This was my 44th cruise and number 25 on HAL (although they give me credit for 26 cruises one being a back to back booked as a single cruise). We now live in south Florida so we drove to Port Everglades. We booked a bargain parking lot, Premier Parking. While the price was great, the lot we were directed to was difficult to find -- evening for the GPS device. I suggest that you get precise directions if you use this lot, which I will do in the future, since I now can find it!

The Friday departure was fast. Port Everglades, which can be very crowded on the weekends was quite sleepy with only three ships leaving. Checked in with one party ahead of us. We were in our cabin in 10 minutes. My major complaint by far is the need for HAL to give its cabins a thorough cleaning on a periodic schedule. There are two teams of two stewards each to take care of 60 cabins. Our stewards were responsive and great, but is is obvious that they cannot perform a thorough cleaning of each cabin on a reasonable schedule. Perhaps the Hotel Mgr., ought to lend a hand!

Otherwise Maasdam was in fine shape. The S class ships get better with time. Alas not so for the writer! Read more