Ryndam Review

[Eboracum_d]

RYNDAM. Voyage to the midnight sun., June 2013.

 

 

Despite arriving at Diver shortly before noon it was p1.30 before we were able to board the Ship -- I was surprised there was no priority boarding arrangement for Neptune Suite Passengers. One consequence was that the only luncheon option left open to us was the Lido .

 

First impressions of the ship were favourable. I particularly liked the promenade deck running the full length of the ship and with ample space at the turns. The basic layout of the ship was eating at the stern and entertainment toward the front with two staircases. All in all it was fairly easy to find one's way around.

 

 

The suite was capacious and with a much deeper balcony than usual. I was less enamoured with the suite when we returned one night to find two large areas of sodden carpet and was distinctly unimpressed by the Front Desk's response that they would supply a hot air blower " in the morning". I expressed myself forcibly to the effect that they needed to do something immediately and also that they needed to find the source of the water -- which turned out to be some missing part somewhere within the drainage system.

 

The Neptune concierge quickly changed the first seating dinner booking which had been made by our travel agent -- we preferred to use the open seating option. We were looked after well by the Main Dining Room staff no matter at which table we were seated. Indeed, a feature of the cruise was the friendliness and helpfulness of all the staff.

 

We started each day with Breakfast in the Pinnacle though the coffee there could at times have been served at a higher temperature and the staff very rarely brought exactly what we ordered. On the basis of that experience, I did not patronise the Pinnacle for lunch or Dinner. .

 

I was surprised to find that on port days, no,part of the Main Dining Room was open --I grazed in the Neptune lounge on such days supplemented by a visit to the Lido for ice cream.

 

Dinner was our main eating experience and, apart from on the last evening was consistently good with several appealing choices on each day's menus, few of which disappointed and many of which excelled.

 

 

Although there were very few young people on the ship, the overall age of passengers was less than I had expected. There were very few wheelchairs or scooters on bard.

 

For me, the pace of life on the ship was just right -- there were one or two activities or entertainments in the course of the day that i joined in but we were not pressured to do so. Possibly the cruise experience could have benefitted by the presence of a guest lecturer and by some classical music. A violinist and pianist operated under the name of Adagio although the style of music was allegro and fortissimo.

 

The In house theatre productions were very good indeed both in their concept and their delivery. In the main there were three performances per night which meant that the first, the one we usually attended before dinner was somewhat sparsely attended. The banquette seating in the Show Lounge was not particularly comfortable. The individual acts on the other evenings were satisfactory but not outstanding. There was no real show on the last evening -- the Dancing with the Stars event could best be described as disappointing..

 

We were exceptionally lucky with the weather which also provided us with the smoothest crossings of the North Sea that I have experienced. Norway has long been our favourite cruise destination and this particular cruise offered a good mix of ports. We did not participate in any of the Ship's organised shore excursions but those who went on them seemed happy enough with what was provided even it was at a premium price. As we had been to Norway many times we did not go to the Port briefings but heard good reports of them and particularly that the staff member concerned did just concentrate on trying to sell the ship's tours.

 

Our berth at Tromso was not in the centre of town and the Ship did not seem to know in advance that a free shuttle was being provided. The long queues to board that led me to switch my plans so that we spent the morning in the nearby botanical gardens before taking in the afternoon. There was then a delay in getting the shuttle back to the ship.

 

Other shuttle and tendering arrangements went smoothly and efficiently.

 

All in all this was a cruise which ticked practically all of my boxes and i am likely to return to Holland America.

 

 

 

 

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[Keith1010]

Very nice review.

 

Keith

[Vict0riann]

Happy to read your review - we will be boarding the Ryndam in Dover in three weeks for the same cruise. I have been looking forward to breakfast in the Pinnacle, as this is our first Neptune suite, so I was disappointed to hear it was not great. Did you find it crowded, or was it just poor service? We'll certainly be on the lookout for leaks in the suite! Anything special we should be on the lookout for? Did you use HAL shore excursions, and if so, how were they? Thanks for any information you have to share. :)

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report, sounds like a very pleasant cruise.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for taking the time to write and post the review of your Ryndam cruise. Sounds like you had a good time.:)

[BrianC-80]

Thanks for the review. Always interesting to hear the experiences of other cruisers on ships we've also recently been on. I'm surprised to hear about the main dining room problems during port days - I'm sure we dined onboard in there at least once, although admittedly the lunch timings there are swift. We preferred to lunch in the buffet on port days anyway as we could control the timings a bit better (i.e. we go and pick up our food rather than waiting for a waiter). That way it gives us more time in port. Certainly given the prices of food ashore in Norway, we made certain to eat onboard ship! :)

[portofrome]

Thank you for the review.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

Glad you had a wonderful cruise.

Were you ever told where the came from in your cabin?

[Eboracum_d]

Happy to read your review - we will be boarding the Ryndam in Dover in three weeks for the same cruise. I have been looking forward to breakfast in the Pinnacle, as this is our first Neptune suite, so I was disappointed to hear it was not great. Did you find it crowded, or was it just poor service? We'll certainly be on the lookout for leaks in the suite! Anything special we should be on the lookout for? Did you use HAL shore excursions, and if so, how were they? Thanks for any information you have to share. :)

 

I would not say the Pinnacle service was poor. The staff were very attentive -- just with a capacity to bring us not quite what we ordered! It certainly was not crowded. I think there was always a spare table when we were there.

 

The temperature of coffee seems to vary as it comes out of the kitchen.

 

There is a coffee machine in the Neptune which produces better coffee in various varieties.

 

I am sure you will enjoy your Neptune suite.

 

David

[Vict0riann]

Thanks, David.

[JamesEM]

Thanks for sharing your cruise experience.

[erewhon]

Thanks for your Ryndam review.

 

Sorry to read of the sodden carpet, what caused that problem?

[kazu]

Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with us.

 

Sounds like a good cruise other than the carpet.

 

Welcome home

[sammiedawg]

We were on this sailing although not in a suite. Overall we enjoyed the ship very much. We felt little things were off, such as the Lido buffet. Food was cold most days and the carving station ran out of meat a few times.

Our biggest issue was lack of port enrichment presentations and totally agree the port presentations were geared to selling shore excursions. The so called destination specialist was pleasant but seemed out of her league.

[seniorcynic]

Also just returned from Ryndam cruise to Norway. Whilst agreeing with some of the points made, I have to praise the Pinnacle. We ate there on two nights and the food and attention were excellent. Even down to creating a special Amuse-Bouche for my wife who doesn't like sea-food.

 

The cruise was, in general, excellent. The staff and the food in all the restaurants (we didn't try the Canelletto) were very good as was breakfast in our cabin. Special praise for Made and his fellow hosts in Rotterdam Open Seating.

 

I agree that the port talks were a complete waste of time. We prefer to research ports beforehand and do our own thing. Even with Norway's high prices, this is much cheaper than HAL's ridiculously priced tours. However, we did do the ship's tours on the Flåm railway and the North Cape so as to be guaranteed places.

 

Minor moan - why have HAL stopped delivering the printed British news sheet to cabins?

 

This was our fifth HAL cruise and our second on the Ryndam (both times the Dover ramp failed on disembarkation). We will be going again.

[George C]

Thanks for the review

[Typhoon1]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with the rest of us.

[RuthC]

Minor moan - why have HAL stopped delivering the printed British news sheet to cabins?

Don't take it personally; nothing against the Brits. HAL has stopped delivering the news sheet to all the cabins.

It is available at the Front Desk, the entrances to the Lido, and the Library.

It may be at the entrance to the dining room at breakfast, too, but I don't know.

[Rdytogo2]

David;

 

What was your cabin number?

[law@115]

We're on this ship for an Athens to Rome cruise in October. Thanks for the review and the information.

As an aside I have never had a good experience when reporting a problem on any line (HAL, Princess, Oceania, Celebrity) to the front desk. None of them seem to care. So your issue wasn't unique to the ship or the cruise line.

[Eboracum_d]

David;

 

What was your cabin number?

 

We were in 024.

 

David

[mancunian]

We too were on this cruise and thought it very good indeed. Although it was our ninth cruise with HAL this one was a little different for us as it was my first in a wheelchair. On my 70th birthday in October I thought 70 was the new 50, recently changed my mind by events to 70 being the new 80!!!! However, we found the crew on Ryndam to be amazing. There was always someone offering help. Our cabin stewards realised I spent quite a lot of time in our verandah cabin, came unasked immediately we went to breakfast or dinner to get out of our way and were always asking if we needed anything else. We never did because they were so good. We too were on open sitting (as always) and although we turned up at a variety of times our same table (again unasked for) with a fantastic waiter was waiting for us. An overlooked number of crew are the gangplank attendants who again were always cheerful and took good care of me. As soon as we rounded the bend from the lifts the cry went up "wheelchair" and by the time we got to the top of the gangplank crew had assembled to get off and carry the wheelchair.

 

Unlike Eboracum we got to the port just after 11.30 am. We were rushed to a counter so quickly I was still frantically filling in the health form. We were then given a red immediate boarding card and went straight through onto the ship. We were actually in the MDR for the mariner's lunch, via our cabin by 12 noon. All this was very nice and far from the worry of what would happen I felt very cared for.

 

We too did not bother with the Pinnacle or Cannaletto on this occasion as we felt the food and service in the MDR was so good.

 

We did not notice any cutbacks except happy hour. As Eboracum says their were three shows on ships company nights which had reverted back to the old form of having a dance troupe. I do have to say we thought they were really good on their first show and loved the visual extension of the stage with changing photos and videos. After the first show we were not quite so impressed because we though the shows very noisy and far too many flashing lights. The Adagio group we did not like as much as the quartet on the other cruises but quite pleasant. For some reason we got two indonesian teas which were very well attended both times. On some nights there were luscious strawberries coated with chocolate and nuts in the Explorers chocolate selection. The free computer classes have extended to 16 classes instead of 10 and although usually good the trainer was the best yet. Our waiter got his tables 1x8, 2x6, and 6x2 - 28 covers in all - through in one and a half hours very often without much assistance.

 

Oh and Brits can get the newspaper delivered to their cabins if you ask at front office. We were told this a few cruises ago and this system is still working.

 

So a great cruise - no complaints.

[Vict0riann]

Wow, Eboricum and Mancunian - should I brush up on my Latin? Thanks for all the information. We leave in just one week for Ireland, and board ms Ryndam on the 20th for the same cruise. I have been wondering if I should wear my air-cast boot to board - will we get special treatment? I had planned to just carry it if my leg is feeling alright. I am going to wear it in airports so I'll get assistance. (I'm pretty much healed now, but find I can't walk too far.) Is there a lot of walking involved in the Dover cruise port? Thanks.

[Eboracum_d]

Wow, Eboricum and Mancunian - should I brush up on my Latin? Thanks for all the information. We leave in just one week for Ireland, and board ms Ryndam on the 20th for the same cruise. I have been wondering if I should wear my air-cast boot to board - will we get special treatment? I had planned to just carry it if my leg is feeling alright. I am going to wear it in airports so I'll get assistance. (I'm pretty much healed now, but find I can't walk too far.) Is there a lot of walking involved in the Dover cruise port? Thanks.

 

Not much walking at all once you arrive at the port but you could ask for a wheelchair and gain the Mancunian treatment.

 

David

[mancunian]

David I hope you did not feel I was bragging about my treatment. It is just that I think it is scary going on a cruise (or any holiday) with a wheelchair for the first time and I was hoping to boost the confidence of anyone in that situation. The crew in all areas certainly exceeded our expectations. Sorry my very slow progress down the gangplank at the end in Dover was so slow. That was a loooong gangplank and about two thirds down I thought I would not make it. Glad that was not the usual route off the ship!!