We really wanted to do an Alaskan cruise this year, but several circumstances led to booking a cruise before the Alaskan market opened for the season. After checking out a promotion for Holland America's repositioning cruise on the Maasdam, we decided we really liked the itinerary for the Ft. Lauderdale to Montreal cruise departing April 28, 2006. It would be the first cruise since the Maasdam came out of "drydock" and would take the ship to Canada for its summer season. Having never done the east coast/New England/Canadian Maritimes, it was to be the cruise in leu of Alaska. Living in Florida gives us easy access to many Caribbean cruise itineraries, but not many that would do so many ports new to me.

We had to rent a car to drive one way to Ft. Lauderdale which worked out well. The shuttle bus from the car rental to Port Everglades had three couples all going on the Maasdam. One proudly exclaimed they were looking forward not to the cruise, but to the bread pudding at lunch that day for lunch. I thought how strange, until sampling it a few hours later! It was my third HAL cruise and I had never tried the bread pudding before as it is not one of my favorites at home. Don't forget the vanilla creme sauce.

We were disappointed not to be upgraded on this my third HAL cruise as a Mariner with three weeks to my credit, only to later find the majority had not only sailed before, but many with 100+ days on HAL. The average age was probably in the 70s, with no children and very few under 40. It was a 15 day cruise which draws mostly retirees. Read more