Our "Million Dollar" Honeymoon Cruise
Written: Jan 23 '00 (Updated Jan 01 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: beautiful ship, nice rooms, lots of things to do
Cons: expensive side excursions, expensive soft drinks, formal attire often required
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| AmyLEnsor's Full Review: Holland America Ryndam |
I was not one of those little girls who played dress up and dreamed of a fantasy wedding. For years I wasn’t even sure I would get married; what a pleasant surprise it was to be engaged after 6 months of dating. With a nice rock on my finger I was busy planning the wedding with not much input from my fiancée. He did have a lot of choice about the honeymoon, and we were both thinking a cruise would be the thing. Alaska, of course, because the Caribbean and Mexico had something intolerable to my polar bear man, namely temperatures above 70 degrees.
We knew it would be expensive, but we had free money in the form of company stock options. The stock was performing well at the time, so we went for broke: a suite on the Ryndam of the Holland America Line, and first class airfare to boot. That last little thing added $4,000 to the overall price, but we figured it was worth it. Unfortunately, the stock did not hold its value and it took the entire chunk that vested that year to pay. We said what the heck, and went for it. Three years later, that block of stock would have been able to buy at least 10 cruises around the world. No use crying over spilt milk some people say, but keep in mind that I’m kicking myself ever so lightly as I write this review.
Land Tour
We flew from the east coast to Seattle, then to Fairbanks with a connecting flight in Anchorage. We spent two days seeing the sights of Fairbanks, which included golden leafed trees, well-weathered, institutional style housing, an oil pipeline pig, a gold mill, and a museum. The highlight of our stay here was the Tanana riverboat cruise where we got to see champion mushers and Athabascan Indians.
From Anchorage, we took the McKinley Explorer train to Denali. The cars have domed roofs for sightseeing purposes, and it would have been a fairly relaxing trip if I hadn’t felt the need to try and take photos. Lunch was served downstairs in the dining portion of the car, and for once it was a free meal. One thing you might not think of is that even though you’ve fronted a hefty sum for the cruise, you will still end up spending a tidy chunk on meals if you have a land trip prior to the cruise.
Denali was beautiful and there were extra activities offered like fishing or rafting, although we were there with the last tour of the season so things were closing down for the year. As if to bring home that fact, it snowed while we were there which further curtailed our activities. However, we did get to take a bus tour up into the park and see some wildlife up close. Mostly little white dots we were told were Dahl sheep, and a bigger brown dot that was a grizzly. We saw many of those white dots while on the road, and even today-four years later in southern California-my husband and I immediately think Dahl sheep when we see a white dot on the hillside. There was a friendly moose calf that stopped right in front of our bus, so that was an unexpected bonus.
Anchorage was cold and sunny, and our rogue bus driver decided to skip the scripted tour spots after taking a vote. We got in a little more shopping before getting on the bus to Seward where we board the ship. The actual embarkation process was a little long, but fairly organized, and what a relief it was to set down our bags in our fancy digs and realize we would have almost a full week before having to pack up again.
The Ship
Our stateroom was beautiful, with big windows and a large verandah with deck furniture. We had a king-sized bed, dressing area with closets and a whirlpool tub in the bathroom. There was also a sitting area with arm chairs, a sofa and coffee table. The steward would make up our bed everyday, and turn down our sheets at night, leaving chocolate behind on the pillow. We left our laundry out on the bed, and it was returned to us freshly laundered and pressed. If you are a more hands on person, laundry facilities are available.
Exploring the ship was a lot of fun because it was just so beautiful. The Atrium, the formal dining room, the various bars and lounges, the casino, the little gift shops—the attention to detail was wonderful. I especially liked the upper promenade deck with the artwork in the Figurehead Gallery. The pools and spa looked nice too; unfortunately I forgot my bathing suit and didn’t get to try them out.
There are a lot of different activities on board, both planned and unplanned. I liked playing the group games of Pictionary, but my husband was more of the rent a video and go back to the suite type of guy. There was entertainment every evening, and karaoke for the drunk and brave-hearted. Exercise rooms with aerobic and weight training equipment were available, and there were early morning walks scheduled around the sports deck. I did sneak into the sauna in my underwear and ship provided robe one afternoon, and enjoyed a nice basking session.
In the evening, there were various little pre-dinner receptions. It seemed we got invited to more of those things since we were in a pricier room, but I can’t be sure of that. These little get togethers put my new husband out of sorts since he doesn’t much care for dressing up and socializing. Which brings me to the first of what might be a downside for some: the dressing up. There were two or three casual nights where dress casual type clothing was allowed, but no denim or sneakers. There were two semi-formal and two formal nights each, although I don’t think they were called that specifically.
I wore my fancier dresses for the formal nights, and my fancier work dresses for the semi-formal. Men were never specifically required to wear dinner jackets or black tie, so my husband just wore a black suite on the formal night, and a blazer, tie and dress pants for the other nights. Hefting along all your fancy duds in the land part was not exactly ideal, but the free dry-cleaning and pressing offered to the suite dwellers helped.
The Food
So much is made about the food on cruise ships, and rightly so. Food is available around the clock, the midnight Lido buffet is full of all sorts of delicacies, and dinner in the formal dining room is not to be missed, as far as I was concerned. However, if you or your spouse is a meat and potatoes type of person, he or she is probably out of luck. My husband did not enjoy the formal dinners at all. Now I have to say he has the blandest palate of anyone I ever hope to meet. He would dress up and accompany me to dinner just to eat a slice of bread and maybe a dessert. Later on he would grab a sundae at the buffet. Unlike most people, he lost weight on this cruise—a good ten pounds.
During the day, they did things like cookouts with hamburgers and hotdogs, or taco bars. It seems like a good idea, but I have to say the food was just not quite "right." It reminded me of the summer I spent in China where we were served "American" food for lunch. My husband was happier running into town to grab some burgers and a trashcan sized cup of Coke from the local BK.
The first night I tried the midnight buffet, I was really impressed with all the types of seafood available, but after about two nights, it just didn’t seem worth staying up for. Sometimes the fish seemed too fishy, and some of the other items were just too greasy. It might seem I’m being picky, and I’m not trying to be. I guess it is just you reach a <gasp> salmon and chocolate saturation point. What Holland America does well, in my opinion, is the formal dinners. I always found something intriguing and delicious there, except the night the typhoon hit and I chose a rather untasty dish that I ended up losing in the toilet a few hours later anyway. Boy, the turkey club from room service really hit the spot that night!
Now I have to add one more bad point to the food category, and that is to talk about the beverages. No, soft drinks like Coke are not free and if you are hoping to finally to close out spending on the food and non-alcoholic drink part of your trip budget, you can forget it. Unless you like water, coffee or instant iced tea. My husband (yeah, him again!) was crushed to find out that Coke was not in ample supply. A 12 ounce can was available at a dollar a pop (no pun intended). He ended up hitting a convenience store and stocking up our mini bar with our own stuff. Honestly for what you pay, I don’t know why they can’t have some sort of fountain arrangement, but maybe that is more trouble than it is worth to them.
Ports of Call
Before I bring this to a close, I feel that I should mention our various ports of call. Our trip included stops at Valdez, Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan, but due to rough weather we missed the Sitka stop altogether which was most disappointing. That is the one I was most interested in, but the tenders could not be launched in the choppy sea that resulted from the end of Typhoon Sam. I wouldn’t imagine this is a worry for most people, however, and my dear old hubby thought this was the best part of the trip. It was particularly cool when a strong wave knocked our champagne glasses off the bar at 2 am when we were sound asleep. I took advantage of the wakeup call to prowl the ship and see what was going on.
There are plenty of side excursions available, like fishing, sight seeing, and water sports. We did a helicopter trip to the glacier while some acquaintances did a seaplane tour. Those things will cost you, however, so have the credit card ready!
All in all, I would say this was a great vacation. I loved cruising the inner passage, and I found the view was nice from both sides of the ship. I would love to do another cruise and just spend more time hanging out on the ship, and on the verandah. One day, when I’ve made so much money writing Epinions that I won’t know what to do with it, I’ll take a nice Baltic Sea cruise, or maybe a cruise to Hawaii, or maybe an around the world cruise—yeah, that sounds like just the thing!
*revised 6/17/00*
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
AmyLEnsor
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Location: Reno, Nevada
Reviews written: 70
Trusted by: 94 members
About Me:
Hey, new iPhone arrived today! I'll probably have a review of it next year. :D
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