Ryndam (Retired) Review
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The hardworking Philippine and Indonesian staff were outstanding, they could not do enough for you and always had a smile. They were the saving grace of this cruise.
We are experienced cruisers who have done several cruises with Holland America and have held them in high esteem. But this cruise was a let down. Work was being done on the ship the whole voyage, and two of the forward elevators were out of service. Every port had the gangway or tender in the forward position which meant that the two elevators struggled to cope. The passengers in general were elderly and did not or could not use the stairs. The noise levels day and night from workmen, and welding machines was unacceptable.
Service in the main dining room was very slow, one and a half hours for breakfast! and the food often came to the table on cold plates. The food in an evening too was sometimes barely warm. The menu! some of the items needed a translation note alongside... and the meat was generally of a poor standard. One evening the waiter said "don't order the beef" enough said!
Cabin Review
Large Ocean-View Stateroom
The cabin was comfortable, but we did have a couple of power failures which were inconvenient.
Port Reviews
Flam
Flam is lovely, very scenic. There is a lovely valley walk to an old church, it took about an hour and a half. We then took a walk on the scenic hill overlooking the port, a bit of a climb but lovely views. The morning was cold and misty and we judged that going up the mountain on a bus to the scenic lookouts would have been pointless because of the heavy cloud. We had previously taken the railway trip, which is well worth doing.
Alesund
This was an interesting town and easy to walk around. We enjoyed looking round the town and the parks and taking some photographs. There were lots of old buildings too
Tromso
We again walked our socks off, went to the excellent library and caught up with the news, looked around the parks and visited the shops. It was very cold so we didn't go too far afield
Trondheim
Trondheim was another place where it was easy to walk and visit the parks. Lots of flowers and it was scenic. It was a Saturday and the library was closed so after a visit to a coffee shop we went back to the ship to get warm
Geiranger
This was a lovely place, and the sail up the fjord was spectacular. We were tendered ashore and decided to walk up the excellent stairs alongside a magnificent waterfall which cascades down into the fjord. There is an excellent Museum at the top of the waterfall with a small cafe and very clean toilets. We walked back down into the town on a road, and visited the church. The weather was very cloudy and viewpoints at the top of the mountains were covered in mist, so not good for photography
Bergen
Had been to Bergen before, visited the markets and ate lovely strawberries. Took a walk through the back streets on the Briggen, very expensive shops! Then we got a free bus from the fish market which took us a 25minute ride to IKEA! Had coffee and muffins bought a couple of things not sold in Australia and then jumped in the free bus back to the port!
Harwich
We thought Harwich was very run down and tired looking. Stayed two nights at the Pier Hotel which was excellent, the breakfasts were top class. We got a bus to Colchester and went to the Castle, the gardens were lovely. Looked through the shops and had lunch, and returned to Harwich for dinner and pack for the cruise next day