More about the Prinsendam

I found a number of fascinating stories and clips about the Prinsendam and about cruising in general:

About piracy and security issues aboard the Prinsendam as it sailed around Africa in 2008.
http://eptours.com/X-Africa-Circumnavigation-Cruise-III.pdf

About a rogue wave that hit the Prinsendam on February 1st in South America.
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=8983933&postcount=44
http://www.cruisebruise.com/High_Waves_Prinsendam_February_1_2007.html

About an award that the crew received for its weather reporting:
http://www.vos.noaa.gov/MWL/aug_08/awardsdetail.shtml?photo=15

About the history of the ship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Viking_Sun


An unrelated, scary video (forward 1min into it) about big waves hitting another cruise liner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMk6D11FAhg

Fri. Jan 2nd , Ft. Lauderdale

Arriving before sunrise. Have about 2h for breakfast and good-byes. Disembark around 9am. Everything is well organized but still the stress level increases right after leaving the ship: First we have a bit trouble finding Bianca’s carry-on luggage. Then we stand in the wrong spots according to custom agents. Then my bean shell (picture) causes trouble: custom agents keep referring the issue up their chain of command. Then the shuttle bus driver offloads our luggage at the wrong terminal.

Long wait at the airport even at the 1st class check-in. The underwater camera is using ISO 800 film and can not go through the X-ray. It causes a pad-down of yours truly at the security check-in.

Back home I find out that my video tape is missing. I call the ship twice per satellite phone for $16/min but don’t hear back. I also send e-mails, call a friend who used to work at HAL and call their lost and found department. Nothing so far and chances are slim.

Thu. Jan 1st, Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

First time we have to tender to get to shore. No wait, other than for more passengers on the tender boat.

Bianca and I have a shore excursion: ‘Stingray encounter’ on the far side of this little island. We get snorkels and even wet suits. Bianca doesn’t go all the way into the water. I do a little snorkeling and under water picture taking. There are nine stingrays, the instructor knows them all by name. They get up to 65 years old. The ones in this park are between 40 and 60 years old. Other fish and sea cucumbers are also there.

The rest of the day until the scheduled 2:30pm all-aboard we spend on the beach. I swim twice a long distance, Bianca plays in the kids area, we have some BBQ, the other two families show up and join us. Jenny’s family did horse back riding, part of the path was in the ocean. The sand here is very fine. Bianca feeds some fish with bread from the BBQ. She is quickly surrounded by a swarm of small fish. The water is very clear, the weather perfect. We get lots of sun.

Back on the ship Li, goes to see one more performance by the flute player. Bianca still hasn’t had enough from the water and plays more in the pool on the ship.

An erroneous charge for a wine bottle we never ordered is taken off our bill.

Wed. Dec 31st, Grant Turks

I do the ‘Ultimate Snorkeling’ excursion with Holland America. A boat takes us to two snorkeling sites. Lots of corals, shallow, good visibility. I see a stick fish (?), a Barracuda, s hiding lobster, and many other very colorful fish. I take underwater pictures. Our guide brings up a life conch shell. You can see an eye lurking out.

After the snorkeling, the three of us walk the quiet undeveloped shore and pick up large conch shells. I find a shark head and wonder if it was cut off by a bigger shark or by an angler.

Back at the ship Carlos has decorated the kids club very nicely for a New Years party. Bianca always enjoys going there and even more with Jenny.

The New Years eve party is well done. A band plays music in the Queen’s Launch, some people dance, others watch, have a drink or just talk. Balloons are everywhere, we get to wear party heads. Champaign is handed out.

Tue. Dec 30th, at Sea

We have breakfast and lunch at the formal Restaurant for the first time. It’s nice and quiet.

Nice calm day. I spend it sun bathing and in the salt water pool on the back of the ship. Relaxing. It is Jill’s B-day all three families meet for high tea. The flute-lady joins us. Evening show is done by a couple that tap dances, does ballet, dancing and acrobatics.

Passengers who have been with HAL for many cruises get medals. I met someone who has been cruising a combined 330 days with HAL.

Mon. Dec 29, St. Thomas, U.S. V.I.

A total of five ships are in town! Three at the downtown dock and two more at a nearby dock. One bigger then the next. The biggest ship has more than 3000 passengers and comes from Europe.

The town looks much like cities in the US. But there is a big difference: traffic flows like in the states but the cars have their steering wheel on the left (British) side!

We go with Godfred in a safari minibus. First he drops us downtown for some shopping. And there is a lot of it. And lots of tourists. The crowed swells as the day goes on. It rains multiple times but we always happen to be under cover. Later we drive up to the tallest point where it rains. He does a good job of explaining: Much of the island was destroyed during hurricanes and some homes did not get rebuild because people had no insurance and that was because insurance had gotten too expensive after a previous hurricane. It took $3.2billion to rebuild St. Thomas after the last hurricane. The city also had to deal with theft and looting after power and water outages. Many folks were homeless.

The Island was bought from the Netherlands in 1917, a small remaining piece was bought in the seventies.

Many more islands can be seen from lookouts. One island is owned by the DuPont family. Some are too small to live on.

Cruise ship business in their No 1 industry. But it is only 6 out of 12 months. Ships stop coming during the hurricane season.

Godfred takes us to Coki beach. We rent and snorkel gear ($5) and get some fish food. The fish are coming in swarms or better schools :). There are several different kinds of fish and they are very tame and about a foot long. They literally eat from our hands. Li enjoys this too. Bianca doesn’t want to use the swim mask but also has much fun with the fish. It showers a few times but that hardly bothers us.

Back on the ship. It’s Chocolate night. The displays are really impressive. I go for chocolate covered pineapple and strawberry.

Sun. Dec 28th, Philipsburg, St. Maarten

The ship is already docked when we awake. By the afternoon two more ships have docked – both bigger than ours. All looks very modern and developed. The concrete peer looks brand new and very long. The island is dryer, vegetation not as lush. Mountains are not as tall as in Dominica. There is no third-world feel here but also no high rises. There are many nice looking colorful buildings.

After breakfast we take a water taxi into downtown. It’s Sunday but many shops are open. There is a power outage and then another. Shopkeepers are nice and helpful. Not aggressive. Li buys jewelry – there are sooo many jewelry shops but also electronic and photo shops. Bianca goes on a hunt for free trinkets of jewelers to lure in customers.

Shops are owned by Dutch, run by Indians while restaurants are run by Chinese. We end up doing nothing but shopping on Front Street.

Back to the ship for lunch and then back into town once more for more shopping and also some beach time right by the water taxi dock. Traffic and tourism picks up as those two other cruise ships spill out their passengers. A couple from our ship buys a $3000+ camera kit. Bianca and Jenny buy finger nail polish from DelSol. We collect some shells on the beach and realize that we have to hurry back to the ship.

Only 10 more passengers aren’t back when we check back into the ship.
Too bad that we didn’t make it to the French side of this small island. It was drizzling on and off and not the best beach weather.

Sat. Dec 27th, Roseau, Dominica

A bright morning with lots of sun and some wind and waves. The motions of the ship are stronger than ever but they are longitudinal and not felt too much. A beautiful approach into the Roseau harbor.

We hired a local taxi driver who was born and raised in Dominica (his parents grew up here too). He drives us through the island and stops often to show us things or to allow us to take pictures. We taste a grapefruit fresh from the tree, try a passion fruit, try locally baked bread (cassava yucca bread), he shows us lemon grass and cocoa beans, coconuts, bananas, and even shaves of some bark from the cinnamon tree – apparently leaves can be used as well. We get to the other side of this small island where the only remaining original island inhabitants still live, the Caribs.

The Caribs build their houses on stilts. Many homes are very simple and primitive. Most are catholic on this island. Both neighboring islands are French where the streets work like in the US, but Dominica is British ? Chinese made it to this island as well even build hotels that were later abandoned. We get to see the Pacific side of the island.
We buy a basket and a small purse for Bianca with carvings from the Caribs and coconut oil.
Later we are pretty sure that those two products actually come from China.
We stop to take a look at an old person who dries coconuts in a little hut for extracting oil.

Visit a water fall and a pool that sits in the middle of the forest. There are vines and fern and vegetation is very lush.
Li and I do a second quick trip into the downtown area but it shops are shutting down since it is about 5pm and the bigger cruise ship that’s in town gets ready to leave. We leave late (7:30pm-ish).
BBQ dinner back on the ship is hit by rain. I meet and sit with Jenny’s family again and talk about today’s events – they went river tubing. Others went whale watching and had big success. The Bothell family went sea kayaking and snorkeling and had fun as well.

Fri. Dec 26th, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad

Also called T&T. (Trinidad and Tobago).

We dock next to an 1800-passenger ship, the Sea Princess. Rain showers. After a stroll to the terminal building, I run back to get the rain gear. The port is very industrial with many containers stacked up high. We walk into town, most shops are closed. The harbor area shows off with modern 26-story high rises but once deeper into the city it has more of a third world feel. Homeless people, mostly Jamaican looking. Vendors selling cheap products. Surprisingly many Chinese restaurants. Parts of town look quite run down. Bianca keeps finding coins on the street – money not much worth anymore. We venture into some side street.

Cars drive on the ‘wrong side’ of the road here.

After a quick lunch back at the ship we go with Jenny’s parents on a taxi tour. The driver is knowledgeable, takes us to the seven remaining original villas, the carnival area, the museum (a futuristic, curved structure still under construction), the prison, the botanical garden where we stop for a stroll and to an outlook – to be greeted there by a funny guitar player.

There was a coup in 1990.

Li buys cocoa beans back at the ships terminal. David (Jenny’s dad) buys a steel drum for $600 – he is the latest back on the ship today.

Back on the ship we thought of cleaning the found coins with lemon juice but the front desk has a better idea: our room service cleans them for us with chemicals.

After leaving Port-of-Spain, our course takes us close to Venezuela. There are many ship wrecks near the harbor and further out we see many ships (oil and grain) anchored. The sunset is beautiful, so many islands nearby. Later that night our course takes us by a brightly lid offshore drilling site.

Talked with senior cruiser about security issues surrounding big ships: he saw that the Sea Princess that docked next to us had its ultrasonic weapon out. He talked about divers in Dubai, 50 yard security zones, watch guards and security boats.

Thu. Dec 25th, Bridgetown, Barbados

There are three other ships in port.

Our first shore excursion: Turtle encounter. A small bus takes us to a catamaran which takes us out to sea for 20 min. The water is not so clear, Li has difficulties with the snorkeling gear and Bianca had earlier scratched her knees and they now burn in the salt water. She is back on the boat in short order and quite sad. I am the only one who sees a turtle of the three of us under water. Not very impressive. We then go onto a nice beach where we are treated to banana and tube rides – a speed boat pulls tube-like inflatable’s on which you sit or rather hang onto for deal life. Both quite wild. On the way back we are offered rum punch and banana cake. It still turned out to be a fun.

In the afternoon we go with Jenny’s family to the Boatyard beach (visible from the ship). The taxi driver is out to make money. $20 US per person(!) for a quick 5 min ride. We bargain it down to $25 for the seven of us. The beach was crowded and had a party atmosphere. I did a little snorkeling under the dock and saw a couple of squid. The kids had a great time and mostly stayed in the water. The white sand has some pink particles mixed in, Li takes a sample back to the ship and Bianca collects some coral fragments. We walk back through the city, which was nice but all was closed. We got back to the ship pretty late.

Bianca bought nail polish at DelSol which changes color when exposed to sun light.

Wed. Dec 24th, at Sea

Li is up early and does Yoga.  I do my exercise by walking and jogging around the ship on the Promenade deck, watching the big waves.  Rough sea: 2-4 meters.  The ships’ stabilizers are on.  It is difficult to stand straight in the windy spots on the ship. Some waves make it up to deck 7. 

Bianca played in the mid-ship pool that stayed open despite the wind and waves.   It was a lot of fun.

Talked with a couple who has done 40-some cruises.  The South Pacific can be stormy.  They once had to install ropes on the ship and glass was broken by furniture ‘flying around’.

Doing laundry for the first time.  All the black cloth comes out with white fuzz on it -- what a headache.

Bianca gives a lapel pin to an 94 year old lady who has already collected more than 200. She shows her collection to us. The lady is wheelchair-bound and is driving around with a Teddy bear in the front-basket of her electric wheelchair. On formal nights Teddy gets dressed up just like everyone else. Her daughter says Teddy has more outfits then she does.

Dinner was a bit of a disappointment today. Main course: goose - but it was tough, didn’t have much flavor and the red cabbage was much to sweet.

The ship is getting decorated with Christmas ornaments and there is a contest for the best decorated stateroom door.
We are not staying up late for Christmas carols and the midnight buffet.
Someone stole all the customized Christmas gift sets for the kids!!

Tues. Dec 23rd, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico

Local dancers on the peer. Shopping and information booth setup for us right outside the ship. In town, we do the free walking tour with a local friendly guide. The locals are trying hard to make their city appealing. Most speak English. Taxis into town are a straight $10, no negotiation necessary.
Visit a church, liqueur store, art gallery, grocery market, do shopping on our own - are back for lunch. All is US currency.

Mon. Dec 22nd, Santo Domingo, Dom. Republic

Oldest City of the New World.

The peer location is perfect: right next to the Colonial Zone, the historical part of town. We walk right into town. Lots of car traffic, quite a bit of haggling: people walking along and trying to make us choose them as guide?! Stray dogs. Old city defenses, canons, walls.

Cigar, amber and other jewelry shops are the main shopping attractions. Bianca buys a Larimar gemstone – a light-blue stone only found here in the Dominican Republic.

Visit two small museums that are near the peer and visible from the ship. One was the seat of the first governor. The other was Villa or Casa Real?

Learn about Columbus’s four voyages.

Bianca buys a sugar cane. She never had something like this before, neither did we.

Impressions of the Ship Prinsendam

Staterooms were indeed spacious. We even had a walk-in closet. Still, it got tight when we unfolded the couch to turn it into Bianca’s a bed. The ship is not as luxurious and grand as the NCL ships we sailed on before. There is no interior atrium, no ‘wow’ effect. It is also older; launched in 1988. The stateroom- and dining room furniture showed some wear but everything was clean, nice and well maintained. We quickly felt comfortable.

The ship has all the usual amenities: a couple small shops, a small movie theater, a specialty restaurant aside from the regular restaurant and the buffet, a theater with a stage for live performances, a casino, a library, a bar/café, a spa, two pools, Jacuzzis, and a number of other public open spaces and rooms.
The library impressed us, it was large for this size ship and had a great selection, even foreign books and a free book exchange.

The average age of the passengers was probably around 55. We saw two babies, a couple of 3-4 year olds, a few kids in Bianca’s age and also some teenagers. The crew was from Indonesia and the Philippines and was younger - in their twenties. The officers were from the Netherlands.

Thinks that impressed us: No waiting, no lines ever. Many quiet and even empty spots on the ship. Super-friendly, helpful, courteous crew.
Waiters remembering our names and what drinks we preferred. Excellent food presentation, often very good taste too.

Our 14day cruise is one of the shortest trips this ship does. After we got back to Ft. Lauderdale it embarked on a 68 day voyage to Antarctica.
The ship has the most repeat-customers of any Holland America ship. But this may have to do with the longer trips and higher average ages of the passengers.

Sat. & Sun. Dec. 20 & 21, at Sea

The first two days went by quickly. We spent time recovering from the stress (read first post) and discovering the ship. We checked out the shops, the spa, the gym. Li joined the yoga group, Bianca the HAL-kids club. We had high tea; Indonesian on one day, Dutch on the next. There were raffles and other give-aways. We checked out books from the library. Li and Bianca did some puzzles. I took pictures and videos. And Li and I read up on the ports we were going to visit.

These ships always offer lots of activities and it is impossible to do them all. Some are sports-related, some are educational some are just fun contests. Holland America had brought on board two scientists who held lectures on geology of the region, birds and bird watching and sea live. Some performances and lectures were taped and later broadcast on the TVs in our staterooms.

There are life performances every night on the ship, we missed the first but saw all others: A mandolin player, a Broadway-show type dance company, a humorous singer, another singer and actress, a magician and a flute player.

The jewelry shop had different types of jewelry on displays every other night and even held a mini-lecture on amber. The photo shop displayed the staged pictures and snapshots they had taken of us.

There was a kids-HAL club run by Carlos. He was great with the kids. Since so few children were on the ship he tried to customize the activities and do what the few kids wanted to do.

We make friends with two families. Both had children in Bianca’s age. One family was from Bothell: Jessica, Willy, Kyle, Tyler, Leia and Kyle, the other from California: Jill, John, Jenny and Julia.

Thu. Dec 18, Travelling to Florida

Finally in the air. But we are not getting much closer to our destination, Ft. Lauderdale. The flight we are on is taking us to JFK, New York.

The problems started in the morning when we realized that the drive to the airport would be a challenge: Our flight was scheduled to take off at 1:09pm but by 9am we had three inches of snow – uncommon for Seattle. Peigen (friend and neighbor) offered us a ride to the airport in his 4-wheel Audi. So, while the whole neighborhood enjoyed the new show in front of our house, we piled into Peigen’s car and took off. It was a slow drive – never much over 30m/h until we reached Renton, where the traffic freed up. The opposite direction on I-405, however, was a different story: completely packed and full of large trucks all due to the winter weather. We felt sorry for Peigen who had to come back that way after dropping us off.

At the Delta check-in counter we were told that our flight would not make it in time to catch the connecting flight to Ft. Lauderdale and the earliest they could get us to our destination would be the following day by 5pm. “Our ship leaves at 5pm!!!” we told them, obviously shocked by the news. The Delta agent started to look into other routes but could find nothing that worked.

She finally told us that our best option would be to fly to JFK, stay there overnight and catch a flight the next morning to Ft. Lauderdale OR fly to Salt Lake City and get a connecting flight from there. We agreed on JFK, but since the JFK-flight was full and our seats unconfirmed, she asked us if we could carry-on our single check-in luggage to be ready for any last minute changes. We said we could, preceded to the security line, went through the usual hassle but then got stuck because that piece of luggage had items in it that could not be carried-on. It didn’t matter what the ticket agent had told us to do! So, Li and Bianca ended up on the ‘secured-side’ of the terminal while I was stuck with the luggage on the other side. Bianca made the additional mistake of giving me back my shoes through the security apparatus apparently another big no-no. For me to do anything, I needed my passport and ticket which was with Li and ideally the belt for my pants although the belt seemed less important that moment (oddly enough I was holding Bianca’s and Li’s belt in my hands). The security folks finally got me what I needed. I told Li to go on to the gate, while I made my way back once more to the check-in counter.

Back there, the agent told me, yes he can check my luggage but I have to make up my mind as to where it should go: what if we did not make it onto the JFK-flight but the luggage does – no good!!! But I took that risk and checked the luggage to JFK. What choice did I have? Cruising without cloth like that one emperor, I didn’t think so!

Well, all three of us made it onto the JFK-flight. At JFK we stayed at the Crown Plaza Hotel near the airport for a few hours. Alan, from ‘Travel with Alan’ had helped us to book the Hotel ($150) on short notice. We got up at 5am, made our way back to the airport and checked. Bianca and I had confirmed seats to Ft. Lauderdale but Li still didn’t. (We considered switching so that Li could fly confirmed with Bianca, but the agents told us we could loose Li’s spot in the standby list if we did.) We had to consider alternative flights for Li such as those from LaGuardia to Miami. We even separated our passports and money in case she had to go a different route.

Li was very tired from the ordeal and the lack of sleep. Luckily,10min before departure her ticket changed from standby to confirmed. But when she tried to get on board, her ticket still had no seat assignment and she was sent back once more to the gate agent. Finally, things were worked out, and we all got on board. Bianca and I in 1st class, Li in 2nd.