Ryndam (Retired) Review
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Damn the Ryndam
We waited over two months to write this post after the end of the cruise; we wanted to be as fair as possible and reflect on it after digesting what had really gone on. The cruise started September 18, 2011 and ended in Barcelona on October 9, 2011. My girlfriend and I had an Ocean view cabin with a window, not porthole in the aft part of the ship around the fourth level. We think that a cruise experience breaks down in importance something like this for us. About 40% of the cruise is about the ports of call. About 40% is about the food and dining experiences and about 20% is about the ship, your stateroom and ship board activities and entertainment. So let's give the credit where it is due. The stateroom and the service that went along with our cabin was a 8-9 out of 9 point scale (the ship's rating scale), the higher the number the better. The Indonesian and Philippine cabin stewards were timely, immaculate, and very nice. So, let's give the Ryndam a 8.5-9 for this part of the experience.
The entertainment was fairly boring, unimaginative and ho hum. If one word as to sum it up it would be "corny". The films they showed each night in the theater were fine and they repeated them on the stateroom TV's the next day. The shore excursions are typical for all cruise lines, lots of choices for every port and very expensive. Ranging from around $75.00 just for transportation to the majority of day touring with bus and guide for well over $150.00 and up. You can duplicate, with research ahead of time their shore excursions by local buses or trains for 1/8 to 1/10th of the cost they charge. If you share a taxi to some of the sites with 4-6 other passengers, usually by mutual agreement it would run around 1/3 per person they charge, and no bus load of people to get on and off every stop; but this is your choice. The tour people were not real helpful and in fact gave outright erroneous information about local travel when you asked the few questions, like where is the bus to the train etc. Not really interested in helping you if you had not booked their shore excursions.