Ryndam 12/11-A Few Thoughts

[tankerjo2]

Returned this weekend from a 7 day Mexico cruise on the Ryndam. A few comments on our cruise experience.

 

Lot's of good things can be said about the ship and the recent refitting...at first blush found the ship in very good conditon. Been 2 years since we sailed the Ryndam so assume the tables and chairs in the pool/Lido area are new. Staffing in the Lido was more than adequate, friendly and gracious service. New Kids area's should make parents happy. Enjoyed the library and new books. Crows Nest was ok but the colors, well....Cabins and bedding upgrades were nice. I'm sure others could/will add a far more complete list and some already have so I'll leave that to them.

 

The bad stuff, well at least for us. On arrival in our cabin only 1 of 2 items I had ordered from HAL's ship services were in our cabin, so that spoiled the surprise for my wife. That evening they had no clue about the wine I had also ordered from ship services + HAL in Seattle said the 4 bottle wine package was no longer available but they were still hawking it on the ship.

Discovered we had a sometime operational toilet and that remained in effect throughout the cruise. On 2 occasions there was an overwhelming sewage smell that had us bailing out of our cabin. On our final cruise night we were awaken shortly after midnight by vacuuming outside or near our cabin...not able to go back to sleep I got up to walk out to our balcony for some fresh air and found myself standing in a soaking wet carpet, really a neat feeling at 2:30 in the morning...seems the stateroom next to ours had a bathroom flood/mishap and while they cleaned up that mess no one thought to check and see where the rest of the water went...like in our cabin. I notified the desk and they sent up a cabin steward who spread out towels to soak up some of the water, we pulled the sofa across the room to put down more towels and off he went. My wife managed to get back to sleep but I didn't..little after 6am brought here down some juice only to find her sitting in the cabin staring at the mess. Hardly a happy camper!! I know staff and crew members faced a busy day that morning but NO contact from them to see how we made out or a simple apology or concern for the night we had. I was not impressed.

 

Don't know if we will sail HAL again (1st HAL cruise in 92). I know stuff happens but to me it's about attitude and how one responds to their customers and I did not get a sense that they really gave a hoot.

[dakrewser]

It's beginning to appear that the recent dry dock upgrades were either poorly planned or poorly excecuted as your experience agrees with that of other recent Ryndam cruisers.

 

 

It is a shame to go to sleep on a supposedly premium cruise ship only to wake up in a third-world hotel room. :rolleyes:

[DaveOKC]

Which cabin were you in? We had lots of sewer problems on the Navigation deck the week before you and I sent a letter to home office about it and the front desk attitude. Did you get the same negative attitude from the front desk?

DaveOKC

[tankerjo2]

Which cabin were you in? We had lots of sewer problems on the Navigation deck the week before you and I sent a letter to home office about it and the front desk attitude. Did you get the same negative attitude from the front desk?

DaveOKC

 

We were in cabin 160. Person I talked to when I went down to the front desk looked up something and informed me their had been somekind of leak/whatever in the cabin next to us. She was there by herself...I was concerned about what I had walked in my now wet socks and she assured me it was not sewage water. Cabin steward who came up with the towels told me it was the bathroom in the next cabin but that was about it and we heard no more.

[DaveOKC]

If you get a chance, drop a note to HAL about the sewer problems. They need to know that this thing has not been fixed (like they tried to tell me it had been).

DaveOKC