We wanted to explore New England and Canada's eastern coast as my husband had fond memories of it. So me, my husband and two adult children decided this would be the cruise. The Maasdam is a smaller ship. We only had 1100 on board when we sailed. There are only a few shops on board. Jewelry , a retail store selling mostly Holland America Apparel, and an incidental shop for forgotten toiletries, etc. That's it. There is a small casino--only one. There are 3 bars. The ship is clean. The Housekeeping services are wonderful . They make up your room in minutes every day. Of course they turn down your room at night and leave the ever popular towel animal. There are several self service laundromats on board which I found helpful since it's hard to pack that many clothes. The food is good. The Lido deck is where we mostly ate. My daughter and son enjoyed the Dive In which served fresh burgers and fries. The Dining room was quite nice and we enjoyed the dinners each night. There are 2 gala nights. Some people really dressed up but my husband wore dockers and a nice shirt. I wore evening slacks and a blouse. It was fine. Now comes the problem. The on board activities are terrible. Everyday they have some silly digital workshop, a cooking lesson, and shuffleboard. That's it. Or you could play ping pong or basketball. There were no organized games. No fun events. No Karaoke. Nothing in the way of fun entertainment. In the evening they did have a music trivia game but it was geared towards the 50s and 60s music. Before my time!!They showroom every night had a show but it was not good. The singers were off key and the dancers were just ok. And of course , it was geared towards the older crowd. There were no show productions. No props. No nothing. The shows were quite boring. One night they did have a magician and he was mildly entertaining but only mildly. They also had a circus act one night consisting of one man and he was awful. This may have been his first show!!! He was nervous and you could tell. Basically, there were no activities on board and the shows sucked!! Luckily the ports of calls were nice. Otherwise, we would have been bored out of our minds. 85% of the people on board were over 65. I wish I had known this. Many were grumpy and quite rude to the help. I am 55 so I hope I don't get like that!!! Overall I would not cruise Holland America again. Not until I am 70!!!