figure out how to get it, so we gave up. (Not that we missed snorkeling, we had fun anyway). We didnt go with the butler option since it didnt seem worth it for the two of us, but the lucky people next door to us did. We were happy what we had, but I sure felt a twinge of jealousy at their champagne, Pinnacle Grill lunch, etc. We thought we'll do it next time when/if we travel with our teenage children or another couple. We had to leave HMC at 2:30, which cut the day short. I didnt want to leave!

[diann744]

Fantastic review; thank you so much.

 

I'm sorry to hear that your husband was ill and am glad it was short lived (although I'm sure it didn't feel that way.)

 

I too have read posts about quarantined passengers being completley ignored (which I never fully believed) and was happy to see that your experience was different.

 

I recently posted my own review of a holiday cruise, aboard the Zaandam to Hawaii, and you did a much better job of relating the holiday decor and atmosphere than I managed.

 

The only think I'll call you on, with all due respect, is Mr. & Mrs. C. They couldn't possibly have sailed with you as they were sitting next to me, with their adult daughter, throughout my Zaandam cruise. Too hot; too cold; last in but insisted on being served first, etc. Actaully, now that I think about it, the parents were pretty quiet but the daughter must have held medical power of attorney because she was allowed to run roughshod over the crew.

 

Anyway, lovely post and I hope you're both healthy and looking forward to your next wonderful cruise.

 

Thanks

 

Diann

[WeLoveCruising]

Sorry for the delay, problems on the board have made a few of my posts disappear.

 

Lets try again this morning. I live in upstate NY and we're getting that big ice storm today, so thinking about the Caribbean is a good thing ;)

 

Holiday Celebrations

As I said earlier in the post, we were quarantined on Christmas Eve, so we missed everything. It looked good on the video playing in the cabin. The schedule called for Christmas caroling, Captain's tree lighting ceremony, and midnight services for both Catholics and Protestants. We heard from other passengers that the caroling was great - each group of staff crew sang carols from their own culture.

 

Christmas morinng brought a visit from Santa to the Rembrandt lounge, with gifts for all the children, and special brunch buffett, and more Christmas music.

[WeLoveCruising]

New Years Eve

The night started with a formal dinner in the dining room. The dining room was decorated in black and white, with gold accents. There were balloons, streamers, and banners. Tiaras were provided for the ladies, and party hats for the men. The staff was also passing out noise makers and other fun stuff. We had received a gift of a bottle of champagne in our cabin, which we brought to the wine bar a few days before and asked them to chill and hold it for our dinner, and it was waiting for us.

 

After dinner, around 11pm, they started setting up international buffet stations around the ship - outside the casino, in the atrium, outside the Crow's Nest, etc. They had French with chocolate and cheese fondues, as well as crepes, Mexican, and cheese station, dessert station, Dutch, etc.

 

I cant imagine that anyone was in their room this night, because the ship was hopping! There were parties in all the lounges. The Rembrandt lounge had dancing on the stage with the officers, and a "Father New Year" character and a "Baby New Year". Champagne started flowing freely around 11:45 and they were generous with it until about 12:30. There was no lack of champagne and our glasses were filled about 7-8 times without us asking.

 

Countdown started, and at midnight the balloons were released from a net above, and the band and crowd broke out into Auld Lang Syne.

 

We had so much fun that the next morning we started checking itinteraries for next Christmas / New Years :)

[rebeljohn]

WOW! What a nice review.............We cruised the Maasdam out of Norfolk too, and LOVED it. Thanks for posting!!!

[WeLoveCruising]

Summary and Final Thoughts

I went through my notes and think I about covered it all. Just wanted to summarize with our favorites and not so favorite things. Please take the “not so’s” in perspective – this was one of our best cruises ever. We’re almost ready to book the Noordam 14 day next Christmas/New Years.

Favorite Experiences:

· SERVICE! I cant say enough about the great staff we had in the dining room, and service was consistently good throughout the ship.

· Lido food – it was never bad in the past, but we found it greatly improved

· Thermal Suite – relaxing in the lounge chairs with the ship rocking slowly

· Listening stations in the Explorations Café – a great variety of all types of music. I loved getting a coffee drink and sipping it while listening to my favorite music and watching the ocean

· Walking the promenade deck at night after dinner – very quiet and romantic

· The rainforest in Dominica

· Our cabana at HMC

· Sleeping in every morning in the comfy bed

· Wine tasting with the Cellar Master, Fernando

What I could have done without:

· Most of the merchandise in the gift shop

· Art auction pictures all over the atrium

· Mr/Mrs. C (see previous posts) and hearing their constant complaining every night. I know this has nothing to do with HAL, but it was tiresome to listen to….

· Music in the Crow’s Nest (too modern for our taste)

· The lady at HMC who came up to our cabana to take our lounge chair, and was rude with me when I told her it was ours. She said “I don’t see you sitting in it”

· Having to leave….wish we were still onboard!

[WeLoveCruising]

Summary and Final Thoughts

I went through my notes and think I about covered it all. Just wanted to summarize with our favorites and not so favorite things. Please take the “not so’s” in perspective – this was one of our best cruises ever. We’re almost ready to book the Noordam 14 day next Christmas/New Years.

Favorite Experiences:

· SERVICE! I cant say enough about the great staff we had in the dining room, and service was consistently good throughout the ship.

· Lido food – it was never bad in the past, but we found it greatly improved

· Thermal Suite – relaxing in the lounge chairs with the ship rocking slowly

· Listening stations in the Explorations Café – a great variety of all types of music. I loved getting a coffee drink and sipping it while listening to my favorite music and watching the ocean

· Walking the promenade deck at night after dinner – very quiet and romantic

· The rainforest in Dominica

· Our cabana at HMC

· Sleeping in every morning in the comfy bed

· Wine tasting with the Cellar Master, Fernando

What I could have done without:

· Most of the merchandise in the gift shop

· Art auction pictures all over the atrium

· Mr/Mrs. C (see previous posts) and hearing their constant complaining every night. I know this has nothing to do with HAL, but it was tiresome to listen to….

· Music in the Crow’s Nest (too modern for our taste)

· The lady at HMC who came up to our cabana to take our lounge chair, and was rude with me when I told her it was ours. She said “I don’t see you sitting in it”

· Having to leave….wish we were still onboard!

[WeLoveCruising]

Duplicate, sorry

[ger_77]

The lady at HMC who came up to our cabana to take our lounge chair, and was rude with me when I told her it was ours. She said “I don’t see you sitting in it”

 

Oh my goodness, she had more nerve than a bad tooth! It's really hard to believe how bold and brash some people can be - I'd hate to live next door to her.:eek:

 

Thanks for your comprehensive review, I'm really looking foward to our upcoming trip on the Maasdam. You said you didn't care for the music in the Crow's Nest - what era were they focused on? Were there any other bars or lounges that you really enjoyed?

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

[carol&jeff]

What times were the late seatings? I thought they were 8:00 (upper) and 8:30 (lower), but could the earlier one actually be 7:45 instead?

 

And were there trivia games, karaokee, and ping pong tournaments?

 

Thanks!

[WeLoveCruising]

What times were the late seatings? I thought they were 8:00 (upper) and 8:30 (lower), but could the earlier one actually be 7:45 instead?

 

And were there trivia games, karaokee, and ping pong tournaments?

 

Thanks!

 

Sorry it took awhile to respond...just back from a trip (business this time :( )

 

You're correct, dinner was 8pm upper and 8:30 lower. We had a nice table for 2 upper along the balcony.

 

There was a daily trivia game, but I dont know about karaokee. There is ping pong as well, but I dont know if there were any organized tournaments.

 

Also happy to report an update...we're very close to booking the Maasdam again on April 4th!:) :) :)

[RuthC]

I am so glad this thread floated to the top---I never saw it before as I was sailing when you posted.

This was a delightful read! :) (And I know what you mean about real maple syrup---HAL doesn't even have good fake syrup.;) )

Glad you had such an enjoyable cruise. Hope the next one is even better. :)

[RuthC]

It's the WSOD.

[RuthC]

Sheesh.