Maasdam - General Comments

[Orcrone]

I never spent any time down at the relations desk complaining. They knew of the problem and getting upset and irate with the people at customer relations wouldn't have changed much IMHO.

Just for clarification, I didn't mean that it was John, or anyone else I knew from the boards, complaining at the front desk. It was someone I did not know. I did get a little kick out of it, since I knew of four other cabins with the problem.

John, let me know what kind of feedback you get from the home office.

[JohnR49er]

I will Marc, if and when.............. LOL

[dewhit6959]

Dear Orcrone & John49er;

 

Thank you for your responses. I am not concerned about food or pillows or wine, but the a.c. problem is a little disturbing. I agree that the excuse of "ship adjusting itself", is insulting to anyone with any type of engineering background or common sense. That sounds like what shade tree mechanics used to tell tourist from up north when they came to Florida and their car air conditioning wasn't properly repaired. If yours had been the only time this had been a problem, I would chalk it up to "ship happens",but this is not the first or the second such occurrance.

I mentioned my concern about the a.c. to my agent and he called later and said that his Seattle contacts told him that I should not be concerned as there were no mechanical problems on the Maasdam that operations or engineering were aware of, and that he should tell his client to disregard any reports to the contrary. My agent did tell me to address the possible lack of hvac upon embarkation and call him asap if this was a problem and he and his organization would seek solutions or make alternative plans available.

On troop carriers, you could peel down to the skivies below deck, so maybe that will be an option though I don't think the madam will be enthralled. On a positive note, we may be able to do the suite, the Pinnacle and the entire cruise in swim wear and sandals and forget laundry.

[mhshapiro]

I checked the Cruise Critic reviews for the Maasdam. I was somewhat surprised to see that the most recent CDC score was only 89, and that several of the recent reviews by passengers were less than spectacular.

 

This, to me, is a sign that the ship is not being properly maintained.

[Nautical Wheeler]

My next observation is not only subjective, but some would find it a positive, whereas I thought it was a negative. Going to the Caribbean I wanted to hear Calypso, Reggae, steel drum music. I believe there was only about 5 hours total that they had live music at either pool. The group (Yu 4) sounded good, however they always repeated their musical selections. I think they have a very limited reportaire (please don't correct my spelling). Most of the time there was no music at all.

 

We were on the Oosterdam at the same time you were cruising. (Shared HMC).

We found the same to be true on the "o". The band was a group who appeared to be composed of crew members and was bad enough to keep us off the pool deck during the few times they were playing. Definitely not reggae. This is part of the ambiance when cruising the Caribbean and sorely missed. Hal needs to get some good Reggae bands for sailaway parties and poolside entertainment!:)

[FlorenceItaly]

just in a few hours ago from Celebrity, Horizon, and was anxious to hear about your cruise so checked in here. I am sorry it was not all that you hoped for. I am tired, and will elaborate more in the future but want to say TRY CELEBRITY!!!

It is wonderful. It is now my cruiseline of choice. I like HAL, and the others, but I am now a Celebrity fan, and this was on an older, smaller ship! Service is very important to me, and it was outstanding! The food was excellent, especially the beef dishes. More later.

 

Marie

[Orcrone]

The other problem with the band was their demeanor. One night someone kept asking for Beatles in the Crow's Nest. They didn't even acknowledge him. When they got done with their set by the pool I would expect them to say something like, "thank you very much, come up and join us this evening at the Crow's Nest". Instead they finished their last song, unplugged their instruments, coiled up the cables and left without a word. This happened each time.

[Orcrone]

just in a few hours ago from Celebrity, Horizon, and was anxious to hear about your cruise so checked in here. I am sorry it was not all that you hoped for. I am tired, and will elaborate more in the future but want to say TRY CELEBRITY!!!

It is wonderful. It is now my cruiseline of choice. I like HAL, and the others, but I am now a Celebrity fan, and this was on an older, smaller ship! Service is very important to me, and it was outstanding! The food was excellent, especially the beef dishes. More later.

 

Marie

Marie,

 

Glad to hear you had a good time. I was wondering when your ship returned. Love to hear about Celebrity. I'd love to do the repositioning cruise sometime.

 

Marc

[iluvcruzin]

The other problem with the band was their demeanor. One night someone kept asking for Beatles in the Crow's Nest. They didn't even acknowledge him. When they got done with their set by the pool I would expect them to say something like, "thank you very much, come up and join us this evening at the Crow's Nest". Instead they finished their last song, unplugged their instruments, coiled up the cables and left without a word. This happened each time.

I thought the band was pitiful. Often they didn't even know the words to the song and sort of made stuff up. Kelly and I couldn't help but laugh at them.

In additon to the rooms John mentioned on the AC, 2 other cabins on the portside had problems which my table mates occupied. One was a couple was on their first cruise. They have no plans on returning on a HAL cruise and are looking to plan their next one on a different line. The other was on their 2nd cruise - the first was a HAL Alaska cruise. They were very disappointed in everything on the cruise - except they enjoyed the best thing about cruising.. meeting super nice people.

Nautical Wheeler.. what did you think about 2 ships at HMC at the same time? I thought it was way too crowded. My daughter waited an hour in the food line. They ran out of iced tea and were serving horrible water. There were too many people on the beach at the same time. I had a clam shell but felt over crowding with only a foot between my chair and the one in front of me. I've been to many cruiseline private islands and this one was the pits. Mainly because of the lack of handicap access (we had older people with us who couldn't make it to the beach) and the overcrowding. I imagine it would be very nice if only one ship was docked.

[JohnR49er]

I agree Maureen. All the other times HMC had only our ship. Did seem very crowded. It's such a great place when you have more space and less lines.

But we made it and it was a beautiful day.

[sail7seas]

They lost some beach to the hurricane. It did not used to be that crowded when two ships were in.

 

 

Mother Nature ate away a measurable amount of beach.