Back From Ryndam Sea Of Cortez Today.

[TCF]

I have often said that there is no such thing as a bad cruise....there are just better cruises than others! This Ryndam cruise came close to proving me wrong!

I suppose with 14 ships in the fleet there are some really good ships ,and, there are some really bad ships! IMO the Ryndam is the really bad one!

Let's start with the good stuff:

1. Crew was outstanding overall...but we noticed after three or four days that it depended on which departments the crew were attached to that made them really great...or just so-so! More about that later!

2. The itinerary was very well put together. Three "tourist" ports...and three "out of the way" rarely visited ports.

3. We rarely book "ship excursions" preferring to research ports here and book private vendors....but the HAL excursion from Topolobampo to El Fuerte with a cultural/historic stop along the way was one of the best excursions we have ever taken anywhere. Well worth the price.

4. The entertainment was good...especially the singing and dancing kids that put on three musical shows. One we had seen six months ago on the Veendam but the other two were new to us. We're not much into magicians and comedians so didn't go to those shows. The string quartet was good and we enjoyed them a couple of nights and one of the two nights we ate in the dining room.

Now for the bad stuff:

1. We convinced friends to drop a booked cruise with Carnival and join us on the Ryndam! We bought them a Bon Voyage Package and some Chocolate Covered Strawberries for their cabin just to kick the cruise off with some class! The strawberries showed up covered in grey fuzz!!! (I could just not believe how this could happen on a HAL ship....then on the last day I found out when...at breakfast on the second to last day...we ordered a bowl of fresh strawberries in the Lido and wound up picking out three of eight berries in the bowl that were rotting and unfit to eat!!!)

We ordered canapes for our cabin to go along with sparkling wine for "sail away". The canapes were room temperature...which wouldn't have been a bad thing if they had not had shrimp as a main ingredient!

DW had crab cake apetizers in the crows nest and spent the rest of the night chatting on the "big white phone", then missing the morning excursion, although she had recovered completely for the afternoon/evening excursion!

The food overall was generally passable IMO....and I know food is subjective...but these were recipes that we ate for five weeks on the Veendam last October and they were great then. Meals on the Ryndam were served barely warm in both the dining room and the Lido! The food was just poorly prepared and poorly served by both dining room crew and Lido crew!!

2. Two HAL cruises and two Code Reds....eight days on the first cruise....three on this one!!

3. Lecturers were boring speakers who may have know their material very well but I couldn't stay awake during their presentations long enough to find out for sure!

4. Enjoying...as best we could....a casual dinner in the Lido when all of a sudden it sounded like the roof above was about to collapse! Two crew cleaning tables ducked the noise was so loud. It quickly became apparent that a basketball game had broken out in the middle of the dinner hour on Deck 12!! The Lido Manager was standing in front of the dessert line....and just stood there as the noise from the deck above continued...loud enough to drown out conversation!

I walked over to him and asked him to stop the Basketball game...he shrugged his shoulders and looked me in the eye and said there was nothing he could do about it because it was passengers playing basketball!!! After I told him he could stop the noise in one minute or I was going to make a similar racket banging on the Hotel Manager's door in two minutes...he made a call and ...sure enough....the basketball game was postponed until eight when the Lido closed.

5. Cooking demonstrations...but no cooking classes....at least none I could find!

So why all this nasty stuff?

I am convinced that the Ryndam has a serious senior management problem that impacts the entire ship...but most notably the galley and food service.

If you have a good Hotel Manager and a good Executive Chef it is...IMO...simply impossible for "fuzzy" strawberries to show up in a guest's cabin! It is impossible for canapes...that by their very nature demand to be served chilled for no other reason than if they are not someone is going to get bloody sick....to show up in a guest's cabin! It is simply impossible for seafood...in this case Crab Cakes... to sit around at room temperature long enough to generate illness when served to guests!

The line cooks on the Lido were surly to say the least...yes there was the odd one who was friendly but few and far between!

None of these things are the crews fault...it is entirely the Hotel Manager and Executive Chef's fault for not instilling in the crew from top to bottom that they are the last to control food being served to guests and encourage them to make sure they stop everything but the very best from being served! It happens on other ships, why not the Ryndam? The Executive Chef and Hotel Manager on the Ryndam should be fired...because that is the only solution to the problems with food preparation and service on that ship!

Before anyone asks...yes we complained....yes we filled out the comment card...and yes I will write to Kruse tomorrow, but I do not think anything will be done.

Just as a note of contrast, and what twigged me to the senior management issue...the Room Stewards were incredible...always a smile....always a clean neat and tidy cabin...always asking us if there was anything we needed or wanted. Chief Housekeeper was always on the move through the cabin decks...I saw him almost as often as I saw our room stewards. Deck supervisor always checking on the cabins...a friendly hello and a smile! Excellent management from the top down in that department and it showed.

In spite of it all....another good cruise! Next time though we'll go back to Princess for a while! Costs are comparable...itineraries on the Princess small ships are comparable....our past experience with Princess is good...not that is a guarantee..our past experience with HAL was good too! But being served spoiled food is just a little too much to overlook!

[Sir PMP]

Hotel Manager and Executive Chef's

 

Who was the Hotel Manager, Captain and Chef?

[garydm]

We were on Ryndam the cruise before you. We learned not to eat "hot food" in the Lido unless you saw it prepared in front of you and to avoid the brown broccoli at the salad bar.

 

Gary

[HALFans]

Sounds like things have gotten even worse since our cruise on her last month (reviewed - see link in signature).

 

The Hotel Manager for our cruise (March 5-15) was David Wood. (Ever meet a bureaucrat who seems more like a politician?) Don't recall who the Executive Chef was - Karl someone. The Captain was Mark Rowden, who had just joined the ship that cruise. A very pleasant and capable officer.

 

I'm amazed about the fuzzy strawberries! After 'cooling off' for 6 weeks from our latest Ryndam cruise, I think we're going to try other Holland America ships and not write the line off entirely just because we were so disappointed in the Ryndam.

 

Happy Sails and hope your next cruise is wonderful!

[canadarocks]

Oh gosh, we're on the Ryndam for 14 days in August. Here's hoping things improve be then!:eek:

[Sleepladypalmdesert]

Hopefully some HAL lurker will read this and pass along to the powers that be. I would think that so many folks with similar type complaints would be noticed.

 

I know Copper sailed this ship a couple of months ago. As I recall, his review was pretty complementary. I wonder if he noticed any of these types of problems.

[Scrapchick]

We were on the cruise right before this and did not experience any of these problems at all. I posted a review on CC about our trip.

 

My daughter asked for strawberries with dinner every night and they were always provided, until the night before last when the waiter brought some but warned me they were not very good and he had been told he could not bring anymore after that for the following night as they were not considered to be any edible anymore.

 

We had no complaints about the food and no-one got sick that I know of.

 

I'm sorry the OP had such a poor experience. It just goes to show the difference two weeks can make on a ship...

[Travelbug 2]

We just had to cancel this same cruise on Ryndam for April 24th out of San Diego because of illness. It was very disappointing to say the least, yesterday we spent the day thinking about the ship sailing without us. :(

 

After reading the above review and hearing about the swine flu outbreak maybe it was a blessing in disguise :eek:

 

Things happen in mysterious ways don't they?? ;)

[GTVCRUISER]

I was on the April 4-14 2009 Ryndam Cruise , I had a great time and the food was good. I did hear the basketball pounding on the roof of the lido dinning room a few times .

[caltnl]

We we were in the April 4-14 cruise and saw none of the problems that TCF ran up against.

 

A first for me when we left for the Copper Canyon tour there at the bottom of the gang way wishing us a good tour. Then upon return the officers were lined up in their Blue Uniforms to welcome us back on board.

 

A wonderful cruise IMHO.

[swedish weave]

I was on the 4/14 Ryndam cruise and observed some fruit and berries that should not have been served.

 

Also, during the Noro problem I saw a cup of coffee with a bright red lipstick mark on the cup served to a guest. When we told him, he discarded the coffee. This caused me some concern, because proper washing would have removed the lipstick from the cup.

 

I met the OP at the beginning of the cruise, and this person began the trip with a very positive attitude.

 

I did not let my observations ruin my trip, but I did use more than my normal caution with the food and drinks.

[Loreto]

Sorry to hear the Ryndam cruise had problems. It was our first HAL cruise, and we have sailed the Sea of Cortez three times on her.

 

Karen

[Boatdrill]

Before anyone asks...yes we complained....yes we filled out the comment card...and yes I will write to Kruse tomorrow, but I do not think anything will be done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And when you complained to _______, what was their response ?

[brucory]

Things must have gone down hill.

 

We had a ball on the Ryndam a few months back, and the food was great (at least for us).

 

That chocolate covered strawberry thing was icky. We wouldn't order those, but it got me to thinking that they must have been from the last cruise, before yours. Unless they bring them on fresh on departure day (which I doubt).

 

Nor do we have canapes, but good advice to anyone is not to eat room temperature seafood canapes.

 

I hope you get some resolution. I am wondering if the Indian chap is still the Food and beverage manager on that ship? I forget his name, but he was very nice and also seemed very thorough.

 

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

[pipedreams62]

I should have some answers on the fruit and the lipstick stained coffee cup.

 

 

[HALFans]

We had a ball on the Ryndam a few months back, and the food was great (at least for us). <SNIP>

 

I am wondering if the Indian chap is still the Food and beverage manager on that ship? I forget his name, but he was very nice and also seemed very thorough.

 

For our March 05 cruise the Food & Beverage Manager was named Andre. I don't think he was from India, but he WAS quite handsome. ;)

[swedish weave]

I should have some answers on the fruit and the lipstick stained coffee cup.

 

 

 

I would have swapped cups with him, but it wasn't my shade. Also, I didn't want to have to explain it to DW.

[pipedreams62]

I would have swapped cups with him, but it wasn't my shade. Also, I didn't want to have to explain it to DW.