The Maasdam was a great ship based on what you are looking for. Happy and helpful crew. Very clean ship. All the public areas and cabins are great and not really showing their age. Cabin windows look bad inside and out as well as outside areas of the ship need some care, cosmetic. It is a small quiet ship which was what we were looking for. Always something to do but not many choices. We bought the Thermal Suite and enjoyed that. Our cabin and bathroom were a great size with more space than we are used to. I've been on over 12 cruises and I'd sail on this ship again.

Ports were great other than Sydney . Not really worth getting off the ship unless you are doing a tour. Great tours from Sydney but the town really lacks. I typically book independent tours but was too busy to do that for this cruise and booked tours for all ports on the ship. Got on all of them and we had great tour guides. Hate the big coach excursions but we were pleasantly surprised with excellent guides and everyone was on time so no time was wasted. The small group tour in Maine for the park was really amazing, our guide Gail was really great.

So why not 5 stars? For what I 'like' generally the food on Holland is always good, they have an outstanding fresh extensive salad bar which we had daily. The lettuce was always very fresh and green which other ships seem to fail on. I just don't like Hollands heavy on the red meat menu (had liver on the menu one night) and overcooked vegetables in the dining room. Chicken seemed to be the same dish if it was on the dining room menu. Maybe we are the few not eating heavy red meat but if Holland wants a younger crowd that might be something they need to adjust in my opinion. Brought our formal clothes but we only ate in the dining room once. The buffet in the Lido was pretty good so we ate there in yoga pants and were pretty happy. Always clean and great staff in the Lido. Read more