Maasdam Air Conditioning

[ScottishMaid]

Currently on the Maasdam in New Zealand. Absolutely no A/C problems. Thermostat in room is very responsive. Great small ship and we have visited unusual ports. 
Captain PJ did his Q&A today. Confirmed Maasdam is for sale if HAL can get the right price. Confirmed HAL will not build any small ships as they are uneconomic ( I will add at the prices mass market cruisers are willing to pay, about $100 per person per day on this cruise). 
So the choices are big ships to popular ports or cruise with HAL’s luxury brand Seabourn to go in a small ship to unusual places. 
On this cruise we have tendered in to Port Arthur and Stewart Island. A month ago we visited Norfolk Island. Last summer we went to Sakhalin Island in Siberia. We appreciate getting to these places for a fraction of the cost of luxury lines. 
Note our experience is that inside cabins are much cooler in hot climates. Try decks 5 and 6 mid ship on the Maasdam. 
 

[erewhon]

We agree that Maasdam is a great ship.

 

ScotttishMaid, 

Did you  have to alter some of your planned land itinerary, due to bad weather?

[ScottishMaid]

No we went to every port from Sydney to Auckland tomorrow including great sunny weather in all 3 fiords and tendering in to Oban on Stewart Island. Bumpy from Sydney to Port Arthur and very rough for 24 hours in Tasman Sea. cruised very close to White Island volcano today. 
Friendly ship with happy crew. 
Had a great day in your home town of Dunedin seeing the Settlers museum railway station and church. 
We have 3 naturalists on board as well as Chris Cook. Liz Slotten is a professor at University of Otago. 
It was fun meeting you. We enjoyed driving around South Island. We encountered heavy rain at Twizel but made it up the west coast. A lot of driving!!

Edited February 29, 2020 by ScottishMaid

[St Pete Cruiser]

7 hours ago, ScottishMaid said:

Currently on the Maasdam in New Zealand. Absolutely no A/C problems. Thermostat in room is very responsive. Great small ship and we have visited unusual ports. 
Captain PJ did his Q&A today. Confirmed Maasdam is for sale if HAL can get the right price. Confirmed HAL will not build any small ships as they are uneconomic ( I will add at the prices mass market cruisers are willing to pay, about $100 per person per day on this cruise). 
So the choices are big ships to popular ports or cruise with HAL’s luxury brand Seabourn to go in a small ship to unusual places. 
On this cruise we have tendered in to Port Arthur and Stewart Island. A month ago we visited Norfolk Island. Last summer we went to Sakhalin Island in Siberia. We appreciate getting to these places for a fraction of the cost of luxury lines. 
Note our experience is that inside cabins are much cooler in hot climates. Try decks 5 and 6 mid ship on the Maasdam. 
 

Great post. Thanks for sharing this. 

[erewhon]

On 2/29/2020 at 8:09 PM, ScottishMaid said:

No we went to every port from Sydney to Auckland tomorrow including great sunny weather in all 3 fiords and tendering in to Oban on Stewart Island. Bumpy from Sydney to Port Arthur and very rough for 24 hours in Tasman Sea. cruised very close to White Island volcano today. 
Friendly ship with happy crew. 
Had a great day in your home town of Dunedin seeing the Settlers museum railway station and church. 
We have 3 naturalists on board as well as Chris Cook. Liz Slotten is a professor at University of Otago. 
It was fun meeting you. We enjoyed driving around South Island. We encountered heavy rain at Twizel but made it up the west coast. A lot of driving!!

 

Were you able to drive to Milford Sound?  Or were the roads closed to traffic?

[ScottishMaid]

No we could not drive to Milford Sound. The road was closed by landslips. However it was really good weather and the next day we enjoyed the Earnslaw boat and farm tour at Queenstown.  I would recommend to other cruisers to spend time touring South Island New Zealand. You live in a beautiful place. So many sheep !!

[MISTER 67]

There have been some great prices out of Tampa for the Caribbean on the Veendam and Rotterdam both of which we have sailed back in the 90s and early 2000s. The age of these ships have stopped us from booking with them so we pay a little more and sail on the Eurodam, Westerdam and their sisters. 

If these AC problems have been going on since 2004, shame on HAL for not correcting the situation, it's a crime to see what they can get away without spending the money to fix the situation.

[erewhon]

4 hours ago, ScottishMaid said:

No we could not drive to Milford Sound. The road was closed by landslips. However it was really good weather and the next day we enjoyed the Earnslaw boat and farm tour at Queenstown.  I would recommend to other cruisers to spend time touring South Island New Zealand. You live in a beautiful place. So many sheep !!

 

Thanks for your comments.

Not as many sheep as there once were.

 

Apologies for the thread drift.

[Hlitner]

We have told friends that if we had to live anywhere outside the USA it would be in Queenstown.  About 4 years ago on an extended driving trip around South Island we also managed to drive to Milford Sound.  Despite it being November we still had to drive through some snow on our way to the sound.  Once there we took a small boat tour which was so much better then seeing the area from a large ship.  Our small vessel was able to actually able to cruise under one of the waterfalls you might spot from a half mile distant when on a large ship.

 

Hank

[ScottishMaid]

When we were in the Milford Sound on the Maasdam two weeks ago there was a “shore” excursion to go directly onto a small tour boat for 2 hours.

Meanwhile the ship spent the time   
cruising slowly with commentary from the EXC naturalists. 

[RuthC]

7 hours ago, ScottishMaid said:

When we were in the Milford Sound on the Maasdam two weeks ago there was a “shore” excursion to go directly onto a small tour boat for 2 hours.

Meanwhile the ship spent the time   
cruising slowly with commentary from the EXC naturalists. 

That sounds like fun! I wish that sort of excursion had been available when I was in Milford Sound. It was a picture-perfect day, and a small boat excursion would have made it even better. 

[sofietucker]

On 2/28/2020 at 10:37 PM, ScottishMaid said:

Currently on the Maasdam in New Zealand. Absolutely no A/C problems. Thermostat in room is very responsive. Great small ship and we have visited unusual ports. 
Captain PJ did his Q&A today. Confirmed Maasdam is for sale if HAL can get the right price. Confirmed HAL will not build any small ships as they are uneconomic ( I will add at the prices mass market cruisers are willing to pay, about $100 per person per day on this cruise). 
So the choices are big ships to popular ports or cruise with HAL’s luxury brand Seabourn to go in a small ship to unusual places. 
On this cruise we have tendered in to Port Arthur and Stewart Island. A month ago we visited Norfolk Island. Last summer we went to Sakhalin Island in Siberia. We appreciate getting to these places for a fraction of the cost of luxury lines. 
Note our experience is that inside cabins are much cooler in hot climates. Try decks 5 and 6 mid ship on the Maasdam. 
 

Aw man! First our beloved P-dam is sold, now this one (we sail on her in a month)... Might look into the British line, Cruise & Maritime, that has a few small ships. 

[Woofbite]

I think hot cabins is a normal thing built into the Maasdam. 

We were on her in about 1995 and cabins at the rear were warm then.

Maintenance fiddled around doing stuff but nothing ever improved.

 

[waltocruiser]

This seems to be a common problem with HAL.  We have had hot cabins on the Ryandam, Westerdam, Rotterdam, Volendam and Zaandam.  We have been informed it has to do with two major issues.

One:  The "crew" and others have modified the air conditioning ducting. (parts of the ship are cool and other parts hot)

Two:  It cost money to keep the air conditioning units fully operational.  For example in Alaska we were informed that some A/c units had been shut down as the weather was cooler.  It might have been cooler outside but not in our cabin.

 

We like HAL but have started going with other cruise lines due to the a/c issues we have with HAL. 

We still take HAL when it fits into our schedule and are booked on the Maasdam in April, we will be taking a small fan with us.

 

Sure wish HAL would fix their a/c issues on all there ships, we would then return to being mostly HAL guests.

[Cruising Kangaroo]

15 hours ago, waltocruiser said:

This seems to be a common problem with HAL.  We have had hot cabins on the Ryandam, Westerdam, Rotterdam, Volendam and Zaandam.  We have been informed it has to do with two major issues......Sure wish HAL would fix their a/c issues on all there ships, we would then return to being mostly HAL guests.

Thank you for highlighting your similar problems. We have also cruised on several of the S and R class ships and have experienced significant problems on most of them, including air con not working, toilet breakdowns (extensive), power failures and hot/cold water issues. As you have pointed out, HAL seems reluctant to spend anything on maintenance and we saw neglected items everywhere. In one case, the veranda door was loose and rattling, caused by there being NO door seal. I requested a repair, to be informed that they carried no spare seals or anything that could seal the door.(This was not the Maasdam cabin with the non-functioning AC).

 

We are HAL five star mariners with well over 200 cruising days, and have also enjoyed many of those cruises, mostly on the larger ships. I despair that HAL does not seem to take any of the complaints seriously, but what is worse, the crew and technical staff tell you that the problem has been fixed when it has not been, and they know it full well. That is dishonest and we have experienced just that on several occasions. It appear to be a stalling tactic to get you to give up. I know this because on more than one occasion, they have eventually admitted that the problem was unfixable because it was (and remains) inherent in either the design or construction of the ship. Unfortunately, we will no longer cruise on the S or R class ships because it is clear that HAS simply doesn't care and no other cruise line would be silly enough to buy one with the associated problems. One can only hope for better things.

[akke29]

Just off the Maasdam as well, same cruise as @ScottishMaid.  We had ZERO problems with our AC, in fact it was often too cold at times.  Problems with the shower?  That's another story.  

[Maggieluvscruisin']

Are there air conditioning  problems on the Eurodam?

[iancal]

It does not matter now. 

 

At one point we were about to book a last minute offer on Veendam.

 

Our TA gave us some feedback from prior customers.  We quickly lost our enthusiasm for booking Veendam.  The feedback was very much in concert with some of the issues noted above.    We, thankfully, booked another ship and potentially dodged a bullet.

Edited June 11, 2021 by iancal

[Crew News]

1 hour ago, Maggieluvscruisin' said:

Are there air conditioning  problems on the Eurodam?

There were no issues in 2019 when I sailed on the ship but cannot answer for today.  I have booked the Eurodam next year with no concerns.

[fatcat04]

19 minutes ago, Crew News said:

There were no issues in 2019 when I sailed on the ship but cannot answer for today.  I have booked the Eurodam next year with no concerns.

We have her booked for February to the Panama Canal. We have cruised on her sister Nieuw Amsterdam twice (last in Jan 2020) and loved her. We never had any AC issues on NA. Looking forwards to Eurodam. 

[dogo88]

3 hours ago, Maggieluvscruisin' said:

Are there air conditioning  problems on the Eurodam?

Hope you realize that this thread is titled " Maasdam Air Conditioning" and nothing to do with the Eurodam. The Maasdam was a different class of ship than the Eurodam and is currently gone from HAL.

 

[rkacruiser]

7 minutes ago, dogo88 said:

Hope you realize that this thread is titled " Maasdam Air Conditioning" and nothing to do with the Eurodam. The Maasdam was a different class of ship than the Eurodam and is currently gone from HAL.

 

 

Talk about an irrelevant thread that continues!  

[KirkNC]

I am interested to see how all the systems work after a fifteen month layup.

[rkacruiser]

5 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

I am interested to see how all the systems work after a fifteen month layup.

 

I agree.  If not well, we can expect a multitude of posts on CC on this Message Board and many others.  

[lyndarra]

On 6/12/2021 at 9:15 AM, rkacruiser said:

 

I agree.  If not well, we can expect a multitude of posts on CC on this Message Board and many others.  

Would it not be better to start a new, more relevant, thread?