Photo Review - Ryndam New Years Cruise

I can only put 6 photos per post so this may take a while. But you are welcome to join us in our review of our week aboard the Ryndam while we celebrated both the new year and a new beginning for our family with a vow renewal ceremony for our 15th wedding anniversary (December 31).

The reason for the cruise and wanting to restart was the death of my mother. It has been a difficult year for our family of 4 as the children adjust to losing a beloved grandparent just days before Christmas 2012 and I adjust to life without parents. I know we all go through it at some point, if the laws of nature prevale, but my realities of dealing with a sibling that is less than kind has taken its toll. So we decided to get away this year.

Here is my mother before she married dad. She loved to travel and was late getting married for the 1950s as she was just too busy singing in a trio and the chor, travelling and all together getting on with life:

This is me with my mum less than a month before she died. Little did we know this would be the last photo...but then again....I did know but didn't listen:

We live in rural Ontario, about 1.5 hours out of Toronto. The weather this year has been fearce and we wondered if we would be able to take off at all. Although brutal, the 3 day ice storm produced a crystal Christmas Eve that would rival anything Disney could conjure up:

But come Christmas afternoon we arrived at Toronto International airport in lots of time to sit and wait for our plane to take off in the snow.

We arrived at Tampa 3 hours late, so nearly 11:00 PM after we waited for 28 people who didn't arrive in time to clear US immigration, an hour for plane deicing and 30 minutes in queue for runway space to take off. But we arrived and we counted ourselves luckeir than many who traveled, or tried to, before Christmas.

We then had 4 days to ourselves to regroup and have some fun. I will skip that part as I am sure you want to get to the cruise.

We left the Sheraton Suites Westshore at 11:10 in the morning of December 29 and were in the Rotterdam dining room one hour later...no kidding...it was that quick! The longest line we had at embarkation was about 5 minutes at the security scanner and that is because a few wheel chairs went ahead of us.

This was a nice sight to see:

The day was overcast but not raining when we arrived at port. By the time we were seated for the embarkation lunch in the lower diningroom an hour later the skies had opened up and it was just pouring. The rain didn't let up the rest of the day.

I will hopefully be able to post the cabin photos in short order - it all depends upon my work schedule....

Okay things are quiet still so I am taking advantage and moving on.

We went right to cabin 417, an inside cabin on the lower promenade deck when we first boarded the Ryndam. I must say that I was disappointed, not in the cabin, but in the arrangements. First, we are a family of 4 and the cabin way made up for a family of 3:

We had the beds made into a queen on our last cruise but thought we would try this configuration this time as it seems to provide more room to move in the cabin.

I went right to the desk to review the arrangements I had made: 2 shore excursions, OBC purchased to cover the HSC (we mark DD and DS as “cash” on the on-line check in and ensure they have no charging ability on their room keys. By having the OBC in place we have never been asked to supply the $60/person), 1 alcoholic drink card, one non-alcoholic drink card and 2 soda cards, plus the vow renewal.

You can see the mess of papers on the desk as I riffled through them trying to ensure everything was there, but it wasn’t.

We were short one bed, one shore excursion and there was no information on the vow renewal. There was a display of flowers on the table which can be seen in the picture but the flowers were looking a bit worse for wear and I thought that perhaps they were left from the guests who were on celebrating Christmas. There was no note.

There are no under bed drawers in this cabin (perhaps it was because of the set up?) but there are 6 drawers in the desk where in other insides on other ships, like the Volendam, we only had 3 drawers. We found plenty of storage space for the 4 of us, kilts the formal wear included.

The bathroom looked like it had been updated too, with no hairdryer handing on the wall and a shiny counter. This is a shower only stateroom so it has the long shelf under the sink for extra storage, the dispensers for shampoo, conditioner and body gel on the shower wall, two glass shelves on the wall for extra storage of bathroom items and two glass drinking glasses on the wall (a bit too close to the toilet for my liking) which we used for our toothbrushes.

Here are the storage shelves on the wall:

In contrast, here was the bathroom in cabin 2664 on the Volendam in August 2011. This is why I say this bathroom on the Ryndam looked updated:

We went to lunch to see if things would sorth themselves out while we were out of the cabin. Our luggage was arriving when we returned and the 4th bed had made it's appearance:

Time to do some work...

It's fun to see 417 made up for 4! As I mentioned earlier, we were in that cabin last winter.

It's fun to see 417 made up for 4! As I mentioned earlier, we were in that cabin last winter.

We really enjoyed the cabin, and especially the location. Can't beat being able to get out on deck in seconds....second best thing to having a balcony!

We like this size of ship but wish HAL made some family (budget) friendly cabins for 4 with balconies. We can't afford the NS but also, the extra bedding is a double sofa bed...no good for DS and DD at their age. You know who would end up sleeping on it and so we go for the inside and all sleep happy.

Here are the remaining photos of the cabin:

This shows how much room is available from the sofa (bed in this case) to the end of the bathroom. We kept the table in this position for the rest of the cruise. Our cabin steward was not happy when we requested the 4th bed be brought down and even more unhappy when an officer called us to ask how we found the vow renewal information and I had to admit we didn't have it. She came to the cabin to see for herself. She didn't like the brown flowers either so had them changed for this lovely display of long stemmed roses. The cabin steward asked how we liked the flower "he" had arranged!

Here is the Today on location:

I hope you can read them...I will put the timetable in the next post.

We set out to explore the ship and get more familiar with our surroundings:

The atrium was still decked out for Christmas. It was taken down the last night of the cruise:

The Today On Location timetables for Day 1 - Tampa:

The crow's nest:

and during Sail Away (moved inside due to rain):

We will be on the Ryndam for the first time in September so I really appreciate your pictures and review.

Thanks

Loving your picture review, can't wait for the rest, thanks for doing this.:)

Loving your pictures.

Can't wait to see you all on formal night in your kilts.

Lets take a look at the ship:

There is a beautifu ship model in the elevator bay on the Lido level. The sun coming through the stained glass behind just made it sing:

Bet you didn't know King Neptune himself makes his home in the Ryndam's Lido!

I asked if I was allowed to take the next photos of the casino.

Some more photos from around the inside of the ship:

One of the light fixtures in the elevator bays:

The beautiful flowers in the Explorations Cafe:

We never knew we love to work on the puzzles in the Explorations Cafe as a family...this time it was a popular passtime and we met a lot of people over the puzzle table:

On the way up to Club Hal hung a beautiful carpet:

Another thing we liked is that the first step and the last step is done in red carpet so they are clearly visible:

The corridor to our cabin.

But when we could we preferred to walk outside...just because we could!

Okay, I need to stop for the night. The children have the day off school tomorrow so I will be home and will have some time to post more pictures.

Loving your review and photos! Brings back fond memories of our time on the Ryndam.

Your photos are terrific to look at.

Thanks so much for sharing with us. :)

More beautiful pictures.

I am so loving your pictures.

Thanks so much for your review and photos. Looking forward to reading more.

Thank you for sharing your photos.. they are beautiful.. and make me excited for my upcoming trip.. !

Beautiful photos! Really appreciate seeing the interior of the Ryndam!

Your kids look so happy!

Thank you all for your positive feedback. I am struggling getting the photos off my tablet...thought I had finally figured it out and managed to email 10 pictures to myself...then the program asked me to confirm my Outlook account...I did that...and all I get now is "try again"....Grrrr

Oh well, I will carry on with the photos I have...it is not like I am lacking!

Here is the best kept secret of the HAL freet...club Hal. So much fun happens behind this door:

You can tell you are in for a good time as soon as you round the bend from the staircase. Everything is stainless steel for easy cleaning. Everything is used only once and then sanitized. My children want to be here whenever they can:

But my DS found out that Club Hal can see the Sea View pool from the big window in Club Hal (some adults would should be mindful) so on afternoons when the pool was not being used by others I would sign him out of Club Hal and he would swim away the afternoon. I always though that he wasn't allowed and children could only go into the Lido pool, but the signage told a different story:

So here he goes:

DD, on the other hand...took the long and painful way in....

When in ports, we love the aft decks of the ships. Usually quiet and a great place to relax:

The upper aft deck, just outside the Lido, a great place to eat outside:

The flag flys when in port:

One of the photos I did manage to download from my tablet, I had the camera on "cartoon" mode:

The sign says that children under 16 must be supervised at all times. So I sit on the wood surround while DH sits on a table...not my fault that DH likes to stay hydrated and gets something for me too!

Going from the upper Lido aft to the Sea View pool deck:

Only 5 photos in the last post...you may think I was partaing in those libations today! Sadly not. I guess the shovelling went to my head!

Here is DS at the puzzle table in the Exploration's Cafe area:

Back out to the wrap around deck....

On sea days, it was a popular spot to be found:

I would come out early in the morning and sit on this bench right at the aft:

Then I would go back up to the Sea View pool area when the family woke:

See those two rectangular windows up by the second staircase, right under the Oasis? That is Club Hal so the kids have a good view of everything that happens in and around the Sea View Pool.

There was always a place to sit outside which is not the case on the other two larger ships we have been on (Golden Princess and Disney Magic):

Or a place to stand and let the wind take your thoughts away:

Or to take a late afternoon stroll

Happy Holidays from the staff of the Ryndam:

Back inside, one of the nicest things about HAL for a family of 4 (or at least for the mum) is the all you can stuff laundry bag for $20...boy can we stuff! Our assistant steward said he had never seen a bag stuffed so hard. I think the comment was that it could be used for a battling ram.....

But that evening it all came back nicely folded. Where is that service now I ask myself...oh yeah...back on the DAM ship. I can say Disney has no such program. In fact they have no laundry service aside from do it yourself on 3 decks for over 2,000 people. Their laundry service charges by the piece and I took the paper...$3/shirt; $3.50/pants, $1.00 for socks (I hope that is for a pair). I can scan the slip if you would like to see it.

What a nice sight to see when you are a tired mum:

I must say though, Disney does do towel animals better. But I will get into that in a seperate thread. Here are our towel animals. We received the square chocolates (Disney chocolates have a character on them....guess.....no not Mickey.....Sleepy!) But we never got the eyes on our towel animals so perhaps that is a cutback??

I thought the one below was an elephant until I just pasted the one above. So any guesses??

Instead of the hanging ape that scares the you-know-what out of most of us, we got this cute guy one night:

DD's moose took a ride on the swan:

It seems we only received 5 towel animals for the 7 day cruise. I guess that was cut backs too!

We were assigned table #17 at early set dining. It is a bit early for us, but the late dining is too late for DD and DS. The early dining works well with Club Hal's schedule.

Table 17 is a lovely window table which was surprising as that was a first, but it was the first table on the starboard side so I kind of felt we were off in the corner. There was no interaction with other tables from this location.

Here are DS and DD on the first night so still dressed in the clothes we wore to embark. Naturally both claimed the window seats...funny, the same thing happens on the airplanes!

DH orders wine with dinner and he appreciated the knowledge of the wine steward, but there was only one for the upper dining room so he was stretched pretty thin. As a result DS and I never ordered smoothies or any other non alcoholic drink.

The table did allow us to appreciate some amazing views:

We bought a package of 5 of the "experience" photos from the photographers on board. They included these non-formal poses around the ship. This one taken in the dining room:

Laste inside view, DS found the cannon opposite the front desk:

DS loved it...except he said it didn't work...thank goodness for the forethought of the HAL designers.....