Inside the Ryndam: Part 1

Welcome back! Today, as promised, I’ll be giving you a glimpse inside the Ryndam including a look at my cabin. The post today is largely comprised of photos rather than text – I hope you enjoy it!

We’ll start in the Ocean Bar, the place where my trio - the ‘Neptunes’ - perform every evening between 6.30pm and 11.30pm. It’s located near the front of the ship on deck 8 and is a cosy area to hang out or dance to our music!


Above: The Ocean Bar

In the photo below, the ‘Neptunes’ are (from left to right) – myself on piano, Tom Crail (from Texas) on upright electric bass, and Marino Dolcetti (from Italy) on drum kit.


Above: The ‘Neptunes’

The Ocean Bar is one of several areas which surround the main atrium and fountain in an open-plan design. This photo of the fountain and atrium was taken from deck 8 near to the ocean bar.


Above: The Atrium fountain

The fountain spans three floors and the following picture was taken from deck 6 which is the ‘walkaround’ deck (where you can walk right the way around the outside of the ship) and the place where all the lifeboats and rafts are located.


Above: The Atrium

The final guest areas I’ll be showing you today are the Casino (fairly self-explanatory) and the ‘Mix’ – a bar featuring the solo guitarist and pianist each night. Both can be seen in the photo below which was taken on deck 8, again from the atrium area.


Above: The Casino and the Mix

Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: a look inside my cabin! It’s fairly small but I’m very fortunate to have it all to myself (my two band mates are sharing a cabin which is even smaller next door). The photo below was taken from the main door and the light that you see hitting the back wall above my bed is from the en suite to the right of this photo.


Above: My Cabin!

I hope you enjoyed this photo tour of some of the ship’s areas. I’ll be covering other rooms in later posts and will also be showing you around the outside of the ship soon. Thanks for reading!

Key West, Florida

Welcome back! In this blog post I’ll take a brief look at our first port of call on every cruise, Key West, Florida.

The m/s Ryndam arrives in Key West every Monday after we depart from Tampa on Sunday evening. As the southernmost city in the continental United States, Key West is strategically located in the Florida Straits and for centuries, treasure ships and merchant vessels alike fell victim to treacherous reefs and hurricanes. Even more deadly were the pirates who stalked their prey with abandon until the arrival of the U.S. Navy in 1823.


Above: Mallory Square (Key West’s undeclared ‘town centre’ viewed from the ship).

The island was once the largest city in Florida, the wealthiest city per capita in the U.S., and the largest producer of cigars and natural sponges in the country. In 1912, Henry Flagler created a railroad which linked Key West to the mainland, and changed the island city forever, allowing tourism to become one of the leading industries.


Above: The m/s Ryndam viewed from Mallory Square

Today, tourism is the only large industry remaining, with attractions ranging from the southernmost point in the USA to Harry Truman’s Little White House, and the houses of famous author Ernest Hemingway and ornithologist John James Audubon as well as a whole host of water sport activities. All of these make the port a popular one with the crew who visit every week.


Above: Shipwreck Treasurer’s Museum

I hope you enjoyed this brief introduction to Key West. I’ll be returning to this port in a later post with more photos to share, but my next blog post will explore life inside the ship.

It's been a while!

Hi everyone.

Sorry it’s taken me so long to get this blog going. I’m now into the fourth week of my six month cruise and am having a great time onboard Holland America Line’s msRyndam.

So far I’ve visited countries such as the Bahamas, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Belize and Honduras. I’ll be covering each of these destinations in future blogs, complete with photos. In the meantime, here’s a picture I took at Grand Turk, during the first week of our cruise.



Working on the ship is pretty fun. I’m the band leader of a trio, called the ‘Neptunes’ (the same trio appears on all Holland America Line – HAL – ships). My other band mates are a drummer called Marino from Italy and a bass player called Thomas from Texas. We play from 6.30pm to 11.30pm every night (yes, EVERY night) in the Ocean Bar, an open-plan area on the eighth deck of the ship complete with dance floor.

Our mandate is to play ‘dance music’ so we do a lot of ballroom / strict tempo pieces. HAL provide music books for us to play from (about 400 tunes spread over four volumes) which are pretty comprehensive. We’ve also brought our own Real Books which we dip into when nobody's looking!

In the coming weeks, as well as covering destinations, I’ll also show you around the ship, including some video of the Neptunes performing and a look at my cabin! I’ll hopefully be updating this blog more frequently now so be sure to check back soon.

Thanks for reading!

Peter

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my new blog which will be all about my cruise to the Caribbean!

I'm playing piano in a trio called the 'Neptunes' on the ms Ryndam, a Holland America Line ship (more details here)

During my cruise I'll be visiting Tampa, Florida, US; Key West, Florida, US; Belize City, Belize; Mahogany Bay, Honduras; Costa Maya, Mexico; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Georgetown, Cayman Islands and Cozumel, Mexico.

I'll be taking two cameras with me: my Nikon D40 and my newly acquired Panasonic Lumix TZ10 as well as my laptop! Whilst internet might be patchy at times (and guaranteed to be very slow onboard) I'll hopefully find an internet cafe where I will be able to upload pictures and videos to here.

Don't expect grand essays on my trip (unless I suddenly feel inspired) but hopefully you'll enjoy following my adventures through the photos and videos I post here.

I fly out to Tampa on 9th October 2010 and return to the UK on 10th April 2011.

Enjoy the blog!

Peter