January 26, 2019 Singapore; farewell to Ms Maasdam?

The HAL website now shows itineraries for the Maasdam right through to April 2019. And what itineraries they are! Many new ports in the South Pacific, South East Asia and the Indian Ocean and then making its way back to San Francisco, arriving there in May 2019. They seem to be using the Maasdam to pioneer some new cruises which is great to see. It gives us small ship lovers something different to be tempted by!

These are the new InDepth cruises - keep reading about them because they are a very different enrichment format than the typical HAL cruise package. Perhaps the new schedules are not yet out because they need to assess how this new format is working or the delays in getting access to new and seldom visited ports. Locally sourced food, lectures, and entertainment will replace the in-house offerings. Even have added zodiacs though not sure how they will get used at this time.

We will be on the first Maasdam InDepth cruise starting this Sept 2018 - The Kontiki explorer - it is a wow itinerary too. FLL to Papeete with remote island hopping along the way, including San Blas, Easter and Pitcairn Islands, etc...... A good swan song for the grand lady if this is the final plan - hats off to Seattle for coming up with this excellent new cruise format for these smaller, older and classic ships.

Here is a scan of the flyer the FCC sent around on Maasdam recently. There are some interesting itineraries:

Dave

No farewell to the Maasdam yet - we just booked the Feb/2019 20 day SE Asia Highlights cruise beginning and ending in Singapore. Can't wait!

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

Orlando has made clear that as new ships come on line, they will retire ships to maintain a passenger neutral capacity. With the Pinnacle class ships, I would expect one or two smaller ships leaving the fleet for each new Pinnacle ship.

Sounds oustanding for t hat most very special ship. I truy hope to sail her again but it won't be to Singapore.

Here is a scan of the flyer the FCC sent around on Maasdam recently. There are some interesting itineraries:

 

 

Dave

Thanks for posting these.

Sounds oustanding for t hat most very special ship. I truy hope to sail her again but it won't be to Singapore.

Sadly it doesn't look like the Maasdam will be returning to the Caribbean or Canada/New England any time soon.

It seems Maasdam/Veendam have been spared at least for now. Even with Nieuw Statendam arriving this Dec, they are both scheduled well into 2019. Veendam is needed for Cuba and Venice where the bigger ships are not able to enter. Maasdam is doing the more exotic cruises that also are not suitable for the bigger ships. And Prinsendam???

Just my uninformed opinion: Has some "new" thinking in Seattle as well as in Miami at CCL Headquarters made them question the "loss" of Statendam and Ryndam to P&O Australia with the introduction of the EXC cruise-oriented itineraries that have been announced for Maasdam?

The need to introduce Veendam into Venice oriented itineraries for the near future is another interesting development for this ship.

P&O Australia's sale of their Pacific Eden, aka Statendam, to CMV after only 3 years of service with P&O Australia seems rather unusual to me. Much money was spent to convert Statendam and Ryndam into ships that "they thought" would fit into their fleet.

My uninformed opinion: neither Veendam nor Maasdam will be leaving the HAL fleet very soon even with the introduction of the 2nd and maybe, even, the 3rd Pinnacle Class ship. If these ships do leave the fleet, then, the next ones "up" to go bye-bye will be the Volendam, Zaandam, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam.

I have omitted Prinsendam simply because she is so unique. Who knows what her future holds? I'd guess that Arnold Donald, Orlando Ashford, Stein Cruise, Micky Arison, and the rest of the Board of Directors for CCL could not tell us.

Just my opinion.

It seems Maasdam/Veendam have been spared at least for now. Even with Nieuw Statendam arriving this Dec, they are both scheduled well into 2019. Veendam is needed for Cuba and Venice where the bigger ships are not able to enter. Maasdam is doing the more exotic cruises that also are not suitable for the bigger ships. And Prinsendam???

I just moved my Maasdam booking in January 19 to the Veendam in early June 19 leaving from Barcelona and disembarking in Venice. Love the fact that the itinerary includes Sicily and Kotor, Montenegro.

Here is a scan of the flyer the FCC sent around on Maasdam recently. There are some interesting itineraries:

 

 

Dave

Dave,

Thank you for posting, you sayrecent?

Strange, since the Maasdam 8 Dec sailing has changed for some time now, to visit the Waitingi Chatham Islands to the far East of New Zealand, in stead of Waitangi Bay of Islands!

It’s been tossed around that Maasdam will actually be given a very large refit to modernize her and get another 10 years out of her so she can be a replacement for Prinsendam and operate longer itineraries. I think HAL is realizing that the market is gravitating now to smaller ships, at least in the upmarket and luxury sectors, and there’s money to be made on sailing longer, specialized itineraries.

Dave,

 

Thank you for posting, you sayrecent?

 

Strange, since the Maasdam 8 Dec sailing has changed for some time now, to visit the Waitingi Chatham Islands to the far East of New Zealand, in stead of Waitangi Bay of Islands!

We were on the Hawaii, Tahiti and Marquesas cruise 25 March - 22 April 2018. The flyer went round about halfway into the cruise, so early this month. The FCC could have had a stack of them that had been printed earlier than that, of course, and would probably have explained the change to anyone who asked about that particular cruise.

Dave

It’s been tossed around that Maasdam will actually be given a very large refit to modernize her and get another 10 years out of her so she can be a replacement for Prinsendam and operate longer itineraries. I think HAL is realizing that the market is gravitating now to smaller ships, at least in the upmarket and luxury sectors, and there’s money to be made on sailing longer, specialized itineraries.

Viking is giving this smaller, more dedicated cruising a run for the money. Eliminating both space and staffing for the full range of traditional options - no passengers allowed under the age of 18 therefore no children's and teen programs, no casinos, no art auctions and even no formal nights. How many staff beds and space would that open up on the smaller HAL ships? Adults-only, interested primarily in where they are going type cruising.

Viking is giving this smaller, more dedicated cruising a run for the money. Eliminating both space and staffing for the full range of traditional options - no passengers allowed under the age of 18 therefore no children's and teen programs, no casinos, no art auctions and even no formal nights. How many staff beds and space would that open up on the smaller HAL ships? Adults-only, interested primarily in where they are going type cruising.

It could easily be done with Maasdam or Veendam (but Veendam might need her aft pool restored). I think the issue with Prinsendam (and it’s been discussed on other boards) is that she’s well built and well suited to her current mission but that she’s a one off, aging ship. She’ll perform fine but then something will happen and it will be a massive undertaking for HAL to fix. Better to sell her off now when she has a little life left in her to someone else rather than get stuck holding the bag in 3-4 years when you have a clunker on your hands.

Maasdam and Veendam are a little younger and they also are mechanically identical to a lot of the other HAL fleet which makes maintinance costs much lower than the unique Prinsendam.