Maasdam 2012 - 25 Collector's Cruise

[Krazy Kruizers]

We noticed that the bus compound has been torn down.



Way past the far end of the freight dock we spotted a lovely looking beach -- couldn't figure out how to get there since the bus compound is gone and everyone kept giving different directions to get here and there -- lots of confusion.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Last Divi tree on the reef out in the ocean.



Some picture shots as we left Aruba.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

As we were leaving the ship to walk into town -- one woman was already off the ship standing beside her luggage and waiting for taxi.

When we got back to the ship the ambulance was there to take away a man and his wife. A ship representative arrived and packed their luggage into his car. Around 1 PM he back at the ship and waiting for a taxi and the car with their luggage. The doctor came off the ship and took her report before the couple left to go to a hotel before they flew home.

This was an early leave port day -- 2 PM.

This evening we had another wonderful Le Cirque dinner in the Pinnacle.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Wed, Feb 29 - At Sea (Leap Day)

Yesterday the captain had announced that we needed to do an average of 19 knots to get to HMC. When Joe was watching the TV in the gym at 6 AM he noticed that we were only going 9 knots. When he returned to the cabin shortly after 7 - sure enough I noticed that we were going slow. By 7:30 - 8 we picked up speed again. Have no idea why we went do slow for awhile.

Today was the Suite lunch at 11:30 in the Pinnacle. It was packed -- 61 people there. As usual the Hotel Manager went around and talked to all the people. But the captain went only to one table and talked a couple of minutes to one couple. Since there were so many people there -- the entire Pinnacle crew had to work - all 5 of them. And an extra wine steward was added to handle the wine at the beginning as everyone arrived.

One couple had signed up for the Chef's Table dinner. But that morning they had gotten a letter that not enough people had signed up for the dinner -- they need at least 10 people but not more than 14 in order to have the dinner -- so they switched it to a luncheon at 12:30. They were furious and as we left the Pinnacle they were headed to the front desk to cancel and get their money back. Who wants to eat 2 Big lunches???

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thurs, Mar 1 -- Half Moon Cay

Time to pack the suitcases. It has been a long time since we have been on a ship when Deluxe Suite passengers were given the opportunity to put out their suitcases by 6 AM instead of by midnight. We signed up for that. We are always up early anyway since breakfast starts at 6:30 AM.

We arrived after 9 AM - since we were to be here until only 3 PM we decided to stay on the ship. In fact many people stayed on the ship. We kept looking over at the island and saw very few people on the beach. Very few of the clam shells and cabanas were in use. We never even saw the horses on the beach.

Since this was the last night of the cruise and we hate the Master Chef's Dinner we went to the Pinnacle Grill for dinner as we were very disappointed in the Canaletto.

A couple of last pictures of HMC

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Fri, Mar 2 -- Disembarkation

I had received my notice that I could report anytime between 7:30 - 9 to the Ocean Bar for my wheelchair assistance off the ship.

We had breakfast at 6:30 -- then went back to the cabin where I said goodbye to my walker. We finished collecting everything and were down in the Ocean Bar about 8:15. Within a couple of minutes one of the Pinnacle staff was there with a wheelchair and our colored number was called and I was wisked off the ship. We headed right down to the terminal -- porter collected our luggage and we quickly were moved to the front of the line to go through immigration and customs. At the exit door the Pinnacle staff member is not allowed to go beyond the doors but there was a HAL helper there who took over the wqheelchair and took us right out to the taxis. The person in charge of the taxis called a special cab over right away. We were at the Embassy Suites at 8:35!! In time to have another breakfast.

The reason wheelchair people go to the front of the line for immigration and customs is because they need to get the workers back to the Ocean Bar as quickly as possible to collect other wheelchair people. How they determine who goes first depends on your cabin category and your end of the cruise plans. This is one area where HAL has this down pat along with the people who are in charge of the taxis.

As we were leaving the terminal area the Statendam was just arriving and getting tied off. She was late to due to an engine that was dead and high winds thy had to fight after leaving Cartahena.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Some last thoughts and comments.

Compared to the Noordam the flowers were fresh when we arrived in our cabin. In fact the flowers were changed about every 7 days -- and always with fresh ones. On the Noorrdam when we arrived at our cabin the flowers were dead - smelled bad -- looked like they had been there already for a week. They were finally changed after 3 or 4 days -- and these didn't look any better. All the Noordam did was recycle old flowers.

And talking about flowers -- this is the first ship that we have been on that actually had pots of flowers on the tables by the Lido Pool!! We are used to the pots of flowers inside the Lido buffet -- but this is really nice.



One thing many of us complained about -- how the food has gotten saltier and more spicey. We noticed after a few days that some people were asking for "lower sodium diet" menus. HAL has definitely gone away from healthy foods. Many items were repeated several times over the 25 days. The food has gone downhill -- JMO. Even when you order the perfectly grilled chicken breast it comes highly seasoned now.

The desserts have not improved -- that is fine with me -- I don't eat a lot of desserts.

Because of so many cutbacks we gave up the Happy Hour and just went to the MIX and had our Grey Goose there whenever we wanted a cocktail before dinner.

OH -- I did forget to mention what happened on our last night of the cruise. As we were sitting in the MIX -- at 5:15 the fire alarms went off. The captain came on immediately and said that smoke was reported in the Spa and Gym area and everyone was asked to leave the Crow's Nest and the Spa/Gym areas. Our cabin is below the Salon area next to the gym which was also cleared out. He kept coming on every couple of minutes and said that they were trying to locate the exact area of the fire. By 5:30 it was announced that the smoke was coming from a fan belt that had burned out and was going through the vents. So all the air conditioning in the front of the ship was turned off for awhile while the belt was changed. When we went back to cabin after dinner the room was only slightly warm.

We did get forms to complete concerning our port stop in St Maarten and Curacao. It seems that some passengers on previous cruises have been complaining about these 2 ports. This was when I got my chance to write up about the 3 ladies in the Penna store.

The crew was wonderful to me with my walker. Whenever the ramps at the gangway were very steep one worker would come and get my walker while another worker had me hold onto the rail and used my other arm to help me walk up or down the ramps. They did this with everyone with walkers.

This is the first time we have ever encounted a Neptune Lounge where they could not make change for us nor could they book tours right from their terminals.

One game we love to play is Pub Trivia -- it not questions about drinks. Instead it about different categories --one night might be all music -- another night on science, etc. It was held each evening at 6:30 PM -- dinner time!! On other ships it would be around 7:15 after first seating dinner and right before second seating dinner. Perfect for everyone.

The number of afternoon activities has dropped considerably with the cutback of crew members.

Shows have gone downhill. Most consist of a couple of singers for 45 minutes. They even have the Adiago Strings performing with a couple of the singers some nights -- usually the formal nights -- on stage. Thus we never had the Adiago Strings in the dining room on formal nights.

The art auctions are back -- they returned on the second segment of our Noordam cruise in November. When we went by the Ocean Bar -- they may have been about a dozen people sitting in there -- don't know how much they sold.

Deluxe Suite passengers used to get their menus by 8 AM -- now we don't get them until around 2 or 3 PM.

The Times Digest on the Noordam was no longer delivered to our cabins -- you had to pick one up in the Library, the front desk, or in the Lido. On the Maadam our concierges did deliver them to our cabins.

 

[ShipMaven]

By the time we got back to our cabin our other 2 pieces of luggage were there and we got them emptied and got ready for dinner at 5:30 at the Pinnacle. I am not happy with HAL's new ruling that we now have to use our free American Express Platinum dinner on the first night. This makes for a rushed dinner as our Deluxe Suite Cocktail party is always from 7:15 - 8 PM.

The American Express Platinum complimentary Pinnacle Grill dinner has ALWAYS been the first night. It's AMEX's perk requirement, not HAL's.

Am enjoying your review. Just reading through it now.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

For years we have always been able to select the night we wanted to have our free American Express dinner. They don't even deliver the free bottle of cheap champagne from American Express to the cabin anymore.

 

[ShipMaven]

At least we're spared the cheap champagne! It has always been the first night since I started sailing HAL again in 1996, same for my friends who qualified. It's also stated clearly on the HAL perks from Amex Platinum. However, matters not....

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

When HAL started reducing the price of the first night's dinner in the Pinnacle - quite a number of years ago -- it was impossible for many of us to use our free American Express dinners --- the place was booked up completely on many of our cruises. So HAL was nice on most of the ships and let us choose another night. We did have an incident once on one ship when they wouldn't agree to it and insisted that they could seat us around 8:30 - 9 -- way too late for for us. So we just said fine and walked away. The manager asked us to sign the card and turn it in -- WHAT?? He expected us to sign the card and turn it in so that they could get their money? No way -- I kept the card and wrote AMEX when we got home about what happened.

The new deal about the champagne is when you arrive for dinner the wine steward will ask you if you want to drink it or exchange it for something better. We exchanged it for something better. Since we had the suite cocktail party at 7:15 we were really rushed through dinner. Never even had dessert. And we saved the rest of our wine for dinner the next evening.

 

[Go2Sea]

Wow, KK, thank you for the review. I have lurked here for a while and I know you from "that other place". I really am gong to search for your Noordam review now because my interest is more than piqued. I have to say you really gave these ports a shot, more than I have given them, and it's too bad you ran into so many inconveniences/roadblocks. Sounds like this was a so-so cruise overall. Looking at your pics- some are quite beautiful but some just remind me of what a pit the aribbean is seeming to me at this point. Familiarity breeds contempt! Time to branch out .

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome to Cruise @ddicts.

I am glad you liked my review. I do not write any reviews on CC anymore -- the HAL cheerleaders there stick together and jump on every little thing I talk about in a review.

I didn't do a formal review of the Noordam - just a picture one -- that cruise was pretty bad for us -- thanks to the snubbing by the officers and some crew members.

The Caribbean has really changed over the years.

 

[Go2Sea]

I can sense that the tone is very different here and I can see why you post your reviews here. I did read the Noordam one. We were wondering what that tree/ shrub is in Aruba! So where have you posted about the snubbing? It's funny because there was a four star who was highly peeved during our recent Westerdam cruise. Obviously we loved it, as you could see from my live from (Seago2). But this guy- omg. He missed his medal ceremony because he wasn't invited. He has terrible insomnia and wasn't able to check out two dvd's at the same time- had to walk down to the desk at 4 am to get a new one. Couldn't even leave a big deposit- sorry, sir. We took the ship's tour with him and the captain did not speak to him and then did not show up at the cocktail bit at the end (although he called my cabin later that night to apologize- I assume he called everyone- we could have cared less because I had already run out of things to talk about on the bridge). So this 4 star- he was also a single. So he was paying the supplement. He had a hard time booking, I can't remember what it was, some foul up.... Then at dinner they put him alone at a two top. It just went on and on and I will have to ask my husband what else he said. I kind of tuned him out after a while but if even one of those things had happened to me I would have been livid.

Ah well. Thank you so much for your pics. I can't believe all of the problems you have with shore excursions. If I had to wait an hour ANYWHERE I would never have gotten off the ship again! But I am trying to change that and make the most of the ports. Curaçao did not impress me but we loved Aruba....

Thanks again.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

When we got home from the Noordam cruise we wrote a letter to Seattle. We never got a response until we were already home from the Maasdam cruise -- two months had gone by between cruises and no one could respond Our TA even contacted her Seattle representatvie and forwarded our letter to her/him and still has never gotten a response.

The letter we got was a joke -- it was addressed to me even though my husband and I both signed our names to the letter with ourr Mariner numbers. None of the real issues we talked about were mentioned.

Parts of everything that happened to us is now on the CC board -- even sail7seas was shocked -- there are several threads where I have dropped the bombshell as to how we were treated on the Noordam. If the Maasdam cruise had not been paid off while we were gone -- we would have cancelled it.

We are very busy at home right now with a bunch of repairs -- but as soon as I have time -- I will hunt out links and send them to you via a PM here.

There are quite a few people here who do cruise on HAL but they rarely post here on the HAL section. Those of who do -- we are all very polite.

Sadly few read my reviews.

 

[Go2Sea]

I have read them all and am able to piece it all together. It does sound bad, especially when you total up all you have paid over so many cruises, but in my mind nothing beats having to walk/wheel down long piers in the rain for shorex's that never take place. That would be a game ender for me.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

What happened in St Croix was not HAL's fault. St Croix made the big mistakes -- they never bothered to keep track of how many people on the Seranade booked tours. And St Croix never bothered to contact HAL about the problems.

 

[Lurline63]

The Caribbean has really changed over the years.

That's one reason I haven't cruised there in years. Wait, correct that...I took a Western Caribbean cruise in 2010 and stayed on the ship at every port.

Our HAL cruises have been to Alaska, the British Isles and Canada/New England. If you haven't considered it yet, I highly recommend Maasdam's spring-autumn cruises between Boston and Montreal. Several pax we met last year did a B2B, most from Boston. We've done this itinerary several times on various cruise lines and always find something new to do.

Thank you for sharing your review!

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have done various Canada/New England cruises including the Boston to Montreal and back. Back in 2007 when we did that one we had large planes flying to Boston. Now that Pittsburgh is no longer a hub airport and over 1/2 of our airport is shut down we have only commuter flights to Boston and none are direct. And US Airways makes it clear that they will not guarantee that your luggage will be on the same plane as you. They also make it clear that since the planes are small carryons also have to be checked -- not good!!

We no longer can get a direct flight to Ft Lauderdale any more.