This Ship Needs to go into drydock

I'll start with the few positive things on the Maasdam...the food was very good. The ships galley presented a large variety of choices each day.  Chef Peter did an excellent job of being visible and providing tasty menu options.  The ports were enjoyable. The waiters and the crew were all very friendly... which on most cruise lines they generally are.

Now to the negatives... The ship is OLD.  The carpets are miss matched on all of the decks.  We had 8 days when the toilets didn't work.  The veranda deck during those 8 days smelled like a sewer and feces.  In our cabin the smells ranged from sewer gas, engine exhaust, varnish and unidentifiable odors.  We had to purchase air freshener to mask the stink. We also had to keep the veranda door open so we would have fresh air in our cabin.  This was all brought to the attention of the customer service department who always provide a sincere apology and then did nothing.  When a maintenance person was sent up to check on the odors he said there was nothing he could do about them and provided an excuse on what he thought they was coming from.  On the ship they were constantly varnishing, painting or chipping paint.  Which created strong odors all over the vessel.

We purchased a Spa Veranda Suite at a cost of $19K+.  When we got to the room it was dirty and there were hairs all over the bathroom.  The hair dryer was so sticky and grimy that I refused to use it.  It was replaced eventually.  The room amenities that were listed for a Spa Suite were not in the room when we arrived.  We had to notify housekeeping to provide them for us.  Some of the drawers were broken and would fall on the floor when opened.  

Tendering was a nightmare.   The first port of Hilo we waited for 3 hours to get on a tender.  In the port of Kona it was just as bad with a 2 hour wait to get on the tender leaving us only 3 hours of free time in this port.   The Captain did somewhat apologize and gave everyone one hour of free drinks.  During the wait time to get on a tender no reason was ever given as to why the wait was so long.   Trust me when I say...NO ONE was happy tendering.   Well, I take that back....maybe the people who are 4&5 stars who got all of the early tender tickets for themselves and their friends.

Here was our experience with the ships specialty restaurant called the "Pinnacle Grill".   The first time we went we ordered Halibut & Shrimp.  We had seen this demoed in the Culinary Arts Center.   It look delicious at that time.   When our Halibut arrived in the Pinnacle Grill it was dried out and salty.  They offered to replace it.  It was already late and we didn't want to wait for them to recook the fish and declined the offer.   We decided to give the Pinnacle another try.  Our second time was worse then the first experience.  I ordered a petite filet cooked medium rare.   It came out well done.  I sent it back.  The second filet came back raw.   They returned it to the kitchen and recooked the same piece of meat.   This time it was brought back dried out....plus all of our side dishes by now were cold.  We requested they bring us some new sides which they did.  After that, they never came back to ask if everything was okay.  Having been to other "Specialty Restaurants" on other cruise lines and had excellent food and service....my advice is save the $35/person cover charge for the Pinnacle Grill and get a good meal in one of the ports.   

We have cruised on RCCL, Celebrity, Viking and Azamara many times before.  This was our first time cruising on Holland America.   We definitely did not feel like welcomed "new" guests.   They did nothing extra to make us want to cruise with this line again.   We only selected this cruise because of the itinerary.  Had we known the ship was is such disrepair we wouldn't have gone this voyage.

Based on our experience with Holland America....we are not sure we would recommend this to fellow travelers.   Especially not traveling on the Maasdam until it has been refurbished or replaced.