42 Day Atlantic Adventure MS Maasdam review

[albingirl]

Thanks everyone for your kind remarks. This was a wonderful trip and we would do it all over again. Except we won't since there are so many places we haven't seen. Some of the places we visited were breathtaking in their beauty.

[angeldog12]

I am new to HAL first cruise coming up in Jan/15. Thanks for this review I have been debating longer cruises too. Hubby and I love to cruise see different parts of the world so really enjoyed your review. Thank you keep them coming please.

[RuthC]

This must have been an insanely boring review.

 

I would love to hear more about the going-ons on the ship: meals, entertainment, service, etc. That makes up a huge part of any cruise for me.

SilvertoGold nailed it. There was very, very little about the cruise in your narrative. The rest of us may never get (back) to those same ports, but we all share a shipboard experience when we cruise, no matter the itinerary.

That part is important in a cruise review, and was left out.

 

If you ever do decide to do another cruise report, take SilvertoGold's advice and include information about the cruise itself and you may get a better response.

[albingirl]

Ruth, we went on this cruise to see the ports. It was everything you would expect from Holland America. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary to report. It's a small ship; the staff and food were terrific. We don't participate in bingo, trivia, or the casino. The entertainment was lovely and we had a wonderful time. The Neptunes were great, the string duet was wonderful, and our bed was made every day. And of course, prime rib was served on the first evening. It was warm. The shipboard experience is what we've grown accustomed to. :)

[RuthC]

The entertainment was lovely and we had a wonderful time. The Neptunes were great, the string duet was wonderful, and our bed was made every day. And of course, prime rib was served on the first evening.

Yes! Those kinds of things. A report on those would be wonderful. You could add a post (or more) covering those topics to this thread.

[Vict0riann]

I would have avoided that bartender like the plague. Soliciting tips is a real turnoff.

 

What we heard from one of the bartenders was that, if you used your key card to buy a drink, the server's name was on the slip and he/she got the tip. However, if you used your SBP card, although the server's name was still on the slip, the tip went into a kitty, to be shared by all the bar/wine stewards. Maybe that's what he was talking about. I can see where the bartenders who really rushed would be annoyed that they had to share, but I don't think they actually got nothing out of it. We had bar servers buzzing around us like flies looking for business! :D They didn't mind sharing, I guess. We got to know a lot of them, but there were others who did avoid us.

[Vict0riann]

SilvertoGold nailed it. There was very, very little about the cruise in your narrative. The rest of us may never get (back) to those same ports, but we all share a shipboard experience when we cruise, no matter the itinerary.

That part is important in a cruise review, and was left out.

 

I found the whole cruise rather confusing. For next year's cruisers - is it a single cruise, two cruises, a b2b or a Collector's Cruise? I do believe there were two "prime rib" nights, but that was about it. There was no "Code Orange" (yay!:)), only one full muster drill (I imagine they had to do a mini-muster drill for the 100 or so pax who embarked in Civitavecchia), only one Captain's greeting, no second HAL bag, only one Mariners' Reception and lunch, and basically, this is how we knew our Captain:

 

 

Now, I have no complaints about his "captaining"; we were in and out of all our ports safely and on time, he neatly avoided a storm on the Atlantic and he reported at noon every day. He called himself "the voice from the bridge", and that is basically what he was as far as we were concerned. Albingirl, was he at the Officers' Ball? We did not attend. He evidently hosted dinners, cocktail parties, etc., for 5 stars and above, but the one 4-star cocktail party we were invited to was on a port day at 4 p.m. (after 6 sea days) and we were on a tour. I think about half the 4-star pax on the roll call were not invited to a cocktail party at all. Someone who boarded on the second half said he had no idea what the Captain even looked like, so I suggested he go to the Front Office and ask for a copy of the "On Location" which had a copy of his picture (above!).

[RuthC]

Thank you for the post, VictOriann. It was informative.

 

Oh, it sounds like it was one cruise, but divided into segments. There are a few cruises that meet that model.

As always, I am very interested in the entertainment. Is there anything you can say about that?

[albingirl]

The string duet attracted a crowd every evening. They were very talented.

We did see the Captain often, he roamed through the pool area several times and was kind enough to chat for 5 to 10 minutes each time. Lovely man.

The Neptunes were terrific every evening; enjoyed them very much.

There was also a fellow from the British band, ELO, on board and he brought down the house with his show when he sang Elton John songs in the Showroom at see. After that, he sang regularly with the Neptune band and it was very special. He's a very talented pianist, as well, and had quite a following on the ship. Highly entertaining.

Also, the comedians were very funny. We enjoyed their shows. Nothing sticks out as spectacular, but we know we laughed a lot.

Food was outstanding in the MDR. No need for specialty restaurants for us.

We dine rather late, and had the same table each evening with perfect service by 2 gentlemen.

There was a spectacular buffet in the MDR for lunch the day of the Captain's Ball. Lobster, king crab legs, giant shrimp, all you could eat. Wonderful presentation.

At the Captain's ball, the Captain stayed all night. Every officer did, as well.

They danced with the guests and night and it was such a beautiful evening with perfect music.

I can't say enough about this cruise. It was simply a dream come true.

[albingirl]

Also, this cruise had 2 21 day segments, but that was hardly noticeable. Most of the guests were on the 42 day cruise.

We were short about 150 guests on the second half of the cruise, so the ship never felt crowded to me.

It may have had 2 segments, but no ports were repeated at all, so that was nice, as well.

[Vict0riann]

The entertainment was good. The piano man, Tom Conroy, (an Irishman:)) was very popular, and the Mix was always crowded when he played, also for the guitarist, Bill. The Adagio Duo were excellent, we regularly sat there for a while before or after dinner, two Ukrainian girls (one named Anna, I think) who had played together for about a year and a half, and they had an extensive repertoire - I don't know that I ever heard the same thing twice, except for a bit of Abba perhaps (but then my memory ain't what it used to be!:)). The HALcats were very good, the leader, Gervaise, played all the wind instruments wonderfully, and he had great backup. They seemed to be able to play for all the visiting artists with just a few hours practice. We only heard them in the Showroom, and on HMC, but I imagine it was the HALcats playing at the Lido pool or on the stern deck for sailaways.

 

The "singers and dancers" had a problem - one of the dancers had to leave the ship for an emergency, so I don't think we saw them until nearly the end of the cruise, when they picked up a replacement. One of the singers, Chelsea Coyne, was a trained opera singer, and did do beautifully, even had a couple of concerts of her own.

 

A couple of other mentions, our Location Guide, Kelly, was really great. She is an ex-Art History teacher, and was just the right person for the cruise. She hopes to be on next year's cruise. I highly recommend her talks. We learned a lot in anticipation of what to look for, and at the end of the cruise she talked about all we had seen. Really excellent!

 

Another great one was our Cellar Master, Miguel. An Argentinian South African, he was so interesting. We attended all his tastings, and there were many - besides the regular tastings, he did an "Around the World" tasting in the lower atrium lobby, and an Italian wine tasting, also Spanish, and even a "bubbly" wine tasting (my favourite!:D), among others, in the Pinnacle. His wine and food pairings at the Sip and Savour were good, and very popular, and he was always around the ship at meal times. Whenever we took a bottle of wine in to the Pinnacle, he and his team were there, and willing to have a taste of anything we brought on board! (We had some wonderful "volcanic" wines from Lanzarote, Etna and Vesuvius regions.) This was his second contract with HAL, I think, and he's definitely an asset!

 

We had interesting guest speakers, two on the way out and two different ones on the way back. Their talks were well attended.

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review.

The comments by the OP and others were very informative.

Glad you had a good cruise.

[SilvertoGold]

The string duet attracted a crowd every evening. They were very talented.

We did see the Captain often, he roamed through the pool area several times and was kind enough to chat for 5 to 10 minutes each time. Lovely man.

The Neptunes were terrific every evening; enjoyed them very much.

There was also a fellow from the British band, ELO, on board and he brought down the house with his show when he sang Elton John songs in the Showroom at see. After that, he sang regularly with the Neptune band and it was very special. He's a very talented pianist, as well, and had quite a following on the ship. Highly entertaining.

Also, the comedians were very funny. We enjoyed their shows. Nothing sticks out as spectacular, but we know we laughed a lot.

Food was outstanding in the MDR. No need for specialty restaurants for us.

We dine rather late, and had the same table each evening with perfect service by 2 gentlemen.

There was a spectacular buffet in the MDR for lunch the day of the Captain's Ball. Lobster, king crab legs, giant shrimp, all you could eat. Wonderful presentation.

At the Captain's ball, the Captain stayed all night. Every officer did, as well.

They danced with the guests and night and it was such a beautiful evening with perfect music.

I can't say enough about this cruise. It was simply a dream come true.

 

This is great info!

Interesting that the Captain stayed the whole time for the Ball. Somewhat unusual for a HAL Captain, but it is great to hear.

 

Those Show Buffets in the MDR are wonderful: one of the reasons we love longer cruises!

Did you eat in the Lido often?

[albingirl]

We tended to eat breakfast and lunch in the Lido, but not always. Breakfast and lunch in the MDR were great, and much more quiet. Loved the Italian Frittata for breakfast, in the MDR, and it was on the spa menu. We don't eat hamburgers and things like that but the Lido always had good salads and Asian offerings. I tend to go for the soups with a clear broth, and there were plenty of those. I will add that the fish on board was superb. I spoke to the Executive Chef and he said some of it was fresh. I am very picky about my fish and I have no reason to doubt him. Dining in the MDR was a pleasure and there are plenty of healthy offerings nightly.

[Vict0riann]

We had breakfast in the MDR once only, it was soooo slow! We were at a table for eight, and a number of the orders were wrong, or left out altogether, so we didn't bother to go back. The manager of the Pinnacle invited us to have breakfast there one morning as her guests, she was a real sweetie, and needless to say, the breakfast was great. Other than that we had breakfast in the Lido. We eat very simply in the morning, usually just oatmeal, occasionally a bigger meal. I had the smoked salmon a couple of times (now served on individual plates with a slice of tomato, lettuce, a few capers and lemon), I also had waffles a couple of times - I had to ask for maple syrup, but they did eventually find me some. If you didn't stress maple, you got those little tins of "breakfast" syrup. You could also find English bacon - usually it was out, but sometimes out of the way.

 

We had the usual delicious lunch in the Pinnacle a few times, and we only had two lunches in the MDR, the embarkation lunch, and the Mariners' lunch, both good. For the rest, we lunched in the Lido if we were on board, just salads, sushi, etc. It seemed to be the same as it was in the past. Many people lined up for the hot food, etc., and seemed to be enjoying it.

 

We had one disappointing dinner in Canaletto, many delicious dinners in the Pinnacle, and for the first segment, most of the rest in the MDR. We found the dining room to not be up to what we remembered. I think the reduction in the number of formal nights has made a difference. We started going to the Lido for dinner on port nights, when we were tired, and didn't want to wait, or decided we would rather go to the 8 o'clock show than wait for the 10 o'clock one. On the second segment, we went even more often to the Lido Restaurant. Frequently, by then, we found we could have a much lighter meal, and pick and choose items. We had never done that before, and found it a pleasant change. The Lido Restaurant was usually very crowded, the MDR, half empty! (I'm talking about open seating, I imagine it was full upstairs.)

 

The huge buffet lunch in the Dining Room we did not attend, as we had previous reservations in the Pinnacle. It seemed rather chaotic when I went in to take some photos, a madhouse, in fact. It was beautiful, though, with huge ice sculptures and decorations.

[RuthC]

The entertainment was good. The piano man, Tom Conroy, (an Irishman:)) was very popular, and the Mix was always crowded when he played, also for the guitarist, Bill. The Adagio Duo were excellent, we regularly sat there for a while before or after dinner, two Ukrainian girls (one named Anna, I think) who had played together for about a year and a half, and they had an extensive repertoire - I don't know that I ever heard the same thing twice, except for a bit of Abba perhaps (but then my memory ain't what it used to be!:)). The HALcats were very good, the leader, Gervaise, played all the wind instruments wonderfully, and he had great backup. They seemed to be able to play for all the visiting artists with just a few hours practice. We only heard them in the Showroom, and on HMC, but I imagine it was the HALcats playing at the Lido pool or on the stern deck for sailaways.

 

The "singers and dancers" had a problem - one of the dancers had to leave the ship for an emergency, so I don't think we saw them until nearly the end of the cruise, when they picked up a replacement. One of the singers, Chelsea Coyne, was a trained opera singer, and did do beautifully, even had a couple of concerts of her own.

Thanks for the info on the entertainment, VictOriann. Especially thank you for including the names of the entertainers.

 

Since they are as likely to change ships as I am, it's great to have the names in mind when I see them on my own daily program.

[Willem Ruys]

I would have avoided that bartender like the plague. Soliciting tips is a real turnoff.

 

If he gets reported he could get fired for soliciting tips

[Vict0riann]

If he gets reported he could get fired for soliciting tips

 

We never heard anyone actually "soliciting" tips, however, on the last evening, as we went around making our farewells to all the staff that had served us so well, we did hear the occasional comment that they were glad such a long cruise was over, and they would be moving to shorter cruises for a few weeks. I imagine that would have something to do with the amount of tipping.....

[SilvertoGold]

We never heard anyone actually "soliciting" tips, however, on the last evening, as we went around making our farewells to all the staff that had served us so well, we did hear the occasional comment that they were glad such a long cruise was over, and they would be moving to shorter cruises for a few weeks. I imagine that would have something to do with the amount of tipping.....

 

We have heard this exact sentiment often on longer cruises. No one exactly expanded on the idea, but I guess there could be many reasons including the tipping.

[LorGraCr]

Thanks for the updates on the Maasdam. We were on the ship from Montreal in October to Fort Lauderdale so got to know some of the entertainers. Sorry to hear about the dancer's medical emergency. Hope she is okay. Assuming it is one of the two females?

 

We had a wonderful trip and met several people that planned to stay on longer.

 

We saw the captain at the Mariner lunch but didn't see him anywhere else we went.

 

The food was good, entertainment very good and we were very happy with the trip.

[Vict0riann]

Thanks for the updates on the Maasdam. We were on the ship from Montreal in October to Fort Lauderdale so got to know some of the entertainers. Sorry to hear about the dancer's medical emergency. Hope she is okay. Assuming it is one of the two females?

 

Sorry, I'm not sure who the dancer was, but it was evidently a family emergency which took him/her home, not a personal medical emergency. Hope everything worked out. There was no replacement for a while, and then they had to practice together. The "new" group performed "Bob Mackie's Broadway" before we disembarked, but we didn't go, as it had also been done in the first "half" of the cruise. There was also "A Gentleman's Guide to Musical Theatre", which sounds like it was the men only, "Goode Company" and "Unforgettable", none of which we saw. Other than that, it seemed to be guest performers, not the cast of the Showroom at Sea.

[ski ww]

Loved your review. We've been to a lot of the ports you talked about & brings back good memories. That is one of the problems with doing ships tours, crowded, not all people are as rude as the people you had a run in with on the bus. But been rude is no excuse. Love reading about other peoples experience.

Allan & Marlane

Edited December 21, 2014 by ski ww
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[kazu]

We never heard anyone actually "soliciting" tips, however, on the last evening, as we went around making our farewells to all the staff that had served us so well, we did hear the occasional comment that they were glad such a long cruise was over, and they would be moving to shorter cruises for a few weeks. I imagine that would have something to do with the amount of tipping.....

 

 

Our cruises aren't as long as this one, but we have done some 30 and 31 day ones. Our tipping doesn't get cheaper on the longer cruises by any means. In fact, I think we tip more as you grow to have a rapport with certain crew members. We do tip certain people at the end of each segment as well.

 

But, that is just us. We've never been solicited for tips and don't expect to be. We give them because we want to. Anyone hinting would not get one. And they would be told why.

[albingirl]

Thanks very much for your positive comments everyone!

[albingirl]

Thanks very much!