Maasdam
Maasdam Overview
Tonnage: 55,491
Length: 720 ft
Passengers: 1,258
Crew: 618
Registry: Netherlands
Officers: Dutch
The second ship in the oldest "S-class" (for Statendam) of Holland ships, the smallest and quietest in the fleet.
Best For People Who WantA dignified cruise experience in elegant, flower-bedecked surroundings, fewer children than on other mass-market lines; the best dedicated crossword puzzle area at sea.
Should Be Avoided By People Who PreferVibrant night life, active casino and lively after-hours scene. Not recommended for families with small children or singles seeking wild-'n'-craziness.
Onboard ExperienceAs you board these ships, a beaming Indonesian or Filipino staff member in white gloves greets you delightedly and then shows you to your quarters. Many of the most fondly recalled elements of the classical style of cruising are unmistakably alive and well here. You'll find no feverish singles action here, and the casino closes at an hour that will horrify some high-rolling insomniacs. What you will find is a palpable reverence for culture, art, and antiques, and lots of fresh flowers. If large cabins with private verandas, ballroom dancing and bridge float your boat, these, moderately-priced premium cruises may well be the boats to float it.
Maasdam was the second of the S-class of ships, a sister ship to the Statendam (1), Ryndam (3) and Veendam (4). Though built as recently as 1994, these are the oldest ships in the fleet.
Maasdam is fully subscribed to Holland America's "Signature of Excellence" program, with enhancements to nearly every area of the ship. Staterooms now offer the best mattresses and duvets sold in Europe, flat screen TVs, and DVD players. There's early boarding and a choice of four dinner seatings. New service amenities include a new Culinary Arts Program with a demonstration kitchen for instructional cooking classes, expanded spa and fitness facilities, tableside waiter service at dinner in the Lido, new shore excursions and upgraded Club HAL Kids Centers. The Explorations Cafe is a combination reading and listening library, Internet center, and sidewalk cafe.
DecorA gentle and warm decor that is easy on the eyes is punctuated by a $2 million antiques and art collection.
Public RoomsWhen you reach the atrium on Maasdam, or any other Holland America ship, you won't really recognize you have found it. It is a smallish space mostly taken up by the 30-foot-high glass sculpture, "Totem," by Italian artist Luciano Vistosi. On Holland America ships the action is elsewhere, mostly on the Upper Promenade deck where the public rooms flow bow to stern. It is remarkably easy to find your way around the ship. The large Ocean Bar, with large picture windows to the sea seems to be a natural gathering place for pre--dinner cocktails. After dinner, the actions moves to the sing along piano bar, or the 89-seat Explorer's Lounge offers a string quartet or a harpist performing light classical favorites in the evening.
The glamorous two-story main dining rooms, framed with floor-to-ceiling windows, feature a dramatic staircase and a classical trio holding forth demurely from a perch on the top level. Just outside the second level, ladies will find a wonderful, spacious powder room with ocean views.
The main show lounge has two floors and a wide stage, with comfortable seating, though sight lines from the balcony are partially obscured. There is a large dance floor in front of the stage and the onboard 9-piece orchestra plays pre-dinner dance music nightly. The Crows Nest observation lounge, with its 320-degree view, is the perfect place from which to watch your departure from port; at night it becomes the shipboard "disco" dance room. The beautiful wood-paneled library has etched glass doors, comfortable chairs and ottomans, an inlaid marble table, and excellent reference and travel book sections. The nearby card room can simultaneously accommodate four dozen players.
CuisineHolland America has never been famous for its dining room food, much as you can hardly name a famous Dutch food item. Many meat entrees tend to be on the heavy side (veal, pork), and are often over-cooked and smothered in sauce. Adding injury, they may arrive from the kitchen less than piping hot. Steaks, chicken filets and salmon are offered every night as alternatives, as are vegetarian and low calorie meals. The buffets are where Holland America shine, with great breakfasts, lunches with seafood and wonderful desserts. You won't leave the cruise feeling dissatisfied with the food.
RestaurantsThere are tables for two, four, six and eight in the opulent two-level Vista Dining Room, which benefits from sea views and a romantically twinkling, fiber optics-lit ceiling, Rosenthal china, sparkling crystal, and crisp linens. There are four dining seatings - 5:45 p.m., 6:15 p.m., 8:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Casual breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight buffets featuring ethnic cuisine are served in the Lido restaurant adjacent to the pool.
The cozy, intimate Pinnacle Grill specializes in the ingredients of the Pacific Northwest. Its dedicated galley includes 1600-degree grill. Bulgari china, unique holloware and a dedicated service staff enhance the elegant atmosphere, as too does the wine list, which features several California and Washington vintages not offered in the main dining room. Reservations are required and there is a $20 service charge.
Twenty-four-hour room service is very efficient, and between meals you can order from a large list of snacks, salads and sandwiches. At mealtimes, you can order from the same menu those in the dining room are perusing.
ServiceHolland America's Indonesian and Filipino crew is warm and gracious, though not always as fluent in English as American and British passengers might prefer. Speak slowly and make sure they understand what you need, because they can be to polite to ask you to repeat yourself.
TippingFor years Holland America was known for its no-tipping policy, intended to make passengers believe that staff were doing it for love, rather than money. Now, gratuities of $10.00 per person (including children) are automatically added daily to the shipboard account for dining and stateroom service. Visit the front desk to adjust that amount. A 15 percent service is automatically added to bar bills.
EntertainmentThe main lounge presents variety shows, a lavish Broadway-style revue and an energizingly fervent dance production. There's a jazz quartet in the Ocean Bar and fresh hot popcorn in the Wajang Theater, where you can see first-run films every afternoon and evening.
CabinsAll Holland America ships feature lovely, comfortable and spacious cabins, probably the best offerings in this price range. Stateroom amenities include a complimentary fresh fruit basket on arrival and bathrobes. There is a massage shower head in every bathroom. There is plenty of closet and drawer space, just make sure your suitcase will fit under the bed. Inside cabins are 182 sq. feet, outside staterooms are 197 sq. feet. Balcony cabins offer considerably more interior cabin space than you might expect.
Penthouse suites, at 1,100 square feet, are absolutely gorgeous with private verandahs and wonderful amenities. The 563-square foot suites, ultramodern with large private verandahs, are nearly as grand. The 120 deluxe category A and B cabins are 284 square feet (including verandah), each with VCR, minibar, and sitting area. There are whirlpool tubs in the bathrooms. For Deluxe Verandah and Penthouse Suite passengers, concierge service is available in the Neptune Lounge, a private retreat where they can relax, read and socialize.
The outside cabins on the Lower Promenade Deck have pedestrian walkways (and thus, at least intermittently, pedestrians) between their occupants and the ocean. While special reflective glass precludes said pedestrians from peeking in during the day, at night you have to close your curtains.
Fitness/SpaThese ships all have large spa and windowed Ocean Spa gyms attractive enough to make even the most determinedly sedentary want to come in. The sauna/steam rooms, segregated by gender, are impossible to fault. Way up top is a jogging track, isolated from cabins and other activities to spare non-joggers the sound of thundering hooves. On the deck, comfortable striped cushions line a large pool covered by a retractable dome on Lido Deck, just the thing for rainy days in Alaska. The Dolphin Bar, with umbrellas and wicker chairs, is an unbeatable spot for a late afternoon drink and snack after a visit ashore.
Children's FacilitiesYounger passengers are kept diverted with supervised Club HAL crafts, parties, and games for three age groups 5-8, 9-12 and 13-17, with the number of counselors allotted to each cruise dependent on the number of younger voyagers. Many children find Holland America's planned activities severely humdrum. The restaurant offers a children's menu. Baby-sitting is available at sea for $7.50 per child per hour.
AttireOn the two weekly formal nights, half the men opt for dark suit rather than renting a tuxedo. Casual on these ships means comfortable, but T-shirts, jeans, swimsuits, tank tops and shorts are all forbidden in the dining rooms and public areas.
User Reviews
by Jim
Thornton
Thornton
12 Reviews
Publication Date: April 27, 2012
This was our tenth Holland America Line (HAL) cruise out of the 23 cruises we have taken since 1995. Each of the HAL cruises has been on a different ship, except that we've been on two cruises on the Westerdam. Our cabin on the Maasdam was a verandah suite (Category B) on the Verandah Deck, the deck 9, mid-ship. We sailed on a 16-day eastern United States (US) and Canada cruise from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to three other ports in the US, and to eight Canadian ports ending at Montreal, Canada. We had done a similar cruise in 1997 on the Norwegian Dreamward from New York City to Montreal. Plus, on this cruise, there was three days at sea when going between the four US ports. Plus, we stayed one night before the cruise at the HAL approved Western Fort Lauderdale Hotel.
FLIGHTS - We selected Delta Airlines for our seven-hour flights from Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale with a change of aircraft in Atlanta and a return nine-hour flight from Montreal to Los Angeles with a change aircraft again in Atlanta.
SHIP - The Maasdam is one of the mid
sized ships of HAL. It has 10 decks with two groups of four inside elevators, located near the bow and the stern of the ship. The ship has 972 cabins for 1,258 passengers and a very friendly crew of 580.CABIN - Our cabin was smaller (8 x 26 feet) than on our previous 2004 Westerdam cabin when we sailed the western Mediterranean. Our cabin had a thermostat that didn't seem to work as the cabin was always cool, and a comfortable king-size bed with six pillows with room to place our suitcases under the bed. There were two nightstands, a safe, two bathrobes, one chair, one large desk with extra drawers, four closets, and a bathroom with a toilet, bath and shower, and single sink. The cabin had only a single 110-volt electrical outlet at the desk location. HAL previously provided a special luggage tags containing our cabin number and our luggage arrived in our cabins before we did on the first day aboard the ship.
VERANDAH - The verandah (6 x 8 feet) had one chair and one long chair for resting the entire body. Plus, the end of the cabin towards the verandah was two large glass windows and a large glass door, which was nice.
IN-CABIN TV AND SOUND SYSTEM - A color TV with about 18 channels including CNN and Fox news, several movie channels, and views of the ship's bow. But frequently the news and other live local channels were interrupted for a while whenever the ship was moving. There was a DVD player with a choice of DVDs available the ship's library for a slight fee. And none of the public announcements were heard in the cabin.
DINING ROOMS The main one is the Rotterdam (decks 7 and 8), and the others are the Pinnacle Grill (deck 8), and Lido (deck 11). In the Rotterdam dining room, at our assigned table for eight, the overall and service food was good. The Pinnacle Grill is only available by making a reservation. Service was very good and the food was much better than the main dinning room. There is a $20 per person surcharge. And we enjoyed the Lido for breakfast and lunch to avoid the large lines waiting to enter the Rotterdam; plus the Lido served breakfast earlier than the Rotterdam. In addition, there were three formal nights during the cruise.
BARS - There is about four or more bars and we always enjoy the Crow's Nest, especially when leaving a port before dinner, as the room overlooks the ship's bow and the direction in which the ship is sailing. There are several major problems with the popular Crow's Nest - very often you will find all of the chairs and tables being used by non-drinking passengers either reading books or even just sleeping; a question and answer game being played there at happy hour when your second drink only costs one dollar; and a large smoking area; again this completely fills up the bar. And one more minor problem, the ceiling lights are left on during the daylight hours and they are reflected on the windows, which appear in your photographs. HAL should correct these problems.
TIPS - There's an automatic assessment of $11 per day per guest and 15% is added to all drinks.
CHECK-IN - Initial check-in is slower than usual. However, each time you board the ship during the cruise, your cabin card is scanned and your photograph is displayed to the ship's security personnel. And when returning to the ship in Canada, you needed to carry a second form of ID with your photograph (like your driver's license). Also, every time you re-board the ship, all carry-on items (purses, bags, etc.) will be scanned.
TOURS - There are 14 ports and here is the most interesting thing in each port. Some of the interesting sites are: where the US Civil War began, a small island where ten or more different sea birds live, a goat cheese farm, a glass blowing company, fresh lobster fishing, historical Canadian sites, etc.
ON SHIP ILLNESS - It was reported that one or two passengers got sick aboard the ship and the ship really increased the keeping the ship clean and there was no other sickness aboard.
OVERALL OPINION - We were the first cruise of the year to these ports in the end of April and the beginning of May; thus we experienced cold weather and infrequent light rain showers on some days.
by Jo Anne
1 Review
Publication Date: March 23, 2012
We just returned from an Eastern and Southern Caribbean cruise on Maasdam. My husband and I are both in our 60's. We are active and in good health. My parents who are in their 80's traveled with us.
We stayed at the Sleep Inn and Suites at Ft. Lauderdale airport the night before the cruise. It was fine, nothing fancy but clean and the staff was very helpful. Breakfast was included. We used their free shuttle from the airport and to the pier. We had dinner at Pancho's Backyard across the street. The food was very good. A grocery store is in the same shopping center and a Walgreens is next door. A Chinese and an Italian restaurant are within walking distance.
Embarkation and disembarkation went very smoothly and quickly. Many passengers stayed on the ship for the previous or following cruise so I don't think all 1250 passengers were checking in on the same day.
We had a Lanai room and we enjoyed being able to go out on the deck. I think the kitchen or storage is above the lanai rooms. It wasn't noisy, but every once in a while we
heard some strange sounds. Storage in the room was fine. The bathroom had a tub, which meant the shower area was large which was nice, but it was really deep which made it hard to get in and out. The bed and bedding were very comfortable. We didn't see our stewards for the first few days of the cruise, but they did a good job and responded promptly to my request for an additional towel. We did have days where our room wasn't made up until after lunch even though we were out of the room all morning. I know that sounds petty, but it bothered us.The ship is small. The main passenger areas are very compact. We decided that the small ship was not a good fit for us. It was really limited in a lot of ways: less going on, fewer music venues and less variety on the Lido buffet. They have tried to convert the Lido into islands, but it is still a long old style buffet with dividers inserted for the different types of food.
The food seemed bland and not very interesting. Service in the dining room was great. We had anytime dining and ended up requesting the same waiter for all of our meals. He was great! We were disappointed with anytime dining. We were not allowed to make a reservation between 6 and 7. If you wanted to eat then, you had to take your chances on a walk up and they indicated that the line could be really long. We didn't try it and settled for an early reservation. We did not try the Pinnacle.
The singers in the show room were great. They were much more experienced than the usual cruise ship singers. There were only two dancers who were also very good. We enjoyed the dancing lessons they gave. With the small ship and small cast they did not do the standard Broadway or movie music reviews, but the shows they did were very good. The HALCats orchestra and lead singer were very good. The jazz/dance band was good. We like to dance and we were able to every night. The pianist and string quartet were also good.
I don't think we will go on HAL again unless it is a really outstanding itinerary. It's not that anything was really bad; it just didn't seem to be as good as Royal Caribbean or Celebrity. The average age of the cruisers was older, too, 70 ish.
We really enjoyed all the ports that we visited. The islands each have very different cultures reminiscent of the European countries that settled each. It almost seemed like a quick trip to Europe in the architecture. HAL's shore excursions seem to be mostly half day bus tours. There were a few more active ones. As always some were good and others were mediocre.
We left from Fort Lauderdale. We visited Half Moon Cay which was fine for beach lovers. The snorkeling from shore in the beach area was terrible. We took the nature walk which was fun. The guide gave us lots of information on the Bahamas, plants, animals, and her home island of Eluthera. Our tour went to some ruins of old farms, another beach, and the sting ray area.
Our first tour was of St. John's from St. Thomas. The contrast between the two islands is amazing. St. Thomas is very commercial and St. John is relatively untouched since it is mostly National Park. We saw beautiful beaches and ruins of some old sugar plantations.
St. Bart's is a very expensive resort island. They do not allow big hotels, so everything is very high end. We walked around the historical sights in the town of Gustavia. The yachts in the harbor were amazing. The Wall House Museum gave a good history of the island. We had lunch at the Wall House Restaurant. The island is French, but most of the tourist trade speaks English. My attempts at French were pretty much a failure.
Martinique is also a French island and English is not widely spoken, even in the tourist shops in Fort de France. I was a little more successful with my French here. I even had a shop owner who complimented me on trying to speak French. We had a tour of the island including a church, a botanical garden, and St. Pierre which was destroyed when Mt. Pele erupted in 1902. The town has since rebuilt and has a nice little museum. The ruins of the theatre were interesting. The island is very lush and beautiful.
We next stopped in very British Barbados. We did a tour of the island with a photographer with an emphasis on natural rather than historical places. He was really interesting and provided lots of information about the island and its culture. Again, we saw lots of beautiful beaches and tropical foliage. The economy here seems to be thriving. After we returned to the ship we walked into Bridgetown for lunch and some exploring.
Grenada was a real contrast to Barbados. They have suffered a couple of hurricanes recently and have not recovered from the damage. Grenada is known for spices and most of the nutmeg trees were destroyed. The new ones are just now beginning to bear fruit. They also had a revolution (we saw where the US Marines landed) which really damaged their economy. We did a tour which was beautiful, but frustrating because everything was so crowded. We stopped at an old spice plantation, Grand Etang Reserve, Annandale Falls, and Fort Frederick. The island is hilly and green.
Bonaire was a lot of fun. The island is not highly developed. Kralendijk is very small and since we were there on Sunday mostly closed. We had a really good bus tour of the island. We saw flamingoes and some cultural and historical sites. After lunch we went to the Plaza Resort and I snorkeled from the shore. I am an inexperienced snorkeler and had a great time. I saw lots of fish since the reef is right next to the shore and in a marine park. Getting into the water was a little tough since it was so rocky, but the snorkeling was great. Bonaire is not a lush tropical island; it is hot and dry but very interesting.
Curacao and Aruba are both very similar to Bonaire but more developed. They are both big diving and snorkeling sites and very dry. On both islands we walked around the towns and did not do island tours. Willemstad, Curacao is very pretty. The island has a Dutch background as do Bonaire and Aruba. The buildings look like they are from a Dutch town and are painted beautiful colors. The floating market was really interesting. Vendors from South America bring produce on their boats and set up shop on the pier. We visited a good museum on slavery, Kura Hulanda.
Oranjestad, Aruba is not quite as picturesque as Willemstad, but still interesting. We visited the National Archaeological Museum of Aruba which was wonderful. It is very well laid out and informative and only a few blocks from the port. Fort Zoutman was open so we were able to see the inside. We ate lunch at a Cuban restaurant; Cuba's Cookin', which was great.
by Nick Fitton
1 Review
Publication Date: December 12, 2011
Last trip we will ever book with Holland America
I'm a glass ½ full type of person, caused from fighting CLL ( Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia) for the last 22 yrs. We travel to distress and relax and feel cheated when you spend $5,000 plus $700 in tips on a vacation from hell. To start, I must say the first 11 days went ok. It was after that, which HAL let us down.
We've been back from this cruise for 2 weeks now and I'm still sick. Thanks Hal for making so many people sick.
From the 23 of Dec. to the 2 of Jan the ship was under a code red. The crew I talked too had never heard of a code red on any ship they had been on. This was from senior crew members not general staff. The virus on the Maasdam came with them from Europe and stayed for the 3 weeks we were on board. I lost the last week and my wife lost 3 days. 250 guests were sick at the height of this outbreak and that's 20%. Thanks HAL, no apology or compensation for not
fixing a huge problem that was clearly your fault & your responsibility.When we booked this trip in June, we did so because of the itinerary and the islands we had not visited previously. Plus the reviews on this ship and HAL were very good. We went on Carnival for the first time in Sept for 2 week and that cruise rated an 8/10. The Maasdam cruise rates a 3/10.
The price changed several times before final payment of which we received the discounts. 12 days after final payment the price dropped $1000.00. My travel agent did her best to fix this issue and it cost us a $600 penalty to get the $1000.00 reduction. I was also promise an upgrade by HAL customer service for this inconvenience. This never happened and the cabin we did get was the noisiest cabin we've ever been in. My travel agent called HAL and had the CSR reprimanded, for lying to us. So first cruise with HAL, last cruise with HAL, very much like root canal work.
If my friends weren't booked for the first 11 days I would have cancelled this trip in Sept. after the $1000.00 price drop fiasco and eaten the $600.00 penalty to avoid your cruise line.
Got on at about 12:30 pm they started calling numbers, ours was called about 13:30 and after a few minutes we were on board. Our cabin was an interior on the Main Deck 4. The cabin was very large and roomy - lots of storage space. Our cabin stewards, Ali & Johan were very good and attentive. We had open dining, which worked great for us, 7:30 every night. The times we ate in the main dining room, the service was very good and the food was just okay, not great. We ate in the Pinnacle dining room for my friend's 50th birthday which was good but not great both in services and food. The seas were kind of rough for several days and it was difficult to walk & lots of motion. Many people were sea sick the first few days and this could have added to the guests sick with the gastro virus. It's small in size compared to other ships we have sailed on and most of the passengers were older. We were always able to find a place to sit around one of the pools. We did our own tours on all islands, which worked out great. Our biggest complaints were, the lack of info on the outbreak earlier, so I could get the meds I needed, the women's washrooms out of order on decks 12,11 & 10 for the entire first 10 days. A lot of people complained about the nonexistent air conditioning in their cabins. The nonuse of hand sanitizer by a lot of guests until enforced, after all of us were ill. We travel 10 weeks of the year and have been on 8 other cruises of 14 days or longer, when we cruise again we will select a larger ship and we'll never ever give HAL cruise lines another dime of our money, ever!!! Overall, this was our worst vacation experience so far.