tankerjo2
December 21st, 2004, 11:46 AM
Returned this weekend from a 7 day Mexico cruise on the Ryndam. A few comments on our cruise experience.
Lot's of good things can be said about the ship and the recent refitting...at first blush found the ship in very good conditon. Been 2 years since we sailed the Ryndam so assume the tables and chairs in the pool/Lido area are new. Staffing in the Lido was more than adequate, friendly and gracious service. New Kids area's should make parents happy. Enjoyed the library and new books. Crows Nest was ok but the colors, well....Cabins and bedding upgrades were nice. I'm sure others could/will add a far more complete list and some already have so I'll leave that to them.
The bad stuff, well at least for us. On arrival in our cabin only 1 of 2 items I had ordered from HAL's ship services were in our cabin, so that spoiled the surprise for my wife. That evening they had no clue about the wine I had also ordered from ship services + HAL in Seattle said the 4 bottle wine package was no longer available but they were still hawking it on the ship.
Discovered we had a sometime operational toilet and that remained in effect throughout the cruise. On 2 occasions there was an overwhelming sewage smell that had us bailing out of our cabin. On our final cruise night we were awaken shortly after midnight by vacuuming outside or near our cabin...not able to go back to sleep I got up to walk out to our balcony for some fresh air and found myself standing in a soaking wet carpet, really a neat feeling at 2:30 in the morning...seems the stateroom next to ours had a bathroom flood/mishap and while they cleaned up that mess no one thought to check and see where the rest of the water went...like in our cabin. I notified the desk and they sent up a cabin steward who spread out towels to soak up some of the water, we pulled the sofa across the room to put down more towels and off he went. My wife managed to get back to sleep but I didn't..little after 6am brought here down some juice only to find her sitting in the cabin staring at the mess. Hardly a happy camper!! I know staff and crew members faced a busy day that morning but NO contact from them to see how we made out or a simple apology or concern for the night we had. I was not impressed.
Don't know if we will sail HAL again (1st HAL cruise in 92). I know stuff happens but to me it's about attitude and how one responds to their customers and I did not get a sense that they really gave a hoot.
Lot's of good things can be said about the ship and the recent refitting...at first blush found the ship in very good conditon. Been 2 years since we sailed the Ryndam so assume the tables and chairs in the pool/Lido area are new. Staffing in the Lido was more than adequate, friendly and gracious service. New Kids area's should make parents happy. Enjoyed the library and new books. Crows Nest was ok but the colors, well....Cabins and bedding upgrades were nice. I'm sure others could/will add a far more complete list and some already have so I'll leave that to them.
The bad stuff, well at least for us. On arrival in our cabin only 1 of 2 items I had ordered from HAL's ship services were in our cabin, so that spoiled the surprise for my wife. That evening they had no clue about the wine I had also ordered from ship services + HAL in Seattle said the 4 bottle wine package was no longer available but they were still hawking it on the ship.
Discovered we had a sometime operational toilet and that remained in effect throughout the cruise. On 2 occasions there was an overwhelming sewage smell that had us bailing out of our cabin. On our final cruise night we were awaken shortly after midnight by vacuuming outside or near our cabin...not able to go back to sleep I got up to walk out to our balcony for some fresh air and found myself standing in a soaking wet carpet, really a neat feeling at 2:30 in the morning...seems the stateroom next to ours had a bathroom flood/mishap and while they cleaned up that mess no one thought to check and see where the rest of the water went...like in our cabin. I notified the desk and they sent up a cabin steward who spread out towels to soak up some of the water, we pulled the sofa across the room to put down more towels and off he went. My wife managed to get back to sleep but I didn't..little after 6am brought here down some juice only to find her sitting in the cabin staring at the mess. Hardly a happy camper!! I know staff and crew members faced a busy day that morning but NO contact from them to see how we made out or a simple apology or concern for the night we had. I was not impressed.
Don't know if we will sail HAL again (1st HAL cruise in 92). I know stuff happens but to me it's about attitude and how one responds to their customers and I did not get a sense that they really gave a hoot.