Great Crew & Food:

This was our third cruise on HAL and first on the Maasdam. Our first two cruises were last Dec/Jan on the Noordam where we got our first experience of the famously friendly HAL crew and "as formal" or "as casual" cruising as you'd like. We had great cabins and a whole lot of fun. Unfortunately, the Noordam food on those trips was average at best and on par (or slightly lower depending on the line) than our other cruises on Princess, NCL and Royal. Our experience with "non-pay" (i.e., Lido/Dining Room) "cruise food" had been so mediocre over the last few years that we no longer considered the food to be a draw to cruising and turned our focus to the ports, excursions and the sea. We were very happy to find the non-pay food aboard the Maasdam to be so good. We had many tasty meals (even in the Lido); a very nice surprise. However, I do recommend a pinch of salt to the meats. Also, we thought deserts with full (versus low sugar) should be more clearly distinguished. We like our deserts will full sugar but understand that there are those with low sugar requirements. Unfortunately, there was no way we could find to distinguish the two and started to refer to our desert selection as "desert roulette". A game where one is required to bite into a number of different deserts until sufficient sweetness is found. All things considered, Maasdam provided the best all around food of any ship we've been on in quite a few years. Was this timing or luck, who knows? But it was a great surprise! BTW - The food in the Pinnacle Grill on both HAL ships was very good so you're unlikely to miss there.

Warm Cabin: Read more