HAL Maasdam Review (back to back cruises)

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
"Recycle THIS" wrote:

Bob went on the kitchen tour. Afterwards he went to a demonstration
by the chef of the Pinnacle grill, where they demonstrated salmon with
lemon glaze and rosemary crumbs and three-grain pilaf with olives.
They gave everyone the recipes. He enjoyed that.

Must have gone alone then.

There were other people on the tour.

I meant without YOU specifically.........

"Recycle THIS" wrote:


"Rosalie B." wrote in message
.. .
"Recycle THIS" wrote:

Bob went on the kitchen tour. Afterwards he went to a demonstration
by the chef of the Pinnacle grill, where they demonstrated salmon with
lemon glaze and rosemary crumbs and three-grain pilaf with olives.
They gave everyone the recipes. He enjoyed that.

Must have gone alone then.

There were other people on the tour.

I meant without YOU specifically.........

I figured that was what you meant. I was ignoring that.

Brian K wrote:

On 1/22/2007 11:18 PM Rosalie B. wrote:
(Surfer E2468) wrote:


Reading your review was good,if you disliked the ship,we would probably
like it,since you liked the NCL CROWN,and we did not care for it. But on
the other hand i know what you mean about the noise in your cabin,we had
the same things on the ROYAL PRINCESS because they upgraded us. But we
werevery lucky on our back to back on CROWN DYNASTY,we had the same
cabin for 28 days
surfer e2468

I'm sure you would love the ship - dance floor and nice music to dance
to and quiet shaded places to lie and read. (Not that I did that)

Even though there were a LARGE number of children on the cruise (it
was fully booked and was the Xmas-NYears cruise after all so there
were at least 50 - 100 children and probably many more), I didn't see
or hear them except occasionally at dinner. They were kept occupied
although I didn't enquire how that was done.

I don't know why it is so hard for someone to understand that when I
book an inside center cabin (under other cabins and not under the
kitchen or restaurant or someplace like that) that I do NOT want an
upgrade to an outside cabin under the kitchen. You probably wouldn't
have liked it either.

I did sometimes take advantage of being able to look out the window
and see stuff that was beside the ship and wasn't visible on the bow
camera, but I would have been equally happy without it.

As for a king size bed being too big - we've always slept (for 47
years) in a plain old double bed. I like to be able to be next to my
husband and still be able to stick my foot out of the covers. A king
bed is too big for that. A queen is OK, but I feel lost in the king.
I either can't get my foot out or I can't get next to Bob. Even
though the beds were quite comfortable, I was really glad to get back
to my own bed even though it is small.

I forgot to test the temperature of the hot tubs (they do have them),
and I was too relaxed to get up and do the yoga and pilate classes.
They always scheduled the yoga at 9 am and I can't eat beforehand, and
afterwards I would have had to eat in the Lido. I'm going to have to
work a little bit to get back into shape (or as much shape as I can be
in)
.

I turned 56 today. But still I have to ask, what is it about older
people and rice pudding? Me, I hate the stuff! On a Caribbean cruise

It isn't RICE pudding, it is BREAD pudding. Although I like rice
pudding too.

most of the common rooms such as the theater are kept well air
conditioned as many of the folks on board are nicely fried by the sun.
They want it cool. Us sensible sorts who use enough sunscreen just have
to remember to bring a sweater.

I realize that the heat sink represented by hundreds of bodies does
tend to bring the temperature up. And in the daytime I can understand
keeping it cold in the public areas. But at night, the whole of the
7th and 8th deck (Promenade and Upper Promenade) were like a
refrigerator. Especially the internet cafe where people are more
spaced out.

Incidentally, I didn't mention it but the coffee bar there is not free
now, and I understand it was previously. I don't drink coffee so it
didn't matter to me. One gentleman that we ate breakfast with asked
for a latte, and they brought it for him - I didn't note whether he
had to pay for it or not.

As for the Lido Buffet, I've found that if I ask nicely of the person
ahead of me who's waiting for something to be prepared...they usually
let me step ahead of them. There are some usually from the UK who take
offense even at the suggestion. In which case, I stay in my place. But
with most people if you ask nicely, they usually don't mind.

The problem I had was two-fold -

The lines were so long that I couldn't see what was ahead so I didn't
know whether I wanted to wait for it or not.

Things that had to be served to you were so close together that the
lines blended together and there wasn't a gap between them. For
instance they had the oriental, Italian and sandwich stations at lunch
all right together with one server each. At breakfast the egg cooking
station was in the middle of the line. Even if you just wanted a
spoonful of scrambled eggs, you had to wait while other people's eggs
were cooked.

I don't drink either. So when given wine or champagne by my travel
agent or some well wisher - I just bring it to my table at the main
dining room.

I could have done that on the first cruise, but I took the bottles off
and regifted them to people I was meeting on shore. On the second
cruise the people weren't wine drinkers, and Bob took the bottles and
gave them to our daughter and her husband.

If you do HAL again sail on ms Zuiderdam. The cabins are more roomy.
Everything is more roomy. Doing a balcony cabin is well worth it. It's
a great way to wake up still in your night clothes with room service out
on the balcony. You'd like the theater on Zuiderdam the audience area
is a mix of raked seating (steps) and lounge seating directly in front
of the stage (cocktail lounge chairs and cocktail tables). But
generally I don't enjoy Broadway style productions. So most of the time
after dinner I go to the lounges that have either Classical music or Jazz.

That seating would be better. I can't understand what the Maasdam
designers were thinking. It was the worst theatre I have ever seen.

I didn't see all the production shows, and I did enjoy the individual
performers. I spent a lot of time after dinner in the internet cafe
and I could hear the music from the lounge across the way.

As for the snack bar by the Lido Pool, I've been on three HAL ships, ms
Zuiderdam, ms Veendam and ms Amsterdam (lovingly called "Hamsterdam" by
my TA). The menu changes it's not always burgers and hot dogs. I've
had barbecued shrimp, tacos, guacamole, enchiladas or barbecue ribs.
I've had them all and all are good.

The temperatures in the hot tubs run from warm to just hot enough to fog
your glasses. Pre-dinner hors d'oeuvres on the upper promenade deck are
unique and so good you could make a meal out of them.

I was never able to stay up late enough to do the late buffets, and we
never quite got it together in time to have tea. But there was plenty
of food available at multiple venues.

Christmas time Christmas Trees and Poinsettias are basically all you are
going to get. Unless you specify allergies the rest of the year you
will have a bud vase of flowers in your room on the dressing table.
There will be flowers on each table in Lido, Pinnacle, and the main
dining room. Huge bouquets will adorn each elevator lobby and many of
the public spaces. Guess you'll have to take another HAL cruise.

We didn't have flowers in our room, and the flowers in the Lido and
Pinnacle were orchids. On our table in the dining room it was red
carnations and white chrysanthemums.

Here's a tip the next time you find yourself in a King Bed. Get next to
your honey, then hike the covers and quilt up so you can have that foot
sticking out from the covers. ;-)

That's basically what I did. Of course then I was sleeping in the
crack. When we do that at home, we put the mattresses on sideways so
that the division between the mattresses is about hip level.

Here's another tip. This one is if you are driving. I don't know about
Norfolk but at Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa and many other ports. Drop your
luggage off with the porters and tip 'em. You won't have the hassle of
wrestling them on a shuttle or whatever, and all your luggage will
arrive in a timely manner.

I wanted to do that, but Bob was sure that we had to be there with our
luggage like on an airplane. He was very stubborn about it. He
didn't realize that the luggage would not be loaded until we checked
in. What we did actually worked better because we loaded the car at
home, and got out of the car and unloaded it at the dock and the Avis
guy took the car away - we didn't have to pay parking OR a cab.

Tip number 3: If Embarkation is at 5:00 pm arrive around 3:45 - 4:00 I
did this both in Ft. Lauderdale and Tampa. We breezed through
check-in. I also called my TA a week before and 2 days before to
reconfirm my room status. In my case I do want a free upgrade. But it
could be done to reconfirm that the room class hadn't changed.

I should have called and reconfirmed my room - I did not realize that
I should do that, and my TA did not alert me to do that. Definitely
an oversight on my part.

Although I think arriving later is good idea, I could never get Bob to
arrive so close to embarkation. I guess it is all the years in the
Navy, but he wants to be early to everything.

Rosalie B. wrote:
The complete trip report with all the details and some pictures from
Norfolk to San Juan is here

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/8abed/#TL Embarkation
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/8ac51/#TL Half Moon Cay
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/8acaa/#TL St. Thomas (not quite
finished yet)
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/8acaa/#TL Dominica
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/8abc3/#TL Barbados
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/8abc3/#TL St. Kitts - morning
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/8a1af/#TL St. Kitts - narrow
gauge train
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/8aba4/#TLA San Juan

I haven't done the end of the trip in Norfolk yet.

Rosalie B. wrote:

I should have called and reconfirmed my room - I did not realize that
I should do that, and my TA did not alert me to do that. Definitely
an oversight on my part.

You need to make your wishes clear when you put down your deposit. I
instruct TA's that I am NOT to be upgraded without being asked.

Most of the cruise lines now make it quite easy to check a booking on
their websites. I usually keep an eye on mine from final payment date
until embarkation.

Warren

Warren wrote:
Rosalie B. wrote:

I should have called and reconfirmed my room - I did not realize that
I should do that, and my TA did not alert me to do that. Definitely
an oversight on my part.

You need to make your wishes clear when you put down your deposit. I
instruct TA's that I am NOT to be upgraded without being asked.

Most of the cruise lines now make it quite easy to check a booking on
their websites. I usually keep an eye on mine from final payment date
until embarkation.

Warren

I really thought I HAD made it clear. I had numerous conversations
about it - both with HAL and with the TA

I can only think that this TA did not really pay attention, and I am
not surprised because I couldn't get in touch with him once I made the
booking. So I won't be using him again.

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
"Recycle THIS" wrote:

Muster - C
Earsplitting and uncomfortable.
Also the announcements were SO loud that it hurt my ears.

Not as much as a dunk in the ocean would have hurt your ears, idiot.
IT'S LOUD SO YOU CAN HEAR IT WHEREVER YOU ARE!

A dunk in the ocean would not hurt my ears. It isn't necessary for
the loud speaker system to be that loud when it is right over your
head. They had a speaker at each lifeboat station, so it didn't need
to be that loud. Making people deaf is not going to help them hear.


I was just thinking....

Maybe they play the announcements really loud so that the "hard of hearing
old people" that Charles says they are hiding (wherever it is that they
actually hide them) can still hear the announcements...

--Tom ---- quickly ducking...

I am sure we would like the nice shady spots to relax and read,when we
go on a cruise it is to lay back and rest,we are very active here at
home ,but on a cruise we just do nothing strenuous,just idle our time
away. surfer e2468


cruise lover

There is nothing about older people and rice pudding,We have enjoyed
rice pudding since we were little kids,and it is BREAD PUDDING on the
HAL ships,not rice.


cruise lover

In article , Surfer
E2468 wrote:

There is nothing about older people and rice pudding,We have enjoyed
rice pudding since we were little kids,and it is BREAD PUDDING on the
HAL ships,not rice.

Bread pudding would be even easier for older people to chew than rice
pudding. Perfect for HALs clientele.

--
Charles