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R Two Cruise Review
Jeffrey Wynne
Age: 51 to 60
Occupation: Retired
Number of Cruises: 6 to 10 Cruises
Ship: R-2
Sailing Date: September 3rd,
2000
Itinerary: Baltic Sea (Stockholm to Dover
This was my first cruise on a Renaissance ship; previous cruises have
been with Princess, Cunard and Holland America.
I admit to being skeptical about signing up for a Renaissance cruise. Having been truly pampered by Cunard and Holland America, I feared that the deeply discounted price for this cruise might mean that service, ambiance and amenities would be 'deeply discounted' too. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded.
With one exception.
First, the good news: (1) I
will not discuss the ports of call, other than to list them, as prospective passengers can easily
research the ports on the internet or at the library. The
ports we visited included: Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Pete, Tallin, Copenhagen, Oslo, Amsterdam,
Antwerp, Zeebruge, LeHavre and Dover; (2) The ship was
immaculate and elegant, with many nice decorator touches throughout.
I had a "Category B" cabin, which was very large, with a king-size bed, 3-seat
sofa, small dining table, built-in desk, dresser, two huge closets, mini-bar, safe and TV---and
there was still enough room in the cabin to dance the Blue Danube. The cabin also featured a large verandah. The bath was average size, although the
tub was oversize, which was nice (I'm 5' 11"). The
cabin service was wonderful and completely comparable to what I have experienced on Holland America
and Cunard. There are four dining rooms on the ship:
The Club (main dining room), The Grill (steaks and chops), The Italian Restaurant (nice menu but
food quality was fair to poor), and the buffet. We
sampled all of the restaurants (no surchages for the upscale Grill or Italian) but ate almost all of
our meals in The Club. The Club has an extraordinary
ambiance---more elegant than the Cunard (nee Seaborn) Viking Sun or the Holland ships; French-style white glove service with a
predominantly European crew. Excellent cuisine,
although the selections on the menus were slightly fewer than on the other ships on which I've
traveled---but, did it make a difference?---Not at all. For
example, dinner included a selection of 3 -4 appetizers, 2 soups, 3 - 4 salads, 4-5 entrees, 3-4
desserts, plus vegetarian dishes. Heart-healthy
selections were highlighted on the menu for passengers who were watching their cholesterol or
calories (not me). The room service menu was quite limited (unlike Cunard or Holland), although the
quality was excellent (coffee was piping hot, etc.) and the service non-pareil.
The ship features two casinos (a main casino with about five tables +
slots, and a smaller, slots-only casino on the top deck). The
pool and Jacuzzis were adequately sized for the number of passengers on board.
The gym/spa was better than Cunard/Holland: more sophisticated equipment, the latest
treadmills (I think they had eight or ten treadmills), plus the usual items.
The spa also offered extra features not available on the other ships on which I've traveled
(e.g. special sea-salt Jacuzzi and private outdoor sunbathing area exclusively for Spa patrons ($50
one-time charge for the duration of the cruise). A few
extra touches that were missing on the ship were inconsequential to me:
No chocolate on the pillow (with the turndown service), no palate-cleansing between-course
sorbets at dinner (one of the features of Cunard), no midnight buffet (who cares?!).
The two shops on board the ship carried the usual items in abundance (really, who cares, so
long as they can buy an aspirin tablet if needed?).
Now, the bad news: The only
truly unpleasant aspect of the cruise was the "Charter Air" service which was included in
the cruise package. Neither Renaissance nor World were
adequately prepared or staffed at JFK for the embarking passengers, and the Renaissance staff who
were present were not knowledgeable ("where can we have dinner before the flight" etc.).
I slept throughout the World flight from JFK to Sweden, so I have no knowledge of the quality
of the service, although I heard that they served two meals and provided two movies during the
flight. The return flight, from Dover to JFK was a public-relations disaster.
The charter-air terminal near Dover was unprepared for the flight (they did not even have
enough chairs for everyone to sit down---this was a REAL hardship for some of the octogenarians on
board). The departure was delayed approximately 2 hours
because the flight crew was unable to get to the airport on time.
When we finally took off, the flight crew was very nice but the food was the WORST I've ever
had onboard a plane (even worse than the mac-and-cheese TV dinners that I had been served on
military flights in the 1960s). The chicken was
impossible to cut, particularly with the sub-miniature flimsy plastic knife and fork they provided.
The flight missed its pre-assigned landing sequence at JFK, so we ended up getting diverted
to Boston, where we stayed on the ground for 90 minutes (no A/C, no refreshments, no disembarkation
due to customs), then we finally took off and landed at JFK.
24 hours in transit. Many passengers had missed
connecting flights and, unfortunately, the nearest hotel with rooms available was miles from
JFK..
Kudos to the R2 shipboard officers, crew and staff:
superb! A black eye to Renaissance management
for selecting World Airways to provide the charter service, and for being unprepared to assist
passengers at JFK.
My next cruise will be on Holland America's Rotterdam VI. I may take another Ren cruise (Western Med - 16 days) in the Fall, but be assured, I will make my own air travel arrangements.