We took the 35 day Maasdam Transatlantic cruise and had booked with a group of over 100. I read the prior review and I can't disagree more about the cleanliness, condition and attitudes of the personnel on this ship. Thank heavens it is going in for a refurbishment and 2006 isn't soon enough.

First, our air conditioning blew pencil lead sized chunks of carbon onto our desk, TV and floor. Their solution was to vacuum the duct work which only corrected it for a day. The toilets worked sporadically. The water was turned off one day for 10 hours on the entire ship. The engines quit going into Cork and we were 1 1/2 hours late docking. The phones somehow defaulted to prior cabin occupants' names. The bath towels had large blood or otherwise stains in them. The napkins on the Lido were disgusting. Numerous times there were pieces of food and stains ironed into the napkins. The silverware wasn't packed consistently. Sometimes you would get a knife and a fork, other times it might include a spoon and others only a fork and spoon.

We were moved after six complaints about the air conditioning. I was concerned that while big chunks may be falling on the desk, what particulate matter was in our air. The new room 195 was one that had, according to our new neighbors, dried out after flooding. We heard others complain about flooding in rooms on various decks. The bathrooms both cabins and public were moldy in spots and not clean in others with corner build-up. The self-service laundry detergent dispenser dispensed a watered down version of soap that did not clean the clothes. Read more