Our family spent spring break on board the Ryndam. My husband, my 11 year old son, my 9 year old son and I met our two friends and their 8 and 5 year old sons in Tampa. It was our family's 6th cruise (previous cruises have been on Royal Caribbean, Costa and HAL) and our friends' first cruise.

We flew in the night before and stayed at a Hampton Inn. It was just fine, and most importantly we used HHonors points to pay for it. The morning of the cruise we walked to the local drug store, loaded up on sun screen and bought 2 bottles of wine. We then checked out of the hotel and took a taxi to the port. We arrived shortly before 1:00, which was the time designated for check in. There was zero wait; we walked right on in.

The ship was classic HAL. It's small enough that it was very negotiable, and even the kids could quickly navigate about the ship. It was going into dry dock when our cruise ended, and I won't lie - there were a few worn areas on bannisters, the backboards on the baskets on the basketball court were broken,etc. Everything was extremely clean. HAL's classic touches always thrill me -- the antiques, the orchids and other flowers. Read more