Ryndam & Statendam--16 days in Alaska

Our Alaska adventure has begun. I am hoping to post when we are in ports and the wi-fi is cheap/free. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try to answer them We leave on the Ryndam tomorrow out of Vancouver. I love sailing from Canada Place. It reminds us of our first cruise which left from there for a 7-day r/t to Alaska.

After four airports in three states and one province and three different planes we are settled in at the Delta Vancouver Airport Hotel.

Our flight from Fresno Yosemite International Airport consisted of three legs. We flew form Fresno to Portland in about 2 hours, had lunch while waiting for the next 35 minute flight to Seattle then waited again for our 35 minute flight to Vancouver. Overall, I’d say we spent more time on the ground than in the air. But arrived in Vancouver at 4:30 pm, deboarded (is that a word?) the plane, stopped at the rest rooms and then went through customs. After winding through the airport we got to the exit and there was our hotel shuttle ready to leave. We were at our hotel room at the Delta by 5:30! We were offered an upgrade to the top floor for $35, but decided to stick with our Priceline room on the 3rd floor which was quite nice. (With the upgrade we would have had a river view, free internet access in our room and a late check-out. If we were here to enjoy Vancouver it would have been a good deal, but we have no interest in a late check-out, we just want to get on the dam ship tomorrow morning.

We just got back from dinner. There is an English style pub called “The Elephant and the Crown” just behind the hotel overlooking a marina. The pub is actually over the water. The food and wine were nice and we walked for about 30 minutes afterward. Their desserts sounded great so now we’ve had a long walk we may go back and try the Turtle Pie.

The weather here in Vancouver is perfect. A few clouds in the sky gave us a beautiful sunset that we enjoyed as we walked. What a wonderful way to begin a vacation!

Signing off from Vancouver. I’m planning to post from Ketchikan about our sail away and the Inside Passage.

Have a fantastic time. I was just on the Statendam a couple times last month and the ship looked great.

Bon Voyage -- have a couple of great cruises on the Ryndam and Statendam.

Have a fantastic trip... May the sun shine for you in Alaska..

:D:D:D

PS. Leaving an airplane is often called disembarking (like a cruise ship), or de-planing...

Have a fantastic time. I was just on the Statendam a couple times last month and the ship looked great.

I have not heard much about the Statendam. We are going on July 19th for 14 days. Can you give me some info about the ship and thing offered? Thanks.

Thanks so much for taking the time to post! I'll be on Ryndam in August. Glad you enjoyed the Elephant and Castle "pub grub".

If you can remember to include this detail, can you let us know which night the "Master Chef's Dinner" is? I'd like to make reservations in the Pinnacle for that evening :rolleyes:

Looking forward to hearing port and glacier scenic cruising comments!

Ah! Two of my favorite ships. My best-ever cruise was on the Ryndam.

Thank you for posting your experiences (almost) as they happen! That's always fun to read. Something to look forward to every day.

Since you offered, as usual I'm particularly interested in the entertainment on the ship. Not only who is performing in the show lounge, but especially the ship's lounges, too. And what you think of them.

Thanks for whatever info you can give. Hope the weather is good for you, and you have a great time!

Best wishes for your Alaskan adventure. I'll stay tuned for your reports. We have friends who will take their very first cruise later this summer. It was my raving about our HAL cruises that got them interested and now they're booked 14-nites RT Vancouver on the Statendam. Hope HAL delivers! ;);)

how is the entertainment?

Thanks for doing this---anxiously awaiting reports about Statendam--we are booked on the Aug. 16th-- B2B and have only been on HAL's Vista class ships!

Marge

Have a great time! I miss the Statendam every day =) Enjoy your trip~!

(BTW - the restaurant is called The Elephant & Castle, it's a chain - but one of my favourite pubs - I'm going to the one in Toronto for lunch today!)

Deb

Might be mixing the pubs up, lol, there's a very nice pub downtown Vancouver called the Rose & Crown also. I also like the Elephant and Castle very good steak and Kidney Pie. But if your ever in Surrey Guildford area, Guildford Station Pub on 154th ave has the best Toad in the Hole. Plus very nice Pub also.

Thanks for your postings. We will follow with great interest your impression of the ships, shore excursions, etc. provided by HAL. We live in Fresno and hope to take an Alaskan cruisetour in 2010 with our 14 year old granddaughter. Looking at either June or July once school is out. We are considering either the Celebrity Millenium or one of the HAL ships. There seem to be two or three of the HAL ships that do the Alaskan route so we are very interested in your opinions of the ships and the service provided by HAL. We have been on the Millenium twice and enjoyed it very much.

We were able to go through the Seymour Narrows at 11:30 pm (3 hours earlier than expected) so we were able to have a tremendous Inside Passage experience traveling through many of the smaller passages. The Captain credited the BC for getting us through early. Although the Inside Passage is always picturesque, this was possibly the most scenic we’ve experienced in our 5 sailing to Alaska. The weather was varied. We had rain, clouds, partly cloudy, partly sunny and misty. Each change of weather throughout the day changed the look of the Inside Passage. I had not planned to take a lot of pictures today since I already have so many, but once I started I took quite a few. Most are 3-shot panoramic pictures. I’ll post them after we return home on July 5.

Tonight was formal night and we had a lovely dinner with a couple from Minnesota. The food and service were outstanding.

1. THERE ARE NO TRAYS. (I know I’m shouting, but I wanted to make sure everyone noticed since that is so important to so many.) While it does take a bit more maneuvering I think this is a good idea overall; although I realize that for some it is much harder than it is for others. I do think it eliminates a lot of waste which is a good thing.

2. There is a bit of wear and tear, but overall she is in good condition. Some of the elevators aren’t working and more people are using the stairs than I’ve seen on other cruises. (This might be a good thing also.)

3. Our room steward is great and has called us by name every time he has seen us since the first meeting.

4. We booked the cheapest outside cabin (HH) and were upgraded a few months ago to a category C. We do have an unobstructed view. In fact that is our only dislike of this cabin. The windows were replaced and unlike the other windows on the Lower Promenade deck our windows are not one-way glass so the unobstructed view is both looking out and looking in.

5. The food is the best we’ve had on our HAL cruises. I really like salmon so this is a good year for me to cruise to Alaska. I don’t expect to have it 50 different ways, but so far I’ve had gravalox at lunch in the Lido, almond crusted salmon in the MDR, smoked salmon with capers and cream cheese for breakfast, grilled salmon and grilled salmon with a bourbon glaze at the salmon bake and smoked salmon on a mini bagel at the Dutch tea. (Tonight I had the quail although the salmon sounded pretty good!)

Ketchikan

We had a beautiful Father’s Day in Ketchikan. There were a few sprinkles a couple of times, but overall a nice partly cloudy day. Only two other ships were in port so it wasn’t as crowded as it can be. We didn’t do much, just walked around, took the funicular up to the Cape Fox Lodge and back, and did a little shopping. When we return next week we’ll have a car and do a bit more exploring with our DD and SIL.

They had asked in the daily program yesterday if anyone would like to lead a protestant service so I volunteered. Diana is a pianist which helped facilitate the singing and I put together a short sermon. There were almost 60 who came and I’ve lots of positive feedback.

We had dinner in the PG this evening and it was even better than on the Veendam last summer. The service was excellent and we’ve asked for the same servers when we eat there again on Thursday (during the Master Chef’s Dinner). I had the broiled lobster and Diana had the lamb chops. As far as the most important part of the meal, I had the Crème Brule and Diana had the Chocolate Lava cake. When she had it on the Veendam last summer it was quite dry, but our waiter recommended it highly and she decided to try it again. It was dripping with Grand Marnier and was absolutely fantastic.

The shows have been nice. First night we had a variety show, the second night the cast of the Ryndam did a nice Broadway Salute that we also saw on the Veendam and tonight was a pianist/magician who was quite entertaining.

Signing off from Haines where I posted the events of the past few days. I hope to post again from either Juneau or Sitka.

Have a great time! I miss the Statendam every day =) Enjoy your trip~!

 

(BTW - the restaurant is called The Elephant & Castle, it's a chain - but one of my favourite pubs - I'm going to the one in Toronto for lunch today!)

 

Deb

Thanks. You ar obsolutely right about the name. I was writing late at night after three planes and relying on my memory which isn't always that good. The food was great and we saw another E&C downtoen Vancouver on our way to the ship.

Thanks so much for taking the time to post! I'll be on Ryndam in August. Glad you enjoyed the Elephant and Castle "pub grub".

 

If you can remember to include this detail, can you let us know which night the "Master Chef's Dinner" is? I'd like to make reservations in the Pinnacle for that evening :rolleyes:

 

Looking forward to hearing port and glacier scenic cruising comments!

The Master Chef's Dinner will be the last evening of the cruise (Thursday). We will be dining in the PG that night. :)

OOPS--I had each day in a Word document and didn't post this so it's out of order--sorry. (We actually did embark and sail away before experiencing the Inside Passage and Ketchikan--imagine that!:o

Jerry

Despite a weather forecast of rain we had a beautiful day to sail out of Vancouver. There were quite a few clouds, but no rain. It took just over 30 minutes by taxi to get to Canada Place even with the construction going on in Vancouver. Once there embarkation was fast and efficient. It took about 20 minutes to drop off the luggage, fill out the health questionnaire, check in and board the ship. Once aboard we checked to see if the MDR was open for lunch. It wasn’t. We then went to the library and picked out a couple of books which the librarian held for us until we got to our room. We then headed to the Lido for lunch.

The cabins were ready right on time and we got settled in quickly and had almost everything unpacked before the lifeboat drill. We pulled away from the dock before 5 o clock and we enjoyed the sail away from the Ocean bar with mango daiquiris in hand.

Ruth--the combo in the Ocean Bar was very good as is the string quartet.

Thanks for doing this---anxiously awaiting reports about Statendam--we are booked on the Aug. 16th-- B2B and have only been on HAL's Vista class ships!

Marge

Our first HAL ship was the Oosterdam. We liked the Veendam much better and so far we like the Ryndam better than the Veendam.

Thanks for doing this---anxiously awaiting reports about Statendam--we are booked on the Aug. 16th-- B2B and have only been on HAL's Vista class ships!

Marge

Just back from our 7 night on the Statendam and we thought she was nicer that some of the RCCL ships that we have been on. Other than the windows needing cleaning(smile) everything else was "spit shined" and in perfect working order. Because of earlier reports of the elevators getting stuck I was petrified to use them but it was never an issue and the escalators were in perfect working order also.

Our cabin stewards were great - cabins cleaned to perfection with ice every day- and personal greetings daily.

The entertainment was great - better than we've had on RCCL.

The food was good, sometimes great. Here's a secret - grab a cheeseburger at the poolside grille! It's the best!! We never ate at the Pinnacle. The Lido buffet was good but the set up could be hectic, but still worth the trip. You'll never starve on this ship!

A lot to keep you busy if that's what you want or plenty of quiet spots if thats what you want. We really enjoyed the Statendam, our first HAL ship.

We had a long day in Haines, but really didn’t do much. Next week when we return with our DD and SIL we will be renting a car and driving the Haines Highway so we decided on a leisurely day of doing nothing in particular for this visit. It was a brisk day and the wind was pretty cold when walking back to the ship. We talked to a local shop keeper who told us that it was unusually cool for this time of the year.

In our wanderings we searched for an eagles’ nest in Tlingit Park which was active last year. The dead tree it was in had fallen against another tree and the nest looked like it had suffered in the process so no eagles there his year. We did see a totem pole which was under construction last year. It is still not completed, but about 90% of the carving was done and some of the paint is on it. It was nice to see how well it was turning out. It will be about 30 feet tall and I believe it is going to the Adirondacks. It’s nice to know that there are wealthy people out there who will commission these poles and keep this art form thriving.

We enjoyed a dinner back on the ship with a couple from Manchester England and two women from New York. The food was good, but for the first time our service was not the best. It was evident that the server really wanted to get us in and out as quickly as possible. He started taking order less than a minute after the last people at our table were seated. After we had finished dessert coffee cups were whisked away with no offer of a second cup. He actually cleared everything except the table cloth from the table stood there waiting for us to get up and leave. If it were quite late I could understand, but it was only about 9:45. There was a Filipino crew show but our Indonesian waiter wasn’t in that. I'm not sure what his hurry was. It was actually rather funny, but my guess is that he will not be one of the waiters to ever see the Pinnacle Grill.

Speaking of the Filipino Crew Show, we did make that (although we missed the main show which featured a female singer). I’m not sure why, but we always enjoy these shows even with the same corny jokes. I think it’s because the crew participating are really enjoying themselves and enjoy sharing their culture with the passengers.

Our plans were to get up early, take the city bus to the Glacier Gardens and then come back to the ship for an 11:45 whale watching trip. Instead, we turned over and stayed in bed until almost 9:00 and ate a late breakfast in the Lido. Since it was overcast and drizzling I think we made the right choice.

Our whale watching trip with Alaska Whale Watching started off slow seeing a few whales that were doing very little. We then spotted a large whale that dove for about 5 minutes and we weren’t sure what happened to him. That was when he breached behind the boat. He put on quite a show for 10-15 minutes slapping his pectoral fins and his tale before diving again. That was the last we saw of him, but he certainly made the whale watch a highlight of the cruise. Russell and Danielle did a great job leading this tour.

We have an early sail away this evening so I am spending a few minutes at the Juneau Public Library right next to the Ryndam. They have free wi-fi here as well as free internet access using the library’s computers.

The weather has been varied. Cloudy skies during our whale watch and then rain on the way back to the ship followed by partly sunny skies.

Signing off from downtown Juneau.