A Few Notes from Maasdam 5/19 Cruise

[Gunters Oma]

I'll do a full review in the next few days - but here's a few things until I have time to do the trip justice.

 

In spite of everything…it was great!! The Maasdam is beautiful…and we discovered for us - the size is great! So nice to not walk, walk, walk to get to the theater or dining room.

 

The itinerary was shortened/changed. We were unable to tender in PEI, Halifax was changed to noon to 7:00PM, Bar Harbor - for some folks (early tours and early alphabet letters) 12:30PM…later tours and mid/late alphabet letters between 1PM and 2:30PM. Our tender arrived at 2:00. Last tender out 5:30PM. We found all the ports to be interesting…but fell in love with Sydney!

 

There were lots of activities…the shows were entertaining (the Liars Club was hoot!)…the food in main dining room was great…(the Lido - not so much)…the service warm and friendly. Our meet & greet was enjoyable - (18 CCers)

 

The Henk Draper was our captain. Hotel Managers: Douglas Hernandez & Firmin Van Wallen (D. Hernandez was listed on the Mariner's invitation, but F. Van Wallen did the awards at the Reception - both are listed on the Cruise Log.) Chris Butcher was the cruise director.

 

The Mariner's Reception was done in the Rembrandt Lounge. Only wine, champagne and orange juice was offered - I did not see anyone drinking anything else. The little bottles of mixed nuts w/cashews and all the good ones were scattered about!

 

The Captain's Reception was also in the Lounge…you did have the opportunity to meet the captain and have your picture taken with him. (He is very charming!) Again only wine, champagne and orange juice was offered, plus hot appetizers and the good nuts. When everyone was seated - the captain introduced the officers and off we went to dinner!

 

There were two formal nights (although for our cruise one was changed to casual because of the port time change to 7PM); at the 6:15PM seating, I would guess only about 20% of the men wore tuxes…I did not see any man NOT wearing a suit or sport coat; four casual; (and for the purists out there…hold on to your hats :eek: ) one ANYTHING GOES - yes…wording directly from the Daily "Anything goes, but please wear SOMETHING!"

 

They did have the Master Chef's Dinner.

 

I will write a day by day review shortly…if you have any questions - ask away and I will answer them as I do the review. I will also include a list of the movies and the shows.

Jayne

[sail7seas]

Thanks for posting the comments, Jayne. :) I can never hear too much about the beautiful Maasdam.

 

Didn't you miss PEI because the weather was too bad for tendering? And wasn't there a big delay because of Homeland Security Officials doing Immigration in Bar Harbor? Did I get that wrong? Weren't they delayed in boarding after Maasdam arrived? Can't blame Maasdam for that.......

 

I so agree about how charming Captain Draper is. We haven't sailed with him for a while but look forward to the first chance to do so. :) Mr. Firmin is a GREAT Hotel Manager. Did you hear the beautiful Maasdam scored a wonderful 96 Saturday when U.S. Public Health boarded for an unannounced inspection? Big congratulations to Maasdam's Officers and crew for that!

 

 

I'm not sure I like the sound of this 'Anything Goes" business but it will be interesting to see first hand. We board Maasdam just four weeks and can't wait. :)

 

I'm (not very patiently) waiting to read all your comments. Thanks for taking the time to do so for us.

 

Welcome Back.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for the report.

 

I see that the Maasdam has gone back to the traditional captain's party and no longer has the Mariner lunch.

 

Don't like the sound of "Anything Goes" for dress for 1 night.

[senator6]

Thanks for the report, looking forward to the full review. Would also like to hear more about the anything goes night. Could you also let us know which night they had the Master Chef's Dinner, and who the Restaurant Manager was for your cruise, we will be on the same cruise in a few weeks.

[sail7seas]

Bekti used to be Maitre d' on Maasdam but I believe he retired in the last several months.

 

[Gunters Oma]

Sail… Yes, they are currently tendering into PEI…and the water was quite choppy. While disappointing - it is always better safe than sorry.

 

Homeland did delay their appearance on the ship! Have no idea why and you certainly cannot blame HAL.

 

And the folks with the early excursions or the last name starting with A,B,C,D were off the ship and on their way quickly. I am not sure, but I think they started with two tenders…but it didn't take long to figure out they need the other two. The problem was having started the process - everything there after was chaotic.

 

As each additional alphabet letter received their clearance slip they headed to the lounge, which quickly filled, and they constantly requested to please move up to the balcony.

 

Then they ran out of tender tickets. (We were lucky enough to have one of the last groups of tickets.) Initially they told those folks to just wait and as the tendered was full - they would run up with those tickets. Well, more and more folks arrived and it was difficult to keep a "queue" - so folks were concerned that "new" people would get a tender ticket before they did. The young crew members trying to bring some type of order to this chaos did decide to count out the correct number of "excursion stickers" and things proceeded.

 

There was additional rumbling when one crew member said "We have never had this many people converge at once…we really don't know what to do!" and then they told us that all the tours were off the boat and they could now just load the rest of us. Well…there was another tour group still on the ship and they were quick to let the crew know. You can't really blame these folks because they had been waiting the longest of all remaining captives…um, er…passengers.

 

We were fortunate to hold the same number as that tour group - so we were off the ship next so I cannot tell you anything else…but we did not get into Bar Harbor until 2:00PM - just in time to hop on Ollie's Trolley - which was great fun!

 

Had the Maasdam been able to anchor at the assigned time - there would have been no problem. Our initial plan was to watch the ship anchor, have a leisurely breakfast and go into town around 10-11AM. I know many others that had the same plan. However, with the delay getting into port, we did not have the luxury of leisure. All of us wanted off to make use of the little time available. Thus the fiasco!

 

In talking to Doug Hernandez later..he said they recognized they had to examine the procedure and come up with a better plan to prevent a reoccurence. So no you cannot blame HAL for the Homeland delay…but the second part was definitely a learning experience for them.

[Copper10-8]

Thanks for taking the time to post a review, Oma (Dutch connection somewhere?;) ). Sounds like a bit of a mess in that lounge and tendering! Usually a pretty smooth process with Shorex in charge. Doug Hernandez is new to HAL (came from NCL). Can you tell us a little more about Ollie's Trolley in Bahh Hahhbahh?

[Gunters Oma]

Senator6

The Master Chef's Dinner was on Day 5. (Sydney for us doing the Montreal to Boston trip.)

 

The Dinning Room Manager (given previous threads I thought some might appreciate this spelling direct from the Cruise Log ;) ) was Gildus. That's all it says - Gildus - no last name or if that is a last name...no first name!

Culinary Operations Mgr was Craig Oakes.

 

Anything Goes Night! The dining room staff is dressed in any thing they choose! We had some pretty outrageous outfits; some cute; etc. My guess is that only about 20% (Close to the same amount of folks that wore tuxes on formal night) were something outrageous...like large, filmy pink hats and boas or multicolor fleece top with plaid baggy pants. DH wore a Hawaiian shirt and dockers - I wore a Florida Tshirt, black pants, and fuzzy black bedroom slippers. About 1/2 the folks were more everyday casual (as opposed to smart casual...more jeans, T-shirts) and believe it or not, a few folks were dressed quite formal. Sooooo Anything Goes! Also as they were serving dessert...we were seranaded - by part of the crew!

 

I am sure this will not be everyone's cup of tea...and I can hear cries of Carnival in the background :D but it was different and DH and I thought it was fun. But then we liked the Master Chef's Dinner - so there ya go!

 

I will say that (at least at the 6:15 sitting) the dress code was observed probably 99%. Actually, maybe a step above the required. I did not see anyone in jeans, t-shirts, shorts, etc. except for Anything Goes. And formal night was indeed formal for most folks. Even on the night formal was cancelled because of the late boarding time - many, many folks still dressed formally. There was a note in the Daily that said, "Please note: If you should decide not to dress formally, the Lido Restaurant, Deck 11 or In-room Dining is always available as a dining option.

[sail7seas]

Thanks, GUntersOma......

 

Does sound very disorganized for Bar Harbor. Surprising considering how many times they have done that port; how many times they have tendered.

 

Doug Hernandez just joined HAL after many years with RCI. Seeing as you said that both Firmin van Walle and Douglas Hernandez wre aboard, both HM at the same time, one has to guess Mr. van Walle was acquainting Mr. Hernandez with Maasdam and HAL's way of doing things. Welcome Mr. Hernandez...... Hope to see you aboard Maasdam very soon.

 

Gildus is GREAT. We have sailed with him before. Be fun to see him again.

 

Thanks again for all your reports.

[wwalker47]

I'm not believing that we were even on the same ship!! I thought this was an AWFUL cruise and I plan never to sail on Holland again! Of course, maybe you had the luxury of toilets that flushed consistently etc., but we didn't. We spent the first 3 days seeking out toilets that would flush. I felt we only had about half a cruise anyway with all the delays in port. Unfortunately, my name does NOT come at the first of the alphabet and we didn't get to see much of anything in Bar Harbor. Well, I could go on, but just count me out with this ship and I'll take my chances on anything but HA!

[senator6]

Jayne,

Thanks for all your reports and the information you have given us. Very helpful!

[JYGresham]

Did you use the thermal suites and if so how much did they cost? Did the cost include bothth recliners and the pool?