Hopefully "Live" Ryndam So. Carib. 8 Dec - 22 Dec

[Chelly]

Very nice. I am enjoying the cruise. :)

[Chelly]

As we reboarded in Aruba, DW asked the security guy about the missing passenger from the sailing excursion and, sure enough, she caught a taxi back to the ship without telling our tour guide.

 

I've been wondering about that woman. Glad you tied up the loose end.

[Mtn2Sea]

We’re at sea today, with the ship rolling a bit. Probably the most movement in the ship since the cruise started. We regained an hour last night that we had lost earlier in the cruise, so our 8:30 AM room service breakfast seemed to come a little late, even though it was right on time. Looks like a good day to read our books.

 

Here’s today’s schedule.

 

Tonight’s menu.

 

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Beautiful pictures of the island.

[Mtn2Sea]

Random pics from around the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mtn2Sea]

More pics.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mtn2Sea]

 

 

 

[Chelly]

Gotta tell you.....I have taken pictures of those very same subjects on the Ryndam and my photos don't look nearly as great as yours!

 

Well done.

[Beejay4016]

I just can't get past the fantastic photo of the entertainer standing there by the microphone belting out his songs while just behind him is some guy sitting in a chair reading. You really have to wonder if this guy was wearing earplugs or he couldn't find a seat in a quieter area. A lovely smile-inducing photo.

[Mtn2Sea]

Gotta tell you.....I have taken pictures of those very same subjects on the Ryndam and my photos don't look nearly as great as yours!

 

Well done.

 

Thanks! It's been fun taking photos around the ship.

[Mtn2Sea]

The photo below shows the sea just prior to our leaving for dinner. The rolling of the ship has lessened quite a bit.

After dinner, we went to the show, which was The Comedy & Other Dangerous Stuff of Benji Hill. The dangerous stuff was juggling. Hill was quite good, both as a comedian and as a juggler.

Yesterday, we stuffed the laundry bag with dirty clothes until it couldn’t hold anymore. Today, our items came back all clean and fresh. I started to take a picture of the basket loaded with our things, but didn’t think you’d want to see our socks and underwear, no matter how nicely they were folded. When we got back from dinner, we had a letter from the Guest Relations Manager announcing the a/c for certain cabins on our deck would undergo maintenance tomorrow.

I’ve been reluctant to say anything about our cabin’s a/c because I didn’t want to jinx it. Basically, the only problem we’ve had with our a/c is our inability to know exactly where to put the blue/red adjustment knob. We’ve had it turned close to all the way cold and have been comfortable. On occasion, it’s been too cold and our adjustment makes the cabin too warm, so we adjust the knob a little more to the cold side. Let me say we do not keep our house cold; we normally keep the thermostat at 77 or 78 degrees. Someone else may think our cabin is on the warm side. As I mentioned earlier, our next door neighbors moved to another deck because their a/c was not working. The couple mentioned that they didn’t feel their complaints were taken very seriously until someone came to their cabin and the temperature reading was in the upper 80’s. Prior to that, our neighbors had been told no comparable cabins were available. They were moved shortly after the reading was taken. We had noticed someone going into the vacated cabin and today I asked the steward if anyone was using it. He stated someone on the starboard side was sleeping there, but keeping their clothes in their original cabin. It’ll be interesting to see if our a/c is affected by tomorrow’s maintenance.

[Mtn2Sea]

I got up early this morning and went out to the balcony to read. After a few minutes, I noticed what I thought was a very dark storm cloud, but neither the wind nor the seas had picked up. I stood up and looked around, only to discover the dark cloud was actually smoke coming from Grand Cayman. Turns out the garbage dump in Georgetown had caught fire.

 

 

Today's activities.

 

 

 

Tonight's menu.

 

When the Captain made the announcement regarding the fire, he also let everyone know that we would be running about 30 minutes behind schedule due to the fire. Again, we did not have a shore excursion booked, so we had a leisurely breakfast in the MDR. I had the French toast with turkey bacon.

[Mtn2Sea]

Grand Cayman was our only port on this cruise without a pier, which meant we had to go to the Ocean Bar to get a tender ticket. We were fortunate in that we only waited five minutes before our tender number, along with the five numbers before ours, was called. Some people had been waiting 45 minutes.

As we were leaving the tender landing area, we again were approached and offered an island tour for $20/person. We had to wait while the driver secured some more passengers. The street across from the tender area.

A total of six of us took the tour in a van, which did not have very good air conditioning. We drove by several places, such as Seven Mile Beach and the Governor’s home, but did not stop. We were given the choice of stopping at the dolphin pool (free) or the turtle farm ($10/person). We all opted for the free one.

Turns out there was no show or activity while we were there. We just watched the dolphins swim around.

[Mtn2Sea]

Just as we were leaving, an excursion group from the ship was about to begin a swim with the dolphins. Our next stop was a store selling Tortuga Rum Cakes. The free samples snared us into buying some cakes to bring home. Our next stop was Hell, which is a small rocky area.

A gift shop sells postcards and will mail them for you so your card to friends will have a postmark from Hell, Grand Cayman.

I’m happy to report we made it back from Hell. We returned to the tender area for our very hot ride back to the ship. I don’t know why they didn’t open some hatches to bring in fresh air. The seas were very calm. After having lunch in the Lido, we headed back to the cabin, but I diverted briefly to get some rum cake and coconut ice cream at the sailaway party at the seaview pool.

[cruz chic]

Great update. Thx.

[kazu]

Wow!! You are just so good. The pics are fantastic as if your live thread.

 

 

I will be hesitant now to do a live thread in the future :o

[Mtn2Sea]

Our last formal night was after a hot day on Grand Cayman and a hot tender ride back to the ship. We managed to get cleaned up for dinner, but we were running a little late. We did not get at a table for two, so we were shown to a table for six. We enjoyed meeting two young couples, one from Las Vegas and the other from the Seattle area. Both couples were enjoying their cruise very much. Because we enjoyed our conversations so much, we were too late for the evenings show, which was presented by the Ryndam cast.

Considering the hot day, we thought we cleaned up pretty well.

 

Robert a/k/a Mtn2Sea and Lynette a/k/a DW.

[Iris5383]

I have thoroughly enjoyed your posts! I'm trying to talk DH into another cruise in Feb or March and am considering this one. I was only concerned that I would miss my most favorite port - Half Moon Cay.

 

But sitting in my cabin in the central Colorado mountains where we've seen no sun all day and the temps have been hovering in the 20s, this Ryndam cruise might be the one!

 

Thank you!:)

[cruz chic]

Great thread. I really enjoyed it. Sorry it's almost over.

[Mtn2Sea]

As soon as I had sufficient light on the balcony to read, I got up so I could hopefully finish a book from the ship’s library before it had to be turned back in at 5:00 PM. We chose to use room service for breakfast and, as usual, our food was delivered in a timely fashion. After breakfast, I went to two of the Digital Workshops, both of which related to editing photos; now if only I can remember all the great information that was disseminated. DW and I had agreed to meet back in the cabin to go to lunch in the MDR. I had lamb sliders with fries and DW chose the only gluten free entry, which was a salad with barbeque chicken. We both enjoyed our food.

 

Our yummy desserts.

 

 

 

Today’s activities.

[Mtn2Sea]

I will be hesitant now to do a live thread in the future :o

 

Oh no you don't!! I'll look forward to your next review.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I fell behind and am catching up now.

This has been a wonderful review.

[Typhoon1]

Thanks for the report and awesome pics.

[mnport]

Enjoyed your review so much! Will be doing this in two weeks.

[RetiredMustang]

Robert,

 

I have much enjoyed your blog .. especially since we are due to sail this itinerary on Ryndam in about 8 weeks. Thank you for the preview!

 

About Hell -- did you buy post cards and mail them from the small post office there? A few years, we did so: we bought postcards, wrote our sons "Visting Hell, wish you were here!" and mailed them from the post office so they would have the post-mark of "Hell". OK, pretty cheesy, but our sons expect things like that from us, and we all had a chuckle. :D

 

Thanks again for the thread, and the photos, menus, etc.

 

Dave

Edited December 22, 2013 by RetiredMustang