Maasdam Jazz Cruise Jan 2012?

[Dog Drool]

Did anyone go on this? I am thinking of taking the cruise in 2013 but not part of the group. I was wondering how much of the ship was off limits. Can I still hang out in the Crows Nest? The 2 week cruise has a nice itinerary I love sea days' book, drink, sun.

[dot73]

As you know from our tiny roll call, I am also booked on this cruise and also worried about how the cruise will be affected by the jazz cruise. As you will see from their website http://www.jazzsea.com/, it's a 30-year anniversary cruise for this group, so there may be a lot of people with this group. If this was one of HAL's larger ships, I wouldn't worry so much. The itinerary of this cruise is amazing with all my favourite ports and 5 sea days which I love. However, I am not a jazz fan, especially dixie land, and the thought of sitting and enjoying the pool or Crow's Nest and having a jazz session break out just doesn't appeal to me. I also love spending time in the Crow's nest during the day and I'm wondering how accessible it will be.

 

Any advice from people who have been on this jazz cruise would be appreciated.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Check out this link from the Westerdam back in January:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1571324&highlight=jazz+band+cruises

[dot73]

"1pm to 1 am, every day, three or four venues of just top of the top jazz. The hardest part was deciding what to go listen to. The second hardest part was your ears and brain getting full of awesome music."

 

This is the part that worries me. I cruise HAL because of the non-party atmosphere.

[Jemima]

We were ready to book this cruise so I took a look at the roll call. We immediately chose another cruise.

[Krazy Kruizers]

That is one cruise I would not book -- especially since it is on a small ship.

[dot73]

I find it strange that there would be a theme cruise on a 14-day itinerary. Usually theme cruises are on 7 or 10-day cruises. Unfortunately, this is the only 14-day itinerary that the Maasdam does in January. It looked like the perfect cruise for me. The final payment isn't until October so I will keep looking. There is a nice Celebrity 14-day cruise available but the price for a solo booking is double and I'm hoping that perhaps the price will go down.

[innlady1]

We've done that itinerary two winters in a row (at the end of January) and it's a fabulous itinerary. We loved it...I'd repeat it but when I saw that this was a jazz cruise...and the only cruise like it until March...we booked the 14 day Ryndam cruise instead.

[dot73]

The Ryndam cruise also looks good but it doesn't have Bonaire on its itinerary and I love to scuba dive there. I will definitely think about changing the Maasdam cruise to this one.

[innlady1]

The Ryndam cruise also looks good but it doesn't have Bonaire on its itinerary and I love to scuba dive there. I will definitely think about changing the Maasdam cruise to this one.

 

 

Bonaire is a delightful island and I know the diving is superb. To me this itinerary is a good replacement since HAL isn't doing the other until March...and that's too late for us.

['The Bear']

We had booked a B-2-B, on the Maasdam, 5 years ago and the Jazz-Sea group rented the whole ship and we were left in a quandry about booking somewhere else. Since our airline tickets and hotels were already purchased, we joined their group.

 

First, we had the same concerns that have been previously voiced, and we were not jazz fans as well; but we had a great time! The 2 halves were completely different cruise experiences. The Jazz Cruise enthusiasts were there strictly to listen to the music. Most didn't go on any excursions, or even leave the ship. If their band was playing during dinner hour they ate at the Lido, so as not to miss the music. Consequently the MDR was only half full most nights, and there were no formal nights!

 

Each of the bands played several sets, at rotating venues, one of which was the Crows Nest. There were no Adagio strings (that was one of the sites!), or any other musical groups. As I remember, and I could be mistaken, there wasn't even the HALcats, playing.

 

The host of this group was very accommodating to us; and we did develop an appreciation of this genre of music. Most of the passengers annually attended this cruise, and their familiarity and friendliness was contagious! There was far more people dancing on this cruise than I've ever seen on any cruise before, or since.

 

Would I go again? ------ Possibly, but I wouldn't change any plans to attend!

[English_in_Spain]

Did HAL warn you when you booked that this would not be a normal cruise?

 

I would be a bit upset if I booked any cruise, especially 14 days, to find that the normal cruise experience was being altered by a large group.

 

['The Bear']

No ----- I had booked this cruise 3 or 4 months earlier, and the first I heard about a group cruise was that there would be a musical group on board, and that some venues would be reserved. Then a month or two later my TA informed me that they had enough participation that they reserved the whole ship.

 

My TA contacted the Jazz Sea organizer and made the appropriate arrangements.

[dot73]

HAL does not tell you if a special group has a large booking on their ships. If it wasn't for CC and the fact that the person who started the roll call mentioned that this was a jazz cruise, I never would have known. No one would think that a 14-day cruise would have a large group on it and most people booking it, wouldn't think so either. If this group ends up being very large, i.e. 1,200 people, HAL will pull the rug from under the regular passengers and make this cruise a charter. They have done this before to people. I have not cancelled my reservation but am looking at other options.

[Dog Drool]

I wanted to see St Barts and Grenada. Need to see what othe cruise goes there.

[dot73]

I wanted to see St Barts and Grenada. Need to see what othe cruise goes there.

 

Me too. Those are the two islands on the itinerary that I haven't been to. I was also looking forward to scuba diving again in Bonaire. That's another island that is hard to find on an itinerary. The Maasdam sails the same itinerary again in March. However, that's our March break up here and all the people with children already have it booked off at my company so I won't be able to get the time off. Also, the flights from Toronto to Florida are outrageously expensive at this time.

[innlady1]

I wanted to see St Barts and Grenada. Need to see what othe cruise goes there.

 

Nice islands. We did this itinerary two years in a row on Maasdam. I wish they'd do what they did last year and run it all winter!