Ryndam.... never again!!

[Pammie poo]

Thanks again for everyones kind words, and I am feeling the love from everyone! I have redone my letter..now only one page and it looks great, thanks for all the help. I will keep you all posted when I hear back from HAL. By the way our cabin number was 724 A Deck outside cabin.

 

Thanks again all,

 

Pammie poo;)

[wander]

Smells are one thing. However, when it comes to non-flushing issues, remember that it is ALMOST ALWAYS due to a fellow PASSENGER putting or allowing something to go into the toilet that should not be there. Ship's systems are very fussy about what you try to flush. Once on a long cruise the Ship's engineer explained how they have to track down where the plug is. It is not easy in many cases.

[dot73]

Wander, you are right about the passengers causing a lot of the plumbing problems with their carelessness. However, these plumbing problems seem to happen a lot on the Ryndam. There is definitely something wrong with the plumbing on that ship that needs major work.

[Himself]

I was sorry to hear of your problems on the Ryndam. I have sailed on her for four voyages and I have always had good experiences on this ship.

[GrognardX]

I agree with Himself. I have been off Ryndam for about 6 hours and just had the best and most fun-filled week I can recall.

 

I am SICK of hearing about "sewage smells". For one thing, it's NOT SEWAGE! It's bilge. Bilge and sewage are 2 different things. Did I smell bilge? Occasionally. In a corridor. Who cares what the corridors smell like? 10 seconds as I'm walking by and the smell is gone.

 

And why are folks so obsessed with making buddies with the dining room staff and cabin stewards? they're not there to be your pals, they're there to do a job. You want friends? make them with other passengers like my wife and i did. I spent 6 days hanging out with a couple, only to find out during SeaQuest that the husband was Mr. Ryndam. :) Get out of your cabins, join in on some activities, be friends with NON employees. Did i chat a bit with my waiter and head waiter and room steward? On occasion. Otherwise, I left them to do their JOB. You wanna make friends with employees? Try the cruise staff, that's part of their job. (But only a part)

 

Now, if only I could have taught folks how to use the elevators properly. They need a seminar...

[Time2sail]

"And why are folks so obsessed with making buddies with the dining room staff and cabin stewards? they're not there to be your pals, they're there to do a job. You want friends? make them with other passengers like my wife and i did. I spent 6 days hanging out with a couple, only to find out during SeaQuest that the husband was Mr. Ryndam. :) Get out of your cabins, join in on some activities, be friends with NON employees. Did i chat a bit with my waiter and head waiter and room steward? On occasion. Otherwise, I left them to do their JOB. You wanna make friends with employees? Try the cruise staff, that's part of their job. (But only a part)"

 

 

Nice but not chummy--I agree. And the same for the passengers, too.

[WyoFloater]

Hey GrognardX!

 

Please give us more details on your recent Ryndam retreat (reaching for alliteration)! Did it meet your expecations in areas beyond just plumbing?

[GrognardX]

Wyo:

 

You are in for a real treat! I'm jealous! The Ryndam was fantastic. Typical HAL cruise, do as much or as little as you want. The Crow's Nest afforded beautiful views of glaciers, whales, porpoises (Porpi?) seals, et cetera. The cruise staff was MUCH more fun than I had experienced on past cruises. My wife, the social butterfly, actually manged to keep me, the exact opposite, constaqntly on the go, and made sure everyone knew our names and knew we were coming! :) The antiques on board were beautiful, and there were so many gorgeous finishing touches everywhere.

 

And as for the plumbing, it DIDN'T meet my expectations! I miss the loud WHOOOOOOSSSSHHHHH! and gale force winds of the old vacuum toilets on the Noordam and Nieuw Amsterdam! :D

[WyoFloater]

Grog:

 

Thanks for the feedback. As our cruise looms, it's good to see another positive response (the complainers seem to hit the boards more aggresively).

 

I'm hoping the toilets make at least as much noise as the sucking sound that's starting to come from my wallet!

[fridayeyes]

I've also just returned from the Ryndam. I found the food to be good but not outstanding, not piping hot, but not cool enough to send back. We were seated at the windows, so the farthest point from the kitchen and I saw our stewards carrying very tall stacks of covered plates. At the very first meal, my ribeye steak was soggy as if it had been on a steam table. I did miss the proper texture of a grilled steak, but the taste was good. The grilled salmon had a similar wet texture.

 

I never had plumbing problems in my cabin (lower promenade), but I did see most of the public restrooms closed for most of one day.

 

I also noticed that cocktail service was very hard to come by. There simply were not enough cocktail servers to handle the amount of passengers on board. I think there was only one at peak times in the Crow's Nest instead of two last year, and off-peak times had only the bartender.

 

I had a lovely cruise regardless. :) I would go again in a heartbeat.

 

Cheers,

 

Friday

[1particularharbor]

Although we have not had toilet plumbing problems ...we have encountered a terrible odor in our cabin, (not on HAL) hallways etc near our cabin on another cruiseline ...I complained the 2nd day of the cruise and the cabin steward said he could smell it but could not figure it out where it was coming from and he also said he smelled it in other nearby cabins....finally with a smile and a sense of humor I decided to take the approach "lets get this taken care of" ...so I immediately started my own investigation of my cabin odor ..and all odor paths did lead to the bathroom but found the source in the shower ...yes, the shower!! It seems the drains in the shower can get clogged up and provide an awful smell ...so taking my investigation findings to the purser's desk personally (again with a smile with a sense of urgency to get this resolved) attention was given immediately to my findings and a "engineer" was sent to my cabin quickly ...he had a mask over his nose/mouth and proceeded to remove the most awful looking black stuff from the drain in the shower and the odor was terrible! I wrote the cruiseline a letter suggesting that the cleaning of the shower drains IMHO should be a routine maintenance item done by someone to avoid the build-up to occur ..odors in a cabin should not occur if there is a solution that the staff on board can take care of "at sea" ....this "thinking" and "approach" has worked great for me when I encountered any problem "at sea" ...I also try to provide an element of patience (sometimes hard for me to do) with my disappointments or problems encountered ...and always look for the "humor" in each situation too but I have to admit that can be the hardest part of dealing with a problem "at sea" and "memories at sea"

 

We are booked in an A cabin so hope we don't have this problem on the Ryndam

 

Susan/John

Clearwater

[Sweetdreams]

Grog:

 

Thanks for the feedback. As our cruise looms, it's good to see another positive response (the complainers seem to hit the boards more aggresively).

 

I'm hoping the toilets make at least as much noise as the sucking sound that's starting to come from my wallet!

 

WyoFloater,

You are correct about the complainers hitting the board aggressively but don't let them ruin your anticipation. Before our recent cruise I had a difficult time going on the HAL boards without seeing something negative about the Maasdam. I too worried: major mechanical problems, plumbing problems, bad odors, NO AC on the deck area we were booked to be in, Sea lice at HMC, rough seas, bad food. Stopped reading the boards for a few days and went shopping instead for a few things. Came back to the boards and just ignored those comments after calling HAL and finding out the facts.

Keep your spirits up that you will have a good time despite any problems and go with the advice of many regulars of this board and report any objective problems to the front desk promptly for the best results. We had a wonderful cruise and none of the problems that I feared which were reported were encountered. I wish you the best of everything....don't worry.....have a great cruise!

[cruzingqueen]

I've been on about 8 or 9 other cruises and have never had the bad service we had on HAL. I've never had the plumbing problems we had on HAL. I've never felt that staff was unfriendly on other cruises. I know what to expect from a cruise and I didn't get it with HAL.

 

Bottom line is I think HAL should know how I feel no matter how late the informations gets to them.

 

 

You mentioned "health & medical issues". Perhaps they were also short-staffed if some of the crew was quarantined as well. Perhaps those who were working were not as personable as normal if they were pulling double duty and trying to cover for those who were ill. Just a thought.

[WyoFloater]

Thanks Sweetdreams!

 

I will not worry about all of the negative things that COULD happen. I'm fairly certain that we will have a blast and love Alaska.

 

I've now made it a priority of mine to report back to the board and provide a viewpoint from a first-timer that isn't coming in with an axe to grind.

 

Only 3 more weeks (we're doing the "cruisetour")..:D

[Sweetdreams]

That's the spirit WyoFloater! I felt a real sense of obligation to write a review after our cruise on the Maasdam, if for nobody else, than upcoming cruisers full of excitement & anticipation. It's also very helpful to communicate with someone just off the ship who has everythig fresh in their minds. As other posters have said, with over pax on a ship, there is always going to be someone who is not pleased with their experience. Keep a few journal notes for yourself & save your daily programs. I'm starting to plan a memory book of our anniversary cruise and glad that I saved so much stuff. Look forward to watching for your review. Have a wonderful trip!

[1stMate]

pammie,

 

Don't ever publish complaints against HAL on this board. The Kool-Aid Gang won;t appreciate it and you will be targeted with personal attacks and questions about your sanity, judgement and ability to interact with humans.

[Time2sail]

pammie,

 

Don't ever publish complaints against HAL on this board. The Kool-Aid Gang won;t appreciate it and you will be targeted with personal attacks and questions about your sanity, judgement and ability to interact with humans.

 

The posters in this thread have given good advice as to how she can address her cruise problems and get results from HAL. IMO, she was very appreciative for the help and concern of fellow cruisers.

 

The other posters were just giving their recent experiences on their cruises and did not attack anyone in doing so.

 

I don't know what you are talking about.

[Sweetdreams]

pammie,

 

Don't ever publish complaints against HAL on this board. The Kool-Aid Gang won;t appreciate it and you will be targeted with personal attacks and questions about your sanity, judgement and ability to interact with humans.

 

Whom might I ask are the "Kool-Aid Gang"? Personal attacks??? What's all this about? :confused:

[Pammie poo]

Just wanted everyone to know I received a very nice letter back from HAL about all the problems we had on our recent cruise. They addressed each issue with saddness and thanks for letting them know about the problem. In the end they offered a $200.00 ship credit on our next cruise. I'd like to thank everyone for their input. This is what this's board is for and it worked great. Many thanks, everyone!

Hugs to all! Even you bad people, you know who you are!:rolleyes:

[RevNeal]

Pammie poo, thanks for letting us know about the resolution. I, for one, appreciate that greatly. So often we don't get to hear how issues are resolved ... or even if they ever are resolved. So ... thanks!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Pammie Poo

Thanks so much for your report on the Ryndam.

What cabin where you in? You mentioned that the plumbing problems not directly related to your cabin but in your area.

We have cruised many times on the Ryndam and will be back on her again this fall.

[BS_Outwest]

Try also to discuss this with the travel agent you booked with. We had a bad experinece in Mexico, where the resort did not measure up to the representations the tour company made and out TA demanded and received a refund for the portion of our holiday related to the resort. It took some time and trouble, however, an agency has considerably more clout than the individual. (eg. we received about a 50% refund in cash of our cost while others have been offerred a $200 credit to the same resort!!)

 

Sorry your cruise was a disappointment.:(

[HeatherInFlorida]

Pammie, thanks so much for updating us on the outcome from your letter. That was so very thoughtful of you. As Greg says, so often we never hear the outcome and I'm so glad you were happy with HAL's response. I am sorry, though, that you feel there are "bad" people here on the boards. I like to think everyone just debates somewhat fiercely and defends their favorite ships, but hopefully no one is really "bad". But I sympathize because I often feel the same way;) .

 

I hope you'll give HAL another chane and use the shipboard credit they have offered. I mostly hope your next cruise on HAL proves to be everything you hope it to be.

Happy sailing!:D