2014 April 11-22 Maasdam Southern Caribbean Cruise

 This is the 11 night HAL cruise we took in April of 2014.  The cruise went to Barbados, St. Maarten, St. Vincent, St. Kitt's, St. Croix, Martinique, and Half Moon Cay.

Hard to believe it was 1 1/2 years since our last cruise.  At that time, we made the $200 on board deposit for a future cruise to get on board credit on the future cruise.  Shortly after we got off that cruise, we got an email from HAL offering additional obc if we booked another cruise right away.  So I hit the web and checked out the itineraries and decided on this 11 night southern Caribbean cruise.  It went to 4 islands we had already been to (St. Maarten, Martinique, Barbados, and Half Moon Cay); plus it went to 3 new ones (St. Kitt's, St. Vincent, and St. Croix).   By booking a verandah suite, we were able to get $200 obc for the future cruise booking and another $200 for the welcome home booking.  Plus we got $100 obc for being a CCL stock holder.  Then in the Fall, HAL ran a promotion, Explore 4, which included 2 - $50 drink cards and 2 free Pinnacle dinners (their upcharge steak restaurant).  After a couple of calls, I was able to get that added to our reservations.  I had hoped that in 1 1/2 years our fare would go down, but it didn't.  We booked a BB guarantee and hoped for another upsell offer like we got the last 2 cruises.  This time we didn't get one.  Maybe because it was a much smaller ship and near the end of the season, but we did get un upgrade to an A suite on the same floor as all the Neptune suites.  At first I was worried about the location---very last room at the back of the ship on the 10th floor with a bar and smoking area next to our room and it was also below part of the Lido deck, so I anticipated lots of chairs being moved around overhead, but it really wasn't bad.  We heard chairs being moved around for 5 or 10 minutes in the morning.  We also liked that we were right by the elevator and stairs and only one floor down from the Lido Restaurant.  We also liked being so close to the Seaview pool.

We had never been on a ship this small and were a bit worried that lines would be long and spaces would be crowded, but it turned out to be really nice----5 minutes to walk anywhere on the ship, ran across people we met at dinner many times throughout the cruise, liked that there were fewer people, and this ship had the best food and entertainment of any ship we had been on before! Instead of 2000 passengers like on the last 3 HAL cruises we took, there were only 1265.   Instead of 86,700 tonnage, it was 55,800.  The only thing missing on this ship was the extra cabins for more people.

2014-4-11  Embarkation day:

 

The Maasdam:

 

2014-4-12  Sea Day:

 

2014-April 13, Sunday---another sea day:

 

2014-April 14, Monday---St. Maarten  (10am-9:30pm):

 

2014-April 15, Tuesday---St. Kitt's (8am-4:30pm):

 

2014-April 16, Wednesday--St. Vincent (10am-6:30pm):

 

2014-April 17, Barbados (8:30-4:30) :

 

2014-April 18, Good Friday-Martinique (7-1:30):

 

2014-April 19, Saturday-St. Croix (8-2:30):

 

2014-April 20-Easter Sunday-sea day:

 

2014-April 21, Monday-Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (8am-2:30pm):

 

2014-April 22, Monday-Debarkation Day :

 

 At least our vacation wasn't over yet---we spent another wonderful week with our daughter and son-in-law.  They even treated us to a gondola ride, dinner at the food trucks in a nearby park, and a couple trips to the beach.  Then they took us to the airport on the 30th for our short flight back to STL.  
What a rude awakening we got back home!  After 3 weeks of beautiful sunny 80 degrees weather, we returned to temps in the low 50s for a high!  At least that only lasted 3 days, then we were back to temps in the 80s.  Good 'ole St. Louis---no Spring or Fall, just Winter and Summer!

The Maasdam:

Our cabin was 065.  At first I was worried about the location---very last room at the back of the ship on the 10th floor with a bar and smoking area next to our room and it was also below part of the Lido deck, so I anticipated lots of chairs being moved around overhead, but it really wasn't bad.  We heard chairs being moved around for 5 or 10 minutes in the morning.  We also liked that we were right by the elevator and stairs and only one floor down from the Lido Restaurant.  We also liked being so close to the Seaview pool.  It was called a verandah suite, but was pretty much like the VD verandah we had on the Eurodam (although our actual verandah on the Maasdam verandah suite was smaller then the verandah on the VD verandah on the Eurodam).  At least we didn't have the verandahs on the Maasdam that opened up onto a shared deck.  I didn't even know they had such a configuration when I made our reservations.  The room was small but adequate.  We liked the coffee table -sturdy and easy to adjust.  The couch was a good size.  Our queen bed was comfy.  We had heard complaints that some people on board had low water pressure, but our water pressure was great.  Our room attendant was very efficient, even left us fruit and towel animals every day.

 The lounger couldn't be straightened because it was up against the verandah wall.  There was also a small round table.

2014-April 22, Monday-Debarkation Day :(

Even with the smaller ship, debarkation seemed to take quite awhile.  I called Angie when we were in the customs line with our luggage.  Coming from Coral Springs, we still beat her to the pick up area.  But I'm not going to complain about our free pick up and drop off service! 

2014-April 21, Monday-Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (8am-2:30pm):

  This is our 4th time to Half Moon Cay.  It has been beautiful every time we've been here---even the 3 times we were here in the FAll.  I've read about cruises not being able to tender in here during rough seas and I'm thankful that's never happened to us. 

It is a gorgeous beach and so stress free with not having to worry about finding local excursions and possibly missing the ship.   

2014-April 20-Easter Sunday-sea day:

 After 6 port days in a row, I don't mind the sea day.  Thought we'd sleep in, but were still up and off to breakfast by 9am.  They had colored hard boiled eggs out, as well as lots of foil wrapped chocolate eggs.  That's about all we saw of Easter.  They did offer sunrise service and 2 other masses, but we didn't make it to any of them.  

 We did take the cribbage board to the Explorer's Lounge and played a few games.  Then I went to another culinary exhibition.  This time the culinary gal and her boss were hilarious.  They kept making mistakes and had a ball working together.  I hated to have to leave, but we had a 1pm Mariners' lunch to go to.  Here we're being toasted by our cruise director.

 Lunch was very good.

 After lunch, I went to the Showroom at Sea to listen to the Legend of Ernest Hemmingway as recounted by cruise Director Rick.  It was very interesting.  

 Then I spent some time in the pool--- I think Ken loves sea days so he can sit in the room and watch TV.  About 6 we headed to formal dinner.  This was the only dinner we had with a really weird couple.  But there was another couple that was interesting, so dinner visiting was enjoyable---as was my dinner: lobster tails (which I gave to Ken since I'm allegic to shell fish), fillet mignon, pear soup, mixed fruit, and rhubarb crisp.  From there we hustled over to another movie, "Phillameda" which was about a woman who had a baby in a convent in Ireland 50 years ago and wanted to find him.  Another good movie.  Followed by the Showroom at Sea show "Encore" featuring their tenor and soprano accompanied by the Maasdam Orchestra---not the best show, but better then most we've seen on other ships.  Only 1 day left!

2014-April 19, Saturday-St. Croix (8-2:30):

Woke up well rested.  This was another new port for us and I was especially excited to check out another US Virgin Islands (have been to St. Thomas and St. Johns a few times---once even for a 10 day land trip).   

  With it being another short stop, we used more of our obc for an excursion here---the Buck Island snorkel excursion for $99@.  Turned out to be a great excursion and we got to see more of St. Croix as we were shuttled to the other side of the island for our boat ride to Buck island.  In Christiansted we boarded a motor boat and road another 30 minutes or so to Buck Island.

2014-April 18, Good Friday-Martinique (7-1:30):

Why does planning things for Martinique turn out so difficult?!  I had planned to take the ferry to the other side of the bay and hit a beach, but Ken was paranoid we'd miss the ferry back.  I had read that the ferry dock was only about 5 minutes from the cruise port and was confused since when we were here on the Noordam we had to walk 1.4 miles to the ferry dock.  This time we were docked right by the ferry.  Now I know there are at least 2 cruise ship ports!---The larger Point Simon Cruise Terminal and the smaller one we were at today, Quai des Tourelles Cruise Port.  Anyway, we decided with such a short stop, we would try to go on a taxi tour.  We knew it would be expensive (about 60 Euro/hour), but decided to do it anyway.  The hard part was finding 2 more couples that wanted to do the same tour we did and having a taxi large enough for all of us. 

Our ship docked in Fort-De-France

2014-April 17, Barbados (8:30-4:30) :

  This is a port we've been to before, but that time I didn't think there was snorkeling from the shore so I went on a photography tour.    

  This time, I read there was good snorkeling from the shore at Folkestone Marine Park.  So we walked off the ship about 8:30 and were on our way to the taxi line when one of them came up to us.  RT to Folkestone (about 30 minutes north) was about $27@.  He offered a tour for $100 including dropping us off and picking us back up later from Folkestone.  We didn't have $100 cash, so offereed him $80.  He accepted and we were off on our private tour.  It was a nice but short tour.  I had hoped to see the Scottish area again and Bathsheba, but he stayed strictly on the northwest side.  Guess I can't blame him for the price we paid the the cost of gas (I think it was about $2.50/liter).  We still saw some pretty sights!  Like this beach, I think it's Payne's beach.

2014-April 16, Wednesday--St. Vincent (10am-6:30pm):

Another new port for us.  My research mentioned some snorkeling at a beach on the southernmost point of the island.  So we got off the ship and looked for a taxi dispatcher and asked where we should go for snorkeling.  They, too, mentioned Indian Bay on the southern point---specifically Villa Beach.  So we headed there with another couple who was also looking to go to a beach.   

  The beach was beautiful, but there were a lot of young resident adults hanging around.  One even followed us saying he'd watch our stuff so no one would take it.  I was a bit skeptical, but Ken chatted with him for quite awhile and liked him enough to "hire" him to watch our stuff.   Ken does have a waterproof case on a lanyard, so nothing of value was left at the beach---just our towels, sunscreens and water in a back pack.  We snorkeled about 2 hours.  The young man stayed there the whole time (we periodically looked up to see if he and our stuff was still there).  When we were done, we gave him $5 and he was thrilled.  There was also a woman in uniform with something like Visitor Police on it who was also keeping watch on the beach.  
We headed down the beach away from the crowds to leave our stuff and enter the water.   Where our snorkeling base was from.

2014-April 15, Tuesday---St. Kitt's (8am-4:30pm):

We slept with the curtains wide open so we'd wake up bright and early.  This was a new island for us and I didn't want to waste time getting out to explore it.  

We were off the ship close to 8am and heading straight to the taxis.  I had read that White House Bay was the best place to snorkel, but the dispatcher said hardly anyone goes there and we'd have to pay more for a taxi to go there.  There happened to be another couple waiting to go snorkeling at Cockelshell Bay which was my 2nd choice, so we decided to share a cab and go there for $7/person.  Our driver even stopped for a couple pictures along the way.  We found out later we could have taken a ferry there, too---maybe next time.
Here we have the Atlantic Ocean on the left and the Caribbean on the right.  

2014-April 14, Monday---St. Maarten  (10am-9:30pm):

Finally---a day in port!  Ken prefers the sea days, but I prefer port days!  We had been here once before and had gone to Dawn beach to snorkel that time.  Not the best snorkeling, but I've read there isn't great snorkeling on St. Maarten, so we decided to do one of the ship excursions to Orient Beach this time just to chill out and enjoy the beach.  

  That wasn't until 1:45, so we headed off the ship a little early and looked around.  We found a ferry right at the port that went back and forth to the main town area until 6, so we decided to buy the day pass for $6 or $7/person and ride the ferry over.
The ferry dock.

2014-April 13, Sunday---another sea day:

  Today was the t-shirt sale on the Lido deck.  I saw one there I liked last cruise (for St. Lucia), but I thought I might find one I liked better on the island, so I didn't buy it.  Big mistake---none I liked on the island and they only had the t-shirts during the Lido deck sale.  Today I got the 3 for $20, but they didn't have a great selection.  I guess with it being near the end of the Caribbean cruising season, they were running low.  From there, we headed to another culinary class---this one for black bean soup, rum cake and shrimp/mango relish.

Then we caught the end of the digital class on photo editing.  I've taken the class before, but hardly ever use it since my editing program of choice is Photoshop.  But the Windows program certainly is easy and adequate for simple editing.
Early afternoon we were off to the Crows nest for trivia again---and another mango smoothie.

2014-4-12  Sea Day:

 We had breakfast every day in the Lido restaurant.  It was never crowded and we never had to wait long for our selection.  Most mornings I had cream of wheat.  Later in the cruise someone mentioned the sticky buns and that was added to my breakfast.  Lunch was usually in Lido, too.  

 The first 3 days we were served, then code orange was dismissed and we helped ourselves.  A couple cruises before ours there was an outbreak of Norovirus on the Maasdam.  Fortunately it was gone by the time we got on.

  We made a point of going to many of Elon's concerts.  He was spectacular on the Steel Drums!

 The ship was rocking pretty good today so the pool was closed.

 One of the things we really enjoy on HAL ships are the cooking shows.  This one was with Chef Rajan and host Stefaney as they featured Jerk Chicken with Mango Chutney.  Really, Chef Rajan was there!

 We also went to a couple of the team trivia events hosted by the cruise director Rick in the Crow's Nest.  Met some interesting people there, too.  And I found out they make a mighty tasty mango smoothie!  I like that they give you peanuts here, too.

We chose Anytime dining which worked out really well.  Our usual routine was to watch sunset (from our lanai the first 6 nights), 

then head to dinner where we were usually sat with really interesting couples (only 1 really strange couple)
An example of the menus in the dining room-

Ken almost always ordered off the everyday menu : french onion soup, caesar salad, chicken breast and a dessert.   I liked being able to try a lot of different things.  Tonight I had the grilled mahi mahi with mango chutney, rice and beans, plus a warm curry pumpkin soup.  Dessert was coconut rum cake.  It was excellent!

The Showtime presentation tonight was Bob Mackie's Broadway featuring his fancy gowns and such. 

After the show, we headed back to our room and were greeted by---

This is starting out to be a great cruise!

2014-4-11  Embarkation day:

 Our daughter dropped us off at Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale about noon.  Check in went fairly quickly.  Then we waited for our number to be called and were able to go straight to our room.  We didn't leave port until about 5pm---which we celebrated with some Moscoto our daughter gave us to bring onboard.  Nice that HAL allows you to bring 2 bottles of wine on board per cabin.

Even got a sail-away wave from people in a nearby building.

See ya in 10 days Fort Lauderdale!

 Up on the Lido deck, they were set up for a Caribbean Festival---live music and snacks.

Ice sculpture

 Decor by the dessert table

More decor.

 Our Pinnacle dinner happened to be assigned for that night, which was fine with us, so we started off dining in style.

 Dinner was excellent: caesar salad, fillet mignon, mashed potatoes---

 and 3 flavors of creme brulee.  That was the first of many great desserts we had on board.  In the past, we found cruise desserts to be sub par, but they were actually quite good on the Maasdam.

 After dinner, we made it to the Showroom at Sea for the welcome aboard show.

 Back at our room, our first towel animal welcomed us.