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.