Live from the Prinsendam September 2 - 30, 2018

[Alberta Quilter]

Thanks for the comments on the missed shorex. I should have explained better; I know there is little chance for a refund when one cancels on short notice. What I was wondering is if there was a waiting list of people who wanted to take the shore excursion, was it best to turn it into the Front Office or best to go to the meeting location to turn them in to the shorex staff so that someone could still use the tickets. And, if the tickets were resold to someone else, then maybe we could be refunded. So far, I have not received a refund. I also have not spoken to the shorex staff. They have VERY limited hours!!

 

We did receive a refund of shorex on a prior cruise when I came down with noro. But then we had reported the illness to the Front Office. This time we didn't, mostly because we knew it wasn't noro.

 

And thanks, Susan, for the info about Inverewe Gardens. I didn't know there were few places to sit. I did bring DM's folding stool this time so we could have used that in a pinch. It was still good that we stayed back and took it easy.

[john2003]

U will both love Norway on the Prinsendam. Still a favourite cruise for us. Everything is so close and accessible. Ours went up to the icecap which was amazing.

Your initial comment about travel insurance struck a cord with me. This an area that never caused us problems until my wife's med list grew. Then we kept colliding with the pre-existing conditions clause. I have it ok at the moment but expensive. Wonder if there is anything that you can share on how you solved this.

 

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[RJ2002]

Enjoying your posts, and glad to her your DM is up and about again.

 

I noted in an earlier post that you experienced a fire alarm. Sadly, we also had a fire incident on our Pdam cruise which ended on 19 August. That time, the fire was of an electrical nature in the Java Bar. It was apparently minor. The fire occurred the day before we were returning to Amsterdam, and they simply closed the Java Bar for the rest of the cruise, shut off by large steel sliding doors.

 

Continue enjoying your cruise!

[Pia1913]

Thanks for the LIVE. This is something I do, but on another cruise line.

 

I do have a question. I'm on the Prinsendam in March; FLL to Lisbon, in OV cabin on deck 4. Is there a small frig is these cabins, or do I try for an upsell if not?

[kazu]

Thanks for the LIVE. This is something I do, but on another cruise line.

 

I do have a question. I'm on the Prinsendam in March; FLL to Lisbon, in OV cabin on deck 4. Is there a small frig is these cabins, or do I try for an upsell if not?

 

I'm not AQ, the OP, but I can tell you with certainty that the OV cabins on the Prinsendam have the small fridge/cooler.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Your recent excursion sounded very tiring -- really too long a day for us without food. Especially since DH has 4 medications he has to take by Noon and with food.

Each time I turned in our excursion tickets, I always asked the shore crew if there was a wait list and sadly there wasn't, so no money back.

I think the Front Desk just sets the tickets aside and then turns into the shore crew once they get back to the ship. The Front Desk has no way of knowing if there is a wait list.

[Alberta Quilter]

Sunday, September 9, 2018

Belfast, Northern Ireland

We had a leisurely start to the day, today, because our tour didn't start until 11:00 am. Our tour was a free 2 hour walking tour in downtown Belfast. We took the free shuttle to the Belfast Welcome Centre in downtown and met our guide across the street at City Hall. From there, we went in a figure 8 around the downtown, in Old Town and New Town. We went down to the river to look at the Titanic Quarter and, of course, Belfast Titanic. The Titanic was built in Belfast so they've built a museum/interactive centre here in Belfast called Belfast Titanic. We walked over 7000 steps according to DM's fitbit. DM did well for the first hour and a half and then she slowed down. The guide walked us briskly all over; she said she would wait for anyone caught by traffic lights changing but she didn't really watch to make sure everyone made them. One has to be in decent shape and mobile to do this walk; in fact, we have another one, but a three hour tour, booked for Day 2 in Dublin but I think we'll cancel it based on this experience. The two hours was just that little bit too much for DM. But it was a good tour. The guide spoke fast and one had to really listen hard because of her Irish accent.

After the tour, we made our way back towards the Welcome Centre. We stopped at Marks & Sparks (Marks & Spencer, for those unfamiliar with the nickname). We are actually looking for a tablecloth for home and haven't found one at home or online that we like. We ended up sharing fish and chips for lunch at the M&S Cafe; it wasn't very good and wouldn't recommend it. I received a Northern Ireland bank note in change so thought I should get rid of it. I ended up buying some treats for my colleagues back home with it at the Welcome Centre. And, no, Marks & Sparks did not have tablecloths (it seems that they're too expensive for stores to carry anymore, at least, that's what we heard at home).

We made it back to the ship where we met some CC friends for Team Trivia. Yes, we lost again. We had dinner in the MDR where DM had liver! Now we don't have to go to Canaletto on a Wednesday for her to have liver! She said it was wonderful and will do her at least until the next segment! I had turkey dinner which was quite good.

The entertainment last night was Concerto by the Prinsendam Singers & Dancers. It was pretty good but there were some odd moments when the four sang together; the voices did not blend together. The men were better than the women. We did stay for the whole show which is unusual for us. DM found it far too loud.

 

I stopped at the jigsaw puzzle; we had earlier started sorting the pieces for the next puzzle. DM stopped to chat with some friends. We went to bed about half an hour later because we have another tour tomorrow.

[Marigold252]

Thanks, AQ, for this wonderful live report. My good friends, Earlene and Mayo, are on this cruise with you all the way to Rome. I don't think they are on CC, so you are keeping me up to date on their trip! If you run into them say "Hi" for me. They both have white hair and Earlene has a big smile. Thanks and have a fabulous cruise!

 

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[Alberta Quilter]

U will both love Norway on the Prinsendam. Still a favourite cruise for us. Everything is so close and accessible. Ours went up to the icecap which was amazing.

Your initial comment about travel insurance struck a cord with me. This an area that never caused us problems until my wife's med list grew. Then we kept colliding with the pre-existing conditions clause. I have it ok at the moment but expensive. Wonder if there is anything that you can share on how you solved this.

 

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I don't have all the details but DM got her insurance through CAA (AMA in Alberta). So try checking with BCAA and sit down with an insurance person. It does get complicated! And as one gets older, one has to be stable for six months instead of three...

[Alberta Quilter]

Thanks, AQ, for this wonderful live report. My good friends, Earlene and Mayo, are on this cruise with you all the way to Rome. I don't think they are on CC, so you are keeping me up to date on their trip! If you run into them say "Hi" for me. They both have white hair and Earlene has a big smile. Thanks and have a fabulous cruise!

 

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I laughed when I read your post. Most passengers on this ship have white hair!! And the ones that don't, are colouring their hair!

 

We haven't met them yet but if I do, I will pass on your regards!

[Pia1913]

I'm not AQ, the OP, but I can tell you with certainty that the OV cabins on the Prinsendam have the small fridge/cooler.

 

Thanks, Jacquie. You'll be getting on the day I get off.

[erewhon]

Catching up wit your reports, the Giants Causeway is well worth a visit.

[john2003]

Thanks for responding. We have used BCAA here in BC a couple of times as they have an option to reduce the stable period to 7 days.

 

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[Marigold252]

You gave me a chuckle with your response...thanks!

 

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[Alberta Quilter]

September 10, 2018

Dublin, Republic of Ireland

The ship sailed into Dublin harbour and docked about 8:30; it took a surprisingly long time to sail in and dock as we watched from our window while we ate another room service breakfast at 7:30. We were to meet our tour group in the Ocean Bar at 9 am and received the all clear only at 8:45.

Our small group of six, toured with Alan of Tour Dublin. Alan drove us through Dublin, past Bono's and Enya's homes (could only see Bono's gate but could see a wee bit of Enya's castle!), and over to Wicklow County to Powerscourt Gardens. The Gardens were rated 3rd best in the world by National Geographic. They were lovely, even better than Alnwick Gardens. DM couldn't do it all, and in fact, none of us did it all. But we had a couple of hours there which was great.

We then drove back to Dublin to get to Trinity College to see "The Book of Kells" and the Long Library. We had pre-purchased tickets for both so could bypass the line-ups. I wasn't sure about the Book of Kells and I found it underwhelming. First off, it was soooo crowded one had trouble getting near it. They didn't have any English brochures and we all chose not to pay for the audio guide. The book was written in Latin in 521 - 597 AD, and beautifully illustrated. The powers that be at the College turn one page every three months. It's under lock and key with some other old books. Honestly, I left after seeing the main book and wandered upstairs to the Long Library. I don't like crowds and I didn't think it was worthwhile. Now that is impressive. Imagine two floors of floor to ceiling shelving, all full of books! They have an inventory of 3 million books, kept in 8 buildings. The Long Library itself contains over 200,000 of the oldest books. It even smelled of old books. There were ladders in each section so that one could climb to the top. At the end of each section, towards the centre of the room, there were busts of famous philosophers. It was a stunning room. Even there, in a working college, with students studying in the Library, there's a gift shot at the end! We didn't shop.

Alan took us through Dublin to Arthur's Pub where we had lunch. As it was later (about 2 pm by then, they had already run out of Beef & Guiness Casserole which is what most of us would have ordered. We ended up ordering corn beef on Guiness bread. Everything is about Guiness, here!!

After lunch, we toured St Patrick's Cathedral. Both DM and I did a brass rubbing as a souvenir of our visit. Alan drove us around Dublin some more and then brought us back to the ship at about 4:45. It was a really good tour.

DM had a bit of a lay down before dinner while I made use of the Internet to send emails and post to the Live thread. We had dinner in the Pinnacle Grill, which considering we had such a late lunch, was not the best day to have a big dinner. DM had the crab legs; I had the petit filet. We ate far too much and are totally stuffed!

There was special entertainment tonight, one show only, for those who remained aboard (we have an overnight in Dublin). HAL brought in Celtic Strong, a group of musicians and dancers playing and dancing to Irish jigs/music. They were quite good but it was loud in the showroom. Apparently the three dancers are sisters to the lead dancer in Riverdance. Some of the musicians are teenagers. Each one had a song in which their particular instrument had a solo or was the main instrument used in the tune. The female banjo player was quite amazing; actually all of them were.

We received the welcome news that our stay has been extended in Dublin by an hour; All Aboard is now 5:30 instead of 4:30.

 

After the show, we went to the library to wait for the elevators to clear. DM wanted to get a cup of herbal tea before retiring. It was a late night for us but we don't have a tour tomorrow so can have a bit of a leisurely start in the morning.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Got caught up.

Wonderful reports.

Dublin -- we love that city. So much to see.

[kazu]

It's always nice when they bring local performers on board.

 

Sounds like you had a very interesting day :)

 

Continuing to enjoy your reports very much. Thank you for sharing :)

[scluvsrain]

Totally enjoying your live thread. See you on Sunday!

 

 

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[erewhon]

Thanks for the update.

[I Luv Crusin]

I love, love, love "Live From..." Threads! thank you so much for taking the time to do this!

 

What is this and is it available on all ships?

We booked the tour using the new Navigator app which worked really well. After the talk, there were long line ups at the EXC desk. There were only five seats left on the tour we wanted and I was able to snag two of them on the app with no waiting in line!! Love the app!!!

 

thank you!

[Alberta Quilter]

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Dublin, Republic of Ireland

Well, Day 2 in Dublin was a bit of a dud for us, I'm sorry to say. DM's personal travel agent is now on probation! It started off all right, with a leisurely start to the day and breakfast in the MDR.

We left the ship about 9:45 to catch the shuttle into the town centre. The shuttle cost US$8 one way but if one purchased their round trip ticket at the Front Office (charged to one's shipboard account), it only cost $15.95, a savings of $0.05! Well, don't spend that savings all in one place, eh?! Because we still have a massive amount of OBC, we purchased the round trip tickets and saved that important 5 cents.

I had spoken to the Dublin tourist guy onboard and had said that we wanted to go shopping. He wrote on the map where we were being dropped off and where we should go. There were two areas he recommended, Grafton Street where the brand name stores are located and another area that had more boutique shops and restaurants. He also recommended two pubs in both areas so we could rest up and have some Irish food and then wander about some more.

The shuttle dropped us off at Merrion Square. That's when we took a wrong turn. Instead of walking straight down the street on which we exited the shuttle bus, we turned left and crossed the street towards Merrion Square. We wandered a bit in and out of Merrion Square (it's a park), returning to the same, wrong, street that we started on. We continued walking and nothing compared to my map. We were sort of walking in the correct direction but toward the top of Grafton Street instead of the bottom had we gone the correct way. We kind of knew we were not in the touristy part of town when we came across one establishment that advertised as cocktail bar, oyster bar, private dining and bedrooms (you pretty much can guess what kind of establishment it was! I really wish I had thought to take a picture of the sign) and another that was a private lap dancing club. Thankfully, there wasn't any action (that we could see) at either place at 11:00 in the morning!

Anyway, we finally came upon the boutique area. Well, other than my knack for finding fabric shops in unknown cities/towns, it was not the type of shopping we were looking for. We did go into the fabric shop in case we found fabric from which we could make a tablecloth but that, too, was unsuccessful. It was too early for lunch for us at the recommended pub so we headed to Grafton Street and wandered down that. The recommended pub there did not have what we were looking for for food so we purchased a postcard and a stamp to mail to my friend back home.

If you remember that we cancelled the three hour walking tour we had scheduled for today because it was going to be too much for DM. Guess how long we wandered around "shopping"? Three hours! It was 1:00 by the time we got back to Merrion Square for the shuttle. The shuttles were supposed to run every half hour. Ha! We were told there would be one "shortly". Ha! It showed up after 1:30 and then sat there for 15 minutes. It was after 2 pm by the time we got back to the ship. DM was done in and put me on probation.

 

We joined our teammates for trivia. Yes, we lost again. Dinner was Prime Rib for me and Turkey Scallopini for DM. The entertainment was Kevin Devane, a British comedian; he was quite good. Before and after the show, I worked on the puzzle; DM read.

[Alberta Quilter]

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Sea Day

A busy sea day, for me, anyway. I had made an appointment with the Future Cruise Consultant because when I got the paperwork from my last appointment, she had only given me one FCD each and not the two each that I had wanted. DM needed/wanted to sleep some more, so I got dressed grabbed some breakfast up in the Lido and went to the puzzle until it was time for my appointment.

The appointment itself took all of five minutes but I had to run back to the room to get my credit card so she could put through the second charge. I did however make great headway on the puzzle.

We had the Mariner's Reception (medallion presentation) this morning at 10:15. Most of the medallion presentation were for the copper medallions. There were about 15 silver medallions and about 5 gold medallions. No platinum medallions were presented today. There are four President's Club members aboard - one couple with over 2000 sailing days on HAL. That's almost six years! We have a long way to go...

We skipped the brunch and went to the Lido. I think it's the best day to go to the Lido for lunch; it's not crowded and you get what you like. I heard that the menu wasn't great but I didn't actually check it.

After lunch, there was trivia. Guess what, we actually won! DM contributed one answer; I don't think I contributed a single response. But the rest of the team carried us to fame and fortune! Well, we got a Northern Europe pin instead of fame and fortune.

There was a port presentation right after trivia in the showroom. Following that, was Ask the Captain and then that was followed by Bingo. My first Bingo of the cruise. I didn't even come close to winning. There was also the Win a Cruise lottery draw; nope, didn't win. A short paragraph but it covered over three hours of entertainment. After a short stay at the puzzle table, I raced down to our room to get changed for gala night. DM had lobster (no turf) while I had the rack of veal. Both were very tasty.

 

I skipped the show to work on the puzzle; it was finished shortly after 9 pm, just before our first Chocolate Surprise. The Chocolate Surprise took place in the Ocean Bar and the Crow's Nest. DM waited for me in the Ocean Bar. The Chocolate Surprise was just okay. There were about four or five types of treats brought out, including chocolate milk (pretty good), macarons (really hard), a chocolate rice crispy wafer (not very good) and a chocolate lemon meringue ice cream cone type treat (okay but a little odd). I saw something that looked like a chocolate dipped marshmallow but it wasn't offered to us. Now that we all were on a sugar high, we went to bed!

[Alberta Quilter]

I love, love, love "Live From..." Threads! thank you so much for taking the time to do this!

 

What is this and is it available on all ships?

We booked the tour using the new Navigator app which worked really well. After the talk, there were long line ups at the EXC desk. There were only five seats left on the tour we wanted and I was able to snag two of them on the app with no waiting in line!! Love the app!!!

 

thank you!

 

I don't know if it's available on all ships but I think it may be. It's not an app that one can download prior to boarding. It's more like an Intranet that one uses while onboard. You can view a listing of all events happening onboard on a day by day basis, book your shore excursions, make dining reservations, view menus, book spa treatments and, my personal favourite, view one's onboard account. Because I order the next evening's dinner the night before, the dinner menu is "old new" to us. Others have reported being able to use the "chat" feature but since DM is a little technologically challenged, we don't use it.

[Marigold252]

I don't know if it's available on all ships but I think it may be. It's not an app that one can download prior to boarding. It's more like an Intranet that one uses while onboard. You can view a listing of all events happening onboard on a day by day basis, book your shore excursions, make dining reservations, view menus, book spa treatments and, my personal favourite, view one's onboard account. Because I order the next evening's dinner the night before, the dinner menu is "old new" to us. Others have reported being able to use the "chat" feature but since DM is a little technologically challenged, we don't use it.

We just returned from a cruise on the Noordam and found the chat feature a great addition to the Navigator site. Really minimized the frustration between my DH and I when we were done "doing our own thing" and wanted to meet up.

 

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[kazu]

AQ - I certainly don't think your DM's personal travel agent should be on probation.

 

IMO you are doing a great job and she is lucky to be with you <3 and you her of course <3

 

Really enjoying your great posts.

 

Hope you have better luck at Bingo next time.