Review- Norfolk-Maasdam 11/8/06-11/19/06

[riptide]

Southern Caribbean

We drove to the Nauticus. I know that HAL is pulling out of Norfolk soon, but in case they come back (I sure hope so) I thought I would include what I consider to be a big tip to drivers. We parked right across the street and paid an extra $40 for 11 days instead of going to the Cedar Grove lot. No loading in and out of a bus to go to the lot. No waiting for the bus to fill etc. This worked out great for us, particularly considering the “Express Disembarkation” policy at Norfolk. We walked off the ship at 7:30AM and driving our car out onto the street by 8. We had a 6 hour journey ahead, so this was a tremendous help.

 

The Ship itself:

The Maasdam was in great shape. Her recent refinishing really showed. This was our fourth cruise; all on “Dam” ships of this class, so we really had a baseline for comparison. Like everyone else, we were not too enthused about the disruption of the Crows Nest’s view, but the enhancements in the Crows Nest were quite nice. Everything we encountered was working well and in ship shape.

 

The water was pretty calm except for the first two days out of Norfolk. There were quite a few complaints of sea sickness that we were grateful for missing.

There was a “correction” that occurred in the middle of the night as we were entering Norfolk harbor on the last night of the cruise, that almost rolled us out of bed. Someone said we almost ran aground. I don’t know if it is true or not, but the ship lurched enough to throw a quantity of water out of the pool and into the bow elevator shaft; shorting it out and necessitating everyone’s departure through the other shaft. This presented only a minor inconvenience for disembarkation.

 

The Ports:

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas - A beautiful place. The beach was clean. The activities were well coordinated and fun. Some of my group rode the horses in the surf. They enjoyed it, with only one of their crew being dumped off their horses. I opted to go deep sea fishing. To my surprise and enjoyment, there were only two fishermen. I caught a big barracuda, so you know it was a good trip for me.

 

St. Thomas, V.I.- A lot of pretty decent shopping, for sure. One word of caution regarding this port: BEWARE if you are considering taking the “Coral World” snorkeling/beach excursion. It read like a pretty tame snorkeling adventure. Since neither of us had ever snorkeled before, it looked like a winner. It was horrible from the beginning. We were placed on the wrong bus and then moved to another. The “10-15 drive” to the beach ended up being close to 40 minutes. Considering this was a 3 hr. excursion, 1.5 hr. travel time would have left very little snorkeling time. When we arrived at our destination, there was no on available to give us direction. We were supposed to receive a little snorkeling education with equipment. After being harassed on the beach to rent chairs, snorkel equipment (which was supposed to be included in our trip) etc., six of us proceeded back to the bus area where we eventually found someone associated with the tour. The Coral World staff told us that the driver “forgot” to pick our equipment up and that they would be back in a few minutes. We insisted on being taken back to the ship since our time was so limited and so much of it had already been wasted. They kept us for at least 40 minutes (stalling big time) before doing so. During this time, someone showed up with some equipment- 3 pairs of size 7 flippers and 1 mask. Our bus held at least 10 couples. The good news- HAL refunded our money. The bad news- Those who did not insist on being taken back, did not get a refund since they “participated” in the excursion. Some folks on our excursion told me later that they didn’t get any snorkel time. My hope is that HAL will drop this excursion altogether. BTW- The beach was very crowded and not too clean either.

 

Rouseau, Domineca- We did a bus tour of the island including a walk in a rain forest to the Emerald Pool and a little demo of local culture. It was a very enjoyable stop with friendly residents. We took a lot of windly roads through local farms and ended our tour with a locally brewed beer and a folk dance.

 

Bridgetown, Barbados- We did another bus trip. Barbados was a pretty island with gorgeous views of the beach, including the Atlantic coast. We didn’t do any beach time, but what we saw looked really nice. Again, friendly residents and an enjoyable stop.

 

St. Kitts- I think this stop was our favorite. Don’t miss the scenic railroad. This was a 4 hour trip that let you see every aspect of the island including many beautiful ocean views. These folks were informative and very eager to please. Rum punch flowed the entire trip along with local singers going from car to car and even a locally made snack. The views from the train were breathtaking.

 

San Juan, P.R.- This stop was way too short (7am-1pm). We did a city tour, stopping at the Bacardi factory (a little too much time there for our liking) and the old fort. Overall, it was a very nice day. Everyone commented they would have liked more time in San Juan.

 

Food, Service, Entertainment etc.:

Overall we felt that the food measured up to our previous experiences. Dinner at the Pinnacle is not to be missed. The price was recently increased to $30 per person, but remains a “must do”, at least once per cruise for us.

 

The remainder of our evening meals was in the Rotterdam dining room. We both observed that the waiters appeared to be spread a bit thin in comparison to prior experiences. The impact to our overall dining experience was not too great, but we regret not being able to establish the relationship with our waiters that we have so enjoyed in the past. It was only after stopping our waiter on the eighth day of our cruise did we actually get his name. It wasn’t his fault, because we never saw him stand still for a moment. We were however able to establish a great relationship with our wine steward, Cristina. She is a jewel. We hope everyone is fortunate enough to encounter her. The food was consistently good and forced us to step outside our area of comfortable, familiar foods.

 

Lunch and breakfast in the Lido was also consistently good and the event was always efficiently handled.

 

Tea in the Rotterdam was a must when onboard in the afternoon although we couldn’t really distinguish between regular and “Dutch High” tea this time.

 

The activity level of the HAL ships is much to our liking. The Cruise Director, Jason is funny, attentive and most importantly unobtrusive. For a very young man, he has got his act together. His example is followed by the rest of the recreation staff. The shows were all enjoyable. We saw a ventriloquist (Can’t remember her name), Barnaby, the juggler and comedian- Don’t miss this guy! Lee Bayless was great with his homespun comedy and magic, and Larry Linkin is a fabulously entertaining clarinetist. We didn’t bother with the Maasdam singers/dancers. They’re just not our cup of tea, although many folks really appeared to enjoy them.

 

With the exception of going to the Crow’s Nest one night for line dancing, we turned in for the evening, early. There was a pretty good “active” crowd there the night we were there, but I heard from other passengers that many other nights were dead. I think this is pretty much in keeping with HAL’s older age group. That is OK with us since we are seldom up past 10:30pm, but watch out for us at 5am.

 

We did manage to stay awake for the “Dessert Extravaganza”. This was a pretty big disappointment compared to what we have experienced on prior cruises. There were many less extravagant chocolate molds and breads.

 

The front desk staff was superb (Tina was a particular shining star). Our room steward, “Yanto”, was tremendous. The room stewards were much more visible this time out. We speculate that this may be due to an increased workload, making it harder for them to be as “invisible” as they have been on previous cruises.

 

Overall:

We would go back tomorrow if the opportunity presented itself. HAL still continues to be traditional and low key, in the way we like a cruise experience. However, for the first time, we started to see some signs of the substandard service and amenities that we have read about since the line’s purchase by Carnival. We did leave feeling just a little less pampered than in the past. We could see a small degradation of quality that we certainly hope will go no further, and is not a forecast of a mainstream future. We believe that not everyone wants the ordinary onboard that can be had at home (Please HAL, no Johnny Rockets! I’ll go to the mall if I want to eat there). The overall feeling was a little less formal than in the past. We are not big fans of “muscle shirts” on overweight guys. We saw a couple of them for the first time aboard HAL. Overall, if we rated our previous HAL cruises with an “A”, this one would be a solid “B” pushing a “+”.

[mariner]

Rip,

 

So glad to hear you enjoyed MAASDAM.

 

When we started doing Norfolk a few years ago, a valet told me the heck with Cedar Grove. Park across the street and when you get back, tell them you lost the ticket. That way you just past for a day.

 

I would never do that and used the Grove, despite the aggrabation. But I thought that was a devious little tip.

[sail7seas]

Thanks for sharing your review. I enjoyed reading it.

 

We love Maasdam and agree her crew is tremendous.

 

BTW.....you may not be aware that Carnival purchased HAL about 15 years ago. Any changes that you may have seen cannot be attributed to a 'new' presence of Carnival Corporation.

 

Welcome back.

 

 

 

[hammybee]

Thanks for sharing your review. I enjoyed reading it.

 

We love Maasdam and agree her crew is tremendous. BTW.....you may not be aware that Carnival purchased HAL about 15 years ago. Any changes that you may have seen cannot be attributed to a 'new' presence of Carnival Corporation.

 

Welcome back.

 

I too got a kick out of the reference to a change in service attributed to HAL being acquired by CCL, about 15 years ago. At that time, HAL was in bankruptcy so I like to think that CCL saved the Holland America Cruise Line.

It seems to me that CCL had the choice to maintain the existing HAL fleet ala the Marco Polo, or grow the niche through investment in new ships and mass marketing.

 

Competition has driven down prices, especially in the Caribbean, so that no mass marketed cruise experience is what it used to be. While some of us would gladly pay an extra per diem to ensure that quality/staffing does not suffer, I think most passengers sail by price and buy into the brochure hype. Having said all this, I remain in awe that HAL can squeeze a buck and still do what they do and survive.

 

Back to the OP, thanks for sharing your observations with us.

[Sea King]

I too got a kick out of the reference to a change in service attributed to HAL being acquired by CCL, about 15 years ago. At that time, HAL was in bankruptcy so I like to think that CCL saved the Holland America Cruise Line.

 

 

sorry, but had to comment about the above quote ..

 

don't believe HAL was ever in Bankruptcy ..

 

what happened was that Carnival wanted (in the early 1990's) to expand into the Alaska market and HAL was the prominent player at the time .. Kirk Lanterman, the former CEO of HAL, actually was the person most responsible for putting HAL together with Carnival .. a brilliant stragegy that without question "saved" HAL from financial disaster

 

HAL needed cash infusion and new ships .. Carnival wanted Alaska .. so the deal was struck .. the acquisition (which also included Windstar) was in fact the 1st major one by CCL (Costa, Cunard and of course Princess came years later)

 

within 3 years of the CCL/HAL marriage, the Statendam emerged and the entire look of the fleet began to change .. what you see today is an extension of that philosophy and planning

 

since CCL acquired HAL, HAL has always been a separate and distinct company under the CCL umbrella .. but HAL has its own separate and distinct infra-structure

 

there have been cut-backs and changes over the years .. however, the cutbacks and changes IMO have for the most part been industry wide

 

to attempt to compare the HAL experience with CCL is for the most part near impossible since the two companies offer entirely different products, cater to very different "target groups" and have vastly different histories

 

had Kirk Lanterman and Teddy Arison not made the deal they did, HAL would be far different than it is today .. as a matter of fact, HAL might not even exists

 

almost forgot: the Maasdam cruise:D

 

sounds like you had a wonderful time ..

 

she is a beautiful, elegant ship with a superb crew:)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks you for your report - enjoyed reading it.

[Amber14]

Thanks Riptide for the well written and positive report on the Maasdam. We will be on her in April.

 

What kind of line dancing did they have in the Crow's Nest? Country, pop?

 

Also, did you have any problem getting a chair by the pool? People didn't start saving them early in the morning, did they? Which pool was more crowded? I think the aft pool looks more like where we'd like to hang out. Were both pools ocean water?

 

Thanks again for the review! Glad you had a great time.

[mariner]

I'm not Rip but have done MAASDAM a few times out of Norfolk. The ``line dancing'' is a couple of standard country steps. Probably won't be much of a fixture after the ship leaves Norfolk.

 

On the Norfolk run, the seat savers weren't so bad. That will change in Lauderdale.

[Amber14]

I'm not Rip but have done MAASDAM a few times out of Norfolk. The ``line dancing'' is a couple of standard country steps. Probably won't be much of a fixture after the ship leaves Norfolk.

 

On the Norfolk run, the seat savers weren't so bad. That will change in Lauderdale.

 

Thanks Mariner - just curious, why will things change leaving out of Lauderdale?