I love HAL, and they get some things very right. The Maasdam is a beautiful ship. The food was good. Entertainment was above average, with numerous venues with live music. There were some great extras including a PEI Mussel bake and Cape Bretton music. But the ship has some major problems.

As You Wish dining was an absolute disaster. Customers were booked into fixed dining, and then at some point were told there was no more fixed dining available and were booked into As You Wish. When we went down to the dining room the first night around 7:15PM, we were told that the dining room didn't have enough capacity for the number of As You Wish customers, and there was a 1 1/2 hour to 2 hour wait time to be seated, and that you had to physically stand on line for that time. It was strongly recommended that we eat at the Lido (buffet) instead, and that we make reservations for the remainder of the cruise. When we went to the Lido, it turned out that the Lido closed supposedly at 8PM, but they actually shut it down about 10 minutes early. On subsequent nights I made advanced reservations (which worked out in the dining room), but you could only make reservations at either 5:15PM or 7:45PM. These times corresponded to early and late seatings. This is the first cruise ship I have ever been on where you could actually get locked out of dinner.

My wife has a handicapped scooter. We have been on numerous cruises before with the scooter, and at night we just leave it parked outside the cabin. The Maasdam has a policy where they take the scooter from your cabin at about 10:30PM and then return it in the morning at about 7:00AM. This left me very insecure. What happens if there's an emergency at night? We would be stranded in the cabin. Further, I forgot to take the battery in for charging on two nights and couldn't access it. Read more