Maasdam Review

4.0 / 5.0
0 reviews

Eastern Caribbean on the Maasdam

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Maasdam
User Avatar
shipnshore114
2-5 Cruises • Age 70s

Rating by category

Value for Money
Embarkation
Dining
Public Rooms
Entertainment
Fitness & Recreation
Service
Cabin

Additional details

Sail Date: Jan 2011
Cabin: Verandah Suite

Returned from an 11 night cruise on the Maasdam. This is our third sailing on HA (Rotterdam in med and Amsterdam in Alaska). Just my wife and myself on this one. Out of the three, this was our least favorite. The itinerary was very good but I will list some things that were not as they should be. When we arrived in our cabin, it had obviously been previously occupied by smokers as it really had a stale odor. Took a couple of days to clear out. The cabin service was just fair-ashes and burnt matchsticks all over the balcony deck. Took two days of mentioning it to our steward before he finally cleaned it. It wasn't that he was lazy, just not very attentive to good service. He did get better as the cruise went however. Food was very good so no complaints there. The fixed dining times were 5:45 and 8. We like to eat a little earlier, but not that early so we had chosen the open dining. I would have much rather had a 6:15 or 6:30 fixed dining time. Forced us to make sure we reserved our time and it was always sharing a table-ok for the most part. Internet access is expensive and the connection is slow but don't know how to fix that unless they provide it free, then slow would be more tolerable. The entertainment that we saw was good. Really liked Justin Miller-classical guitar with stories to tell about music history. Also, a Romanian string quartet, Adagio, was exceptional. Young female lead violinist was magnificent. As for the ports:

Half Moon Cay-cruiseline owned in Bahamas-very nice beach St. Croix-trying to attract the cruiselines (ruined their reputation a few years ago with looting after a hurricane hit). If you like to snorkel or dive-book with N2 the Blue-very good dive company. St. Kitts-Booked with Rose and Jim's taxi-good tour around the island (it ends at Cockleshell Beach which was just fair but not many good beaches on the island)

Domenica-very poor (as in poverty) island but we had fun with Antours (river tubing and champagne snorkel-bubbles effervesce from ocean floor-cool) Barbados-great island-booked a trip on the Rubaiyat (this was substituted due to the destruction of our original catamaran, Heatwave. Snorkeled over wrecks and with sea turtles. This was a fun day-Captain Eddie Cheeseman (not a joke) ran a great tour. Group with us from an OB-Gyn office in New York knew how to party and got pretty crazy (glad we didn't have any kids with us). Lots of dirty dancing!!

Cabin Review

Verandah Suite

Cabin B
previous reviewnext review

Find a cruise

Any Month

Get special cruise deals, expert advice, insider tips and more.By proceeding, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

© 1995—2024, The Independent Traveler, Inc.