August 2011 Ryndam Ancient Discoveries - Wow!

[SwissMyst]

Just back and badly jet-lagged but wanted to share the early report about the great time we had on the August 28, 2011 Ryndam "Ancient Discoveries" with its double-wow itinerary from Barcelona to Sicily, Malta, Greece (Albania), Croatia, Italy, Sardinia, and Mallorca.

We started out with a great Meet and Greet of over 40 people from all over the world - HAL did a great job sponsoring the party and our group grew in size from the initial reservation, so we packed ourselves in tightly at this special private reception held for us in the Crow's Nest.

The weather was hot and sunny, not a drop of rain and the seas were perfectly smooth throughout the entire journey. We had a great cabin (thank you HAL for the very nice last minute upgrade), but several passengers did not make it due to Hurricane Irene disruptions to their travel plans and many had stories to tell about last minute travel disruptions to finally get to Barcelona on time.

35 or so apparently had to board at our first stop two days later and I hope we hear from some of them to find out what happens when Mother Nature intervenes in the best laid travel plans.

The ship looked lovely in all aspects after her recent refurbishments and all the crew was in top form delivering what HAL does best - attentive, smiling service that makes everyone feel at home instantly and that this cruise is being put on ....... just for you.

Highlight for us was coming into the port of Malta in the very early morning light when the city lights were still on and the horizon was shimmering pink against the dark outlines of the magnificent historic structures this city is famous for.

The addition of special chef menu items each night at dinner offered very creative new menu items - the grilled ahi, horseradish potatoes and perfectly cooked green beans was a Rudi Sondheim highlight. And the Ryndam got the vegetables cooked better than any HAL ship so far - which unfortunately have usually been way over-cooked in the past. Very nice touch this time.

And again, the fresh baked breads and sweet butter are one of my most favorite HAL menu items and HAL never disappoints me on this. So glad this was an intensive port cruise and one where we could do a lot of independent walking so I came out a little closer to calorie neutral, but think I slid back badly when we also dined for lunch in towns we visited.

The Master Chef Dinner was a very welcome and abbreviated affair that allowed joyous and tearful recognition of the dining staff who sang a peppy Indonesian song that allowed a gracious way to say good-by, wave your napkin and leave the dining room for the last time on a very happy note.

The shore excursions we took from HAL were all excellent and felt the optional Albania excursion at the Corfu stop was one of the most interesting of all not only for its haunting UNESCO ancient ruins tour, but seeing "modern" Albania struggle to bring itself up to speed after being in such ruinous isolation for so long. That was an exceptional opportunity excursion and appreciate HAL adding it to the list of options.

From top to bottom, I can see why the Ryndam keeps earning such high praise.

We spent three additional nights in Barcelona at the end of the trip exploring as much as we could of this fascinating city. And now on to the jet-lag recovery and unpacking though since we will be off again in a few more months, maybe I'll just leave most of my suitcase unpacked and hope we have no call for our guest room in the intervening time.

Thanks HAL, from the Captain to the Hotel Director to everyone up and down the line of command for making this a great trip on the beautiful Ryndam.

One other small bonus was our schedule often got us into port several hours ahead of the other mega-ships that were hitting some of the same ports - what a difference the port experience became after the arrival of 3000-5000 more passengers and how nice it was when the Ryndam got to linger a few hours more later in the evening after those party-hardy behemoths departed.

[IslandThyme]

Thanks for this report, SwissMyst. Since I'll be on Ryndam soon, for the first time, I'm especially interested in everything about her.

From things I've read elsewhere on CC I was planning to skip the Master Chef dinner, but you make it sound like it's nicer on Ryndam than what people have experienced on other ships.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for your review.

Glad you had a wonderful cruise.

It is nice when you arrive at a port ahead of those larger ships.

[SwissMyst]

Thanks for this report, SwissMyst. Since I'll be on Ryndam soon, for the first time, I'm especially interested in everything about her.

From things I've read elsewhere on CC I was planning to skip the Master Chef dinner, but you make it sound like it's nicer on Ryndam than what people have experienced on other ships.

HAL has definitely been listening to complaints about the protracted affair this used to be in the past - only one song and a time for some appreciative introductions and applause at the very end of the dinner. Choices for dinner as well - and you could pass up the baked alaska if you wanted.

The new cheese presentation is also a great improvement - you get choices and they include some very nice ones - I kept ordering the Stilton and Aged Gouda, but there were several other choices and texture varieties as well.

I also asked for half-portions and they worked hard to make this happen this time - felt the dining staff attentions on this ship were spectacular. They even scoured the ports for Jasmine Tea which they usually have onboard. This time they had run out, but by my last few nights the staff found it somewhere and even gave me the rest of the box which I promised I would take on our upcoming Maasdam trip just incase there is another unplanned shortage.

We did not try either the Pinnacle or Canaletto - we were happy with the Main Dining Room choices but one night we got our always excellent room service French Onion Soup and Club Sandwich, after a particularly busy day in port.

[portofrome]

Glad you had great time on the Ryndam.
Thanks for your review.

[cruisemom42]

I enjoyed reading your review. I suppose the ruins you saw in Albania were those of Butrint? I've been trying to get there for a while now...... any additional info to share on this site?

Also, I found it interesting that the Ryndam arrived ahead of and staying later than some other ships -- how are they able to accomplish this? Does the ship travel faster than others? (Or perhaps HAL doesn't travel at artifically slow speeds to conserve oil?) I'm genuinely curious...

[mcsl]

Thanks so much for a great review. We're boarding the Ryndam in Barcelona in six days! Your review adds to the excitement!

[KirkNC]

Sounds like a great cruise. We also enjoyed a early morning entry into Vallencia aboard the Noordam, fabulous port!

Kirk

[IslandThyme]

As a person who eats no sweets, and always has cheese for "dessert" this is excellent news!

[Jade13]

The shore excursions we took from HAL were all excellent and felt the optional Albania excursion at the Corfu stop was one of the most interesting of all not only for its haunting UNESCO ancient ruins tour, but seeing "modern" Albania struggle to bring itself up to speed after being in such ruinous isolation for so long. That was an exceptional opportunity excursion and appreciate HAL adding it to the list of options.

.

We did the Albania excursion from Corfu in 2008, and I have been saying for the past three years it is the best HAL excursion we have ever been on. It had so much more than was listed. Did you also go to the museum, stop for a drink before lunch (my DH could not believe they had diet pepsi at the outside bar), have lunch overlooking the water, and also have a walking tour of Corfu town when you got back to Greece? The whole tour was first class.

To this day Malta is our favorite Med cruise port.

Ok, who was the Chef on-board?

[SwissMyst]

As a person who eats no sweets, and always has cheese for "dessert" this is excellent news!

They do serve your selections with some apricot conserves and various dried fruits on the side, but give me just a water cracker and some great Stilton and I am a happy lady. That they do too, and also include some RyCrisps as well but you can ask for any combination you wish. Enjoy.

[aliaschief]

Thanks for the review. Sailed last December on her and glad to see that you enjoyed your cruise as much as we did ours.

[SwissMyst]

We did the Albania excursion from Corfu in 2008, and I have been saying for the past three years it is the best HAL excursion we have ever been on. It had so much more than was listed. Did you also go to the museum, stop for a drink before lunch (my DH could not believe they had diet pepsi at the outside bar), have lunch overlooking the water, and also have a walking tour of Corfu town when you got back to Greece? The whole tour was first class.

To this day Malta is our favorite Med cruise port.

Ok, who was the Chef on-board?

Our Butrint and Albania excursion started with a hydrofoil trip across the water from Corfu then a very nice bus ride to Butrint with fascinating insights about the country and what we were seeing provided by our guide who spoke excellent English and also works as a school teacher.

Albania is very different from any surrounding EU or former Iron Curtain country in many ways - remittances from Albanians abroad is key to their emerging nation economy which also led to many illegal high-rise tourist and condo developments that the government has partially demolished leaving an unsettling landscape of twisted foundations and sagging floors of concrete right in the middle of more proper development, along with hundreds of abandoned small gun turrets to ward off the promised invasion by Albania's "enemies" that never materialized during its darker years behind not only the iron curtain but the self-selected Red Chinese bamboo curtain as well.

The UNESCO site of Butrint was very haunting and is extremely well set up for touring, as we slowly worked our way through layers of history and wound our way up to the top of the hill passing ruins and stunning intact mosaics (currently covered with protective sand but the photos show you why they want to do this). The water table is slowing reclaiming some of the lower ruins which gave them an even more mysterious appeal.

There is nothing "fancy" about this site compared to the high tourism we saw at Olympia, but had more to see than Olympia in its current state of discovery and lack of adequate research dollars in Albania. Yes, we went to the museum and bought a book for more information as well as photos of the mosaics and representations of its various stages of history from pagan to ancient to Christian to decline and partial covering for decades when the ruins had been covered by earth and was used as farm land.

We then were taken up the steepest, narrowest road that a bus could possibly navigate to the restored "castle" on top of the hill to what was known as the best restaurant in the Albanian port town of Saranda where we had a very nice fresh fish lunch with a delicious mediterranean salad, drinks and dessert.

Then it was back on the hydrofoil to Corfu where an optional free city tour was offered before the ship left a few hours later.

Malta - Valletta was indeed a very favorite port but we also found a lot of like in Palma de Mallorca too as a very sophisticated city with life that reaches well beyond tourism - though like Valletta tourism does overwhelm it particularly in the summer when several cruise ships show up on the same day. I can see the winter appeal of Palma de Mallorca, as well as being a retirement choice for many Europeans as well.

We also enjoyed our short time taking the local train to Marsala on our Trapani, Sicily port stop - very much a local scene in this town with a slight tourism presence but a town still very much "owned" by the locals.

A fabulous museum there in Marsala with remnants of a Punic galley ship though the Maritime Museum in Barcelona, still in the remodeling stages told the story of life as a galley slave far more vividly with models and dramatization than words in all our Malta Siege books could ever portray.

The Ryndam head chef was an Austrian, sorry did not get his name, and we did not have any "celebrity" chefs on board from the HAL Culinary Council -just their various new menu items were featured each night.

[SwissMyst]

[QUOTE=cruisemom42;30561683]I enjoyed reading your review. I suppose the ruins you saw in Albania were those of Butrint? I've been trying to get there for a while now...... any additional info to share on this site?

Also, I found it interesting that the Ryndam arrived ahead of and staying later than some other ships -- how are they able to accomplish this? Does the ship travel faster than others? (Or perhaps HAL doesn't travel at ...............

/////////////

Good question - since this was an 11 day cruise maybe we didn't have as much ground (sea) to cover between ports as those on a 7 day cruise itinerary allowing us to get in earlier and stay later in a few ports - Palma, Dubrovnik and Valletta arrival, though we had an early 2pm departure there but by then the clogs of mega ship tourists had really overtaken the town. We were often joined by the larger Costa, MSC and Princess ships.

A few days prior to our departure from Barcelona there were 30,000 cruise passengers on a single day with I believe 5 different ships, all coming and going on that same day. Barcelona is already loaded with land tourists but is extremely well set up to handle them all and make it still feel like a uniquely Catalonian experience. (Never say Spanish!)

[RuthC]

How about the entertainment on board? Anything worth mentioning?

[kazu]

SwissMyst - thanks so much - so glad you had a great cruise :D

Like you, I enjoy my cheese too - so glad to hear that has improved:)

Sounds like you had a fantastic time - thanks for sharing:)

[SwissMyst]

How about the entertainment on board? Anything worth mentioning?

We only went to a few ensemble shows and none of individual performer ones. They were very good, though we also noticed they only have two female dancers now along with the singers. The talent level was good, new shows and more modern choices that were still very appealing to the older tastes.

The last show was called Ensemble which had a great selection of songs for the two very talented and very attractive husband and wife team who had operatically trained voices who knew how to hit the right notes to please the crowds with popular, well-known and loved snippets of classical as well as more contemporary Broadway selections, well paced.

We had several larger groups of non-US passengers and they got treated with songs in French, German and Italian - no Spanish because there was also a large group from Spain too. There was a fairly broad range of ages as well from young children to our older set. No one group dominated anything but all announcements were still brief and made only in English, though there were several Spanish language excursions also available.

Piano man was good and the Mix was often too crowded to find a seat. We had late seating for dinner along with very busy port days so staying up for the 10 pm show was often too much for us. The Concerto Strings in the Exploration Lounge were lovely young ladies who enjoyed playing together popular chamber music classics.

This was well-attended when we dropped by. I assume they might have been Eastern European in origin and always ended with the lively Hungarian Rhapsody.

Casino seemed happy and well-attended and the only place on the ship we smelled smoke if you wanted to go there. No reports on any other music venues but there were those who liked to dance at that bar with the ensemble along with dancing lessons were also well-attended. No report on Northern Lights or the Rock Until You Dock final disco night at the Crow's Nest from me either.

About 10% of the men wore tuxedos and 89% wore dark suits. All the women dressed up for formal nights -some long gowns still but mainly sparkly coctail dresses. It was a ship that liked to dress up for all main dining room dinners even on "smart casual" nights because the dining room was such a lovely dining experience and it just felt right to add to the loveliness of the setting was the feeling I had about my fellow passengers own dress code choices.

[erewhon]

Thank you for the positive reports of your cruise.

Pleased that you had such a good time.

[cruisinjudy]

I, too, love that sailing into Malta in the early morning!!!

[RuthC]

We only went to a few ensemble shows and none of individual performer ones. They were very good, though we also noticed they only have two female dancers now along with the singers. The talent level was good, new shows and more modern choices that were still very appealing to the older tastes.
OK, so the Ryndam is using the Showroom at Sea concept. That's important info to have.

Piano man was good .
Do you have his name? Without that I won't know who to look for on other ships.

Thank you for whatever info you can provide.

[SwissMyst]

OK, so the Ryndam is using the Showroom at Sea concept. That's important info to have.


Do you have his name? Without that I won't know who to look for on other ships.

Thank you for whatever info you can provide.

Ryndam make-over changed the theater to include those little tables up front for seating instead of permanently installed seating rows like the rest of the theater.

I never could figure out why they did this because sitting at those little tables so close to the stage seemed odd even though they appeared popular places to sit.

I then realized when we were all gathering in the theater in the morning for shore excursions, this flexible free space used for little table theater seating at night was used for crowd management space during the day.

So was this front of the house space utilization flexibility also part of this "Showroom at Sea" theater make-over plan?

Sorry, did not get the name of the Piano Man and did not take all our cruise newsletters back home with us where I could check. He was not as strong of a singer as the one on the Statendam last December, but he did draw the crowds.

This is always a pleasant place to stop before going to the theater after dinner, but for many it is THE place to stop and the Mix seating just was not adequate or else you had to view from that overly bright area near the shops - not sure this new bar/entertainment make-over was as successful as it could have been.

The other alternative was to linger a bit at the Explorers Lounge for the string quartet and surprisingly one evening there were still chocolates left on the tray even though it was also a very well-attended venue - still must be HAL's best kept secret.

BTW: the mid afternoon chocolate goodies and chocolate cookie wafers in the Neptune Lounge on the Ryndam were the best ever land or sea - wonder if having an Austrian head chef on board was the reason for this? Yum.

And speaking of chocolates (now that I know I have your attention Ruth;) ) our return flight from Barcelona to LAX was on Swiss International who offer very nice chocolate bars at the end of each flight. Plus we visited the Chocolate Museum in Barcelona who also give you a chocolate bar " ticket" which pays back part of the museum entrance fee and stopped for a hot chocolate at their cafe which was basically very, very thick melted, gloppy chocolate - something you more spooned rather than drank and left us both with big black stains around our lips of this smacking good, densely rich treat.

[RuthC]

Sorry, did not get the name of the Piano Man .
OK. Thanks anyway.

[IslandThyme]

There's a chocolate museum in Barcelona? We missed that last time we were there.

[SwissMyst]

There's a chocolate museum in Barcelona? We missed that last time we were there.

It is in the Gothic/Ribera Quarter reutilizing the space of a former convent - they spell "chocolate" with an X so it is an odd name to track down but many of the guidebooks give it a mention. We had a heck of a time actually finding it because of the little, un-named streets and the fact the building was only identified as the historic convent on the outside.

We kept going back to retrace our steps and finally saw a banner up high on the building with ..MMMMMM.... on it and then this original native spelling for "chocolate" with an X. The actual display and information was not particularly interesting or insightful, but certainly the shop and the cafe was well worth a visit and you do get that chocolate bar "ticket".

The other bonus about this site is it is right next to the patisserie school and you can view the students learning their craft through a large glass window wall from the Chocolate Museum courtyard if you get there at a time when the students are in school - we arrived only to see them cleaning up their large wooden top work benches but it would have been fun to see them in action.

So if you find the well-signed modern building Scuola Patissiere (sp ??) that is right next to the historic convent building on the same little closed pedestrian street - which also gets used as an informal skateboard park. Ahhhhh, Barcelona!

[IslandThyme]

Thanks, SwissMyst, that's very helpful. I'm not sure we'll have time before our cruise departs, but we'll keep it in mind. Since we live about half time in France, we do see a lot of chocolate and patisserie, but the Spanish touch is different.

[SwissMyst]

Thanks, SwissMyst, that's very helpful. I'm not sure we'll have time before our cruise departs, but we'll keep it in mind. Since we live about half time in France, we do see a lot of chocolate and patisserie, but the Spanish touch is different.

The Ryndam got the prime berthing spot for our departure right next to the downtown wharf and the Columbus statue so if you get lucky too you could get there in about a 15-20 minute walk - not sure it is worth that much effort because the museum itself is not all that informative.

But my goodness it was Spanish exploration of the New World that gifted us with chocolate in the first place so this does deserve at least an honorific visitation and to try this "real" hot chocolate if nothing else.

[CowPrincess]

SwissMyst, I know you will give me the unvarnished truth. Please provide details of your pre and post cruise flights. Every way I look at the flights, we would end up travelling for over 26 hours. How were yours, how did you cope?

(and that's the big reason we aren't yet booked on a Med cruise..... )

[SwissMyst]

SwissMyst, I know you will give me the unvarnished truth. Please provide details of your pre and post cruise flights. Every way I look at the flights, we would end up travelling for over 26 hours. How were yours, how did you cope?

(and that's the big reason we aren't yet booked on a Med cruise..... )

Great question because we are doing some very serious rethinking about this as we tried various combos and are finding some much harder to do than others, and need to pay more attention to getting and going home than we ever did in the past.

Yes, our total times also were closer to 24 hours too. Wipe out time. So here goes my lengthy answer just talking to myself about this challenge right now and hope we can share some possible solutions and alternatives.

Issues:

1. when to start the flights - am or pm
2. non-stop flights or break up the long flights into smaller segments
3. Arrive a few days early or spend a few days later to stretch out the vacation time
4. Does which direction you go first matter on the first few vacation time's jet lag - going east or going west?
5. Play real jet lag catch-up by breaking up the flights by several days with intermediate stop extra day stops?

I played around with our flights this time and came up with some good well-priced ones that had us going LAX to Barcelona on Air Canada via Toronto. But still it was a 24 hour plus ordeal for the total time

(Disclosure: DH likes to get to the airport 3 hours early- ouch - few international flights still require this much pre-departure time but US security lines are still onerous and this is his comfort level so this stretches out our total travel day by a few more hours)

What was good was this made it two "small" flights" that got us to Barcelona early in the morning to be met effortlessly by the HAL transfer, though we had to wait several hours to actually get on board because of our early arrival. We went over to the large hotel at the port for a protracted buffet breakfast to kill the time rather than just sit and wait in the departure lounge.

Bad part was due to my schedule we had to start out with an early morning flight out of LAX, which meant getting up at an ungodly hour to get down there on time- which means (for us) nervously and lightly sleeping the night before worrying the alarm will not go off or our aging ears will overlook it. (Our emerging travel quirks).

End result of a long flight starting in the early hours of the morning was very little total sleep for way too long, since I can't find a way to sleep on a plane in coach so a lot of early cruise time was spent feeling very wiped out the first few days.

Solution: leave a few days before the departure and try to get a late evening flight out of LAX so no "existential" worries about missing the plane and missing the ship.

Flight home: Swiss International short hop to Zurich and then an 11 hour non-stop to LAX - killer, cramped seating but excellent service and food on Swiss air with good inflight entertainment. If one is going to be miserable in coach on a long flight, Swiss International makes the best of a bad thing.

Again, an early morning flight so lousy sleep the night before "worrying" about missing the plane and getting to the airport but at least this gets us home in the early evening to start the unwinding jet lag process.

Solution: I think it might be better to tack on the extended city stays at the front of the trip rather than the back end of the trip because we were ready to get home once we got off the ship (11 day cruise) but we still enjoyed our extra time in Barcelona a lot.

Second solution: again break the flight up into two smaller segments, rather than one short and one long, long haul if flying coach. It seems to work for me to get up and seriously walk around between connecting flights, rather than trying and sit still for so long in so much of today's airplane seating discomfort.

QUERY: Is it really different flying to Asia for us compared to flying to Europe when both are similar distances away? It seems to be flights to Asia wear us out less once we get there and back compared to flights to Europe.

I think we are doing this same mess all over again when we fly to Rome to arrive at the morning of our TA departure on the Maasdam so at least we will have a more gradual readjustment to jet lag going home and only have to fly from FLL to LAX on the final leg.

But again doing this same day flight to a European departure. Of course we can catch up on sleep during the long sea days but this cruise is very port intensive the first week so no rest for the wickedly badly planned this time either.

The older we are getting, this is getting to be a major problem now as we gravitate more to ports closer to home and have to seriously rethink our cruise schedules to allow for more jet-lag transition times as part of the total travel costs. Of course flying business or first class would be a great way around a lot of this, but that extra cost is just not in our travel budget ....yet.

So while I got good flights and a good price, I do think I need to consider other options in the future. Simply finding the "fastest and cheapest way to get there" is no longer the primary consideration. Time of departure now seems to take on a greater role too. (I used Vayama and kept going back until I got what I thought was the best price/time combo)

But the biggest travel bugaboo today is getting through TSA "security" which ranges from insulting to appalling and will do more to kill leisure travel than just about anything else, except perhaps for the insulting to appalling coach seating.

Well hope this is not more than you needed to know but I have been running all this around my brain these past few days and jet-lagged nights. (I don't do sleeping pills but try a three tea-bag slug of camomile which helps a bit)

[CowPrincess]

The older we are getting, this is getting to be a major problem now as we gravitate more to ports closer to home and have to seriously rethink our cruise schedules to allow for more jet-lag transition times as part of the total travel costs. Of course flying business or first class would be a great way around a lot of this, but that extra cost is just not in our travel budget ....yet.

So while I got good flights and a good price, I do think I need to consider other options in the future. Simply finding the "fastest and cheapest way to get there" is no longer the primary consideration. Time of departure now seems to take on a greater role too. (I used Vayama and kept going back until I got what I thought was the best price/time combo)

But the biggest travel bugaboo today is getting through TSA "security" which ranges from insulting to appalling and will do more to kill leisure travel than just about anything else, except perhaps for the insulting to appalling coach seating.

Well hope this is not more than you needed to know but I have been running all this around my brain these past few days and jet-lagged nights. (I don't do sleeping pills but try a three tea-bag slug of camomile which helps a bit)


Our worst flights so far were to get to Tampa. Bear in mind, we need to leave home the night BEFORE whatever flight we catch (as do a number of other posters on this board). Ignoring the travel time to the airport city and the overnight stay (can't call it a "sleep" :) ) it took us around 18 hours. We had to get up at 4 a.m., to get to the airport from the hotel. I was knackered for 3 days -- two of which were in Tampa, thank goodness. Done in, totally.

I briefly considered on the the Med cruises out of Barcelona this autumn, but at 26 hours flight time, knew I'd probably get arrested at one of the connection airports :)

DH doesn't have the problems I do with flying, so this is all on me. We are deferring a Med cruise until we can figure out the least stressful/not overly expensive way to do it. I don't even think doing an overnight in a "connection" city would be of value to me, as I'd lay awake all night worrying about missing the next flight, y'know?

One thing we will have to consider is a week pre-cruise and then a shorter (7 day) cruise. The biggest problem with that, though, will be the affordability of accommodations and food precruise. And getting my head around the idea of travelling a loooooooooooooong distance for a 7 day cruise.

Flying sucks :( :)

[tcook052]

I'm curious to hear a little more about the Ryndam itself from SwissMyst if possible. Was everything in working order? What kind of cabin were you in and were you happy with it? Was this your first time and if not was it better than past cruises?

Sorry for all the queries but I'm sailing on Ryndam in January and have read a few negative comments about the ship and the hardware not always working and wanted to get some feedback from you on your recent experience on the ship. I should add I try not to listen to the few neagtive comments as the vast majority have been positive or very positive but thought I'd ask you for your impressions. :)

[SwissMyst]

I'm curious to hear a little more about the Ryndam itself from SwissMyst if possible. Was everything in working order? What kind of cabin were you in and were you happy with it? Was this your first time and if not was it better than past cruises?

Sorry for all the queries but I'm sailing on Ryndam in January and have read a few negative comments about the ship and the hardware not always working and wanted to get some feedback from you on your recent experience on the ship. I should add I try not to listen to the few neagtive comments as the vast majority have been positive or very positive but thought I'd ask you for your impressions. :)

This was our 6th HAL cruise and we just like the smaller, older ships so we were happy with the Ryndam on all levels. But keep in mind at the very last minute while checking in we learned we had been given an upgrade to a Neptune Lounge suite from our former verandah cabin assignment. How could there be any complaints, but in fact we had none.

However, I will share one feature that could have reasonably thrown off someone who was new to this.

Our bathroom faucet apparatus was loose and wobbled all over when we tried to use it - it worked but was obviously broken and hard to use in this fashion.

We did not "report" this flaw because we felt that if it could be fixed, it would have been fixed since the cabin staff would have obviously been aware of this problem when they were cleaning the cabin everyday. We have this level of trust with HAL services based upon our past experiences.

We just worked around it, grateful first for even getting the suite but felt if this had happened to a full-paying passenger it would have been unacceptable and that at least there should have been an apology notice attached to this disrepair.

DH looked under the sink and saw there was a defective locking part so it would appear if this replacement part was not available at that time, there would be no way to repair this. However, a few days later it did get repaired and all was well. Staff did know about this obviously and set about to get the replacement part installed as soon as they could.

And who knows, maybe this was why we got this particular suite as an upgrade because they knew we were experienced HAL passengers who could go with the flow on this, but knew this was not something to pass off to a new cruiser -- particularly one who was paying for the top cruise suite package.

Other than that, the ship was in lovely condition after its recent drydock. It shudders a bit at higher speeds, but so did our last cruise on the more upscale Crystal Symphony - these are ships with big engines and lots of moving parts - that sort of thing comes with the territory and probably more noticeable on the smaller ships where cabins are closer to the engine.

A/C worked perfectly and we were always in hot climates day and night. Entertainment was good, food was good, staff was very accommodating and there was a sense of professional pride from top to bottom. We rank this trip one of our top HAL experiences.

Our least favorite HAL trip was a Christmas cruise on the Oosterdam in 2009 - and that was due to many factors including being a crowded holiday cruise, but it was still a great trip for the ports we visited on the Mexican Riviera. Yet this one was so well-priced that there was no reason to complain either.

We have found lots to like about all of our HAL ships and keep coming back. But do count us among those who give a pass to a lot of the details that others find unacceptable.

We cruise mainly for itineraries, the low key nature of HAL ships and the very comfortable HAL cabins we have always enjoyed but have only now stayed in verandah or varying level of suites - this can make a lot difference to in our overall satisfaction.

[SwissMyst]

........
Flying sucks :( :)

Checked our next flight to Rome and realized I booked exactly the same nightmare package - leave early in the morning from LAX and arrive early in the morning on departure day. This time we will drive to LAX and stay overnight there as we found a good hotel-parking package with the LAX Hilton.

So at least we won't have that last sleepless night anxiety to get to the airport early in the morning from home. And this flight requires a change of planes in Washington DC on United so we will have two shorter flights than one long one. Plus United occasionally has those "Economy Plus" seats for a small upgrade which gives a few more inches of leg room and having used this once, it made a huge difference in coach cabin comfort.

I know others use a Tylenol PM pill to help them sleep and that just may also help alleviate the aches and pains one gets being cramped into rotten coach seating -- think I will try it this next time myself.

[tcook052]

A/C worked perfectly and we were always in hot climates day and night. Entertainment was good, food was good, staff was very accommodating and there was a sense of professional pride from top to bottom. We rank this trip one of our top HAL experiences.

This says a lot. Thanks for your insights as that's exactly the kind of input I was interested in hearing, a staightforward update from a veteran HAL cruiser. A touch of frost has my excitement building for my January escape. :)

[SwissMyst]

This says a lot. Thanks for your insights as that's exactly the kind of input I was interested in hearing, a staightforward update from a veteran HAL cruiser. A touch of frost has my excitement building for my January escape. :)

A similar frost developed about our first HAL cruise reading some pretty scathing reports about the Maasdam, but after that trip and we had recently also cruised with Crystal so we had some fairly high expectations, we became devoted HAL cruisers because of the value we felt we got with HAL.

However, I do remember laughing at the pretty grotesque mismatched decor on the Maasdam back in Jan 2009, but there were so many other things we liked that we were won over. Since then the Maasdam has gone through refurbishments as well recently has the Ryndam.

We did not get perfection and we were not paying for perfection, but we now get twice the cruising experiences at half the price of our former Crystal cruise. And we getting a very comfortable, old-fashion, more traditional cruising style on the smaller HAL ships that suits us very well.

That is what convinced us we found the right fit for us - wrinkles, bumps and grinds that can occasionally come with this, notwithstanding.

[tcook052]

wrinkles, bumps and grinds

Sounds like my last visit to the disco on Eurodam as me & my wrinkles were shaking it on the dance floor. :D Thanks again.