traveler1980 Posted July 23, 2009 #1 Share Posted July 23, 2009 June 27 - July 4, 2009 Arrival: When we arrived at the pier, things were a bit chaotic. We seemed to be the only ones arriving at that time, but we felt very rushed. We needed to get a couple of extra luggage tags because my Dad had e-docs and hadn’t received luggage tags. They seemed put-off with the time it took for us to get the extra luggage tags. Once all luggage was tagged and sent-off it was a breeze to go through the terminal. We walked right in with no lines, filled out the health form, got our keys, took the picture and were onboard walking to the lido. On Board Services: I did notice that they did not have an area set up to drop luggage while waiting for rooms to be ready. Last year, this was something we used on Veendam while eating, before the rooms were ready. We didn’t really need it, so it was not a big deal – just noticing. I’m going to go ahead and mention the absence of trays in this section. It is not a huge ordeal, but a bit of an inconvenience. It mostly just required me to get back up to get drinks as I had no hands left after getting my meal. I did not notice anyone trying to help people get drinks or bring food/drinks to their tables – instead, you could wait for the roving steward to come around and help with drinks. Lately, a few people have mentioned the absence of their room stewards upon arrival. We met ours almost immediately after entering our room. I should say we met one of them, because there were two names on the card, but I only ever knew who one of them was. Very nice and kept our room well. On the other hand, my Dad never met his room stewards. His room was kept fine, it was just odd that they never introduced themselves. There was a post recently about the purchase of on-board gifts and not receiving them. We had the same problem. We had purchased my Dad an on-board credit online before leaving and wrote our card to him online. We asked for it to be delivered to his room on the first day we arrived. On day two, when it still had not arrived, I began contacting the front desk. The front desk insisted it would be delivered immediately upon my phone call….it was not. I then called the next day and told them I would like this card delivered (they could see the order in the computer) and it still didn’t get delivered. I went down to the front desk and then it was finally delivered. What a hassle!!! Very disappointed that it was not done how it should have been in the first place. On a good note, our cruise critic Meet and Greet was a huge success! Thank you to David (Bramcruiser) for starting our thread over a year before the cruise set sail. We met so many wonderful people and enjoyed hearing lots of cruising stories. The ship provided tea/coffee/water and cookies. The future cruise consultant Char and the Beverage Manager also stopped by. Thanks to everyone who was there! The turnout was fantastic. On our sea day, we were invited to the Mariner’s lunch which was a lovely event of around 500. It is amazing to think that almost half the ship had traveled with HAL before. There were a few comments made by Drew our CD and the Captain, but otherwise just a lovely lunch and the meeting other cruisers. My husband did comment that he did see the wine flowing at other tables, but at ours, we only received one glass. I would be leaving out a major part of our trip if I did not mention the crew! They were amazing on this ship. By far the best crew we have had on a ship yet. It was really the little things that stood out. Many of the crew members went out of their way to get to know us and talk to us throughout the trip. They also made sure all of our needs were met whether that meant timely bar service or getting us snacks to go along with our drinks. They really have this down on the Maasdam! Food: I felt the food on this cruise was superior to our other two cruises on HAL. The food just seemed fresher and better prepared. They also had some foods I had not seen on a HAL menu before. Our only previous experience, though, had been Alaskan cruises. They were also so accommodating when I needed something left out of the dish. Customizing dishes, such as ordering “no onions”, was never a problem. Overall, I would say it was a good experience in the dining room and Lido. We did not eat at the Terrace Grill and my husband and I did not use room service. My Dad used room service every morning for breakfast and said they were very timely each day. We did eat in the Pinnacle Grill one night and my husband and I thought our meals were fantastic. My Dad ordered the salmon and thought it was dry. Our amuse was a shrimp, so apparently Maasdam keeps mixing that one up as I’ve read others on here, even during the same cruise. I do need to remember not to order the scalloped potatoes because it is just not what I imagine it being. My Dad wanted some veggies that were not on the menu and they got him both carrots and broccoli. I also heard the table behind me ask if they could have the lobster mac and cheese as a side dish and they said yes. Would definitely go back to the Pinnacle. Open Seating: The first two nights we just walked in as we had open seating and we were able to get a table for just the three of us. On the third night we walked in and they said they did not have a table available unless we wanted to share, so we went ahead and shared and met some lovely people and had great conversation. The next night we had a table again for just the three of us and the dining room manager offered us to be on this table the rest of the cruise. It worked out perfectly. We had amazing stewards and things went very smooth. Entertainment and Ship Layout: We went to the show every night except for the magician night. Our favorite evening was the night of the piano player, Paul Pappas. If you enjoy piano at all this is a not miss show in my opinion. The singers and dancers were okay. The first show they put on of the cruise was their best and then it went a bit downhill. I was not a fan of the evening where they just sang and there was no dancing/choreography involved in the production. This is not to slight the talent of their singers/dancers sometimes I think they just don’t give them the best material. My husband really enjoys walking the deck’s oval walkway. The S-Class ships are a nice size for ¼-mile laps. Rumor has it, rooms in this ship’s class are being retrofitted for Lower Promenade rooms to have an open patio and deck chairs . This means that the walkway will be a shared area. We’ll see how this works out. Family and Children: I should start that my husband and I are 29 and 31, so we are considered by most to be young cruisers on Holland America, but we love the product and what it provides. With that said, this cruise had more children than our other two cruises combined. We noticed immediately, on the first day, the amount of families that were traveling with young children. They even had ship-planned meet-and-greets for the teenagers. It was definitely not a bother for us as the kids were well behaved, but worth mentioning as a lot of people think Holland America is only for older cruisers…not so! Ports: As others on our cruise have said, the weather was less than spectacular on our cruise (but it could have been much worse). The fog was the worst part, as it blocked viewing of what we can only imagine being beautiful scenery. Our first three stops (Bar Harbor, Halifax, and Sydney) were really the only ones hampered and it was never a constant or pouring rain, but more of just a drizzle or light rain with varying levels of visibility due to fog. After those stops, the weather was beginning to be on our side! I will just give a brief report of what we did at our stops and if you have further questions about port stops feel free to ask! Bar Harbor - We walked around town on our own and then took Oli’s Trolley through Acadia National Park. Unfortunately, due to the weather, we were not able to go up to Cadillac Mountain or really see much of the park. Our best stop was at Thunder Hole. We ate lunch at Geddy’s upon our return to town. Very enjoyable and good food. Halifax – We rented a car from Enterprise and went to Peggy’s Cove, Mahone Bay, Lunenberg, and the Titanic cemetery. Peggy’s Cove was really pretty and worth the drive to see, but the fog really hampered some beautiful scenery. The sun actually came out on our way to Mahone Bay, so we were very happy!!! Not sure if it was the weather or what, but I wish we wouldn’t have taken the time to drive to Mahone Bay or Lunenberg. I think our time would have been better spent touring the Citadel. Mahone Bay we just drove through and Lunenberg we ate lunch, but nothing overwhelming…again it could have been the weather. I am really glad we stopped at the Titanic cemetery. A very interesting stop with lots of information, it helped tour guides were giving tours that we could listen to! We cut this time closer than we’re used to – but we made it with time to spare. Kudos to Enterprise for speedy and friendly service. Sydney – We rented another car from Enterprise and went to Fort Louisbourg. A very interesting spot, but due to the weather not somewhere we wanted to hang around all day. We stayed and toured on our own for about an hour and a half and then headed back to Louisbourg for lunch. This was one of my husbands favorite times of the whole trip just getting to meet and talk with the locals in the town of Louisbourg. We had a great lunch at Grubsteak, a local restaurant. The homemade desserts, specifically the pistachio cake, were fantastic! We then headed around to view the lighthouse. It was so beautiful!!! The waves were crashing in and we were able to walk right up to the lighthouse. What a great stop! Again, Enterprise got us to and from the ship with smile. Charlottetown – Pretty cool to be in this lovely town on Canada Day. There were wonderful celebrations and festivals going on all over the island. We rented a car from Discount Rentals and DO NOT recommend them. They were terrible in giving us directions in where they would pick us up from the ship and only had about 2-3 18 year olds running the production on that day. After about 45 min. of waiting and trying to find them we were on the way to their office. We did get about $20 off our rental for the inconvenience. We drove up through North Rustico and went through the National Park (free on Canada Day) and got out and walked on the beautiful beaches and enjoyed the view of the red cliffs. We ate lunch and viewed another lighthouse before heading back to Charlottetown. We then turned in the car and enjoyed walking around Charlottetown. What a great town! You could definitely just stay here for the day and really enjoy yourself. Quebec City – We were told this is a great walking city and boy were they not kidding….walking and more walking we did! We took the funicular up to the hotel and took a tour of the Chateau Frontenac. It was a lovely tour and worth taking. We then walked around and found a nice French style restaurant with baguette sandwiches and French pastries. So yummy!!! We spent the rest of our time just walking around and checking out the area. The sun came out!! What a great city! Montreal – We stayed overnight in Montreal so we had some time to check things out. We first went to Old Montreal and enjoyed walking around, but were shocked to see that the Cathedral had a charge to enter, we decided we were not going to pay. We walked around and then took the subway to go to the Jazz Festival. Wow, what a cool experience. Very glad we were able to do this. That evening we went up Mount Royal…my only advice, make sure you have exact change for the bus, we ended up walking back down the hill till we could go to a gas station to get exact change! Makes for a good story now – it turns out that the driver allowed a “Free Subway Reverse-Transfer On Trust”. On the morning before we left we decided to go and walk through Old Montreal again. This time mass was in session so we could go in the Cathedral for free, so we took the opportunity and I’m glad we did. Wow, it was very impressive. A few other comments…we noticed a real cut back in HAL staffing as far as activity staff goes. Also they were no longer giving out Dam Dollars. Is that on all ships now? If you have any questions please feel free to ask! We really enjoyed our trip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alabama ghost Posted July 23, 2009 #2 Share Posted July 23, 2009 I really enjoyed your review. Thanks so much for taking the time to write it. The tour of the Chateau Frontenac--was there a charge or was this something the Chateau did? Did you set it up ahead of time? We're going on the Crown Princess in October to a lot of the same ports. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Kruizers Posted July 23, 2009 #3 Share Posted July 23, 2009 Thank you for taking the time to write your review. Enjoyed reading it. There were rumors floating around here about the Dam Dollars being discontinued. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliaschief Posted July 23, 2009 #4 Share Posted July 23, 2009 Very nice review. With all the reviews for the MS Maasdam it is readily apparent that our May cruise was the norm. Great ship and crew. According to some ship officers the MS Maasdam consistently receives the highest ratings from passengers than any other ship in the fleet. Anxiously awaiting our booked repositioning cruise to Florida on the Maasdam. Thanks for the effort it was well worth the wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dvdfreakmc Posted July 23, 2009 #5 Share Posted July 23, 2009 Thanks so much for your review. Sorry that the weather wasn't so great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sail7seas Posted July 23, 2009 #6 Share Posted July 23, 2009 Thanks so much for your review. I really enjoyed reading it and am so happy you loved Maasdam and her crew so much. She really is a great ship with an awesome crew IMO We did your cruise b-to-b in June and had some of the same weather you encountered but not quite as bad. It didn't impact us very much.... still had a great time. Welcome back and thanks for sharing your review with us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthC Posted July 24, 2009 #7 Share Posted July 24, 2009 Thank you for your review; I enjoyed reading it. And thank you very much for mentioning Paul Pappas by name! It's so nice to read that he's still around HAL ships. Always a pleasure to attend his performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traveler1980 Posted July 24, 2009 Author #8 Share Posted July 24, 2009 There was a charge for the tour at the Chateau, but I think it was worth it. Not sure if I remember correctly, but maybe around $15 or so. They only took cash so plan ahead (or there is an ATM in the hotel.) I think you can pretty much book the tour the day of, we did, so you can just see where the day takes you in Quebec City! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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