Ryndam (Retired) Review

4.0 / 5.0
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Good For The Bucks. But How Bad Can An Alaska Cruise Be?

Review for Alaska Cruise on Ryndam (Retired)
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corbeck
First Time Cruiser • Age 70s

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Sail Date: May 2010
Traveled with children

Understand that this is written by an airline retiree who dragged his family from Colorado to Alaska for a cruise. Since pilots are the cheapest people in the world, this "project" was something of a calling. Flying standby for your whole life may save lots of bucks, but it becomes problematic to the point of psychosis. I would not recommend this aberrant behavior to normal people, but like a boiled frog, I'd been in the pot for ~30 years. Generally, we only recognize levels of "badness" by our mode of "transportation". Looking at the loads, it appeared that they were going to be pretty full, so we started trying three days early so we wouldn't miss the cruise and be out of our investment.

Showed up at the gate for the first flight (listed as "over capacity"). Fifteen folks misconnected and we were on a nonstop to ANC. It's not supposed to work out that way, but God protects idiots and retired airline employees. Nonstop ANC flights are DEFINITELY the way to go. Nice flight and nary a bump. Sun's was still up when we got there. Hauling paxs to AK for their cruises was always fun, but I was never able to get used to summer lighting in Alaska. Just get good "blackout" curtains on your hotel room.

Quality Suites Near Convention Center (their name) shot us a good deal for the four of us. Our 10 & 12 year olds spent one whole day at the Anchorage Museum only a block away. The next few days were spent traipsing about downtown ANC, and doing a bit of shopping at the big mall just 1.5 blocks away.

Cabin Review

Cabin In?

We had an inner cabin. It was larger than most other cruise lines inners. Lots of hot water and the bedding was comfy.

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