Maasdam Review

4.0 / 5.0
0 reviews

A eye opener cruise

Review for the Panama Canal & Central America Cruise on Maasdam
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chain saw
First Time Cruiser • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Feb 2010

We did the Panama canal on the Maasdam, left San Diego on Feb 19. We were basically forced to pay $22 a day for gratuities prior to the completion of the cruise, this upset me greatly. I prefer to do the tipping after I receive the service and I also prefer to tip the people I wish.

I had to get that out of the way.

1. Getting on the ship, flawless 2. getting into our room, quick 3. We had 2 stewards to look after our room, saw them many times during day and evening, they called us by name after first day, I was impressed, on RC we never saw our steward, ever, save and except on the second last day. 4. Food was very good, always served hot, top quality, steaks awesome. 5. We had many people who did not know how to wash their hands on the cruise as we had the GIS sickness after the first day and we had to have all food served. my wife and I never got sick but they obviously had many sick people as everything was shut down for the entire cruise. 6. The entertainment was pretty good, except for the magician and the ventriloquist, they really sucked the big one, not the class act you would expect to see on a cruise that you paid 5K for, they did have some fantastic other performers. 7. Our stateroom was comfortable, larger bathroom comfortable beds. Out air conditioning quit 2 times, I finally had to go to the front office and raise some hell. 8. Front office was not receptive to looking after (we had medication that required refrigeration, this was arranged prior to leaving our home town) us until I got aggressive. 9. Casino was not bad for a ship, many older slots, people complained (losers usually do) I won about $500 over the 2 week period, people have to remember, what you do in a casino, gamble!? sometimes you win sometimes you don't. 10. There was one stout blond lady (long blond hair) working in the casino that I over heard dealing with some passengers, she was maybe the rudest staff member I have ever seen on a cruise. 11. Hot tub was closed after the second day and never re-opened, that really pi.....ed me off as the is one pass time I really enjoy. 12. Captain was very visible, he actually spoke to people in the elevator and restaurant as he walked around, we saw him many times everyday, I do not recall ever seeing the captain move about the ship as much as this captain. 13. We were getting very uncomfortable on the second last day as every staff member was asking us to mark their scores on the survey as 9's. The Cruise director also had a debarkation meeting with everyone and the gist of this was to make sure we weer aware how good the staff were to everyone and how well the staff have treated everyone and how we should mark the survey as 9"s. We got the same message later over the PA system. the thing is, when you pay the money we pay for a cruise, we do it so we will get looked after and we would hope it would be above average, why else would we do it? We don't need the senior management of the ship telling us how well the staff looked after us, it should be the passengers making these comments. This whole process was totally inappropriate.

Cabin Review

We had a good cabin, AC unit quit 2 times, had problems getting it repaird, bathroom was very good, beds very comfortable, quiet location.

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