Prinsendam Amazon Explorer, November 26-December 22, 2013

[sapper1]

Hi Sapper1! The Amazon was not of interest to me....DH watched too many episodes of "River Monsters" and declared he would like to see for himself. I, however, was the one who became intrigued, and was so excited the night before the Prinsendam entered the River, I could hardly sleep!

 

Your DH should go, it was amazing!

 

Karen

 

Hi to you too!! This is one instance where high pressure won't work. He would have to think it was his idea. I'll read Roy's accounts to him.

[rafinmd]

I thought I'd add this post here, primarily due to the parting shot.

 

The Prinsendam is in Massina, Sicily

 

In the words of one of my Blount Captains, today is a day for "One hand for me and one hand for the ship".

 

When I rose the winds were in the 40-knot range. I was surprised to see that only the port doors to the Promenade deck were roped off, but still waited for daylight to go on deck. I walked what is kind of my "minimum" walk of 6 laps, and conditions were deteriorating as I neared the end of the walk with spray covering the deck and getting worse by lunch time. It was quite overcast with only a slight reflection of the sun against clouds in the western sky at dawn, and some rays poking through a small slit a half hour later.

 

There were 2 Crystal Visions presentations in the Starlite club today. At 10 Kate Burton and Michael Ritchie held a Q&A session interviewed by 2 other of the other theme presenters. At the same time Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was screened in the Hollywood Theater. In the afternoon Ken Rees spoke about our 3 remaining ports. At his noon update Captain Symonds predicted conditions improving very slowly. The Grand Gala buffet was held in the Crystal Plaza.

 

Gordon from the Galaxy Orchestra played at the afternoon tea. I may just never have noticed before, but I was surprised to see that he was playing using a Kindle or equivalent for his music. I had to leave tea early as I had a 4PM ticket for Magic Castle at Sea. Magician Brian dazzled us from close range as these performances are limited to about 15 guests per show in the very intimate Luxe night club. Rounding out a very busy afternoon the Troubador Theater Company presented "A Midsummer Saturday Night's Fever Dream", a play based very loosely on Shakesphere's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the Galaxy Lounge.

 

All 9 of us enjoyed a French Dinner in the Crystal Dining Room, followed by the Crystal Society Party. Captain Symonds reported being all dressed and ready for the Captain's Welcome Monday night when the pilots arrived earlier than expected, and he had to also deal with some unexpected winds. He reported that the pilots were very impressed by being greeted by such a smartly dressed Captain.

 

The wind and sea conditions lingered longer than expected, and I feel I got a benefit from the continuing stormy weather. Karen Grainger's performance was postponed and Mark Farris did a cabaret show in the Galaxy Lounge in her place. We will see Diva and I don't believe Mark's Cabaret was scheduled so I was very happy with the change.

Today's parting shot has to be Typhoon Haiyan. The Crystal Symphony has a large contingent of Filipino crew. They are being supported by the company and given additional communications resources to contact their family but it is still a very stressful time with crew having, families, homes, and colleagues in hard hit areas. (It is reported that some crew suffered damage but all the crew family members are believed to be ok) While this is a significant issue on Crystal ships, it is HUGE with Holland America. Many of the staff who will be serving me on the Prinsendam have families back home, some scheduled to board with me in Florida are facing destruction first hand at home, and some currently on the ship will be going home to face uncertainty. To all the Filipino crew on Symphony, Serenity, Prinsendam, and other ships may you and your families suffer minimal effects of the storm and recover as quickly as possible from any damage.

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

FYI, I'm in Aruba today and sailaway will be at 5PM Aruba time (4PM Eastern). It won;t be great since I'm at the furthest dock from Lou & Dave's camera, but I will be standing right above the bridge.

 

The Prinsendam is at sea from Civitavecchia to Cadiz, Spain

 

After a quiet night I rose at 5 and saw we were nearly in Curacao with the Aida Luna immediately behind us. I did not see the pontoon bridge in the dark as we passed it but we passed under a very high bridge just before we came to a stop. The port became quite crowded when the Crown Princess arrived at the Mega dock around 2.

 

Willemstad is a lovely city but our dock was in a very ugly spot nestled among oil storage tanks and ugly, narrow roads. Because we will be the last ship to leave we got the innermost dock, where other ships do not need to pass us on the way out. It was about a half mile walk to the port entrance by the Luna and the floating bridge. This is my first ever visit to Curacao, although I will be returning very soon on the Prinsendam December 19. The same situation holds for Aruba.

 

My tour was "A walk through Willemsted", and we started out walking alongside the harbor, passing under the high bridge and by the Luna, then crossing on the pontoon bridge to Otrabanda, the commercial side of town. The bridge (roughly 500 feet long) swings alongside the Punda shore to allow vessels to pass. When that happens, a pair of ferries takes people across the harbor. We passed through the Governor's Palace (Curacao is a self-governing Dutch possession; it has an elected Minister and a Governor representing the Queen. While the buildings of Curacao are many pastel shades, the Palace is yellow, the color of royalty. After pausing in a plaza we went on to the Synagogue, the oldest in the new world, with the current building dating to 1730.

 

The floating market is a bit of a misnomer. The stalls themselves are on land with the vendors boats behind them serving as the stockroom. Vendors are mostly from Venezuela and are allowed at the market for a 3-month period. Our guide then took those who wanted to go back to the ship, I returned an hour or so later. After a break I went out for a lunch and some heavy duty internet work, then walked some more, finally returning to the ship about 3.

 

It was a very busy late afternoon on the ship. Jim Brochu gave a 4:15 presentation on "The Golden Age of Hollywood: The RKO Story". The Starlite Club was packed for the presentation despite the ship being in port.

 

The make-up performance of Imagine came at 5:15. It features the Crystal Ensemble of Singers and Dancers in a major departure from the usual shows. The Galaxy lounge is in total darkness, and the performers wear black costumes fitted with LED panels on the upper and lower arms and legs, back and chest, belt, and head. If the LED's are turned off the performers are invisible. They can be selectively illuminated so you may see several pairs of dancing legs, if just the arms are illuminated you may get a vision of a person with 10-foot arms, and so forth. If the lights are turned on or off a performer will magically (dis)appear. Photography is strictly forbidden in the show but the cast did greet us in the foyer afterwards.

 

We had a lovely dinner despite a couple of our members not being present. Susan from my Panama Canal trivia team joined us tonight. I missed it, but the Kent Dancers performed at the main show. Finally, Jim Brochu, Ken Rees, and Joshua Finkel held a 10:15 session of Liars Club. This evening I began to see disembarkation tags sitting on some mail slots. It feels good not to be getting one.

 

As today's parting shot, we are still concerned about the after effects of Typhoon Haiwan. Captain Symonds included a letter on page 2 of today's reflections:

 

http://amazonextended.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/reflections1113.pdf

 

Most of the crew have been able to verify that their loved ones are safe, but for the few that haven't yet the stress is terrible. We are certainly hopeful that this is a matter of communications being disrupted but all our best thoughts are in order. I hope also that the Prinsendam crew is faring equally well.

 

Roy

[kazu]

What a lovely message from the Captain Roy:)

 

It's very nice to see that Crystal is matching donations. So wonderful.

 

Our prayers continue for all of those suffering from this devastation and for the crew and their families on all of the ships.

[RuthC]

I continue to enjoy your reports from the ship. That show "Imagine" sounds like something I would like to see. Maybe someday.

I'll catch up on all your reports when I return from my own cruise. Just think---you'll still be cruising!

[startwin]

Great reports, Roy - I've been following your blog since your journey began. That's a wonderful letter from the captain, and I hope the HAL captains have done the same thing.

[rafinmd]

I thought about including some answers in my daily posts but instead decided to devote a post to them. From the HAL forum, thank you startwin, RuthC, and kazu. It may then be past history, but I’ll not be surprised to see there is still something being done for HAL crew when I board the Prinsendam. My best guess is that Filipinos represent something like 10% of the Symphony crew and more like 40% on the Prinsendam.

 

Roy - excellent reports (as always).

 

May I ask, are the tours included in the price with Crystal? Are they as crowded as HAL tours? (around 40 people).

 

Probably dumb questions but if you have time and don't mind I'd appreciate it.

 

Those lucky people on the P'dam TA - takes me back to my first P'dam cruise when DH fell in love in about 20 minutes :D Makes cruise selection easy now:)

 

I hope their cruise is as enjoyable as ours was.

 

Georgina's poppies have been worn with great pride:)

 

This was probably the perfect time to ask that question, since both ships are calling on Aruba and Curacao. Generally, the only tours that are included in the price are the “We Care, You Care” volunteer excursions. Most of the tours in common between Crystal and HAL were about $5-10 less expensive on Crystal than on HAL although one was an extra $10 on Crystal.

 

I’m trying to figure a common ground on the numbers. I think of a typical bus as about 60 passengers and 40 for that doesn’t seem crowded. I would guess on a typical cruise on that size bus HAL might have about 50, and when Crystal reached around 40 they would add a second bus. I know on my tour in Aruba we had 32, and our walking tours in Jacksonville and Curacoa there were about 20. The Safari vehicles in Grand Turk were pretty much filled, but I think that was probably around 20 in each vehicle. Generally speaking, on every vehicle Crystal provides a ship’s escort; they generally are very involved in assisting the guide and dealing on problems that come up on the tour. The escorts generally are either lecturers, dance hosts, or from the casino and shops, people not needed in the operation of the ship while in port. On one cruise they even sent an escort on a tour with 6 paying guests.

 

BTW, your inquiry saved me some money. In doing my comparison, I realized my HAL tour in Aruba was more of a repeat of things I’d just done than I originally thought and just got a $64.95 refund.

 

I’m a little ambivalent about the P’dam TA. I’ve felt much the same about that as I do about my upcoming Caribbean cruise on the Symphony. I think both itineraries feel to me a little like getting in a Ferrari to go 2 blocks to the corner grocery store. I think either of those itineraries will be wonderful but they just don’t seem worthy of the great possibilities the 2 ships offer. Just as the 10-day gap between my current cruise and the P’dam provided the perfect opportunity to test the theory with Crystal, someday I’ll probably find the perfect Collectors Cruise on the Prinsendam and test that impression as well.

 

I am not Roy but I am pretty sure Roy and I do the same thing and that is to bring a portable scanner to scan menus, reflection, etc for the blogs. They make them very small.

 

Keith

For this cruise I am traveling unusually heavy. Primarily due to my time on land post cruises I am carrying both a scanner and a printer. I’ve used the scanner for about 30 months now and it is well worth it’s 14oz weight.

 

 

 

The printer is heaver and I will not take it on most trips, but I’ve used it surprisingly often. It was in the bag I shipped via Luggage Concierge and it runs about 6.6 pounds (~3 kg).

 

 

 

Roy

[kazu]

Thanks Roy - wow a printer! I could never bring myself to do that (but we fly). Good for you!!

 

TA's on the Prinsendam are very nice as they usually have some unique ports before (or after depending upon your direction). The collectors' cruises are usually wonderful.

 

The staff know how to move things up a notch with the different buffets, etc. so TA's on this ship can be fun :) and there are normally a few good ports thrown in (last year for the TA portion only there was Bermuda, three French ports, Belgium and ending in Tilbury)

 

Your room looks like it is quite spacious

[rafinmd]

Jacqui, One of my roll call members chimed in with this over on the Crystal Forum.

 

 

In Grand Turk, there were only 4 guest who went riding. We had Christopher, the stage manager of the Galaxy Lounge/Starlight Lounge come with us. I think think the smallest group were about 2 (possibly 3) guests who went scuba diving who were also provided with a ship's escort.

 

Roy

Edited November 16, 2013 by rafinmd

[Scrapnana]

Hi, Roy!

 

Glad you are having a good time. I am looking forward to hearing about your Amazon adventures. I would like to do a South American cruise one day.

 

I have been debating bringing my scanner with me but I think you have convinced me to take it along.

 

Don't forget to wave to the sailaway addicts when you leave on the Prinsendam!:D

 

Kathi

[rafinmd]

Hi, Roy!

 

Glad you are having a good time. I am looking forward to hearing about your Amazon adventures. I would like to do a South American cruise one day.

 

I have been debating bringing my scanner with me but I think you have convinced me to take it along.

 

Don't forget to wave to the sailaway addicts when you leave on the Prinsendam!:D

 

Kathi

 

Thanks. Maybe with a bit of luck a few addicts will even be watching my departure from Key West, although I know it's the wrong ship.

 

Roy

[startwin]

Thanks. Maybe with a bit of luck a few addicts will even be watching my departure from Key West, although I know it's the wrong ship.

 

Roy

 

Yes indeed, a few of us sailaway addicts were watching you leave.

[erewhon]

I always enjoy reading your reviews.

 

Thank you.

[Vict0riann]

Roy's sailing away!

 

[rafinmd]

Thanks, all and thank you for the photo, Victoriann. I know with the traffic behind you you waited a long time for that photo. The Symphony is at the Navy Dock in Key West but Lou and Dave have some very nice telephoto cameras, which may help on our 5PM sailaway. I'll be immediately above the bridge wing in a bright red shirt, and will try to find the closest similar spot on the Elegant Explorer Tuesday.

 

Since the HAL forum is the headquarters for sailaway addicts, may I share a bit of video. This is the Symphony leaving Costa Maya.

 

Vice Captain Tonci Hladilo is at the controls. The bald gentlemen with his left hand on the button is Captain Ralf Zaander.

 

 

Roy

[kazu]

Nice video Roy :) Especially with the toots:D Had no idea it was as easy as the press of a button;)

[Vict0riann]

Interesting video. Is that where you will be today, Roy - port side? I hope to be back from my exercise class in good time for sail-away today.

[rafinmd]

Interesting video. Is that where you will be today, Roy - port side? I hope to be back from my exercise class in good time for sail-away today.

 

I'll be starboard today, the shore side is where the action happens. For the Prinsendam, I definitely plan to be port side to be towards Lou and Dave's camera.

 

Roy

[kazu]

Thanks, all and thank you for the photo, Victoriann. I know with the traffic behind you you waited a long time for that photo. The Symphony is at the Navy Dock in Key West but Lou and Dave have some very nice telephoto cameras, which may help on our 5PM sailaway. I'll be immediately above the bridge wing in a bright red shirt, and will try to find the closest similar spot on the Elegant Explorer Tuesday.

 

Since the HAL forum is the headquarters for sailaway addicts, may I share a bit of video. This is the Symphony leaving Costa Maya.

 

Vice Captain Tonci Hladilo is at the controls. The bald gentlemen with his left hand on the button is Captain Ralf Zaander.

 

 

Roy

 

The ship looks very pretty in Key West Roy :D I think you have a nicer day than Miami :D I hope it is better for you tomorrow there.

 

We're watching you:D

[Vict0riann]

Looks like I made it back just in time to wave goodbye!

 

White trucks in Key West!

 

Are you there?

 

Edited November 22, 2013 by Vict0riann

[Vict0riann]

And you left right on time!

 

[rafinmd]

Nice pictures, although the camera seems to have been pointed further back than where I was standing. I thought I saw one of the front end, and will look again when I have fast internet.

 

Roy

[Esri]

Well, insomnia is good for something -- I'll be catching up on the Symphony part of your voyage! Looking forward to reading all your adventures until you join the Amsterdam in Cape Town (and your impressions of the last segment of the world cruise as well). :)

[rafinmd]

Well, insomnia is good for something -- I'll be catching up on the Symphony part of your voyage! Looking forward to reading all your adventures until you join the Amsterdam in Cape Town (and your impressions of the last segment of the world cruise as well). :)

 

Thanks. I haven't followed the WC roll call as closely as I should, but I just downloaded your Events page. I'm not sure if us segmenters will get the blue folder, but I have the information.

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

The Prinsendam is at sea on her way to Fort Lauderdale to pick me up.

 

I had packed away my alarm clock and was not successful setting the one in the room, but still awoke around 5:20. It looked like we were already docked but when I went out on deck we were still about 100 feet from shore. By about lap 2 of my walk there were lines out and we were connected to the dock. Going for the second half of my walk towards 7 it was almost completely cloudy.

 

It was a very busy day in Miami, as we were joined by Celebrity Reflection, MSC Divina, Carnival Liberty and Breeze, Epic, and Costa Luminosa on a port call.

 

I had purchased 10 hours of internet back in New York and it turned out to be the best plan although in spite of intensive use the last morning I had an hour left when I vacated cabin 8080. I was in the earliest departure group and we left right on time at 8:30. SAS Transportation picked me up a while later and I shared a ride to Ft. Lauderdale airport with 6 Epic and 2 Carnival passengers. On the ride we encountered one quite heavy shower but it ended by the time we arrived. A hotel van took me to the Sleep Inn in Dania, where my luggage was stored but my room was not yet ready. After storing my luggage I caught a bus to the Hertz office for my car, did some shopping, and got a lunch. I checked into my room about 2:30. It was not an easy day. I'm wrestling with a suitcase with a malfunctioning latch(opened by hotel maintenance but still awaiting a permanent solution) and the trusty netbook I've used is balky, but my new computer is much less satisfactory. Much of the afternoon and evening went to installing and configuring software.

 

Cruise Critic member Victorianne sent me some screenshots of the Symphony leaving Key West.

 

 

The camera range was too long to pick me out, but trust me I am one of the blobs right in front of the mast.

 

 

As today's parting shot, while Crystal is approaching the 25-year mark, it is a relatively young cruise line, and still has some people who have been involved for virtually their entire time to date. Today, one of those individuals is leaving the ship with me for the final time. Alfredo Parro joined Crystal Cruises as a carpenter in 1990 and rising to the position of Chief Carpenter. Anyone who has been on Crystal ships has seen the loving care they get on a day to day basis, and Alfredo has been a big factor in the continuing beauty of the ships. Alfredo, thank you and have a long, rich retirement.

 

 

Roy