Review - 14-28 June Ryndam

[schauki]

Hi!

First of all, please excuse my english :o.

Back from the Voyage of the Midnight Sun with the Ryndam.
It was our 9th cruise, 3rd with HAL (2x Noordam in 2012)

So I can compare it with other lines also with HAL.

We booked an inside J early this year. After many emails with our TA, we ended up in an outside E and additional onboard credit.
It was okay, but such big price drops doesn't feel right - I'll come back later to this topic.


We had a HAL transfer Heathrow -> Dover.
Flight arrived 8:30. Bus leaves Heathrow ~10:30, and ~13:00 we were in Dover.
Could be shorter!

[b]Embarkation:[/b]
It was okay. Luggage was fast in the room.

[b]Ports:[/b]
We don't do any HAL shore excursion.
But our private tours were nice, in Honningsvag we rent a car because we want to see the midnight sun on the nordcape. But the weather wasn't good.
We never saw the midnight sun this cruise, just behind clouds.

In Flam we want to take the flamsbana. A shore excursion staff member explained us that the train will not stop at the kjosfossen waterfall if we take the tour without guide, we told him that on the flamsbana site there is always a stop for 5-10 minutes described... but "no stop without tour guide" was his answer.
So we booked our tickets online, and of course there was a stop at the waterfall.
It makes us feel that the staff member want to sell the more expensive shore excursion, and doesn't want to sell us that what we want.
Okay so we paid ~50US$ less per person.

Geiranger was my favourite port. Also the weahter was good this day.

In Trondheim we had to tender.
Thre was a very steep and slippery ramp on the pier. It was okay for me (32yrs) but there were not just young people on the ship, so I thought that this is quiet dangerous and stairs would be a much better solution.

[b]The Ship:[/b]
Looks good for its age. It feels like a smaller sister of the Noordam.
And we loved the Noordam.

Stateroom was always very clean.
Public rooms, except Lido also.
I would say the Ryndam is in good shape but with some details you can see her age. And some things could only be repaired in dry dock I think.

But there were also things that could be fixed, or just cleaned during the cruise.
In the Lido Buffet they had water, iced tea and lemonade in big glass bins, but they had no fitting cap, so they used plates. That looks not very nice.

Also many times the Lido beverage stations wasn't clean.
Small dustbins often more than full, loose tea bags, wet spots under the glass bins,...
But there where always crew members in the Lido, but no one feels responsible to make the stations look nice.

[b]Food:[/b]
It was compareable to the Noordam but we missed some highlights.
There was no crab legs, no buffet extravaganza, chocolate fountain, nerver get my loved soft-ice cream,...

Pinnacle Grill was good as on the Noordam.

Here some points that we have noticed:

pros:
- cruise Director John
- Sax Player from the HALcats
- productions shows, with very good singers
- bread and butter pudding (more than a good replacement for soft-ice cream)
- elemis products
- fresh flowers
- art
- very fast elevators, nearly no time waiting for a lift
- very good captain


cons:
- big distortions in some Speakers in the showroom
- atrium fountain doesn't work all the time
- atrium ground (deck 5??) is empty space
- no nice card room (I think the conference room was used)
- lido buffet midnight snack: They always closed the beverage station near to the food, so you always had to walk to the other side
- on the disembarkation day our time was 9:15-9:30. At ~9:00 I was in bed, GF was in bathroom a crew member opens our stateroom door and came in to control the minibar. We had the "PRIVATE PLEASE" sign in the lock.
Is that usual?


[b]Conclusion[/b]
All in all it was a very nice cruise.
But there where some points that we know from the Noordam that we missed.

Is it the size of the ship? Is it because the Ryndam went to P&O?
For us there is a litte bad taste because of the very big price drop the last weeks before the cruise.

I want to pay more for HAL than NCL or RCI for example, because of the benefits I get from HAL.
So I hope the difference to prior HAL cruises is just a particular case and not fleetwide policy.

I hope you enjoyed my review even it contains some negative points.
If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

Best,
Richard

[PathfinderEss]

[SIZE=4][COLOR=darkred]Thanks for taking the time to write and post a review of your cruise. Enjoyed the comparision you did between the Ryndam and Noordam. [/COLOR][/SIZE]

[cbr663]

Thanks for your review. I think that you will find that many people echo your sentiments regarding HAL's practice of reducing the prices closing to sailing. You can't help but wonder how HAL's passengers are suppose to determine the value of a cruise when HAL appears to struggle with it.

[TracieABD]

Thank you for the review. It is such a gamble with prices. I have been on HAL cruises that never experienced that major price drop. I have been on other cruises, and have negotiated OBC due to the price drop (NCL= $800 in OBC with bonuses from price drops).

I always tell myself, when booking a cruise, that ultimately, I need to be at peace with the price I paid. When a price drop occurs, I will ask once, then let it go.

[PatsyAnne]

Richard, you said "Geiranger was my favourite port. Also the weahter was good this day." What did you do in Geiranger that made it your favorite? We'll be there in August and I haven't decided what to do there yet.


Trish

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report! No the steward should not just walk in.

[POA1]

Thank you for your review. :)

[schauki]

Hi!

I'm not 100% sure, but the price drop was ~50%. We booked later so we had not that big drop.

The main problem is not the price drop itself.
Because when I buy a TV, a camera,... I get that what I paid for also if the price drops the next day. The remote control is already there, the display on the camera is the same size,...

But on the Ryndam, there was no crab legs, no soft-ice, no chocolate buffet, no ice-sculptures, some details on the ship itself and not that 100% Service like on the Noordam.

So I'm wondering if this is general policity from HAL and also on the other ships, or that was only on this particular cruise. Perhaps it was a "flop" (too less bookings) for HAL and so they reduce in this points to keep the hurt in border?

We were on X 2008, 2010 and 2011 and we saw a general quality decline.
So I really hope that this in not the case with HAL.


[quote name='KirkNC']Thanks for the report! No the steward should not just walk in.[/QUOTE]
It wasn't our usual steward. It was a woman not seen before. But in the moment she saw me she had to apologize and turn around. And came later after our disembarkation time!

[quote name='PatsyAnne']Richard, you said "Geiranger was my favourite port. Also the weahter was good this day." What did you do in Geiranger that made it your favorite? We'll be there in August and I haven't decided what to do there yet.
[/QUOTE]
Because of the very impressive landscape itself. We prebooked a RIB Boat Tour ~45min (2 minutes walk from tender pier) at 13:00.
But we also want to go to the viewpoints.
So we go to the tourist information, we could change the time of the RIB Boat to 16:00 and took a bus tour ~1,5h (combiticket with 10% discount) to the viewpoints.
Summary ~83 Euro.

The RIB boat tour shows how big these waterfalls are, that you also see from the ship.
And the bus tour gives you the typical views over the Fjord.

Between the bus tour and the RIB boat we went up the stairways over a river/waterfall, also nice and you can feel the power of the water.

Best,
Richard Edited July 1, 2014 by schauki

[Typhoon1]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with the rest of us.

[PatsyAnne]

Thank you for the information.


Trish

[erewhon]

Thank you for reviewing your Ryndam cruise.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for taking the time to write this review.

Keith

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review.

[Krazy Kruizers]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=5]Thank you for taking the time to write your review.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=5][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=5]That wine steward who came to check your mini bar should not have entered your cabin when you had the "please do not disturb" sign on the door. When you get your e-mail survey -- report that incident.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=5][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=5]The Dessert Extravaganza has disappeared from many ships. There was a lot of wasted food.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[Susie51]

Thank you for your review which included both pros and cons.

[Cruise4Sunshine]

Thanks for the good information posted. I have sailed Holland America many times, a different ship each time, and look forward to the Ryndam in October. As for the price drops, since I usually book direct with HAL, whenever I contact them about a price drop nearer sailing, they will give me a decent shipboard credit. Not saying it will work for everyone (I'm a 3 star Mariner), but over the years they have honored price drops with a nice upgrade or credit.