Photo Review - Ryndam New Years Cruise

[1of4]

Rick's Hemingway talk was played on HAL TV a few times later the same day when we were on the cruise in November.

 

Thanks for the great pictures.

 

Thanks. Now that you say that you are right, they did say Rick's talk would be viewable on the cabin TVs that day. You know it never occured to us to watch the talk on TV. That would have been a good second option, but only on a different day. The day of the talk was a sea day, formal night and our anniversary. But with an inside room for 4, we don't usually think of saying in and watching TV.

[1of4]

Now where was I...oh yeah DS sleeping during the party. I knew that he would be disappointed to miss it and I heard people talk about the buffet that was being set up in the Lido for 11:30 so I went to check it out before waking him...food is always on this boy's mind!

 

I got in with my camera as the hard working staff were still pulling it together:

 

 

Oh my, not one but two chocolate fountains; one on each end of the buffet table. One side milk chocolate the other side white chocolate! The chocolate was not flowing yet in this picture below, but it didn't take long.

 

[1of4]

Fresh home made donuts, fruit, pastry, and chocolate. What more could a 9 year old want?? So I went and woke him him and brought him in to show him what he could choose in a few minutes (the buffet wasn't open yet). I took some close up photos to share with you:

 

 

 

 

Believe it or not, DS loves fruit and vegetables so he went right for this display when the buffet opened.....

 

 

Heaven on a stick according to him...chocolate, strawberries and bananas...his 3 favourites. Take a look:

 

 

Can you get happier than this? Note: the napkin around his neck was my idea that garnered more than a few laughs around the Lido area. I tried! His shirt still had to be sent out for laundering as our vow renewal was scheduled for Friday.

 

The time was ticking closer to midnight and the crowd was dense and the atmosphere very festive. Everyone was having a great time. DD was all ready to see in her first New Year:

 

 

Not to be out done, so was DS, he just decided to do it in my shoes!

 

 

Good Grief.

[kazu]

WOW - fantastic pictures. Making me think I should try a New Year's cruise.

 

What a nice display indeed.

 

Love the comments along with the pics and the cute shots of your DD and DS.

 

They look like they were having fun and that's what it is all about.

 

What a cruise and what wonderful memories you must have!!

[1of4]

WOW - fantastic pictures. Making me think I should try a New Year's cruise.

 

You know, the only thing that would stop us from doing this all over again is the absolutely awful weather we are experiencing this year with the accompanying airport closures. I am trying to remind myself this winter is not normal and our temps plummet to -30+. My face cream this morning was more of a paste than a cream as our bath is over the garage....tip...never buy a house in a northern climate with a room over the garage and skimp (DH) on heated floors!!

[cruisetrail]

Lovely review!

[1of4]

Okay, the clock is ticking down towards midnight:

 

 

Everyone is at the ready to celebrate:

 

 

The time was ticking down on the screen and soon this message flashed:

 

 

The count down had begun and the noise level was probably disturbing any dolphins that were in the water around the ship:

 

Everyone was counting down the seconds....until....

 

 

The music played, people kissed, people shouted and blew their horns, the captain tipped the "2013" ice sculpture into the pool leaving the 2014 standing alone.

 

It was a great party. Probably the best we had ever attended on New Year's Eve...except for our wedding reception that is.

 

My two had seen in their first new yea,r and in quite a style. But they were tired and ready for bed, as were we. So off we went. We didn't eat anything in the Lido, we didn't stay around for another glass of free bubbly, we just found our way back to our cabin and that was it.... and for these two, it will be a night to remember for a long, long time!

 

 

[1of4]

Cruise Day 4 (if you are counting from the day we boarded) - A switch in ports - instead of being in Roatan we were in Santo Tomas De Castilla, Guatemala. The sun was shining and it was a lovely day.

 

If we had of kept with the original itinerary we would have had to tender into Roatan as there were that many ships in port. So the Captain decided to switch port days 4 and 5 so that we would be the only ship in port on both days. This was the reason that only one set of excursion tickets were in our cabin when we boarded.

 

We didn't have an excursion planned, which turned out to be a mistake, but more about that later. Here is the today ON LOCATION:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1of4]

So here we were, in Guatemala instead of Roatan. Mama Lou was not happy, to put in mildly, as the ship was not expected until the next day so none of the local people know to expect us.

 

 

 

It had been raining, but we did not see any rain at all that day. In fact it was very hot and humid...and no...I am not complaining about that at all!

 

 

 

 

We had no plans this day so we got off the ship and went to see what we could find...

 

[superoma]

Mama Lou was unhappy on the Christmas cruise as well since we docked at Coxen Hole and not Mahogany Bay. She protested by not getting off the ship!!

[wandb]

What a wonderful review. I am so loving it, especially all the great photos. You have made me homesick for the Ryndam---still our favorite ship ever!!

[puppycanducruise]

I am just loving this review. Your pictures and information are fantastic. Can't wait to read more.

Thanks for sharing.

[1of4]

 

AS I said earlier, we did not have any shore excursions planned for this port and upon reflection this was a mistake. It was an industrial port with no town within walking distance. We went into the port building which had all kinds of excustion desks but since we were not expected most were closed. There were lots of vendors though and DS and DD had their first exposure to this type of shopping:

 

 

We bought a beautiful shawl for DD and a wrap for me from this lovely lady. DD and run back to the ship to get our bathing suits as one vendour was highly recommended to us by someone on the ship and we were told if we weren't happy they wanted to hear about it. So we decided to go to the "beach day". Mistake. I asked if it was the same beach day as the HAL excursion and never really got a direct answer. It was not. No pool, little beach, a 7 room hotel for locals and one huge bar. But we made the best of it. We were also told we could call the woman and she would send a boat back to get us but our contact at the beach had never heard of such an arrangement and claimed not to have the number.

 

our beach...not bad, nothing wrong with it, but it just wasn't what we were expecting and I was a bit concerned at first because we had DD and DS. We adapted our attitude and enjoyed our day:

 

 

 

we could still see the Ryndam....we just couldn't get back until the boat returned in 4 hours which turned into 5

 

[1of4]

 

DD got her gymnastics' streatching done on the beach:

 

 

 

Since there were mostly locals around this created quite a stir. They appear never to have seen anyone bend themselves the way DD does.

 

DS wanted to show us his kayaking skills he picked-up in summer camp up in a huge provincial park in Ontario. Drat. Those pictures haven't been downloaded yet. Another boat arrived from the ship with a huge family group and the father wouldn't allow his mid-teen aged son to share the kayak with DS. DS was nearly in tears and DH heard the father say "why give it to him, you may want it later". DH stepped in and said DS only wanted to show us his skills and it would be 30 minutes tops. Luckily the son was nicer than the father and let DS use HIS kayak.... I will dowload thos pictures tonight.

 

 

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

I am just catching up.

Wonderful review with pictures.

Santo Tomas -- we took a tour out to the San Felipi Fortress.

[WhansaMi]

I have been trying to get things settled so that WE can board the Ryndam, so haven't seen this thread until now. Terrific pics and I'm definitely getting a feel for the trip.

 

Unfortunately, when I try to zoom in on the daily schedules, it is blurry and I can't read.

 

Would you mind terribly sending me a sea day schedule? My email addy is WhansaMi at aol dot com.

[1of4]

I have been trying to get things settled so that WE can board the Ryndam, so haven't seen this thread until now. Terrific pics and I'm definitely getting a feel for the trip.

 

Unfortunately, when I try to zoom in on the daily schedules, it is blurry and I can't read.

 

Would you mind terribly sending me a sea day schedule? My email addy is WhansaMi at aol dot com.

 

I don't get it. I sent you two "today ON LOCATION" on a week ago Wednesday. Since I never heard back from you I didn't send any more.

 

I just checked the address as spelling is not my strong suit (I am dyslexic) but it is exactly as you wrote above.

 

Did you check you junk folder? Do you have a size restriction on your email account? If so let me know and I will email page by page.

Edited January 24, 2014 by 1of4

[AlohaPride]

Too bad that HAL's Ryndam doesn't spend much time in Key West. The 4 hours -- really shorter than that because of having to be on board 1/2 hour before departure time, really doesn't give you chance to see Heminway's home, or the little White House, the furthest point south for the USA, etc.

 

Oops! :D Furthest point south for the USA is Ka Lae, Hawaii ;) Honolulu is furthest south incorporated location of the 50. Key West is furthest south incorporated of contiguous 48.

 

Sent from my SGH-T779 using Tapatalk

[WhansaMi]

I don't get it. I sent you two "today ON LOCATION" on a week ago Wednesday. Since I never heard back from you I didn't send any more.

 

I just checked the address as spelling is not my strong suit (I am dyslexic) but it is exactly as you wrote above.

 

Did you check you junk folder? Do you have a size restriction on your email account? If so let me know and I will email page by page.

 

Bummer. I didn't get them, I don't think.... what was the header you used?

 

My spam folder only goes back a week, so if you sent them over a week ago, they would no longer be there. Can you forward me the one you sent, since it would be the easiest way? I'll look for it.

 

Sorry about that!

 

Sheila

[1of4]

Bummer. I didn't get them, I don't think.... what was the header you used?

 

My spam folder only goes back a week, so if you sent them over a week ago, they would no longer be there. Can you forward me the one you sent, since it would be the easiest way? I'll look for it.

 

Sorry about that!

 

Sheila

 

I sent one today ON LOCATION to you yesterday (Friday) and requested you let me know if you received it. Still no reply so I haven't sent another.

[1of4]

Sorry for the delay...horrid weather here and major snow storm so too busy dealing with it to dowload the photos. But now I have enough to finish our day.

 

DS got into a kayak and just had a ball showing us the skills he learned at Camp Pathfinder in Algonquin Park:

 

Yikes...I don't think that life jacket would have helped him much....

 

 

 

 

look at the tongue...I guess he was concentrating!

 

 

 

 

 

[1of4]

We continued with our day "on the beach"...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1of4]

 

 

 

 

 

Even I got into the groove of the holiday....

 

 

[1of4]

More and more locals arrived and even a band that played both the conch (sp?) shell and 3 turtle shells.

 

 

But after 4.5 hours DH finally managed to convince the manager that it was time for us to get back to the ship. She called for a boat and we went to the end of the dock, where a large family group was enjoying their January 1 holiday by being together. They started to take photos of DS and DD and my "mother" radar was in full force until the adult daughter, the only one of the group who spoke English, told me that her mother though DD and DS were beautiful and she couldn't help but take photos. They asked us were we were from and how long we were staying. It looking like they were enjoying their day together which is exactly what we enjoy doing on holidays.

 

Here are some shots of the Ryndam as we returned by boat:

 

 

[1of4]

 

Back on the dock

 

 

We went back into the port building and visited a few more vendors. I purchased a wonderful, long, turquoise necklace, DD a necklace and DS a native type flute/whistle and another for his friend.

 

By then the word had gotten out that the ship was in port so the dancers were doing a show:

 

 

next up...dinner photos...but I have to make my own family's dinner tonight....drat!