For all the "Maasdamers" out there

[sail7seas]

 

<snip>

 

As I have said elsewhere, enjoy her while you can. I suspect our Maasdam will leave the fleet when the second Pinnacle class ship arrives.

 

 

It is rather well known she and Veendam have been available for sale for years now. Statendam and Ryndam have left the fleet and surely we will only have Maasdam a limited amount more time....... sadly.

 

[RMLincoln]

We have had 66 nights on Maasdam; recognizing that others have had many, many more, but I just want to say that we have never had a plumbing issue on her or any other HAL ship. We were usually in inside or lower promenade OV rooms.

 

In the show lounge I tended to sit on the couches off to the side, very comfortable. Check out ahead of time which seats will work for you, lots to choose from. Enjoy, m--

[cruz chic]

We just got off the Maasdam from the 47 day Rio Amazon cruise. The ship had a lot of mechanical problems, mainly cabins flooding from over flowing toilets, three members of our roll call had to be moved to new cabins. From the first day we left Ft Lauderdale there were buckets catching water in the halls & stair ways & fans trying to dry out wet carpets. One day they had 5 buckets in the Lido, 3 at the coffee machines & 2 at the salad bar. The sight lines from deck 8 in the Show Room at Sea are terrible, none of the seats face the stage you have to turn your head to look at center stage. People get up & move 4-5 times every time they came into the show room trying to find a seat to see the stage.The glass partition at the front has a bar along the top which is right at eye level, so to see the stage you have to try & see over or under it. The new bar in the Crows Nest takes space away from the floor area so when we had a ships function there it was very, very crowded. We found most of the chairs in the public area uncomfortable, the top of the seats cut across your back. This is not sour grapes, we are four star mariners & have cruised on HAL ships for many years and will continue to cruise HAL. We just found that the Maasdam was the worst ship with the most problems we have seen in all our cruises.

Your post doesn't sound like sour grapes at all. It's simply the truth as you experienced it. I'm not a fan of the older ships. I wish Hal would devote more money to maintenance. This is not acceptable in my mind.

[kevingastreich]

We just got off the Maasdam from the 47 day Rio Amazon cruise. The ship had a lot of mechanical problems, mainly cabins flooding from over flowing toilets, three members of our roll call had to be moved to new cabins. From the first day we left Ft Lauderdale there were buckets catching water in the halls & stair ways & fans trying to dry out wet carpets. One day they had 5 buckets in the Lido, 3 at the coffee machines & 2 at the salad bar. The sight lines from deck 8 in the Show Room at Sea are terrible, none of the seats face the stage you have to turn your head to look at center stage. People get up & move 4-5 times every time they came into the show room trying to find a seat to see the stage.The glass partition at the front has a bar along the top which is right at eye level, so to see the stage you have to try & see over or under it. The new bar in the Crows Nest takes space away from the floor area so when we had a ships function there it was very, very crowded. We found most of the chairs in the public area uncomfortable, the top of the seats cut across your back. This is not sour grapes, we are four star mariners & have cruised on HAL ships for many years and will continue to cruise HAL. We just found that the Maasdam was the worst ship with the most problems we have seen in all our cruises.

 

I've heard that the Veendam is the jinx ship?:p

[ski ww]

Yikes I don't like to read about overflowing toilets. We're going on Maasdam next month. What deck and area were the overflowing toilets on?

 

Most of the horror stories are from cabins on 9-10 deck. They did also have a lot of problems with the AC, a few of the people on our roll call had to be moved to new cabins because after days of trying to get the AC to work in Brazil it was still too hot. Other then those problems we enjoyed the cruise & ship. We personally had no problems with anything.

Allan

[sail7seas]

I've heard that the Veendam is the jinx ship?:p

 

I've never heard such a thing and think it awful to write and say it.

 

There are people who live and work on that ship not to mention those who choose to vacation aboard. I may be the only one who objects to this but it shocks me.

 

[avian777]

... I wish Hal would devote more money to maintenance. This is not acceptable in my mind.

 

Where can I get the detailed information (that you apparently have) on how much HAL spends on maintenance on each of its ships?

[cruz chic]

Where can I get the detailed information (that you apparently have) on how much HAL spends on maintenance on each of its ships?

 

I've sent you an email. Keep your eye out for it. Hal sends me all of their maintenance records:).

[lwnbwlr]

For you experienced Maasdamers, I have a question. Do the cabins have a DVD player? The HAL website talks about an 'interactive tv", whatever that is.

Thanks!

[T8NCruise]

Hal sends me all of their maintenance records:).

 

Very impressive that Holland does this. Can any person get maintenance records? What email would I use to request them?

[Fouremco]

Our first cruise on the Maasdam was last September, Boston to Montreal. At the conclusion, in one of my posts I stated that she was my "new favourite HAL ship". While some of the posts here suggest significant problems, none were evident in September.

[RuthC]

For you experienced Maasdamers, I have a question. Do the cabins have a DVD player? The HAL website talks about an 'interactive tv", whatever that is.

Thanks!

Fairly recently, every cabin on every HAL ship had a DVD player. But now those are being replaced with new, larger screen TVs that are "interactive". Those sets do not have a DVD player.

You can select from various TV shows and movies on your own timetable, but the selection is reduced from what it used to be.

[cate54]

Maasdam always has wonderful crew/officers/staff. Sure some come and some go but there seems to remain a solid enough group who 'welcome' the new comers to Maasdam and the crew is always outstanding. We loved a great many days/nights on that lovely ship.

 

We don't have nearly as many days as you Sail, 😄 but our first HAL cruise was on the Maasdam. it was by far our best and is still to this day our favorite memories. We have sailed a few more Hal ships since then, liked them all, but none had staff like our beautiful Maasdam.

[mysticsailor]

I agree with you wholeheartedly cate54. In ten years of cruising the quality of the Maasdam staff (Oct. Cruise) was noticeably superior to the rest. I eagerly look forward to our next Maasdam adventure--Future Cruise Credit bought before disembarking!

[OBX-Cruisers]

Maasdam was our first ever cruise in 2006 when we retired and noticed an 11 day itinerary from Norfolk that tempted me after many years of saying no to my wife after she had tried many times to get me to go on a cruise.......I remember saying "what is there to do trapped on a steel can for days and days".............HA!!! in retrospect.

 

I can't say that the trip started well because that was the cruise (last one to use the Norfolk cruise port as it turned out) where the old girl had a bearing problem in a main drive shaft that sent a severe vibration through the whole ship for the first 3 days of the cruise before they fixed it. Because of the problem departure was delayed several hours and when we were sitting down to dinner the water in the glasses was splashing out and silverware was actually bouncing on the table. I still remember wife asking me if it was supposed to be like this and me answering I hope so! Our first cruise!!!! AND when our table mates at our 4 top turned out to be a couple that were having a big fight, and with whom we had absolutely nothing in common, things were not starting well for us newbies.

 

Well, after changing dining times and tables I REALLY started enjoying the Maasdam/HAL experience and our new experienced table mates from MD added a lot to that transformation. Loved the DAM dollars in those days and all those corny challenges where you not only won those coveted dollars but incidentally got to meet and talk to a lot of your fellow cruisers on this "smaller" ship. Well, over the years we have been on the old girl a total of 3 times until it became obvious that the AC thermostat was truly only "a decoration" according to one passenger and did nothing to heat or cool the room which was often too hot or cold depending on outside temps. Yes, even back 6-8 yrs ago the toilets would not flush when expected and maybe only 10 min to 1 hr later..........fortunately never any leaks/floods etc. That bar on the glass in the balcony of the theater WAS an unfortunate design and the columns throughout the theater were still another distraction............BUT:

 

We loved and still love the Maasdam because of the people and crew we met, the wonderful feelings we had from cruising on her and the friends we have made that we still communicate with.

 

We will miss the old girl and hope that someone else in the world gets the opportunity to sail on her. Although the newer HAL ships are glitzy, they do not have the same ambience or give us the same "welcome home" feeling we always felt when boarding and living on the Maasdam.

Edited March 12, 2016 by OBX-Cruisers

[sail7seas]

We don't have nearly as many days as you Sail, but our first HAL cruise was on the Maasdam. it was by far our best and is still to this day our favorite memories. We have sailed a few more Hal ships since then, liked them all, but none had staff like our beautiful Maasdam.

 

I agree with you wholeheartedly cate54. In ten years of cruising the quality of the Maasdam staff (Oct. Cruise) was noticeably superior to the rest. I eagerly look forward to our next Maasdam adventure--Future Cruise Credit bought before disembarking!

 

 

I so enjoy reading how so many of us love the beautiful Maasdam. She and Noordam are both very special ships for me. :)

 

[erewhon]

We just got off the Maasdam from the 47 day Rio Amazon cruise. The ship had a lot of mechanical problems, mainly cabins flooding from over flowing toilets, three members of our roll call had to be moved to new cabins. From the first day we left Ft Lauderdale there were buckets catching water in the halls & stair ways & fans trying to dry out wet carpets. One day they had 5 buckets in the Lido, 3 at the coffee machines & 2 at the salad bar. The sight lines from deck 8 in the Show Room at Sea are terrible, none of the seats face the stage you have to turn your head to look at center stage. People get up & move 4-5 times every time they came into the show room trying to find a seat to see the stage.The glass partition at the front has a bar along the top which is right at eye level, so to see the stage you have to try & see over or under it. The new bar in the Crows Nest takes space away from the floor area so when we had a ships function there it was very, very crowded. We found most of the chairs in the public area uncomfortable, the top of the seats cut across your back. This is not sour grapes, we are four star mariners & have cruised on HAL ships for many years and will continue to cruise HAL. We just found that the Maasdam was the worst ship with the most problems we have seen in all our cruises.

 

I sincerely hope all those problems are solved before Maasdam arrives "down under" when we have 43 days booked on her.

[erisr]

We just got off the Maasdam from the 47 day Rio Amazon cruise. The ship had a lot of mechanical problems, mainly cabins flooding from over flowing toilets, three members of our roll call had to be moved to new cabins. From the first day we left Ft Lauderdale there were buckets catching water in the halls & stair ways & fans trying to dry out wet carpets. One day they had 5 buckets in the Lido, 3 at the coffee machines & 2 at the salad bar. The sight lines from deck 8 in the Show Room at Sea are terrible, none of the seats face the stage you have to turn your head to look at center stage. People get up & move 4-5 times every time they came into the show room trying to find a seat to see the stage.The glass partition at the front has a bar along the top which is right at eye level, so to see the stage you have to try & see over or under it. The new bar in the Crows Nest takes space away from the floor area so when we had a ships function there it was very, very crowded. We found most of the chairs in the public area uncomfortable, the top of the seats cut across your back. This is not sour grapes, we are four star mariners & have cruised on HAL ships for many years and will continue to cruise HAL. We just found that the Maasdam was the worst ship with the most problems we have seen in all our cruises.

 

We were also on the recent Maasdam 47 day Rio Amazon cruise and had a totally different experience. It was our first time on the Maasdam and we loved it. I know a lot of people had water problems in their cabin and that would have been awful but we were very fortunate and had no problems at all. I had been worried about how the air conditioning would cope with Amazon but I was very happy with it both in our cabin and in the public rooms. I saw some buckets catching water in the Lido and elsewhere but it didn’t seem to inconvenience anyone. I had done 2 cruises on the Statendam so I knew about the poor sight lines from deck 8 in the Show Room at Sea so I mostly sat downstairs.

 

One feature I loved was the observation deck above the Crow’s Nest; unlike most ships in the fleet, it isn’t enclosed by smoked glass panels so the views from up there were wonderful. Overall, apart from the leaks, I found the ship in excellent condition and very comfortable. But above all, the staff were remarkable; it seemed a very well run and happy ship and we had just about the best service we’ve ever had on HAL. I very much hope to sail on the Maasdam again.

[Keith Rita]

We've enjoyed reading about the love of the Maasdam by the many past sailors.

We are so glad we decided to book our second cruise on this ship.

We wrote a review of our first cruise on her 15 years ago on the old Sealetter site. Click the link if interested in reading it. Keep in mine my writing skills are not the best!

http://www.sealetter.com/Mar-01/maasdam.html

 

 

Sent from my eyePad using Tapatalk

[OlsSalt]

.....

 

One feature I loved was the observation deck above the Crow’s Nest; unlike most ships in the fleet, it isn’t enclosed by smoked glass panels so the views from up there were wonderful. .....

 

Yes, yes, yes, yes!!!

[Btimmer]

We're booked for the Australian trip starting from Seattle in the fall, 2016. We're certainly fans of the smaller ships (Prinsendam is a favorite) and we just enjoyed 3 weeks on the Zaandam to Antarctica. In the interim, we're sailing the christening cruise on the Konigsdam, so we'll have the 'big' ship to compare to.

 

So far we've sailed on the Prinsendam (2x), Oosterdam, Amsterdam (2x), Eurodam, Nieuw Amsterdam, Ryndam, Statendam, and Zaandam. The only real problem we've had was on the final voyage of the Statendam where our room developed a leak that couldn't be cured until the turnover to P&O Australia drydocking. We really like the consistency of experience on all of the HAL ships.

[Kentchikan]

I'm hoping one of you Maasdamers can answer a question for me. I understand that The Mix is three bars in one area and I have a couple of questions:

1. Does it feel like one big space or are the bars separate?

2. Can one order any kinds of drinks at any bar or must it be just what the bar specializes in?

3. I'm also interested in personal feelings about the space and concept.

This is our first cruise on the Maasdam and I find the concept of the 3in1 bar situation interesting.

Thanks in advance for any info.

[alibabacruisers]

We have only been on the Volendam and have been looking around for an HAL cruise for 2018 and are zeroing in on the Maasdam 28 day RT San Diego via Mexico, Central America and a touch of South America. I have been trying to read about the Maasdam and this thread peaked my attention. Another thread talking of the "demise/departure" of the Maasdam is another of interest.

 

I am a little concerned of booking the Maasdam because of the possibility of cancellation and the threat of AC and plumbing problems, but would love to be able to do this cruise anyway.

 

I would like to know if anyone on the ship now can allay my fears or if anyone doing a cruise on her in the next few months can do a trip review?

 

I am glad to read about people's love for the Maasdam as well as others perspective because it gives me food for thought, so thank all of you for that! I will continue to do more research and hopefully be able to make a decision soon.

[hobo1937]

We were on the May 23rd 14 day Alaska sailing on the Maasdam. This was our second cruise on her, the first being a 21 day Fort Lauderdale to Rome in fall of 2013. Based on our experiences we would not hesitate to sail on the Maasdam. We didn't have any plumbing or A/C problems on either sailing. The last cruise was in an oceanview on Main deck aft and the first in a Veranda on Veranda deck midship. The crew was outstanding both times. Food is subjective but we enjoyed in the Lido, Dining Room and specialty restaurants.

 

The Captain made a comment at the Mariners Lunch in May that there have been rumors of the Maasdam's demise but that she was going to be here for at least 2 more years.

 

One thing you can do if you are concerned about the temperature in the stateroom is request a fan for your stateroom prior to sailing.

 

Hope this helps.

[alibabacruisers]

We were on the May 23rd 14 day Alaska sailing on the Maasdam. This was our second cruise on her, the first being a 21 day Fort Lauderdale to Rome in fall of 2013. Based on our experiences we would not hesitate to sail on the Maasdam. We didn't have any plumbing or A/C problems on either sailing. The last cruise was in an oceanview on Main deck aft and the first in a Veranda on Veranda deck midship. The crew was outstanding both times. Food is subjective but we enjoyed in the Lido, Dining Room and specialty restaurants.

 

The Captain made a comment at the Mariners Lunch in May that there have been rumors of the Maasdam's demise but that she was going to be here for at least 2 more years.

 

One thing you can do if you are concerned about the temperature in the stateroom is request a fan for your stateroom prior to sailing.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Thank you very much for your quick comments!