Ryndam (Retired) Review
Nice itinerary, but time for some more refurb....
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Additional details
Background Information: Traveling with a family, DH and two DD's 17 and 19 on the Ryndam, July 7-21 Scandinavia and Russia
Travel To Port of Embarkation: Our trip began with an absolutely disastrous flight on Delta. We always plan to arrive well before the ship sails, so we left on Tuesday afternoon (to arrive Wednesday morning) for our Saturday cruise. It actually took over 24 hours to fly from Michigan to London. We picked up a rental car from Hertz at Heathrow, and drove to Ashford. We pre-purchased online Eurostar tickets and Hop-on, Hop-off L'Open tour tickets in Paris for Thursday, thinking we would have plenty of time. We made it with only four hours to sleep before our tour. Yawn. Half asleep but enjoyed the HOHO tour very much. Actually finished Paris a tiny bit early and enjoyed shopping before heading back to catch the train back to Ashford. The drive from Ashford to Dover on Saturday was very easy and quick. We dropped off our luggage and adult children at the terminal, and then drove to Hertz to drop off the car. If you are renting a car, I encourage you to use Google Earth to visually locate the office. You cannot cut through the commercial port, you must walk over the bridge, which has a nice sidewalk, to the terminal. There is quite a bit of traffic, and the exhaust fumes are a little annoying.
Hotel Info: The Holiday Inn North in Ashford is tucked away in the country with an easy 15 minute drive to the Ashford Eurostar Terminal. We found the Holiday Inn staff as well as the on-site Restaurant to be excellent -- a perfect fit for our family. We stayed three days and wished we had more time with them. It was located perfectly for a side trip to Canterbury on Friday as well.
Cabin Review
Large Ocean-View Stateroom
More space available if you leave the main bed as two twins. 725 F Category Forward "A" Deck. Some unpleasant smells, including some faint smoky smells, do emanate from "B" Deck which is where some of the crew are housed, and where the gangplank is frequently used. The open stairwell entrance is located on the way to the elevators, so you cannot avoid walking by the opening. These faint smells cannot be detected in the cabin itself. Some deck plans showed a laundry room near our room -- that is NOT true. We liked the location -- no one uses that hallway except forward residents -- so we seldom heard talking in the hallway. Our cabin air conditioning was malfunctioning the first day, and was fixed on the third day. We also had a plumbing issue -- the water would not shut off in the tub. Again, maintenance fixed it within two days; however, they scratched the tub and left some crumb-type debris in the tub. We usually select a FF cabin in the aft -- which is close to the Dining Room. Our forward cabin was nice after shows or after a long walking day in port, we were back in our cabin in record time. I prefer forward cabins now.