My family, four women, chose this cruise for it's itinerary and the date. Most of us live in the Sunbelt and wanted to get out of the heat. I have been recently cruising with Celebrity and have been at the suite level with Luminae Dining. I was expecting the food to be mediocre and the crowd to be staid. However, we were all pleasantly surprised.

I will address some of the bad things first. The Maasdam is an older ship which will be retired August of 2018. Although the public areas of the ship are nicely decorated and spotlessly clean, the outside of the ship can only be described as a rust bucket. The color scheme down the stateroom halls is tired. Instead of art lining the staircases, there are plaques given by governmental agencies referencing the Maasdam. Parts of our stateroom were repaired badly.

My main complaint about the ship is the lack of outdoor eating and drinking venues. We really enjoy having a cocktail while sitting outside. Maasdam lacks this. In addition, there is not a jogging track. There is a promenade on deck 6 but it specifically states "no running." In addition, when we tried to walk it in the morning, the crew usually had part of it blocked off for some sort of drill or maintenance. Read more