Dave's Live from Ryndam, Feb. 6-20, 2011

Hey Dave,

 

Do you mind if I put some of these pics up on my blog for the readers to see? With credit to you of course.

 

Hope you continue to have a wonderful cruise!

 

DBA

 

DBA,

By all means do so -- I would be flattered!

All, here is the report from Feb. 8:

Tuesday, Feb. 8, at sea

Today was a nice relaxing day at sea, although there were plenty of things going on for those who wanted: tai chi and fitness classes; dance lessons; port and shopping talks; wine tastings; culinary demonstrations; bingo; casino tournaments; digital workshops, etc. There were activities listed on the schedule from 7 a.m. sunrise stretch to 11 p.m. Motown Night in the Crow's Nest. There was also High Tea, which is far too dangerous!

We started with walking the deck, and then went to breakfast at the Lido. I know that breakfast is available for suite passengers in the Pinnacle, but during 15 or more cruises, I don't believe we have ever eaten breakfast -- or lunch oher than a Mariners one -- in the dining room. We just seem to prefer to eat at the Lido, where we can get as little or as much as we want.

We did attend a demonstration of bread "sculpture" from the ship's baker in the Culinary Arts center, and we took a stab at the daily quiz in the library -- yesterday we had gotten only one fewer right answer than the winner. We usually do the quiz, but only answer the questions we know or can take a guess at; we've seen people (not on this curise, but on previous ones) who would pour over the reference materials or even go on line to find the answers.

 

Today's quiz was about movies with a "fill in the answer" format, not multiple choice, and we figured we knew many of the answers, but had to guess at perhaps half or more of them, so we thought we did not have a good chance to win.

But, when we checked in the afternoon, it was our entry that was posted as the winner. We got 10 out of 20 right.

 

Either the others also did not look up answers and happened to know fewer that we did, or this being a smaller ship than the Vistas we've been on lately, there were just fewer people attemtping the quiz -- ours may have been the only entry, and was by default the best one!

In the afternoon, the sun was full on our balcony, so we stayed inside most of the time. I took photos of the ship and posted to this blog, while DW read or went to the slots, or sometimes we just chatted. For a while, I read a bit of an old Agatha Christie paperback, including a bit of time when I absorbed the words directly from my forehead. That may be one reason (besides being an old fud) why I don't have a Nook or a Kindle yet -- you can't nap with one on your face.

This was the first formal night, and being at early fixed dining, we were among the first in regalia when we went down for happy hour (4-5 p.m. two-for-one drinks). I wore a tux and DW was in a slinky, sparkly gown.

For dinner, I wanted two or three each of the courses, but settled on shrimp cocktail, insalata caprese and the "Land and Sea" combo, passing up steamed clams, foie gras, four mushroom soup, linguine with scallops and shrimp, and pheasant breast. During dinner, the Rosario Strings played from the alcove in the upper dining room.

After dinner, we went to the casino, and I found a new penny machine that had lemmings doing silly things while DW played more serious games. Afterwards we went to the Explorer's Lounge where the Rosario Strings had regrouped, and listed to several pieces before their break.

More later,

Dave

Thank you for your pics and review. I'm looking forward to reading more.

Lisa, i will be looking for your crew of 5. My folks had a vineyard southwest of Denver, and im a big Broncos Fan. Well more of a ELWAY fan.

My crew of 4 are all ladies, 2 in there 60's and 2 in there 80's. LOL like thats going to stand out! lol

Dave my mom and i L O V E the casino, so i will hang out at the slots. lol

Debbie

Where are the pics from todays blog?? I don't see any.

Dave your pictures are great and your posts are very interesting.

 

Thanks for taking the time to do this. we are all tagging along happily :D

jkm151,

When I referred to taking photos in my wrap-up of Feb. 8 (posted this morning), I was referring to the bunch I actually posted on the 8th, and put the links to in this blog. Sorry for the confusion -- I tried in the past to post as I went and kept mixing up past and present tenses, so this time I have tried to keep to a major wrap-up per day, usually posted the morning after, and then other single topic ones as I go.

In any case, here is another (almost) single topic post:

Wine Packages

I got a copy of the current listings of the wines in the wine packages. We were charged $179.10 for the 7-bottle Navigator's Choice that costs $199. Not being a math major, It took me a while to figure out that they added the 15% surcharge ($29.85) to the $199, then subtracted 25% of the $199 ($49.75). In short, we get a 25% discount off the package price, but pay the 15% surcharge on the full non-discounted price. We have no problem with that, but it did set us a math problem for a few minutes.

Here are the wines in the packages:

 

NAVIGATOR'S CHOICE

3 bottles - $89

5 bottles - $149

7 bottles - $199

 

White wines

Robert Mondavi Private Selection Riesling - California

Danzante Pinot Grigio - Italy

Caliterra Chardonnay - Chile

Toasted Head Chardonnay - California

Blackstone Sauvignon Blanc - California

 

Red wines

Ravenswood Zinfandel - California

Fescobaldi Remole - Italy

Three Blind Moose Cabernet Sauvignon - California

Alice White Shiraz - Australia

Errazuriz Merlot - Chile

Diseno Malbec - Argentina

Laboure'-Roi Pinot Noir - France

　

ADMIRAL'S CHOICE

3 bottles - $118

5 bottles - $199

7 bottles - $269

 

White wines

Clos du Bois Chardonnay - California

Hogue Gewurztraminer - Washington

Estancia Pinot Grigion - California

Simi Sauvignon Blanc - California

Franciscan Chardonnay - Napa, California

Laboure'-Roi Macon Villages - France

 

Red wines

Spellbound Cabernet Sauvignon - California

Blackstone Merlot - California

Mark West Pinot Noir - California

Fresdobaldi Castiglioni Chianti - Italy

Solaire by Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon - California

Red Guitar Tempra - Spain

 

More later,

Dave

Dave,

We are both enjoying reading your blog. A few questions on posting your photos, if you have the time. We did blogs in 2008 and 2010 on our WC on the Amsterdam, but did not post photos. We are doing WC this coming Jan, and I would like to post the photos as you are presently doing. So, I basically need some directions on how to go about it, and how much Internet time is required? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

John (and Diane)

This is the lower atrium on 12/14/10. Is this the desk you're referring to?

 

Note the Christmas tree lying on the floor by the stairs. It had been knocked down by rough water two nights before, and not reset yet.

 

 

 

THAT'S IT!!

 

Seriously, we had a very nice cruise - and that desk was in the less traficked 'lower atrium' - but it just seemed the desk was a bit sub par in condition and style relative to the rest of a very nice ship. I can understand that in some instances customs or shore excusions might need a desk there - but I'd respectfully suggest either a nicer desk, or a collapseable one that you stow when not in use. I think 'the desk' ranked around #983 in general impressions of the ship. BTW 'Ryndam' had the best most accessible and useable library (w/coffee and knosh stand) of any ship I've been on.

 

Dave - glad you're enjoying your cruise - and your camera!:):D:)

Thanks for updating the new wine packages. They keep changing all the time.

 

That list wasn't the one we had when we were on the Ryndam last October.

OK. Really enjoying your reports and your pics. We are going on the Ryndam 4/3/2011. Looking forward to your report and pics tomorrow. Hope you are enyoing your cruise.

Joe & Mike

Wednesday, Feb. 9, Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Wednesday was a day in port Ocho Rios, or as some on board were considering it, another day at sea in Jamaica. Jamaica does not have a good reputation among a lot of cruisers, and we remember being pestered by beggars, drug dealers and touts of all sorts when we last visited.

But, that was in the 1990s, and I had read that there was an attempt to clean things up a bit and open some new shops, etc. Ryndam originally was scheduled to visit a new cruiseport being built in Falmouth Jamaica, similar to the one at Grand Turk as I understand, but the new port was not finished in time for us to visit, so HAL shifted to Ocho Rios.

There is a nice new cruise pier and refurbished small port -- but Ryndam did not berth there, as Freedom of the Seas was at the long pier as we arrived. Instead, we berthed at the industrial port, and I can see that people would not get such a favorble first impression from here: http://pictures.cruisecritic.com/data/510/Ocho_Rios_industrial_port_berth.JPG

In the photo, the foreground is some sort of conveyer system for loading gravel or similar items onto commerical ships. Passengers exited the ship and walked around the end to the two tan buildings ashore, where mini-buses marshalled to pick up/discharge passengers for shore excursions. Those venturing off on their won exited the guarded port gates to find taxis, or a walk into town.

We had done Dunn's River Falls twice before, and felt the Martha Brae rafting excursion might be fun, but did not want to do 1-1/2 to 2 hours in a bus each way, so we decided just to laze about or possibly walk into town. Just before lunch, I decided to take a stroll and see if I could find the new Island Village shops I had read about. I thought that they would be a short way up the road from the industrial port, judging from the shore map the ship provided. I went to the observation deck to orient myself to the map, and took a photo through the glass of what I thought was the beach in front of the shops area (which turned out to be the beach of Margarittaville): http://pictures.cruisecritic.com/data/510/Ocho_Rios_Margarittaville_seen_from_Ryndam_1_.JPG

I then went down, debarked and set off. I immediately was met by two persistent couples of touts who tried to get me to do what they wanted ... but I soon escaped the ship's photographers and exited the port. I turned left, and followed the sidewalk past the tour and taxi touts, and on towards town. The touts were really no more aggressive than in, say, Curacao, and I politely but firmly said, "No, thank you." and they pretty much left me alone. I recognize that I am male and large, so somebody else's experience may be different. But, a good number of Ryndam passengers were doing the same thing I was and walking toward town, and I don't think it was that big a deal. I certainly did not see the beggars and drug dealers I had seen before (which I admit is partly why we have not been to Ocho Rios in 13 or so years). One couple we knew said they were offered marijuana for sale, but I did not hear any such offers.

At any rate, I walked along the sidewalk, which went all the way to town. It was a bit rough-surfaced in spots, and sometimes close to the road, on which traffic was using the British system, that is driving on the left, so you should definitely look over your shoulder if you think you need to step into the road to get around a group of people or parked car -- there could be a truck just behind you bearing down!

After a walk of only about 400 yards or so, I spotted the entrance to Island Village. This was not a huge job of detection, as there was another knot of tour touts at the entrance. I walked through and saw several shops, around a central green area: http://pictures.cruisecritic.com/data/510/Ocho_Rios_Island_Village.JPG

There were a good many shops of various sizes, with the expected merchandise such as gold, jewelry and clothing. At the end of the complex was Margarittaville. I went in and got a Landshark beer to cool off from the walk (it was quite warm), and relax in the cool breeze. I took a shot back toward Ryndam at the industrial berth: http://pictures.cruisecritic.com/data/510/Ocho_Rios_Ryndam_seen_from_Margarittaville.JPG

I luckily decided to pop into the Margarittaville shop to check to see if they had any Jimmy Buffett CDs I might want, and was looking them over when the skies opened and a huge downpour hit. It only lasted a few minutes, but I was glad I was under cover and not walking back to the ship at the time it hit.

As I left the Island Village compound, I looked down the main road and could see other shops (Harbour Shops was cater-corner across the intersection) and more businesses along the street leading into town center. I decided to make my way back to the ship, and the taxi/tour guys and gals at the industrial port gate area were cheerful and welcomed me back. I immediately went back aboard and got a glass of ice water and held it to my face and neck -- the walk back was much more humid after the rain than the one into town had been.

DW and I had lunch, and then relaxed for a few hours. I watched from our balcony as workmen in the industrial port delivered truckloads of coarse sand or fine gravel, and bulldozers smoothed out the growing hills of the stuff. The eight-year-old boy in me was fascinated by the big trucks and bulldozers, but the adult in me was glad it wasn't me working in the midday sun.

We showered and changed into nicer clothes and went down for a pre-dinner drink and then into early seating dinner. Afterwards, we attended a reception in the Crow's Nest, hosted by the captain and hotel manager for 3 and 4-star Mariners.

All in all, Ocho Rios is certainly not our first choice of port call, but it was not that bad, and you can venture out without much hassle if you want to do so.

More later,

Dave

Dave,

We are both enjoying reading your blog. A few questions on posting your photos, if you have the time. We did blogs in 2008 and 2010 on our WC on the Amsterdam, but did not post photos. We are doing WC this coming Jan, and I would like to post the photos as you are presently doing. So, I basically need some directions on how to go about it, and how much Internet time is required? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

John (and Diane)

 

Posting photos

John,

I'm far from being expert, but there are two ways to post photos:

1. As attachments to a post. When you are preparing your reply, go to the bottom of the page, below your comment block and below the "turn off your signature" area, and you see a button to attach files. Click on that and follow the simple instructions to browse to the photo you want and attach it to your post. The attachment produces a small thumbnail, linked to a smallish photo.

2. For larger images, you can't just insert them into a post. You upload your photos either to the Cruise Critic photo gallery, which is what I am using, or to another web photo handler like photobucket. For the CC photo gallery, you first log in and then click on photo gallery near the top of the page. The photo gallery will recognize you as a CC member, and you can upload photos by clicking on the upload photos tab. You select a category and then browse to your photo files, give it a file name and upload. It only takes a minute or less. There is a photo gallery section in the CC FAQs, but if I can do it, most people can! One thing, though, is that the maximum file size is 250KB, so even with my camera stepped down to one megapixel, I still have to reduce the file size before I can upload the images to the CC photo gallery. Whichever service you use, you usually get a thumbnail linked to the larger file that you can post in a thread, or at least a URL location for the image, which is what I am posting so I dont bog down the speeds loading the thread.

 

Dave

Dave,

Thanks very much for the advice. I now have the several next months to experiment! Enjoy the remainder of your cruise.

John

Failed photo upload - ignore

Edited February 10, 2011 by SwissMyst

Thursday, Feb. 10, George Town, Grand Cayman

We had been to Grand Cayman several times, but it always a port we look forward to, because it is clean, pretty, safe and friendly. Ryndam arrived at anchor at about 8.m., and tendering started quickly. George Town does not have a cruise pier, and probably won't for the foreseeable future -- the island welcomes the cruise industry contributions to the economy, but is not as reliant on them as other islands may be, owing to their banking industry, and the harbor contains some fine reefs that they don't want to destroy. So, plan on tendering if you visit Grand Cayman.

Early shore excursions met on board and were led to tenders, but later ones like ours were to meet ashore. So, we took our morning routine in a relaxed way, and had an unhurried but a bot more substantial than normal breakfast -- we knew we would be gone over lunch time.

We took a tender ashore, which only took a few minutes, and had a bit of time to walk around before meeting for our excursion. The last couple of times we were here, the waterfront area around the tender landings was all torn up with construction, making it a bit difficult to walk around the main street by the water. This time, we found that the construction had been completed and a new shopping mall/area was in place: http://pictures.cruisecritic.com/data/510/George_Town_Grand_Cayman_waterfront.JPG

There is also a new Margarittaville off to the left of the photo, and down off to the right is the Hard Rock Cafe. I noticed that the coffee place on the second floor of the mall was advertising free wifi. Luckily, I have been able to raise a signal on board this cruise (unlike many times last cruise when I could not), so have not been looking for wifi ashore. After lugging a laptop the last few cruises, though, I have acquired a sweet little HP netbook that is much easier to handle while traveling.

　

On previous visits to Grand Cayman we had snorkeld, or visited Stingray CIty to pet the rays, and once we took the nickel tour of the island, including a visit to Hell. We have seen Seven Mile Beach, which is great, but we are not ones to lie in the sun much, so we chose a new offering from HAL: The Reef N Rays trip, that combined snorkeling with a visit to pet the rays, which is always fun.

We gaggled with our group at the tender area, and were led across the street to the back of the mall to a bus marshalling area, to find ... no bus. Our local tour rep shouted a few things into a cell phone, and a couple of minutes later an ancient school bus appeared. We boarded and were driven north up and across the island to a pier on a channel leadin to the central lagoon/bay. We boarded a snorkel boat and proceeded across the water to the gap between two fingers of land in the north that bounded the bay/lagoon.

After about 40 minutes, we arrived at the barrier reef around the north part of Grand Cayman, and had about 35 minutes to snorkel. It was fine snorkleling, with clear water, no turbidity, no fast current, lots of sunshine to bring out the colors, etc. I saw lots of fish of many species, especially among the rocks and coral that made a rough wall rising to the point where some upper parts were washing above the waves. But, the suprising and most special part of this particular reef was the soft coral -- lots and and lots of it, including purple and yellow fan corals. A very nice place to float and appreciate the reef life.

We then reboarded the boat and went a couple of hundred yeards to the Stingray City sandbar. On previous visits, we had been the only or one of only a few boats. This time, there were a dozen or so, with lots of people in the water among the stingrays: http://pictures.cruisecritic.com/data/510/Grand_Cayman_Stingray_City_1.JPG

　

We were dismayed when the boat captain told us that we would not be able to feed the rays ourselves this time. Apparently, too many people were feeding them unhealthful things like potato chips or chunks of Snickers bars instead of squid or fish, and they were becoming ill. So, the Cayman authorities now limit the feeding to only one pound of squid per boat, and only the boat crew is allowed to feed them.

But, there are still lots of rays, and we were able to be in the water with them all about, and the boat crew would use the squid to coax an occasional one into being held and petted, which the rays always seem to enjoy -- they seem to like the sensation of being gently rubbed under their fins (which are silky soft -- a wonderful experience), but the boat captain warned us from touching the spines down the top of their back; that irriates them. So I took my turn petting rays and generally enjoying being in the water with them, and them reboarded the boat to take some photos, as I was not as confident about keeping my camera dry as some people were. Luckily, I got a decnt shot or two, including one of the boat crew who brought a ray close to the boat for those who did not get into the water could see one close-up: http://pictures.cruisecritic.com/data/510/Grand_Cayman_Stingray_City_2.JPG

In all , we spent about 45 minutes on the sand bar with the rays before heading back to the pier, where smaller, more modern, buses awaited us to take us back to the tender pier. Some people went into George Town to shop or whatever, but we caught the next tender back to Ryndam to shower and rinse off the salt water residue. We arrived back on Ryndam about 2:30, and were quite hungry. We knew better than to go to the Lido for "just a snack" because that usually ended up with a snack of about 1500 calories :D, so we popped into the Neptune Lounge to see what goodies were out. We got a couple of small sandwiches/slices of wraps that were quite good and tided us over until dinner. (OK, we also got a couple of cookies ...)

Dinner was the second formal night of the cruise, only two days after the first. But, this one made sense, since Cozumel on Friday is a later departure and the ship will probably hold the steel beach barbeque/picnic on the Lido deck. And, no one wants to do formal on Saturday, when they have to pack. They had many of the usual dishes, such as surf and turf, which I had, and some new ones like mushroom ravioli that DW had.

We turned in at our usual early time, but we were in effect even earlier, as we were to set the clocks back an hour Thursday night/Friday morning to align with Cozumel time.

More later,

Dave

Am enjoying your report.

 

Thanks.

Thanks so much for this thread. I really like the way you include the pics in your write up. I really enjoyed this cruise when I took it back in Oct.2010.

Dave, I am really enjoying your posts. Keep up the good work. By chance do you have any copies of the daily program that you can post? Would really enjoy seeing them. Looking forward to my cruise and your continuing posts. Enjoy!!!

Joe

Thursday, Feb. 10, George Town, Grand Cayman

On previous visits to Grand Cayman we had snorkeld, or visited Stingray CIty to pet the rays, and once we took the nickel tour of the island, including a visit to Hell.

I'm sorry, is this a real place? Or do you mean the tour of the island was hellish?

 

We have seen Seven Mile Beach, which is great, but we are not ones to lie in the sun much, so we chose a new offering from HAL: The Reef N Rays trip, that combined snorkeling with a visit to pet the rays.

I did the same tour in January -- awesome! And for HAL, very reasonably priced. I think it was $39 for adults.

 

We gaggled with our group at the tender area, and were led across the street to the back of the mall to a bus marshalling area, to find ... no bus. Our local tour rep shouted a few things into a cell phone, and a couple of minutes later an ancient school bus appeared.

Again, same thing happened to me in January. To make matters worse, the driver was incredibly rude, nasty even as people were boarding...then he proceeded to sing hymns -- into a microphone -- the entire drive to where the boat was. The 10 minute drive felt like 30.

But seeing the rays (even if we couldn't feed them ourselves) and the beautiful corals and tropical fish was thrilling. A wonderful excursion.

Edited February 11, 2011 by Aruba

I'm sorry, is this a real place? Or do you mean the tour of the island was hellish?

 

 

There is a place in Grand Cayman called hell.

Dave - I am really enjoying reading your posts ... we did the second leg of this same itinerary in late October '10, and loved the Ryndam. We too had a suite across from the Neptune ... ours was on the other side. Loved having morning coffee so handy. My husband and I really enjoyed spending our evenings after dinner in the piano bar for sing-a-longs with Ronan, the piano man. Is he still with the Ryndam?? Also enjoyed the guitar player, Gregg. Looking forward to your posts after your port calls in Belize, Mahogany Bay, and Costa Maya ... loved them all, but Isla Roatan was our favorite. We particularly liked taking a water taxi (a canoe with a motor) ride through the communities of Oakridge and Jonesville ... it was our fav excursion for that cruise.

How can people be so stoopid---feeding potato chips and perfectly good chocolate to the stingrays. :eek:

I remember how much fun it was (a little scary at first) to feed the squid. Too bad that this opportunity has now been taken away because some people can't follow instructions.

Dave, I am so much enjoying going along with you for the ride. Thanks for posting, and for the included photos.

Thank you for taking the time to post each day. I enjoy all of the details and pics you include.

I'm sorry, is this a real place? Or do you mean the tour of the island was hellish?

It's a real place, with a small post office that people like to send post cards from. It's named for the rock formations, which are dead coral that used to be underwater once.

http://inlinethumb22.webshots.com/44821/2316282660099632937S425x425Q85.jpg

Another thank you for your daily posts from the Ryndam. Your style is wonderful. We will be doing this cruise March 20. Also, on the Ryndam last March. Tampa is just an hour drive for us.