Welcome to Your Favorites, where you have the opportunity to share your travel experiences with fellow Internet Travelers around the world.

Holland America Line

MS Maasdam

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Doug Hubel
# previous cruises: 10+
Date of Trip: April 28, 2001
Itinerary: Caribbean - Western

Holland America Line has such a great reputation. My parents did over 40,000 miles on HAL ships and loved it. The Maasdam is one of their newer ships. Our expectations were high. We oscillated between delight and rage for a week.

The disco probably looked good when it was new. The neon tubes in the ceiling are half burned out now, and some of them are missing. There is a strip of florescent lights around the pool area, with brown and warped covers, like they melted. Lots of frayed upholstery, broken moldings. Shabby.

Service was friendly and up to the standard we expected. I did get a bit weary of EVERY bar waiter folding the bar tab into a little shirt. Cute the first time or two, but after twenty... Some strange lapses into surliness at times. The food was all over the place. While we were in the Bahamas, they served us the WORST EXCUSE for conch chowder I have ever tasted. It tasted like dishwater, and if anyone got a piece of conch, it wasn't me.

Cheapest outside cabin was spacious and well laid out. Big bathroom. Generally a bit shabby with chipped formica and worn bedspread etc.

The staff night was the best entertainment. Really good. They have a cigar bar by the pool, which we sat and waited for 45 minutes past time for it to finally open.

Broad mix of older people and families with young children (well behaved). No partiers.