Review: Holland America Line - Ryndam - [October 20, 2003]

[Net Reviews]

Review By:

Reviewer Comments:

I swear someone from HAL must have read my previous reviews, as just
about everything I had complained about in the past has been remedied on
this cruise. Read on...

We (My Mother and myself) decided this time around to try a 7 day
cruise. I've found in the past that after about a week on the water, I
feel like a change. I'm sure many will disagree with me here, but the
ships do tend to become much like prisons on the longer voyages. Same
old food, same old daily routine. At any rate, we decided to take
the Ryndam 7 day Sea of Cortez cruise which departed out of San Diego on
Oct.20, 2003. I had taken the 10 day Sea of Cortez a couple of years
ago, and to me this was the ideal cruise. Nothing to see, but there
is always lots of lovely hot weather and nice calm seas to experience.

We normally stay at the Best Western Bayside Inn, in San Diego as we
drive down from Canada, but were quite disappointed to find that this
hotel was already full. We then opted for the Holiday Inn. What a
pain in the butt that created. To begin with, I couldn't find the hotel's
entrance. I ended up driving around the block three times before
finding it. When we did finally check-in, I hauled all the baggage a
mile from their parking lot, only to find the reservation was screwed up
with only one bed in the room. So we hauled all the luggage back
down, and got moved to another tower. Great. Right next to a room with
a couple that liked to have the TV at full volume while having their
cheese and wine party out on the balcony at 2 in the morning. Needless
to say, the extra mauling of the luggage caused my 80 year old Mother to
experience a lower back slipped disc, so the cruise was off to a bad
start for her. The parking was a pain in the butt, too. The check-in
girl did her dampest to turn me off the Holiday Inn long term, so I
ended up getting up early, to whip the truck around into the Albright
parking lot ---Another 1/4 mile to walk back.

Getting back to the cruise: I was expecting the usual post 9/11 mix-up
at the cruise terminal, in spite of us having a room overlooking the
entrance. But what an improvement! At 10 to eleven, we showed our
tickets and passports and proceeded down the wharf. We walked right up
to the ticket counter, and if the woman hadn't forgotten to give us an
early boarding number, we would have been on the ship within 1/2 hour.
At any rate, we did board early, but they've changed their rules wherein
you can't go to your cabin until 1:30. This worked out great, as we
headed straight up for lunch. When we were finished, the cabin was
ready. The whole embarkation process was great. The only thing I
would change is to eliminate the porters. It's actually hard to get one
in the 1st place. They should simply have a conveyor belt by the
terminal building where you can chuck your staircases on. Save the
porters for the off-loading passengers. Another tip for future
cruisers: Pack light for the carry-ons.

Having taken 4 previous cruises on either the Ryndam or Statendam, we
were quite familiar with the ship's layout. We always go for the balcony
mini-suite. Don't ask me why, as I don't think I spent more than 2
minutes on the balcony throughout the entire cruise. But we do like
to leave the door open at night to hear the water. Twice we got a
call from the Bridge concerning the smoke detector in the cabin. The
first one was at 5:30 in the morning. They said the alarm was probably
due to the damp air coming in the door, but I told them, there's no
fire; don't ring at 5:30 in the morning. I think they repaired the
detector, as the calls ceased.

The Indonesian and Filipino staff were great, as usual. I was quite
impressed how a number of them had recognized me from some previous
cruises on both the Ryndam and Statendam. I don't know if that's a good
thing or not.

I thought the food was great on this cruise, too. Especially, the
prime rib. The lack of the normal abundance of king crab seen on the 10
day cruises was quite obvious, however. Also the lack of the outdoor
steak, chicken, and rib barbecue. We had an oriental outdoor
barbecue stir fry one afternoon, but I'd much prefer to have a steak.
Of course, as usual, the vegetables for every meal were never cooked
enough And this time, the Chef seemed to have a thing about
"Rosemary." Everything was liberally doused with it, and it's such an
awful spice(herb?) If anyone here is aware of the smell of hemlock
trees, he/she would instantly recognize it's over-powering smell.
As usual, we had the lobster tails the 2nd to last night. They were
great. Plus I love the escargot. The Maitre de (I think ?? -- The guy in
white) went back in the kitchen to get me another lobster dinner.
Needless to say, he received a special tip on the last day.

I avoided most of the entertainment, as the theatres on this class of
ship have got the worst layout. I swear if there was only one other
person in front of you in the theatre, half the stage would be obscured.
I get a kick out of how some of the older people will practically skip
dinner to race for the best theatre seats. It's ridiculous.

Personally, I'm tired of hearing the same lip-synced, pre-recorded stuff
on every cruise: "We've got places to go... Do you believe in magic..."
Why can't they just do a live show. Check out the live band. They're
actually playing along to recorded music. It's awful. The last night,
they had a comedian. He made the whole theatre aspect tolerable.
He was absolutely hilarious!

Last year, we took the 3 week Panama cruise on the Ryndam. In the
Ocean Bar, for half the trip, they had this Filipino band. "City
Lights", I believe. They were excellent! This cruise we had this
trio headed by a German who never sang, but liked to be recognized by
wearing his sunglasses on the top of his head (both indoors and out)
Funny, even in the bright sun, they remained on the top of his head.
OK, He was a great pianist, but played the music that no one
could dance too. Errr... Except one older couple who liked to show-off
every night by doing the same old ridiculous dance (to the delight of
the passers by).

I have never been on a calmer cruise, with so much sunshine. From what I
heard, there were only 1000 passengers on the ship that normally holds
1300. Unfortunately, on the aft deck, there was only about 30 deck
chairs to go around. One of the stewards working at the bar told me that
a lot of chairs had been damaged in a recent storm. This was the first
time that I have seen deck chairs being saved on HAL. This is terrible.
I firmly believe if one isn't in the pool or nearby toilet, the books,
or magazines should be thrown overboard. At any rate, on the last day
the stewards pulled out some of those rickety old wooden loungers that
looked like they belonged on the Titanic.

Disembarkation was another improvement. This is the first time, at least
for us, where we didn't have to vacate the cabin at 7:30. Our slip
said: "Vacate by 9:30" Although we had to be at customs at 7:15, we
still vacated the cabin early, but it was nice to know we didn't have
to. The Lido was crowded, but we slipped into the dining room. I
finally had my kipper, which I love.

We disembarked around 9:30 into the smoky air of San Diego. Our parked
vehicle was inundated with the fire ash, both inside and out. Our
thoughts were of the victims, some of whom were on board our ship. It
was sure great to get out of this city (for some fresh air), but we are
sure looking forward to returning once again for another HAL cruise in
the spring.