Ryndam, please avoid at all costs

[The Londoners]

Do yourself a big favour and don't book this ship. Youths running amok (3 disembarked due to bad behaviour) adults unable to use pools or hot tubs as constantly full of children, who spend their nights running up and down corridors and stairs.

However that is the tip of the iceberg. No spare cabins due to overbooking (1370 onboard instead of 1250) so the people whose cabins have had flooded toilets numerous) have had to remain there, norovirus rife despite denials, among crew and passengers, a good number of whom have sworn theoir hand hygiene is excellent. Dirty ship, drainage and plumbing problems leading to fould stenches around the ship with the message 'the smells won't make you ill' if you complain I and senior Officers making themselves very scarce and unwilling to speak to disgruntled.

passengers..

 

We need a holiday to recover from this 'holiday'!

[erewhon]

Thanks for alerting us to these problems.

[Salacia]

Do yourself a big favour and don't book this ship. Youths running amok (3 disembarked due to bad behaviour) adults unable to use pools or hot tubs as constantly full of children, who spend their nights running up and down corridors and stairs.

However that is the tip of the iceberg. No spare cabins due to overbooking (1370 onboard instead of 1250) so the people whose cabins have had flooded toilets numerous) have had to remain there, norovirus rife despite denials, among crew and passengers, a good number of whom have sworn theoir hand hygiene is excellent. Dirty ship, drainage and plumbing problems leading to fould stenches around the ship with the message 'the smells won't make you ill' if you complain I and senior Officers making themselves very scarce and unwilling to speak to disgruntled.

passengers..

 

We need a holiday to recover from this 'holiday'!

 

Hi The Londoners. Sorry about your voyage; quite a few nasty situations you mentioned. But I don't understand how the ship could have had

1,370 passengers on board, when the ships passenger capacity is 1,260 -source http://www.hollandamerica.com/cruise-vacation-onboard/Ryndam#

May I ask the source of your stated passenger count... can't imagine a ship being allowed to leave port with a manifest showing more passengers than ships capacity.:confused:

 

Also, you did not mention the voyage, only the ship. Could you be more specific please?

 

Thanks,

Salacia

[The Londoners]

You are welcome, just so sorry I felt it necessary to do so. Of courde, this is a personal view, but sadly evewn seasoned HAL travellers have said the standards on this ship fall way short compared with their other experiences. We will certainly never sail HAL again though. Hopefully there will be some reviews to further assist people in making up thwir minds!

[Silverwing]

So sorry to hear of your poor cruise experience. We were sad to hear this news, as the Ryndam is one of our favourite ships.

 

We spent 19 nights on her earlier this year and had a wonderful time. We thought the crew were fantastic, all were enthusiastic and hard working. We had noro on board, but it was dealt with very quickly and completely contained. The officers were accessible, helpful and informative.

[The Londoners]

Hi, agree the maximum occupancy should not be exceeded but Captain Rowden himself proudly announced the occupancy at his onstage 'welcome, to a large audience. Senior crew members confirmed and justified by saying the 1250 applies to 2 people per cabin, but on this cruise they have sold 3 and 4 places per cabin at stupidly low prices (hence the high number of children onboard).

 

The voyage is the Dover to Dover 20 nights (alternatively Amsterdam to Amsterdam 21 night) Mediterranean.

Departure 21 July from Dover

 

Hope this is clearer.

[The Londoners]

We have also found the poor overworked crew to be very good for the most part, but they are understandably struggling with the over capacity and lack of presence by senior crew on the 'frontline' and largely left to deal with unhappy passengers themselves. Have never before had a bad cruise and am genuinely sad to have to report this - we will be paying our grats in recognition of the hard work of many crew however.

[Salacia]

Hi, agree the maximum occupancy should not be exceeded but Captain Rowden himself proudly announced the occupancy at his onstage 'welcome, to a large audience. Senior crew members confirmed and justified by saying the 1250 applies to 2 people per cabin, but on this cruise they have sold 3 and 4 places per cabin at stupidly low prices (hence the high number of children onboard).

 

The voyage is the Dover to Dover 20 nights (alternatively Amsterdam to Amsterdam 21 night) Mediterranean.

Departure 21 July from Dover

 

Hope this is clearer.

 

Hi The Londoners. Thanks for the clarification. Exceeding passenger capacity on any ship is a cause for alarm; I don't care how many people they squash into any cabin: ships capacity is the total number of passengers and crew. On the Ryndam, passenger capacity is 1,260 and crew members:589. Life boats and life jackets are required for that number of people. Can a ship really be allowed to sail with a manifest showing the ship was over capacity? Scarey thought.

 

I can understand your concern. -S.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sorry that you had such a bad cruise experience.

 

We have quite a few days on the Ryndam. And in the past have always found the ship to be in great shape.

 

They always list what the double capacity of the ship is -- but we have found on several cruises -- especially during the holidays -- there is always more people on board than that double capacity number because of the children.

 

As to not seeing the officers -- we have noticed over the last few years we see less and less of the officers walking around the ship.

 

Hope your next cruise line will be better for you.

 

[kazu]

Wow - doesn't sound like a good cruise at all. Sorry to hear this. Passengers aren't put off the ship lightly so these three were obviously a problem:( Sure sounds like you need a vacation from this vacation. Do hope you are going to write Seattle.

[chigley]

Well thats put a downer on my morning. Hope they rectify these problems and some favourable reviews come in.

[ansjefitnes]

Well i have friends on this ship right now and in their daily reports nothing of the above problems are mentioned. They are having a wonderfull time.

[chigley]

Thank you !

[Lisa63]

So sorry to hear about your experience. As kazu stated, this was certainly an awful situation as several passengers were taken off the ship.

 

As a point of clarification, the figure of 1,260 is double occupancy. The link below shows that Ryndam has 630 total staterooms. Of these, 191 are triple capacity and 87 are quads. So that would indicate that the total number of berths is 1,625 (if I've done the math correctly: (630-191-87)*2 + 191*3 +87*4)).

 

http://www.hollandamerica.com/assets//news/FastFacts.pdf

[rafinmd]

My first reaction is how refreshing this was after all the complaints about HAL being a floating nursing home.

 

Not a great experience but I'm having trouble blaming the ship/crew for it.

 

Roy

[Topsham]

Lisa,

 

You are quite right in your calculations. Anyone can rest easy on this one. These ship are NEVER overloaded. There is more than sufficient boat capacity for thie number the ship... any ship is allowed to carry and there are more than sufficient liferafts.

 

Of course there is a big difference between overloading and overcrowded and when a lot of the 3rd and 4th person in cabin option is taken up the ships tend to be very full.

 

One thing for sure, if you want to avoid an overcrowded ship, don't cruise during school holidays, don't cruise on anything less than 10 day criises.

 

Stephen

[The Londoners]

Well i have friends on this ship right now and in their daily reports nothing of the above problems are mentioned. They are having a wonderfull time.

 

 

I am delighted to hear that; we all have different standards and expectatiions I guess, just seems ours are shared by the people we have met. A number of people, for example, are not impressed by the Independence of the Seas, having travelled on both, IMHO it is a palace compared with Ryndam and properly equipped to accommodate many children.

 

Whilst expectations are subjective, the number of children/youths onboard and consequent difficulties (a meeting was held for parents of over 12's to remind them of the need to control and supervise their children due to the high level of complaints - we were not among the complainants) is a fact, so too is the problem with gastrointestinal illnesds as announced verbally and in writing by the captain and leading to the Lido no longer being self-service (thank goodness).

 

Today we are told many toilets on deck 9 starboard are not functioning -

 

Hopefully the high number of complaints on this cruise will lead to improvement in future.

 

Depending upon which part of the ship people are travelling in they may be more or less affected by this, all I can say is that in a good number of years of cruising this has not previously been our experience; really don't want to upset anyone, so perhaps the best way to think about a cruise on Ryndam would be 'cheap and (fairly) cheerful!

[Alberta Quilter]

I was on the Ryndam in June and it was in fine form. Maybe a little worn here and there but nothing major.

 

Could it be that the current issues the OP is reporting are due to there being many children on board? Maybe they are flushing items that shouldn't go in the toilets and causing the backups/odors, etc. It certainly sounds like some of the kids are not well behaved.

 

Noro is so easily spread, and, I believe, rather difficult to get under control. I try not to use hand rails while using the stairs, and use knuckles/elbows to push elevator buttons.

[The Londoners]

My first reaction is how refreshing this was after all the complaints about HAL being a floating nursing home.

 

Not a great experience but I'm having trouble blaming the ship/crew for it.

 

Roy

 

The children don't bother us at all but the extra work created for the crew and extra pressure on limited sunloungers etc are an issue. It's not about blame, but surely someone must be responsible? As I have said, the front line crew are doing their very best, but HAL have a lot to answer for and the general standards of hygiene (or lack of) on this ship from embarkation onwards are surely the ultimate responsibility of Senior Officers onboard?

[sapper1]

It seems from reading between the lines over the years, that HAL ships are very good at keeping children occupied and out of trouble up to a certain saturation point, beyond which chaos seems to reign. Maybe if they were to accept that they can only handle X number of children on any given cruise and were to limit bookings involving children to that number then everyone would be happy.

 

I have never encountered a cruise where the children have been other than well behaved but since we are booked on the NA over the American Thanksgiving I have a feeling we may be about to have our eyes opened.

 

I know that the parents are to blame and not the cruise line, but the end result is the same regardless of where the fault lies.

[Randyk47]

Sorry to hear about your cruise experience. The Ryndam was my first real cruise experience back in '95 and our honeymoon ship in '98 so she's always had a special place in my heart and mind. Sad to hear these kind of stories. :(

[hypercafe]

I think these ships had crew big enough to handle the ship if it was full with 3 and 4th people in the room. I think it has now been cutback to the point where it is set for 2 in a room, over that it is a stretch and crew and pass suffer.

[tangerinebunny]

The people with the worst children are the ones who will scream the loudest if anyone dares to correct them. It puts the crew/fellow passengers in a tough spot.

 

Can't help wondering if they are doing some 'unauthorized' flushing.

[Funsun60]

:confused: We will be on the Ryndam in mid September for an 18 day cruise. We are really looking forward to our cruise, but now have some questions. Probably won't be overcrowded with school aged children due to time of year, but general hygiene and plumbing problems are not what we want to deal with. Could this have been a be one-off incident as other reports about the Ryndam have been quite good? In any event, we are now "in for a penny-in for a pound".

[3rdGenCunarder]

The people with the worst children are the ones who will scream the loudest if anyone dares to correct them. It puts the crew/fellow passengers in a tough spot.

 

Can't help wondering if they are doing some 'unauthorized' flushing.

 

I think you're right on both counts. It must have been pretty bad if they had to call the parents together to remind them of their responsibilities. I've never heard of that happening. Kids are also known to be vectors of infection...

 

Sapper, I think your suggestion is a good one. Look at the capacity of the kid programs, space, staff, and make a cutoff point. Some of the kids may have been running around because there wasn't enough to do or enough space for kid activities. I thought I saw a post that HAL won't fill all 3rd and 4th pax spaces on a cruise in order to control this kind of crowding. But maybe another line has that restriction.