Have you cruised the Amazon river on the Prinsendam? Pros and cons

Hello all,

I am considering cruising the Amazon river on the Prinsendam in November 2018.

I would like to know if the hype will reach my expectations as far as scenery, wildlife go... Could you please comment if you have experienced this cruise?

Thank you for your input.

The Canadians!:cool:

There is a very recent thread on this topic which you might find helpful.

Here is the link - https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2559266&highlight=Amazon

Hello all,

I am considering cruising the Amazon river on the Prinsendam in November 2018.

I would like to know if the hype will reach my expectations as far as scenery, wildlife go... Could you please comment if you have experienced this cruise?

Thank you for your input.

The Canadians!:cool:

As kazu mentioned, there is a thread asking a similar question that she's given you the link to and I answered the question from the OP there. You've asked a slightly different question here though, so here goes.

As far as wildlife on the river goes, don't expect to be able to see much from the ship while it's in the river. The river is so wide that sometimes you can't see both shores from the ship depending on weather, river and observing conditions. The river itself is usually a chocolate milk color until you get to the areas where the different contributing rivers merge and then you'll see the "mixing of the waters", something that is fascinating to watch.

You will need to take tours at the port calls to see wildlife, but it is abundant when you know, or are guided by someone who knows, where to look for it. Sloths, various fish (we never did see a piranha caught out of the river, only their remains cooking or being sold), pink dolphin (these can be seen from the ship in the river), crocodiles, birds, iguanas and lizards, monkeys and other wildlife can be seen on land on tours designed to view them. Our CC group organized a tour in Manaus that allowed guests to swim with pink dolphin and handle them. They were quite tame and participants loved the experience. In Alter do Chao we organized a tour with a world famous guide who took us to his childhood home in the rain forest of the Tapajos National Forest and Park. We saw so much flora and everything from insects to birds and a few small mammals. It's sad to see how the rain forests are being slashed and burned though. In Santarem we used the same guide to visit indigenous people who lived along the river eking a living off of it when not flooded out by it.

It was a fascinating experience I'll never forget and do recommend. Hope this helps you decide.

As kazu mentioned, there is a thread asking a similar question that she's given you the link to and I answered the question from the OP there. You've asked a slightly different question here though, so here goes.

 

It was a fascinating experience I'll never forget and do recommend. Hope this helps you decide.

Thank you to both of you for your reply. I had already read the link posted by Kazu but wanted to hear more about the Amazon River itself.

The sound of it, DH and I should really experience it. Thank you 0bnxshs for your great write up.

Anybody else who would like to share their experience cruising the Amazon River?

Finally, is the Amazon River good to discover cruising or would it be better to do a land tour?

Thank you everyone.

The Canadians!:cool:

Captain Albert blogged about it some years back ( before his blog was moved to the HAL site. I’m not sure if his older files are still available. I think it was around 2010 or so.

We are so happy we took the opportunity to sail up the Amazon to Manaus on the Prinsendam. One of our all time favorite ships! As to the Amazon: just go with realistic expectations. It is a great experience to travel for days on the Amazon, but the river itself will rarely provide a "WOW!" moment. It is long and sometimes very wide, usually brown, and most of the shoreline scenery is just hours of trees and muddy root banks. Don't expect much in the way of wildlife or exotic sights from the ship. The few "cities" you will stop at are sad relics from the obscenely wealthy rubber barons of old. But don't get me wrong; you will have wonderful lifetime memories from this journey - naturally the sense of how vast and essential the Amazon is as the only means of transportation and commerce for this whole interior region of Brazil. I will never forget the endless stream of ferries laden with produce, live animals, and hundreds of people waiting for hours/days in their hammocks onboard as the schedule is only to leave once the ferry is filled; the "meeting of the waters"; the river fishermen in their fragile boats, etc. But beyond that, our most real experiences of the Amazon were in the excursions we took away from the main river and cities and into the jungle/in dugouts along the small tributaries/walking among the huts in isolated villages, etc. I strongly urge you to embrace any of these types of experiences. Combined with the warmth of the Brazilians you meet and the company of your fellow passengers, you have lots to look forward to!

I have sailed on a cruise that included the Amazon, but not on the Prinsendam. My vessel was the original Royal Princess. A very interesting cruise with scenery that did not get old as one sailed to Manaus and then back to the Atlantic. Can't say that I saw much wildlife from the ship, but I did see some very colorful sunsets and unusual cloud formations.

One shore excursion that Princess offered was Alligator Hunting by Night at Manaus. I booked this; we went into the Rain Forest at night on very small boats--maybe 6 guests at most and 2 guides, one who drove the boat and one who used a flashlight, searching for the animals. When the light beam hits the animal's eyes, there is a reflection, the driver guides the boat to where the animal is, and the other person tries to catch it and bring it onto the boat. We then had a close-up look and were able to hold the alligator (after being shown how to keep its mouth closed) if we wished. Our driver/guide were quite successful; we caught (then released, of course) several of these creatures.

Don't know if such a shore excursion is still offered, but, if it is I strongly recommend it. Just being out in the Rain Forest at night with all of the sounds and sights (there was close to a full Moon) made the tour worthwhile.

Wow, thank you everyone for your posts. They were inspiring. You have helped me tremendously.

The Canadians!:cool:

One shore excursion that Princess offered was Alligator Hunting by Night at Manaus. I booked this; we went into the Rain Forest at night on very small boats--maybe 6 guests at most and 2 guides, one who drove the boat and one who used a flashlight, searching for the animals. When the light beam hits the animal's eyes, there is a reflection, the driver guides the boat to where the animal is, and the other person tries to catch it and bring it onto the boat. We then had a close-up look and were able to hold the alligator (after being shown how to keep its mouth closed) if we wished. Our driver/guide were quite successful; we caught (then released, of course) several of these creatures.

 

Don't know if such a shore excursion is still offered, but, if it is I strongly recommend it. Just being out in the Rain Forest at night with all of the sounds and sights (there was close to a full Moon) made the tour worthwhile.

In 2009, the last part of our day tour was searching for alligators at night. However, our tour guide wasn't as lucky as yours - he never found any alligators, and finally called it quits after searching for about an hour. The rest of the tour was good though.

We are so happy we took the opportunity to sail up the Amazon to Manaus on the Prinsendam. One of our all time favorite ships! As to the Amazon: just go with realistic expectations. It is a great experience to travel for days on the Amazon, but the river itself will rarely provide a "WOW!" moment. It is long and sometimes very wide, usually brown, and most of the shoreline scenery is just hours of trees and muddy root banks. Don't expect much in the way of wildlife or exotic sights from the ship. The few "cities" you will stop at are sad relics from the obscenely wealthy rubber barons of old. But don't get me wrong; you will have wonderful lifetime memories from this journey - naturally the sense of how vast and essential the Amazon is as the only means of transportation and commerce for this whole interior region of Brazil. I will never forget the endless stream of ferries laden with produce, live animals, and hundreds of people waiting for hours/days in their hammocks onboard as the schedule is only to leave once the ferry is filled; the "meeting of the waters"; the river fishermen in their fragile boats, etc. But beyond that, our most real experiences of the Amazon were in the excursions we took away from the main river and cities and into the jungle/in dugouts along the small tributaries/walking among the huts in isolated villages, etc. I strongly urge you to embrace any of these types of experiences. Combined with the warmth of the Brazilians you meet and the company of your fellow passengers, you have lots to look forward to!

This is a very accurate report, being on the Amazon itself isn’t that interesting. If you like wild life then take tours. Still for us it was a bucket list trip that did not in any way live up to our expectations. We did it on Regent. We like more culture. The zoo in Manaus was very sad. Skip that. For interesting river trips suggest the Mekong, Nile,or upper Mississippi.

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We are so happy we took the opportunity to sail up the Amazon to Manaus on the Prinsendam. One of our all time favorite ships! As to the Amazon: just go with realistic expectations. It is a great experience to travel for days on the Amazon, but the river itself will rarely provide a "WOW!" moment. It is long and sometimes very wide, usually brown, and most of the shoreline scenery is just hours of trees and muddy root banks. Don't expect much in the way of wildlife or exotic sights from the ship. The few "cities" you will stop at are sad relics from the obscenely wealthy rubber barons of old. But don't get me wrong; you will have wonderful lifetime memories from this journey - naturally the sense of how vast and essential the Amazon is as the only means of transportation and commerce for this whole interior region of Brazil. I will never forget the endless stream of ferries laden with produce, live animals, and hundreds of people waiting for hours/days in their hammocks onboard as the schedule is only to leave once the ferry is filled; the "meeting of the waters"; the river fishermen in their fragile boats, etc. But beyond that, our most real experiences of the Amazon were in the excursions we took away from the main river and cities and into the jungle/in dugouts along the small tributaries/walking among the huts in isolated villages, etc. I strongly urge you to embrace any of these types of experiences. Combined with the warmth of the Brazilians you meet and the company of your fellow passengers, you have lots to look forward to!

I agree with the quote above, but I disagree with the comments that you CAN NOT see wildlife from the ship while underway. You can definitely see wildlife. The trick is to watch carefully and use good binoculars. Many people just look casually for a few seconds and give up because nothing jumps out at them. There is a huge difference between watching or observing and just looking. In addition, carefully scanning with good binoculars will reward you. The bird perched in a tree on the bank will be invisible to the casual naked-eye viewer, but binoculars will make the bird very apparent, usually identifiable by species. Similarly, but much less often, mammals will appear on the shoreline. Fish and maritime mammals are a bit harder, but they can be spotted by the observant viewer. You should spend quite a while on deck. A casual five-minute glimpse will usually show you nothing.

I spent hours on deck scanning the passing river and shorelines. Besides finding the river itself fascinating, I saw many creatures, the most common of which was the domestic cow, unfortunately. I actually used a spotting scope (a 20 to 60 power zoom telescope) with outstanding results, but then I am a birder.

Watch closely and carefully - the critters are there. The same advice applies to any cruise, even out in the middle of the ocean. Watch, don't just look.

Thank you again for the very helpful posts. It is nice to count on CC family for inputs... Your unselfishness is very much appreciated.

The Canadians!:cool: