My visit to the Ms Maasdam

On Thursday gone, Myself and 3 of my colleagues from cruise.co.uk made the journey down to Southampton to visit one of the Holland America ships the Ms Maasdam.

I was rather looking forward to this as out of all of the cruise lines Holland America is one of the very few I have not yet had the pleasure of experiencing. I obviously have a good idea and knowledge of the product but it's never the same as actually having seen a ship and get a feel of it.

HA class themselves as a Premium brand, not quite luxury but certainly a higher standard than your average mass market cruise lines such as P&O or Princess.

The Maasdam is actually one of HA older ships but you really do not feel that when on board as it has been kept to a very high standard. Some areas felt a bit more dated than others but as a whole the ship was lovely. There were some really nice features on this ship and it felt every bit the 'Premium' standard they promise.

Unfortunately due to the ship being mid cruise we were not able to view any staterooms but we were allowed to wonder around the rest of ship with ease.

The Main Atrium is rather lovely with something that resembles a Green waterfall of glass squares. Also, the main dining restaurant, Rotterdam, was quite different to most cruise ships I have been on. Because she is a mid-sized ship the restaurant is a nice size, not too big and overwhelming. It also has a section where they have live bands playing whilst you eat dinner, rather nice touch I thought. That evening they were having an Olympic Themed dinner with an Olympic menu and the restaurant was Olympic themed decorated. This was nice to see that they still get into the spirit of things so even though you are on a cruise you do not lose touch with events that are happening on the outside world!

We were treated to a 3 course lunch and the food did not disappoint! The desert was particularly amazing :) and my main of miso glazed salmon was cooked to absolute perfection, it would give Oceania's miso glazed sea bass a run for its money any day!

All in all I was very impressed with the Maasdam as, even though she is an older ship, she really didn’t fail to deliver and I would happily sail on her for my own holidays. I think HA are a little Gem in the hiding and the British market really should start thinking more about them as an option.

Here are some snap shots of the ship that I took whilst doing my tour....