Maasdam- June 12

[ekerr19]

Peaches -

 

Thank you for such a great review. I posted a question to regarding the Pinnacle on your menu post and then I found this. Sorry.

 

Sounds like you had a wonderful time, we cruised on the Maasdam 4/3/04 from Norfolk, ours was the second cruise after the itinerary change that allowed the ship additional time to get back on time, we had no problems.

 

You mentioned you were thinking about the Maasdam out of Norfolk, all I can say was it was wonderful - if you get a chance you may want to try it. We loved embarking from Norfolk, what a breeze. We stayed at the Marriott Waterside, literally within walking distance of the terminal.

 

We cruised with about 300 kids on board (we have kids too) so you may want to avoid Spring & Easter Breaks.

 

Many of the kids on our cruise were on Easter Break (as our kids were) which is later in the month than the "traditional" spring break time. Next year, the time period to watch out for will be 3/18/05 - 3/27/05, which is Easter Break for many Private & Christian schools. We are planning the Volendam out of FLL on 3/20/05.

 

Thanks again for such a wonderful review. We got to know May on our cruise and she is truly a gem.

[pogostick]

Peaches:

Enjoyed your review. One question, what happened on the cruise out of Norfolk last year?

[ekerr19]

Peaches:

Enjoyed your review. One question, what happened on the cruise out of Norfolk last year?

 

Pogo-

 

Initially, the Maasdam had problems returning and departing on time... for awhile it was running 6 - 8 hours behind schedule - those who had airline connections suffered most, I believe. Once HAL changed the itinerary, the ship was able to make it back to Norfolk by 8:00am...

[bpatrick]

What would you suggest to do in portland? (since peaches thinks it should be dropped from the intinerary). We love outlet shopping & heard that there were good shops in freeport, 20 miles away. We're thinking of renting a car, but would love your opinions.

b

[peaches from georgia]

Not sure of my exact words, but my feeling was that for us we would have been happy with one less port and one more sea day. We have been to Portland a number of times, DH's family is from Kennebunk, obviously we didn't want to take the excursion there though I think an awful lot of folks did, and we had no interest in the outlets in Freeport (though I know a lot people went there, too). I'm sure there are other enjoyable excursions- F5Loar posted about one he took, I know, so you might search that or I'm sure he'll be back to answer you.

 

We walked around, took the local trolley tour as lots of Maasdam cruisers did, and ate great seafood along the water near the ship. A lot of Maasdam people did basically the same thing and went back to the ship early. It was okay, but preferring another sea day and having been to this city before, this was our least favorite port. It may end up your favorite; I would suggest looking into the excursions or renting a car. ;)

 

POGO - We never did take the Norfolk cruise and took the New England/Canada one instead. We had family plans in Boston/Vt/NY in June and the cruise fit in perfectly with those. Plus the Norfolk cruise was having so many problems we decided to put it on hold until they were settled. Thanks for remembering.

[sail7seas]

I agree that another sea day would have been great. I would love if they made this an 8 or 9 day cruise in the future. Seven days is awfully short IMO

 

We did what Peaches did in Portland.....there wasn't much we specifically wanted to see so we walked around a bit; stopped for a great lobster lunch at the docks; we enjoyed ourselves but returned to the ship after our lunch.