Almost Live from Prinsendam's Farewell Voyage

[TiogaCruiser]

 

 

In a little more than a week we will be boarding Prinsendam for her Farewell Voyage as a member of the HAL fleet. Her Farewell Tour includes 10 Norwegian ports in 14 days, round trip from Amsterdam. We have a roll call of over 70 people, many of whom have sailed Prinsendam many times.  For DH and me, this will be our first time on her, and we are looking forward to it. 

 

We know Prinsendam is well loved by many in the HAL Forum family, and there are many who are not able to do this final sailing.Am planning on periodically checking in here and posting reports as we sail along, and I will be posting this on our Roll Call to invite others who want to join in, to please do so.😁

 

We leave later this week and it may be until next weekend before I start trip reports. Still have some packing and final planning to complete. This is the first time for us in Europe, and Norway is a place we have dreamed of visiting with HAL. (So far i have never done a live-from thread, but have enjoyed the efforts of many others. So will give it a try. Please bear with me as I work through the "training wheel" stage with the CC forum, spell correct, 😫 and my iPad.) 

(Now to bookmark the link so I can use it later.)

~TC

Edited June 9, 2019 by TiogaCruiser

[DeeniEncinitas]

5 minutes ago, TiogaCruiser said:

 

 

In a little more than a week we will be boarding Prinsendam for her Farewell Voyage as a member of the HAL fleet. Her Farewell Tour includes 10 Norwegian ports in 14 days, round trip from Amsterdam. We have a roll call of over 70 people, many of whom have sailed Prinsendam many times.  For DH and me, this will be our first time on her, and we are looking forward to it. 

 

We know Prinsendam is well loved by many in the HAL Forum family, and there are many who are not able to do this final sailing.Am planning on periodically checking in here and posting reports as we sail along, and I will be posting this on our Roll Call to invite others who want to join in, to please do so.😁

 

We leave later this week and it may be until next weekend before I start trip reports. Still have some packing and final planning to complete. This is the first time for us in Europe, and Norway is a place we have dreamed of visiting with HAL. (So far i have never done a live-from thread, but have enjoyed the efforts of many others. So will give it a try. Please bear with me as I work through the "training wheel" stage with the CC forum, spell correct, and my iPad.) 

(Now to bookmark the link so I can use it later.)

~TC

TIOGACRUISER!!!!!!

Im very excited to come along on your wonderful journey coming up!!! I so enjoyed Jacqui’s (aka) blog on her last voyage and I saw your responses too! How exciting to be on her final journey!! You will love your trip (CRUISE) and enjoy Europe too!

I will be following along with great anticipation!

Now is the time to relax and as they say SAVORY THE JOURNEY!!

Congrats

Denise😊

 

[RuthC]

I'll be off cruising, too, but will make every effort to keep up with this thread. Had I known Prinsendam would be leaving the fleet when I booked my cruise I would be with you!
Enjoy the Prinsendam, Norway, and all that will be special about this cruise.

[Sir PMP]

Should be a great farewell cruise, so sad to see her go...

[erewhon]

Wishing you a wonderful cruise on the last voyage of the Prinsendam.

[kazu]

Looking forward to any reports you have time to post and share with us.

 

I hope you have very safe and smooth travels and enjoy your first visit to Europe to the fullest.

 

Have a wonderful cruise on the lovely Prinsendam.  Her crew is fabulous and I am sure this will be an emotional cruise for them as well as the passengers.

[*Miss G*]

Thank you for doing this TiogaCruiser!  I am looking forward to following along.  It will be interesting to see if they have any special plans in store.  Have a wonderful time!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Looking forward to your reports.

 

Bon Voyage!!

[madera1]

Enjoy the farewell cruise. We were fortunate to have sailed twice on the Prinsendam. Looking forward to reading your posts.

[HomeLover]

Can’t wait.  I will be thrilled to follow your exploits, especially in places I was 6 years ago.

I said my farewell to my favorite ship a few weeks ago, and will miss her terribly.

Have  fun everyone.  Lynn

[grayjay]

There will be so many on this board who will follow your comments of Prinsendam's final journey as a HollandAmerica ship. We have cruised 4 times on her, fell in love with her and her lovely crew and will sorely miss her and the many international guests we have met and talked to and enjoyed meeting during these journeys.

She will be refitted then , I think quite extensively , for her new owner. We'll be seeing her again then at the beginning of September on a visit at her new port of Bremerhaven, Germany to see how she has changed. It's an opportunity but we're not sure yet if it was a good idea to book that visit because of our memories and the possible changes. (She can be visited for a few hours at special dates for a fee including lunch.)

[highland cruiser]

Thank you for taking us with you on this journey on the Prinsendam.  You will love Norway and it couldn't be on a better ship.  We have been on the Prinsendam only 3 times but each trip will hold a special spot in our hearts. 

[TiogaCruiser]

Thank you all. 

 

Got a question- does P'Dam have any warm/hot tubs? I'm rethinking my packing and my swimsuit (and a few other things) is up for reconsideration. 

 

On the deck plans I see some whirlpools in the Lido and Seaview Pool areas. We don't use the spa, so it would be one elsewhere in a "public" area. Am thinking the weather will be too "crisp" for swimming in the pool.  I loved the hot tub on the Veendam in Antarctica....

[sevigny]

Thank you so much for reporting in from the Prinsendam.  We left her on May 6th, after 42 wonderful days.  We would have stayed on until the very end, except my only niece is getting married at the end of June.  I feel as if we have lost our home, as it always felt like home to sail on the Prinsendam.  I can’t believe HAL’s stupidity in selling her.  We will miss her.

[seaventurer]

I'll also be sailing on Prinsendam's final voyage...can't wait. I was on her Transatlantic from Lisbon to FLL last fall, and also joined her six day quickie to the Caribbean in December. I'm a photographer and author and will be documenting the journey through my blog and gallery. JDS

[TiogaCruiser]

47 minutes ago, seaventurer said:

I'll also be sailing on Prinsendam's final voyage...can't wait. I was on her Transatlantic from Lisbon to FLL last fall, and also joined her six day quickie to the Caribbean in December. I'm a photographer and author and will be documenting the journey through my blog and gallery. JDS

Can't wait to meet you. Hope you will join in on this thread! 😁

[cat shepard]

Bon Voyage, And Thank you for sharing this Voyage.

[seaventurer]

3 hours ago, TiogaCruiser said:

Thank you all. 

 

Got a question- does P'Dam have any warm/hot tubs? I'm rethinking my packing and my swimsuit (and a few other things) is up for reconsideration. 

 

On the deck plans I see some whirlpools in the Lido and Seaview Pool areas. We don't use the spa, so it would be one elsewhere in a "public" area. Am thinking the weather will be too "crisp" for swimming in the pool.  I loved the hot tub on the Veendam in Antarctica....

Four of them - 2 midship, 2 aft...HOT.

[TiogaCruiser]

2 hours ago, seaventurer said:

Four of them - 2 midship, 2 aft...HOT.

Fabulous. 🙂

[ski ww]

Looking forward to reading your blog. enjoy your cruise.

[HomeLover]

On 6/10/2019 at 5:09 PM, grayjay said:

There will be so many on this board who will follow your comments of Prinsendam's final journey as a HollandAmerica ship. We have cruised 4 times on her, fell in love with her and her lovely crew and will sorely miss her and the many international guests we have met and talked to and enjoyed meeting during these journeys.

She will be refitted then , I think quite extensively , for her new owner. We'll be seeing her again then at the beginning of September on a visit at her new port of Bremerhaven, Germany to see how she has changed. It's an opportunity but we're not sure yet if it was a good idea to book that visit because of our memories and the possible changes. (She can be visited for a few hours at special dates for a fee including lunch.)

Hi!  I was on her 4/24 and met a gentleman who worked with the new company.  He told me a few major changes that will happen.  If you care to know, you can email me at windy2@zoominternet.net.  I will not post here while people are still on her.  

Lynn

[*Miss G*]

11 hours ago, HomeLover said:

 I will not post here while people are still on her.  

 

Why?

[TiogaCruiser]

Checking in from Amsterdam:

 

We arrived about an hour late as our flight from SFO was delayed by rerouting passengers who had been booked on a flight to Paris that had been cancelled at the last minute. And our shuttle van arrangements were rather disorganized and added to the delay after arriving. (I booked with Super Shuttle for transfer from AMS to the hotel. It turns out that they sub out to Connexxion Van (which I had decided against due to numerous poor reviews.) Anyway, we made some changes to our plans and spent the remainder of the day in Amsterdam.

 

 

We have a lovely room with a view of one of the canals and were able to check in early. We walked to Centraal Station and did a canal cruise.

 

 

Dinner was a stop at Pancakes Amsterdam on the water behind Centraal Station. We shared one chicken, chive and zucchini with mango Dutch pancake as our main meal and an apple/almond one with whip cream as our dessert. 🙂 Afterward we stopped by the Information Desk to confirm which train we take tomorrow and that it is covered with the Region travel pass as we have rearranged our plans. Tomorrow is Zaanse Schans and the windmills in North Holland. The weather forecast is for rain tomorrow. Hope it doesn’t last all day.

 

For those getting ready to travel, we wish you a safe journey, and see you at the Meet and Greet.

 

~TC

[TiogaCruiser]

I forgot the pictures from dinner.😊

 

 

[*Miss G*]

Oh fabulous!  I will be in Amsterdam for a couple of days in October so I am happy you’re starting your review there!  And now I am hungry.  lol