Questions about the Ryndam

[goat rancher]

We are currently signed up for a 15 day circle hawaii tour with Princess for January 2008, but are considering cancelling that and switching to the Ryndam's 10 day Sea of Cortez tour for Feb 2008. We are inexperienced with either of these cruiselines, having used Carnival for the last 3.

Can anyone tell me their experiences on the Ryndam's 10 day cruise?? What kind of activities are there on the ship? We aren't crazy about hairy chest contests, and the like, but would enjoy classes about the ports, arts/crafts/cooking, good shopping deals, maybe bingo or raffles...

Has anyone been on the copper canyon tour???

Anyone done renewal of vows?? (we were going to do it on Princess and it is a big big event on that one, but the description for HAL looks a little limited)

Also, for anyone who has had a verandah suite....we are looking at deck plans and it looks like cabins 205 and 220 have a little bigger balcony than most....anyone have any idea whether this is true, and if it is, is there any downsides to these cabins...they are at aft corners.....

Thank you so much for any information anyone can give...Have to make a decision very quickly, which makes this very hard....

[Krazy Kruizers]

We did the Sea of Cortez on the Ryndam in 2005 -- loved it. Look under Topolobampo and you will write-ups about the Copper Canyon Tour. We didn't take it as DH's cardiologist would not allow him -- long day -- nearly 16 hours.

 

Those cabins do a bit of a larger verandah.

 

There are no hairy chest contests on HAL. There will be a free cooking demonstration and on some cruises cooking classes - $29 each - limited to 12 people. There is bingo, trivia, golf chipping -- lots of things to do.

[Krazy Kruizers]

This tour was offered on our first segment (Nov 7th cruise). I tried to get as much information from those who did take it since we were unable to take this tour.

 

The tour can handle 330 people. Breakfast was served from 3 - 4 AM in the Lido for those who went on the tour. Then everyone gathered in the Veermer Lounge at 4:30 and waited until 5:30 when they boarded their buses. Each person was given a card that indicated their bus number, train seat assignment, and what time they were to eat at the summit. It is about a 2 hour bus ride to the train station - the buses were given a police escort through Los Mochis so as to avoid lights and traffic. Once on the train everyone got a box breakfast. There were 2 shifts for lunch at the summit. And everyone was given a box snack on the train on the way back to the buses. Some said the food was definitely not HAL's - the overall rating - typical Mexican food. Everyone was back on the ship by 11 PM. So in order to eat between 3 and 4 AM you had to be up by at least 2:30. For those passengers - a long day - 20 and 1/2 hours!!!

 

We were able to attend a small meeting with a few TA's and the captain after this tour. All the TA's had small groups on this cruise (20 - 30 passengers in each group). One man claimed that he had brochures that said the train was supposed to be the Southern Orient Express (I have never heard of this) and the some of the cars were supposed to be dome cars - none were. He had shown his clients this brochure and felt that he had been mis-represented by HAL. The train nothing more than a regular Mexican train. All complained about the dirty windows - it appeared that the windows had not been cleaned in weeks. The bathrooms wer terrible - especially on the return trip down - no one had bothered to clean them or restock the toilet paper or paper towels. As I mentioned before, everyone was assigned seats. Some people had great views on the way up to the summit. Others didn't. On each car there are 4 windows that are quite small making viewing the scenery difficult for 8 passengers. On the return trip passengers trade assigned seats so that those who had the bad windows now have the larger windows. But as one woman said - it was great for about 2 hours but for the last 4 hours you travel in all darkness. In the talk session that we attended, another woman was asked if she would take this tour again and she said no and she said that she wasn't really certain if she would recommend this tour to anyone or not.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I got this from a poster on CC:

 

 

I did the Copper Canyon excursion in February. Below is a review I previously posted. I hope it is helpful. In summary, I loved this trip and I quite often look at the great pictures I took. This is not a trip for everyone, but if you love trains and incredible scenery, and don't mind a little hardship (this ain't the Orient Express, after all), you will also love this excursion.

 

 

There were over 300 people booked on this excursion and I wish half of them had stayed on the ship and let the rest of us enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime excursion. I have never met so many whiners and complainers on any trip I've been on. HAL made it very clear that his was a long and exhausting excursion. Unfortunately, people do not listen. This is not an excursion for people who have disabilities such as problems walking or climbing on and off vehicles. People with breathing and heart problems should also get a clearance from their doctor. After all, you go from sea leveal to over 7,500 feet in six hours. It is difficult for people with canes as the train is not smooth and can be difficult to walk through. Thank God, we had a nurse from the ship and a Mexican paramedic with us as a couple of elderly people fell and one person seemed to be having breathing problems.

 

We left the ship at 4:30 a.m. There were 7 very comfortable buses waiting and a police escort. We were whisked to El Fuerte and on the train at 7:00 a.m. Awaiting us were snack boxes containing fruit, juice, a danish, and water. The train was not luxurious but was air conditioned, comfortable seats with plenty of leg room. The windows did not open, but there was a space between cars where there were four open windows for picture taking. There was a bunch of us photo enthusiasts and we took turns taking pictures. There was a dining room car that served cofee, snacks and alcoholic drinks. On the way back, there was a singer in the car and happy hour was observed. Two strong margaritas for $4.00.

 

The first hour of the trip was through a desert. As one grumpy passenger described it "If I had wanted to see this, I could have gone for a drive outside of Barstow". Aargghh!!!! We then started a steady climb into some great scenery. This train ride is rated as one of the top 10 train excursions in the world and I can understand why. I spent a lot of time by the open window. If you can believe it, some people slept through most of the morning.

 

We reached Posada Barranca (the terminus of our trip) about 1:00 p.m. Because we were such a large group and the hotel could not accommodate all of us for lunch at the same time, we were divided into two sittings. The first group boarded some old school buses for a 5-minute ride to the Hotel Mirador to look at the scenery and see the show put on by the Indians, while the rest of us went for lunch. Unfortunately, some of the people in the second group, without switching places with others in the first group, decided to crash our lunch and there were not enough seats for everyone at the first sitting. That, of course, started a whole litany of complaints. The lunch was delicious. They had chicken, river bass, rice, etc. They made the most delicious tortillas I have ever eaten. The hotel staff were extremely courteous and bent over backwards for people. They even opened some of the empty hotel rooms, so people did not have to stand in line too long to use the restrooms.

 

After lunch, we drove up to the Hotel Mirador which is built into a mountain. The view from the terrace was worth all the hassle and price of this trip. I have seen some great scenery in my life, but this took my breath away. I am sure the pictures I took will not even begin to capture this scenery. There was a path of about 80 uneven stone steps that you could take down the slope to view the caves and the home of the Indians that live there. Again, people were warned about the steps and that they may have breathing difficulty climbing back up. Again, people did not listen and had trouble coming back up. I am 48 years old and in relatively good shape, but I was winded by the time I got back up. Again, the scenery was magnificent. There was a 5-minute rainfall and we were rewarded with a spectacular rainbow.

 

At 4:00 p.m. we boarded the train for our return journey. Again, there was a snack box on every seat which included a sandwich, water, juice and a candy bar. Unfortunately, for some reason, the Mexican railway did not turn the cars around and we had to travel sitting backwards. Some cars were able to get the crew to switch the seats, but most could not. This was a genuine gripe and HAL was going to look into this and make sure it never happened again. We had over two hours of daylight time to enjoy the scenery going down. It truly is spectacular. We got back to ship at 11:15 p.m. We were advised that Lido was open for those who were hungry. The ship sailed as soon as we boarded.

 

Overall, I totally loved this trip. This would be a nightmare trip to organize and I thought HAL did a good job. This was only the third Copper Canyon excursion ever done and HAL is listening to what people are saying and trying to make improvements as they go along. We had Mexican guides with us who were excellent. They spoke perfect English and offered a wealth of information to those of us who were willing to listen and learn something. They were very patient with some very uncooperative people. I was totally exhausted after this trip and slept until 10:00 o'clock the next morning.

 

As I said before, I loved this trip despite some of the problems encountered. People who love new adventures and seeing unusual destinations will enjoy the trip. HAL, however, has to try harder, whether it's in their brochure description or in their ship excursion talks, to convey to people that this trip is not for everyone. They may get smaller groups going on this excursion, but they will have a lot less complaints. As I said before, to me the only negatives of this trip were the actions of some of our fellow passengers. Of course, that could be a whole new topic thread.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Also try this:

 

http://www.fullerton.edu/emeriti/Ron-Miller.htm

[Krazy Kruizers]

Hope this helps you.

[goat rancher]

Thanks, KrazyKruiser......that helped a lot, but still undecided aarrggghh...

I tried reading the reviews about Ryndam, realizing of course they are a very small section of people, and one thing that worries me is that several posts mentioned serious mechanical problems, particularly with the toilet systems.....I know some of the reviews were written before the refurbishing, but some were written afterward....I love the itinerary, whether or not we would choose to do Copper Canyon, but I don't want to end up on an old ship with problems.....I am a little scared.......The ship we are currently booked on is Diamond Princess...with the downside of THAT itinerary being not knowing if the time on the islands will be enough for us (we've been before, so there are some things we could miss and be ok about it, but I've heard that sometimes they miss their ports over there due to weather and I'd hate to take such a long trip over and back and then miss ports)......I need the all knowing travel fairy here, since I don't want to abandon ship (:) ) and switch to Ryndam's cruise, and then wish I'd stuck with the original plan