HAL Ryndam

[sambamama]

The HAL Ryndam is now the Celestyal Journey. She does 7 to 10 day sailings out of Greece to the islands and Turkey. Solo supplements are 50% or less, and wine and beer are free with lunch and dinner. I sailed on Ryndam in her first six months and at least once more after that. I always loved the 1200 passenger ships and am booked on the Journey in late August. I'm looking forward to see how its changed.

[oakridger]

Vloggers "Ben and David" just released a YouTube video about Celestyal in Greece and Turkey.  It was not on the Celestyal Journey though.  They were very pleasantly surprised with their cruise.

 

 

 

~Nancy

[canadianbear]

3 hours ago, sambamama said:

The HAL Ryndam is now the Celestyal Journey. She does 7 to 10 day sailings out of Greece to the islands and Turkey. Solo supplements are 50% or less, and wine and beer are free with lunch and dinner. I sailed on Ryndam in her first six months and at least once more after that. I always loved the 1200 passenger ships and am booked on the Journey in late August. I'm looking forward to see how its changed .

The Ryndam was our very first cruise ever and very special for us.  We booked a Neptune suite and it was wonderful.  I do miss the small ships. 

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Sailing with HAL since the 1970s. Sailed the Ryndam in the 1990s. Love the size and passenger complement also. 

[sambamama]

I've heard good things about Celestyal. Its somewhat like HAL, but with a few less frills. Very good food, great crew, super ports, but very limited entertainment. The ship tours put a big emphasis on archaeology, as would be expected, and for ship tours are pretty fairly priced for what you get, especially if you book ahead. The small ships on HAL were always my favorite, and I loved my cruises on the Duncan and the Maasdam. Not so much the Verandah as they butchered her by taking away the aft pool.

[AV8rix]

Most of the old R-class and S-class ships were "themed".  Ryndam was my favorite as I was a sailboat racer and she was the nautical-themed ship.  Her atrium centerpiece was an old ship's bowsprit figurehead.  She had many beautiful displays of old navigational instruments, sailing ship models, etc.  Including an inappropriately-labeled ship model.  The model was a gaff-rigged ketch on display in the deck 3 atrium.  It was labeled as a schooner.  This bothered me terribly, as it wouldn't surprise me to see an error like that on a Carnival or RCI ship (although I don't sail on those) but you'd think that the curators of the Holland America art and artifacts would do their due diligence on the labeling. Whatever. Anyway, I got all teary-eyed watching her final departure from Tampa.

 

And @sambamama, you need to watch your spellchecker suggestions before posting.  We never had a ship named "Duncan" and the aft-deck butchering was done on Veendam, not "Verandah".  Jus' sayin' 😉😉😉.

[Ken the cruiser]

Ah, memories. Our first cruise was on the Ryndam back in 2012. Do they still have the small set of bleachers for the band to sit on while they play? 🤣

[Sir PMP]

There she was:

[C 2 C]

18 hours ago, sambamama said:

The HAL Ryndam is now the Celestyal Journey. She does 7 to 10 day sailings out of Greece to the islands and Turkey. Solo supplements are 50% or less, and wine and beer are free with lunch and dinner. I sailed on Ryndam in her first six months and at least once more after that. I always loved the 1200 passenger ships and am booked on the Journey in late August. I'm looking forward to see how its changed.

My glass of wine is situated on HAL's 5 inch tile for the Inaugural Season of the MS Ryndam.

We loved the ship.

[rafinmd]

That's now 3 of the 4 S Sisters.

 

Statendam is now sailing as Vasco da Gamma for German Nekko Cruises.

Maasdam is now MS Renaissance for French startup Renaissance cruises.

And now Ryndam

Only Veendam is left.  She is allegedly due to return to service December 1 as Victoria Majestic for Victoria Cruises, running as a residential ship.  I haven't seen any actual evidence of progress yet.

 

https://victoria.cruises/about/cruises/

 

Roy

[Btimmer]

We sailed the last westbound transatlantic on the Ryndam to FLL.  We were also able to sail the final voyage of the Statendam from Seattle to Singapore.

[OlsSalt]

1 hour ago, Btimmer said:

We sailed the last westbound transatlantic on the Ryndam to FLL.  We were also able to sail the final voyage of the Statendam from Seattle to Singapore.

 

Looks like we also sailed the nearly last of the Maasdam too. Loved those ships and the main dining room ceilings.