Maasdam gone by 2018

[DFD1]

Main Deck 573

[DFD1]

I have also thought wistfully that perhaps MAASDAM deserves to be refitted and repositioned (sp) as a second Elegant Explorer......but I'm not crunching the numbers.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

May I offer another perspective?

 

Unless, I am incorrect, which is of course very possible, Maasdam is scheduled for a series of Down Under cruises. Why would HAL inject a ship into this important market if the ship is as deficient as the OP described? Would not one expect repairs/upgrades to be made before such a deployment takes place?

 

2018 does sound like the proper time for one or more of the current vessels to be sold, retired, or whatever. The TBA-Dam will enter service in the Fall of 2018.

 

Where does the Prinsendam fit into this picture? I have been told that she is the most expensive ship in the fleet to operate. With the amount of water that has past under her keel, how much longer will the financial gurus in Seattle and Miami allow her to sail as a HAL vessel?

 

Personally, when I see a HAL PR notice that the Maasdam will be leaving, I will then believe it.

I agree , We will be on her for 80 days starting on Sept 12, 2016

[JudithLynne]

DFD1.....thank you for your quick response to me, we are in 605, Main deck. We are very encouraged with your review.

[Classiccruiser777]

What initially attracted us to HAL was the number of small ships. As these are being phased out we decided to try Oceania, especially the "R" class ships that carry no more than 700 passengers. Yes, the "O" is more expensive, but the food is outstanding as are the beds and service. The "R" class ships get into more ports without needing to tender and the intimate ports aren't overrun with fellow passengers.

[Wehwalt]

I too will wait and see. I had such a good time on the last voyage of the Statendam that I am minded to go on another farewell sailing. If it happens.

[Kentchikan]

I have questions about The Mix I realize that there are three bars in one place what I want to know is are they more like separate places or three bars in one big room?

Secondly can one order drinks other than the ones featured at a particular bar for example a martini at the Champagne bar?

Thirdly with that many venues in one spot is it noisy?

Thanks in advance.

[rkacruiser]

I have questions about The Mix I realize that there are three bars in one place what I want to know is are they more like separate places or three bars in one big room?

Secondly can one order drinks other than the ones featured at a particular bar for example a martini at the Champagne bar?

Thirdly with that many venues in one spot is it noisy?

Thanks in advance.

 

My experience on a Maasdam sister, the Statendam: I would describe it as 3 venues within one large area. The Champagne Bar is not really a "bar" in the usual sense and is located where the Piano Bar is. Never saw anyone actually patronizing the Champagne Bar per se. The other two venues are a Martini-oriented Bar and a Sports-oriented Bar featuring draft beers. One can order whatever one likes at either venue. The Sports-oriented Bar featured an excellent solo musician playing the guitar and he did sing and was the site of Pub Trivia. Noisy, no. Convivial, yes! It is a fun place to be!

 

If one wants a quieter setting with, usually, some nice music and some dancing, then, the Ocean Bar is the place to go. Check out the Crow's Nest when you are on the Maasdam and see what the vibe may be as well as whether any music offerings are available.

[Kentchikan]

My experience on a Maasdam sister, the Statendam: I would describe it as 3 venues within one large area. The Champagne Bar is not really a "bar" in the usual sense and is located where the Piano Bar is. Never saw anyone actually patronizing the Champagne Bar per se. The other two venues are a Martini-oriented Bar and a Sports-oriented Bar featuring draft beers. One can order whatever one likes at either venue. The Sports-oriented Bar featured an excellent solo musician playing the guitar and he did sing and was the site of Pub Trivia. Noisy, no. Convivial, yes! It is a fun place to be!

 

If one wants a quieter setting with, usually, some nice music and some dancing, then, the Ocean Bar is the place to go. Check out the Crow's Nest when you are on the Maasdam and see what the vibe may be as well as whether any music offerings are available.

Thanks so very much I appreciate the info.

[jhannah]

Alas, we all must someday sail into the sunset! Maasdam was good to us when we were aboard. Just a total of 20 days on two different sailings. Nothing compared to the experience of many of you; but her circle the British Isles cruise was one of the best cruises I've been on.

[Copper10-8]

Alas, we all must someday sail into the sunset! Maasdam was good to us when we were aboard. Just a total of 20 days on two different sailings. Nothing compared to the experience of many of you; but her circle the British Isles cruise was one of the best cruises I've been on.

 

Nicely said Jim! Her annual Voyage of the Vikings runs were good ones also, as was her voyages to Rio and back during Carnaval

 

[tkwbear]

I am a fan of the Maasdam but more often than not I have had cabin issues on my sailings. On the Voyage of the Vikings, they upgraded me to a nice inside on the lower promenade midship. The a/c control, which was not like the ones in other rooms, did nothing. I had the staff come out and check it, and it was 62 degrees in the room. They adjusted it and after that it was in the high 80s. So, I told them to put it back to freezing, and I slept under 2 blankets.

 

On a 10 day cruise I had a cabin at the stern of the ship. Early one morning I heard yelling in the halls at 6 am. When I got up to investigate, I stepped into water. A pipe had broken on the water heater near me and flooded nearby cabins. They shut off power to the cabin while they cleaned it up. It took days to get back to normal, and the carpet was still wet.

 

As much as I love the S-class ships I am nervous about going to Alaska with no a/c. Sunny days can really heat up the cabin, even if it's 55 outside. This is a shame to have to consider if you can endure ship issues on a cruise. Last year I took the Statendam on the 14 day Alaskan itinerary. It performed flawlessly, everything was in order. I also took the Ryndam's final transatlantic cruise and it for the most part went well. The Veendam was fine until the bean counters had it converted it into a listing, overcrowded, floating nightmare. I am done with that ship.

 

So, I guess I will do the Zaandam in Alaska unless I get reports that the Maasdam is doing better. By the way, I hate the Vista class ships. The Signature class is better, a cleaned up version of the Vistas. So it is getting harder and harder for me to stay with HAL.

[Tampa Girl]

 

Maasdam was our ship because it was sailing from Boston to Montreal in June and that is when we wanted to go. I'm glad I was able to sail her. That said, I'm also very excited about Pinnacle II, which is her likely replacement.

 

What will the Pinnacle II be? The same design as the Koningsdam? I really hate to see these 2,600 passenger ships, but I know that they are inevitable. We recently got of the QM2, which is 2,600. Lovely ship, but I prefer the smaller ones.

[rkacruiser]

What will the Pinnacle II be? The same design as the Koningsdam? I really hate to see these 2,600 passenger ships, but I know that they are inevitable. We recently got of the QM2, which is 2,600. Lovely ship, but I prefer the smaller ones.

 

From what little I have read on CC, Pinnacle II, now known as the Nieuw Statendam, will be the same design as the Koningsdam. But, there is expected to be some "improvements" in areas that need them. I don't have first hand information about what those improvements might be, thus, I don't want to post what may be incorrect information.

[twentyknots]

“What a revolting development this is”, as William Bendix would often exclaim. After having second thoughts about a Princess cruise to Hawaii based on a long, confusing thread about the problems with vents and beams on wake-facing cabins, we moved on and decided to book the Maasdam tomorrow for a 22-day Panama Canal sailing next April. Now, with these reports of A/C malfunction, I don’t see how we can book it. I can manage on a cruise without many things, but A/C is not one of them. Been there, done that on Carnival. It might not happen to us, but we’ve been warned. It’s a $15,000 cruise for us and we’re willing to take our chances on unforeseen problems that can always happen on any cruise, but when you’ve been warned by many—well, if our A/C went out I’d have to say we deserved it.

 

I know, the Maasdam is not the only ship out there. But it was our first and second HAL ship, followed by the Zuiderdam and then the Osterdam, and it seemed like a good way to get back to HAL after a long absence. We did the 18-day Panama Canal on the Zuiderdam as our retirement cruise 10 years ago and 15 cruises later it still ranks as number one. This particular sailing on the Maasdam has many aspects of a cruise that we’ve missed:

 

A repeat of our favorite itinerary; another sailing on the Maasdam; very few if any children; passenger profile similar to us; ballroom dancing opportunity; a promenade deck; and last but not least, HAL’s customer service.

 

Too bad, so sad. Back to the drawing board.

[hobo1937]

We just returned from a wonderful 14 day Alaska Cruise on the Maasdam. Our cabin was port side aft on Main deck and the A/C and plumbing worked fine. The only place that seemed to always be cold was near the Mix bar. Ocean bar and Crows Nest were fine as were the anytime dining room and Lido. Never saw any broken pipes, buckets, dripping water etc. In our estimation, the ship appeared to be in excellent condition, but then we don't spend time inspecting everything. It looked like they had some contract people working with the crew on some of the ships plumbing system, so maybe work has been and is being done to fix problems previously reported. The crew did a fantastic job. This was our second cruise on the Maasdam and we would not hesitate to sail on her again.

Edited June 8, 2016 by hobo1937

[tkwbear]

We just returned from a wonderful 14 day Alaska Cruise on the Maasdam. Our cabin was port side aft on Main deck and the A/C and plumbing worked fine. The only place that seemed to always be cold was near the Mix bar. Ocean bar and Crows Nest were fine as were the anytime dining room and Lido. Never saw any broken pipes, buckets, dripping water etc. In our estimation, the ship appeared to be in excellent condition, but then we don't spend time inspecting everything. It looked like they had some contract people working with the crew on some of the ships plumbing system, so maybe work has been and is being done to fix problems previously reported. The crew did a fantastic job. This was our second cruise on the Maasdam and we would not hesitate to sail on her again.

 

That's great news, Hobo, thanks for sharing! I would like to hear the comments from other recent cruisers of the Maasdam as well.

[freestyling]

Our 14 day Alaska cruise was also excellent. Stateroom on Deck 9 midship was fine. No problems with plumbing or AC. It was quite warm during this cruise and also thought the area around the MIX was colder than normal. The ship was is fine condition and of course the crew was superb. I would not hesitate to sail on her again. At the Mariners Brunch Capt. Smit mentioned that ms Maasdam will be sailing for at least 2 more yrs.

So my guess is she'll be gone pretty soon :)

[midwest 852]

That's great news, Hobo, thanks for sharing! I would like to hear the comments from other recent cruisers of the Maasdam as well.

 

Just off Maasdam 5/23/16. A deck forward starboard side had a fan drying carpet for the first 72 hours. A deck 747 bathroom floor flooded on day 1 after that it was good. A/C way to cold a tech adjusted on second day front desk sent extra blankets for the frist night. So cold the kids came and slept in my cabin.

Leaving Sitkia we hit rough seas deck 10 across from Neptune lounge by cabin 011 water leaking from ceiling garbage cans, buckets & towels they used got kind of stinky after 2 days. I did notice they drained the lido pool and didn't refill it maybe that's were the leak was from.

This was the most motion & vibration we've ever had on a cruise. For comparison we were on the Statendam in AK. with 40ft waves and that ship didn't bounce like the front of the Maasdam did.

Also there was a basketball play off game on and the ship lost satellite signal. Lots of people complaining to Captain & Hotel Manager about it at the (photo with captain)

[tkwbear]

Just off Maasdam 5/23/16. A deck forward starboard side had a fan drying carpet for the first 72 hours. A deck 747 bathroom floor flooded on day 1 after that it was good. A/C way to cold a tech adjusted on second day front desk sent extra blankets for the frist night. So cold the kids came and slept in my cabin.

Leaving Sitkia we hit rough seas deck 10 across from Neptune lounge by cabin 011 water leaking from ceiling garbage cans, buckets & towels they used got kind of stinky after 2 days. I did notice they drained the lido pool and didn't refill it maybe that's were the leak was from.

This was the most motion & vibration we've ever had on a cruise. For comparison we were on the Statendam in AK. with 40ft waves and that ship didn't bounce like the front of the Maasdam did.

Also there was a basketball play off game on and the ship lost satellite signal. Lots of people complaining to Captain & Hotel Manager about it at the (photo with captain)

I was freezing due to A/C issues but I have found it much better than being too hot. Like you I had to get some extra blankets.

 

I went through a Noreaster leaving the St Lawrence into the Atlantic on that ship. It did bounce a lot, but I was close to the bow. I remember having a hard time staying on the bed.

 

For you recent cruisers, how was the food in the main dining room? If you went to the Pinnacle, do you recall who the manager was?

Edited June 8, 2016 by tkwbear

[cle1]

For me personally, when the small ships (1800 passengers or less)are gone so am I.

Edited June 8, 2016 by c 2 c

[freestyling]

Pinnacle Mgr - Sara

Only ate twice in MDR and it was fine. I'd gave it 7 out of 10 on survey.

[tkwbear]

For me personally, when the small ships (1800 passengers or less)are gone so am I.

 

I agree. HAL doesn't seem to get this. They couldn't wait to get rid of Statendam and Ryndam, even though they were both in good shape. P&O Australia spent a lot of money remodeling the inside of those ships, and I am sure they will be happy with the results. Oddly they didn't change much on the outside, keeping the HAL paint jobs and only changing the names. I know the Veendam and the Prinsendam are both for sale, and have been for a while. I don't know why anyone would want the Veendam, except maybe for a reef. The Prinsendam is supposedly a fine ship but it's getting up in years.

 

No telling what the fleet will look like in 5 years, but I am thinking you and I won't like it.

[tkwbear]

Pinnacle Mgr - Sara

Only ate twice in MDR and it was fine. I'd gave it 7 out of 10 on survey.

 

Thanks for all the excellent information!

 

Are there any other recent cruisers who have comments about the Maasdam?