Sue & Jim - Prinsendam 2010 Grand Voyage - South America and Antarctica

We are Home

2010-03-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

We made it home without any problems. The snow in Denver caused us no delays, but people on flights during the previous afternoon and night had cancelations and delays.

It's nice in a way to be home, but no one brought my breakfast or made my bed this morning and I'm sure no one will start doing the laundry that is building up in the laundry room as we are unpacking. I do love being spoiled and waited on while we cruise. It's always rough getting back to real life - I could easily the the old lady that lives on a ship.

I'll do a summary in the next day (or so).

last evening on the ship

2010-03-23T17:21:00.000-07:00

The bags are packed and out in the hallway. The cabin seems very empty. I could still stay on for the next Grand Voyage to the Med but I guess I need to go home and deal with the real world for a while. Ack, I have to cook and clean??!! And the laundry. Oh well, the final night always is a bit sad as we are leaving many new friends and of course, leaving another adventure.

We saw on CNN that there is a big snowstorm hitting Denver right now so I don't know what to expect for our flights tomorrow. I've checked the 9News website and there are a few inches in Denver and Lakewood already. So... we'll be home tomorrow if Mother Nature is nice to us. We have a Southwest flight at 11:30 but it's not direct like we always try for... we do have to change planes in Houston - but the first direct flight I could get was late in the afternoon and I didn't feel like hanging around in the airport all day.

I'll do some summary posts after we get back home.

Random Thoughts

2010-03-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

We are just two days from the end of the cruise. As usual I could stay on for another one, but I’d want a balcony cabin. We have managed ok with the outside cabin, but we both really missed the balcony… then again I could wish they would somehow just give me the Penthouse! The space in the outside cabin is fine - actually bigger than some balcony cabins as we have a loveseat, chair and coffee table, but I miss the sound of the sea and the fresh air and having the floor to ceiling size of the sliding door as a window to see outside.

The computer that runs the ship information channel on the TV broke shortly after the cruise began. That is the channel where you get current information on temperature, wind, wave height, etc. It also gives the ship location on a map so you can get a good idea of your location. I had never realized how much I depended on this until it wasn’t available. I would have especially used it while we were in the Chilean fjords, Antarctica and the Amazon. They say it will be fixed for the next cruise-the new computer is waiting in Fort Lauderdale.

The crew and staff of Prinsendam is probably the best we have ever experienced. Although I think the cutbacks are slightly noticeable in that the stewards and waiters care for more people than some years back, everyone is happy and cheerful (at least when we, the passengers, can see them). They all seem to enjoy their jobs and to really like being on Prinsendam as they really do get to see the world as opposed to the ships in the Caribbean and/or Alaska.

I have found the people on the ship to be very friendly and polite - of course, there are the exceptions… a couple that are constantly complaining about everything and one lady that is one of the rudest people I’ve ever been around - she is one of those that thinks everything should revolve around her and demands that it happen that way.

I’ve made a number of new friends that I hope to keep in contact with.

The attire of the passengers (on all lines we have been on recently) is considerably more relaxed than even just a few years ago. Formal nights are not nearly as formal and it seems they don’t even ask passengers that are not at all dressed up to change clothes or use the lido for that evening. I’ve heard a number of complaints from people that don’t like the ‘casual’ atmosphere. I guess it is here to stay and we will have to adapt or move to Cunard.

That’s it for now… I might have more later. I’ve added thoughts from a number of people that have wandered by as I’ve been writing.

Thoughts from other People:

I feel like I’m leaving a new family - passengers and crew.
I don’t know how anyone could experience Antarctica and not believe in a Higher Power.
Exciting and Awesome.
We’re on course (from the Captain).
I like the food on the ship.
The way the staff and crew treat you they make you feel special.
They should put a cover on the extra roll of toilet paper so men don’t “whiz” on it. [note from Sue - you have to wonder about this guy if this was his only 'thought' of the cruise]
Cold and Penguins (from Thom, Cruise Director)
This is a ‘complete’ cruise, we have traveled in all types of weather and climates. There is nothing that beats Antarctica. (from Kevin, Asst. Cruise Director)
Unexpected. The brochure told you what to expect, but it was so much more. I couldn’t believe the juxtaposition of Antarctica /vs. Amazon River. I had expected the Amazon River to be the highlight of the cruise, but it turned out to be Antarctica. I just couldn’t believe it.
70 days seems like eternity on a boat.
Not many 33 year olds haven’t been on a cruise this long.
70 days is just not long enough… I could stay on for more (except maybe to see my new granddaughter).
The cruise went to too many places that were too similar.
Fun.
Can’t wait to do it again.
I’m glad I did it, but I’m glad it’s over.

Ponce, Puerto Rico

2010-03-21T12:24:00.000-07:00

Our last port of call. It was a beautiful day, perfect blue sky along with the blue waters of the Caribbean and temperature around 80. Ponce is located on the south side of the island - San Juan is on the North and is a much larger city and port. We left the ship about 9:30 and our timing couldn’t have been more perfect as the first of two marching bands was just marching up to perform. These were all school children from Ponce and a nearby town/school. The band from Ponce was quite large and included baton twirlers, flag twirlers and cheerleaders. The other band was quite small, but had a couple baton twirlers with it. In both bands there were some very small children, one in particular (in the middle of the front row of the picture) absolutely stole the show; he was perfect - a real showman and never missed a beat.

Since this was a Sunday we had been warned that there wouldn’t be much open in town so we decided to just walk along the boardwalk and watch the people feed the fish and birds. This particular pelican was really funny… he was awfully picky when he was getting free food handouts… right after he took this fish, he spit it out and didn’t want anything to do with it again.

We have only two more days of the cruise left… you can feel the mood changing on the ship; it’s much more subdued.

Barbados

2010-03-20T05:56:00.000-07:00

We were entering the port at Barbados as we woke up; there were already 3 ships docked and the Grand Princess was following us in. The others were from P&O, Fred Olson and the Freewind so it was a crowded day at the terminal.

We waited until about 9:30 and then headed off the ship and took the special shuttle around to the terminal since we were the farthest ship, Prinsendam had arranged for the shuttle. I thought we had been here before (Jim said no) but as soon as we entered the terminal I knew I was wrong and that this would be a new port for us. We decided to just get a taxi for a couple hours and do a short tour of the area rather than go into the downtown for shopping - how much stuff can people actually buy?!! I saw lots of shopping bags coming back onboard later in the day so I guess people are still buying something.

We had heard that there were monkeys on the island so we asked our driver about it and he said yes there were some quite close… he then stopped to buy some bananas for us to feed them. We did a short tour of the city and then headed to the monkeys that are located near the Country Club. He found them right away and we spent about 30 minutes feeding them and taking pictures. These monkeys were much tamer than those on Devils island - these had no fear of people or my camera.

Then we drove through the countryside and saw several smaller towns and then headed back to the port. Our driver was excellent and explained everything…. Of course, the fact that this is a former British Colony means it is English speaking which was very nice!

After we got back to the ship we played trivia (and did miserably!) and then went to the deck BBQ around the Lido pool. By that time, my bones really needed to stop sitting and get flat so we headed back to the cabin and spent a short evening reading.

From Brazil into France

2010-03-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

On Monday and Tuesday we were at sea and it seemed there were several things we wanted to do. Monday we had a special “Swim across the Equator” which I decided to do since I missed the swim with the penguins. As you can see in the picture, the pool was quite crowded. Thom, the cruise director, is the guy in the tux and hat. There is a slightly larger pool on the aft Deck 9. On Tuesday they had the Mariner’s luncheon… since everyone onboard is a Mariner, it was divided into two lunches just like the dinner seatings. It was a nice lunch and the Captain spoke a bit about our travels and the challenges of the Antarctic and the Amazon.

Wednesday we arrived at Devil’s Island off the coast of French Guiana. This is where France sent some of their prisoners until the 1950’s. There are actually three small islands together named the Iles du Salut; the others are Ile Royale and Ile Ste-Joseph.
We actually were on Ile Royale - not Devil’s Island as it has no facilities to even dock the tenders. The island is an interesting hodgepodge of restored buildings including a small hotel and restaurant and the remains of the prison buildings. There were several paths you could take to explore; it takes about an hour to walk all the way around the island. We were there about 5 hours because there were lots of monkeys big ones and small ones and I had to take lots of pictures. These are wild monkeys, but they are somewhat used to people and if you held out a piece of food, eventually one would get brave enough to come and snatch it quickly and run away. There were also some little rodents called Agouti (I think) - they were kind of cute and everywhere.

Eventually we came back to the ship, hot and tired, but it was a great day… I really liked it much better than some of the large cities we visited - but there were a lot of people that didn’t like this type of stop at all and didn’t get off the ship. I think Holland America did a great job of balancing the types of ports on this cruise - there really has been something for everyone.

Last night was the Green & White Ball in celebration of St. Patrick’s day but as usual, I was asleep prior to its starting time of 10 pm.

Parintins, Brazil

2010-03-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

Many of the people on the ship (about 300) had booked the Boi Bumba show. We had booked it as soon as we found out we were going on this adventure on the advise of our friends Ray and Joann who said it was fantastic. The show is a tradition for Parintins and represents the killing of a bull at the request of a slave woman back in the 1800‘s… it’s a much longer story, but the costuming and celebration is said to rival Carnival in Rio on a smaller scale. The real festival takes place in June in a huge outdoor arena, but they have a brand new indoor convention center with (a little) air conditioning for us tourists that melt in the heat. There was a projection or press booth up high at the back and I asked the ship photographers if I could go up there with them so I got wonderful shots. Jim also got a good spot - sitting on the floor right up front. The show lasted a little over an hour and was filled with wonderful costumes, dancers and music. It is a must do if you do an Amazon cruise.

The town of Parintins is a small town and you could visit much of it in a day, but as we were late in reaching it in the morning we had no time to explore it prior to the show and afterwards it was just too hot. We chose to instead just look at some of the local crafts… Jim looked for a shot glass with no success and ended up getting a T-shirt as we had Reales left to spend and this was our last port in Brazil. Then we sat in an outside bar and shared a local Brahma beer before heading back to the ship.

Oops, I was just looking at the pictures I had for this blog entry and saw the one of the Boy Scouts. They were all along the way from the ship to the convention center to ‘help’ us. They all looked so cute and were so willing to help I just had to include a picture.

I’m pooped, we have had a number of ports one right after the other so I’m really looking forward to these couple sea days before our next stop at Devil’s Island.

Manaus, Brazil - Day 2

2010-03-15T07:16:00.001-07:00

We finally were given permission to dock at about 9:00 in the evening so by 10:00 we were docked at the floating pier.

We got up at about 6:00 as we had a jungle riverboat excursion booked; it left right on time and was very easy since we were docked and the riverboat was only a couple hundred feet down the pier. It was a very nice two level boat with wooden bench seats built in instead of the plastic chairs used on some of the others which also double as river transportation for the locals. The chairs need to be moveable so they can hang their hammocks from the rafters above - we saw many of these go by filled with people in their hammocks…. Not a bad way to do it.

This tour was pleasant, but not great. We traveled up the Rio Negro for about 30 minutes and then docked at a floating restaurant, gift shop and piers. There we boarded smaller 10 person canoe-type boats for a ride into the smaller tributaries. We saw a few birds and one dolphin (for a brief second) and some of the giant lily pads and then returned to the floating pier for a return to the ship. On the way back we went out to the Meeting of the Waters where the black waters of the Rio Negro meet the brown muddy waters of the Amazon. It is interesting in that they don’t finally completely blend together for many miles downstream.

If we hadn’t done the wonderful river trip at Boca da Valeria this probably would have seemed better, but it really goes to show to take more advantage of the possibilities offered at local stops.

Tomorrow the Boi Bumba show.

Manaus, Brazil

2010-03-12T13:45:00.001-08:00

Interesting morning… we were approaching Manaus when we woke up about 7 this morning and we could see Royal Princess just ahead of us. I was looking forward to seeing her here (we did our World Cruise on her last year) before she is moved from Princess to P & O cruise line.

We neared the port and then both ships just sort of sat there. Soon the Captain came over the speakers and announced that there was some sort of a port dispute that included the Harbor Master, the Navy, Government officials and who knows who else and we would not be able to dock for a while. Every half hour he updated us with the announcement that there was no news yet. Finally about 12:30 Royal Princess was allowed to dock and we were told to anchor and use tenders. Although not a perfect solution it did allow those with excursions to go as they had all been rescheduled.

Jim and I were planning to go to the zoo today and not much else as we have a jungle river excursion here tomorrow morning. We decided to wait until later in the day when we were supposed to be able to dock, but it’s now almost 6:00 and we are still at anchor. The Captain just announced that he is still hopeful that we can dock sometime tonight. (this is an overnight port for us). So… it was a very uneventful day for us, but probably a good thing as I’m hurting a bit from the stop yesterday (but I wouldn’t have missed it for anything).

Boca da Valeria, Brazil

2010-03-12T07:55:00.000-08:00

Boca da Valeria, Brazil

When we woke up this morning a little before 6 we were already at Boca. This is a stop that I’ve really been waiting for as it is a small primitive village on the bank of the Amazon. We ordered our room service breakfast and ate as we watched the ship getting ready for the tendering operation. At 7:30 I decided to head for the Showroom to get a tender ticket since I wanted to be there (hopefully) on the first tender… the showroom was empty - everyone else apparently slept in. There were about 15 of us on that first tender and we were greeted by about 100 people - mostly children. They actually let school out for the day when a ship stops. Many of the children brought their pets and others were dressed in costumes. The only thing that spoiled it was their cries of “one dollar” “picture one dollar” We ran out of $1 bills pretty quickly but I did get some good pictures and I got to hold a sloth and a toucan. The sloth was darling… I’d like to take him home - he could live on the patio with Fred. They move so slowly it’s hard to believe he was real and his face was so cute and tiny - his whole head was probably smaller than a golfball. There were several monkeys, but this one was the cutest by far… very tiny hardly bigger than a mans hand and the baby was sooo cute.

There were several new buildings made of concrete, a church, school and a recreation/gathering center. The houses were all wooden and built on stilts. Some houses were decorated with artsy-type painting. I was taking some shots of one and the lady invited us in. There was a porch surrounding the whole house and then three rooms, kitchen with a gas stove and a rusty looking chest freezer (no fridge), bedroom and living room which was probably also the childrens’ sleeping room. We thanked her and tipped her and then walked back to the area where the tender docked to take a canoe ride up the river.

As soon as we had gotten off the tender we were adopted by about a dozen children and one young man… they stayed with us the whole time… the little girls taking turns holding hands with me. The young man had one of the boats and since we had said we would go with him I guess he didn’t want to loose us.

We got in the canoe and he headed up the river using a paddle at first and then a very small Honda motor mounted at the side of the canoe. We passed more houses - some with a cow or goats and a number with dogs. We also saw some different types of birds and then he turned the boat through the reeds and we were in a pond-type area that was full of the giant lily pads. Spectacular! He kind of paddled and poled us around there until we had our fill of pictures and then we headed back. I was about melted into a puddle of goo by this time, but that canoe ride was the best thing we’ve done since the Antarctic - it was actually worth the heat. But, good heavens the air conditioning felt good back on the ship.

We cooled off and then headed to lunch… then a bit more reading then Trivia and now we are sitting on the aft deck behind the Lido (at one of the three smoking tables) and I’m writing and running side to side taking pictures. We are just now going through a rain shower but it will clear in a few minutes. It’s hot and muggy but there is just enough breeze to keep it tolerable.

Tomorrow Manaus.

Santarem, Brazil

2010-03-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Santarem later than planned as the current in the Amazon was causing us to run late. It didn’t matter to us as we didn’t have a tour booked.

This city was more to my liking; only about 250,000 population and no highrises. We rode the shuttle into the center of town where there were many stores selling regular day to day stuff. That is much more fun than looking at more masks, bags, and now dead Piranha fish in tourist stalls. There was a lovely church just off the main square, but I couldn’t get any pictures inside. We just wandered along a few of the streets and looked through the windows… nothing really for photographs but an enjoyable way to spend a couple hours. Then we came back to the ship in time to shower and change for dinner.

The morning was spent going back and forth from the cabin to the deck for photo ops. The river is at its widest here - about 9 miles so much of the time we weren’t near a bank, but when we were it was interesting to see both the rainforest and the houses built in random places along the banks and looking at the riverboats - some quite large with three decks and some very small.

This last photo is of the Lido staff. Alex, the supervisor (in the uniform in back), has become a good friend and has taken wonderful care of us since we eat dinner there everyday. There seem to be about 6 couples that have chosen to eat in the Lido as we see them every night. In this picture they are dressed for “Carnival Night”.

2010-03-08T12:24:00.000-08:00

Busy Sea Day and Belem, Brazil

Yesterday just happened to be one of those sea days where there were many things I wanted to do. I started at 9:00 for the final session of our book club - we read ‘Letters from Paraguay’ this time. The book was interesting in that it took place in the general area we are visiting albeit in the late 1800’s.

After book club, I returned to the cabin for a quick drink of coffee before heading to a lecture on the upcoming port of Belem, then Trivia… then lunch and then a presentation by the Captain on the history of cruising. He says that not only is his profession cruise ships, but it is also his hobby. I did find bits of time to lie down flat to give my back a rest, but by the time we finished dinner I was ready to hit the bed and read. So far I haven’t had any problem finding books to read in Prinsendam’s library - it’s fairly large.

Belem, Brazil

We woke up this morning and looked out the window to find the brown water of the Amazon. Yup… no more blue sea - it’s truly brown. We were going very slowly as it is very shallow - so shallow that we need to anchor about 20 miles downstream from Belem and the transfers are being done via local ferries and then a long (45 minute) bus ride that has no air conditioning. I decided that I’m too much of a wuss for that kind of heat and the fact that both the buses and the ferries are running kind of a random schedule so there could be a very long wait for a return. It’s currently just after lunch and Jim still says he might just ride the ferry across to the dock and then return… I’ll let you know. I’m enjoying just watching the activity on the water; there are many little boats ranging from local ferries to small rowboats. The close-by village of Icaraza looks like it would be interesting to explore; very green (duh!) with many businesses and houses. I just watched a huge cloud build and then sweep across the river dropping rain and within 10 minutes clear out again. You can see Belem in the distance and it is another very modern city with many skyscraper (or at least very tall) buildings.

-------

Well, I got interrupted as I was writing above. It’s now late afternoon and people are returning. Those that just rode the ferry over to the little town said it was wonderful, many little local bars/cafes right on the edge of the water and a great local market. The few that have returned already from the long trip into Belem aren’t quite as thrilled with their day. It looks like I missed a really great port - I seem to do that on every long cruise. Oh well, we have a few more to go, but time is getting short.

Fortaleza, Brazil

2010-03-08T07:54:00.001-08:00

Another city of about 2 million people. We took the shuttle into the city early as it dropped us at the Central Market and a block away is one of the largest Cathedrals in Brazil.

The Central Market was a disappointment in that it really seemed to be a huge tourist market rather than a market where the locals would shop. The cathedral was huge and beautiful and had many many stained glass windows, but either was fairly new or had been totally refurbished and had none of the old architectural interest that I love. We debated on walking a few blocks, but all we could see were more shops so we came back to the ship. It was 95 degrees and bright sunshine… as the Cruise Director said later… a heat index of 350 degrees. Ok, I’m a wuss, but the heat just knocks me these days, I was so poopled when we got back to the ship I didn’t want to move off the bed (I had a nice cold washcloth over my head!).

Jim said I should post this picture of me with two of the dancers that welcomed our ship into Recife a couple days ago.

Recife, Brazil and Random Thoughts

2010-03-05T05:51:00.000-08:00

Recife is another big city - a couple million people live here. We were docked a distance from the town so there was a shuttle that took us into town. We left the ship just before 8:30 - again trying to beat the heat and it was good that we did as it got hot really fast. We wandered several streets on one side of the river and looked at the market stalls and then crossed one of the bridges and did the same on the other side. There were a 5 or 6 churches in a very close area and I had to check each of them… I still love seeing the ornate interiors. One, St. Anthony’s, was covered in gold plate and they didn’t object to photos as long as you didn’t use flash. The highlight of the day… I finally found a shop that had hair barrettes so I can get my hair up of my neck! It was a quiet rest of the day and we placed last in trivia by 2 points. We are certainly maintaining well… and we are having fun where we hear some of the other teams fighting.

I don’t have any really interesting pictures here, so I’ll skip uploading any.

Random Thoughts

I love the small ships - ok, you are probably getting tired of hearing that, but they are so much more ’ship-like’ that the floating hotels. They aren’t geared toward families so kids would probably be very bored, but for adult travelers they are perfect.

Prinsendam was built in the 1980’s (the exact year escapes me right now) and she is needing constant maintenance on the large systems. They have been constantly working on the sewage system and water systems and occasionally the air conditioning system. So far the outages have been not too bad and the Captain has rewarded the passengers with wine or drinks for our patience. The AC in our cabin is on its last legs… the little flap that moves to change the airflow (how you control the temp) is almost rusted out so Jim has had to move it by hand, but once we figured that out it really hasn’t been a problem for us but it needs replacing.
The Captain was asked recently if he felt Holland America would keep Prinsendam and he replied that since she almost always sails completely full and people love her it looks good for her to remain in the fleet.
While some of the lecturers have been very good, some have been pretty poor. With all the ships today looking for speakers this would be a perfect time for anyone with the urge and the talent to join the speakers agency. You would need to be a good speaker and very knowledgeable about your topic as cruiseship passengers aren’t too forgiving and will walk out on bad lectures.
There have been no complaints about the food - both the Lido and the dining room have been getting great reports. I’m particularly impressed that they can serve lobsters that are fairly large and cooked well. I had given up on ordering lobster on ships several years ago as they were never good. The beef is all cooked very rare and if I want it more well done they just toss it on the grill for a minute and it comes out perfect.
In listening to the passengers it seems that the Asia/Australia Grand Voyage is the choice for most for their next cruise -- or the World Cruise. It really does seem that once you have taken a long voyage that is all you are interested in doing.

That’s it for now - more later.

Salvador da Bahia, Brazil

2010-03-03T09:16:00.000-08:00

We’re not in Antarctica any more - aaacckk - I’m ready to go back. It was about 87 when we left the ship at 9:00 (trying to beat the heat) with humidity of about a million percent and it just got hotter. Some of the decorations of Carnival were still around on some of the squares so it really looked festive and there was a combination of old architecture and newer buildings. We visited several churches; one is quite famous, St Francis, as the interior is completely covered with gold. We looked at some of the souvenir stuff and then stopped at a café with umbrellas for a Coke. Good timing as it started raining - so we just waited there until the rain stopped and then we walked several blocks to the elevator and returned to the ship.

This city was a surprise to me; I expected a quaint small city and it is a huge city of 2 million people. Luckily the quaint part of the city is right near the port. It is built on two levels, the higher level is way high, you either take a taxi or shuttle the long way or you ride the elevator. We had been warned not to bother to try to walk up - even if you are in good shape. We decided to take the H Stern shuttle up and then ride the elevator down.

This city was the center of the slavery trade both for North and South America so the majority of the population is black and much of the culture is derived from Africa. Frank, the onboard tour guide, had told us that there would be many very large costumed “Mammies” for picture taking and that they would want a dollar for the picture. There were many around and they were all dressed in great clothes, but I will say that most are not really that large; they wear considerable padding and a bustle-type affair under their skirt to make them look very large. The price has certainly gone up… no more $1 for a picture - now it was $5 and they would chase you down to get it. There we also some other street performers, jugglers, dancers and acrobats… and they all had their hand out. We had gone with a ready supply of $1 bills, but it got old quick. I sure preferred Peru where the people wanted you to take their picture and many refused to take anything in return.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2010-02-28T10:21:00.000-08:00

We should have booked a city tour here. There is only one cruise ship terminal and several ships in and they are having a turnover day which means that the terminal is a madhouse. We took the H Stern free shuttle to their main headquarters since that seemed to be the only transportation possibility. It was actually a nice ride of about 25 minutes through the city to the Ipanema beach area. We did their short tour through their workshops and then looked at some jewelry which was beautiful, but either beyond my means or the rings and things I could afford I just really didn’t need. We then walked to the beach and watched the ‘beautiful bodies’ strutting by and the men playing volleyball. The few juice bars nearby were all completely full so we decided to wander in the other direction and soon tired of just looking at the shops so we headed back on the shuttle. It was nice that they took a different route back to the ship so we were able to see all of Ipanema beach as well as Copacabana beach and hotels.

We had a local show in place of the regular shows in the evening. It was done as a small version of Carnival and put on by one of the Samba schools. The costumes were great and quite skimpy. I’m sure this will be the favorite show of the men onboard. I’ve decided if I go and buy a sparkly thong, bra and some feathers I’ll suddenly have a figure just like theirs! Ok, I’m just wishing… it wouldn’t have happened even when I was young.

I should back up here and say that as we arrived into the port we were out on the deck and could see Sugarloaf and Corcovado with Christ the Redeemer on top. It was about sunrise and it was quite misty, but at least I have seen them and have a few (rather poor) pictures. We are supposed to pass by those same areas again this afternoon when we leave port so maybe I can get some better shots then.

There is a huge U.S. aircraft carrier, Number 70, the Carl Vinson, anchored here in the bay and we have been watching the sailors being shuttled back and forth to the ship. It’s quite interesting to see it this close.

We have been following the CNN coverage of the earthquake in Chile. 8.8 is a huge earthquake and it makes it seem so much more real since we were just there a little while ago. Our guide there talked some about their earthquake risk and the fact that they are constantly having tremors. Although what we are seeing shows the devastation, I actually am impressed with what didn’t happen. Most of the new buildings in Santiago and other cities have been built to stringent earthquake standards and seem to have come through this remarkably well. It is so sad to see the old historic buildings that have had so much damage - the historic architecture is what I love.

Safe in Rio

2010-02-27T08:04:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this morning. We went out on deck to take pictures as we came into the port - that was when several passengers mentioned that there had just been a huge earthquake in Santiago. We have been watching the coverage on CNN. I’ll write more later.

Monte Video, Uruguay

2010-02-25T08:43:00.000-08:00

Monte Video, Uruguay

We crossed the river from Buenos Aires during the night and arrived in the port at Monte Video about 30 minutes late - about 8:30 in the morning. It was a beautiful sunny but cool morning - probably a little less than 60 degrees with a little wind and predicted to be about 75 - couldn’t be better.

This was our second Ensemble Experience private shore excursion for our group. We all met in the Half Moon room at 8:45 and about 5 minutes later they announced that the ship had been cleared by the local authorities. So we weren’t late at all to meet with our tour guides, Maria and driver, Jorge. Maria was a fantastic guide, she is a school teacher during the school year and also a lawyer. And as most of our guides have been, her English was perfect. We did a bus tour of the city with a number of photo stops and it was interesting to see the preparations for the inauguration of their new government next week. She did say that much extra security will be in place since “Hillary” is attending. We traveled through the downtown and government areas of this city of over a million people and then through several suburbs which enabled us to see the wealthy areas, middle class and low class areas. In the lower class areas she referred to them as shanty towns, but all the houses were brick or concrete block so they were far better than sum of the slums or shanty towns we have seen on our travels.

Then we went into the countryside to a winery where we had a short tour. This is actually a harvest and production time for them so it was very busy and smelled very ‘winey’. Then we went into the dining room and for a very large Uruguayan barbeque lunch and the opportunity to sample many of their wines. There were two local musicians playing guitars and singing and a number of the people in the group had great fun dancing. A considerable amount of wine was consumed! J Everyone was disappointed when we had to board the bus and return to the ship.

I was totally pooped… I did manage to go up to the Lido for a bowl of soup and then I didn’t move the rest of the evening except to look out the window a couple times during sail away.

Today is a sea day as we are heading north to our many stops in Brazil. I can report that we are holding a steady last place in Trivia and enjoying every minute of it. It is amazing how many times we have the right answer but decide to use a different one.

Buenos Aires

2010-02-25T08:21:00.000-08:00

The night prior to Buenos Aires we had our second Ensemble Cocktail party and everyone attended - this time I chose the Explorers Lounge for the party so we weren’t so crowded; it was perfect. I asked almost everyone for a quick description of the Antarctic and I got two consistent responses: “indescribable” and “awesome.” That pretty much sums up how I feel about it. Everyone agreed that they could have spent several more days in the area before heading out.

We arrived in port to gray and rainy skies, but the rain soon stopped and we headed into the city. We were planning to taxi directly to the Recolleto area to do some photography in the cemetery where Eva Perone is buried but the line for the taxies was quite long so we ended up taking the H Stern shuttle bus to their jewelry shop in the Marriott Plaza Hotel and then taxiing over from there. This cemetery is fascinating as it is made up of beautiful above ground mausoleums - each corner you turn seems to be better than the last.

Eva’s mausoleum is actually one of the least impressive, but it is always marked with many fresh flowers and, of course, with many people crowding around to see it. After about an hour of wandering around, the rain started again and we put on our little plastic ponchos… almost everyone else left so we had the whole place almost to ourselves. Now I admit that blue skies would have made prettier pictures, but I took bunches anyway and I didn’t have to wait for anyone to get out of my picture! The cemetery dates from about 1830, but the earliest date we could find was about 1840. Some of the mausoleums are well cared for and others are falling into ruin. Most have windows in the doors so you can look inside. These are family plots and probably hold many coffins both above and below the ground. They have a tiny stairway going to the underground area inside each structure. Many also have stained glass windows or cupolas made of glass. One of the pictures here shows the interior of one mausoleum where the door was open.

The rain continued sometimes a little bit and sometimes harder so we decided to have lunch in a nearby Irish Pub to see if it might stop. When we came out it was raining even harder so we found a taxi and headed back to the ship.

This was an overnight port so when we awoke the next morning to beautiful blue skies we headed back out. This time we just wanted to wander around the city a bit so we again rode the H Stern shuttle and spent about 3 hours looking in the shops on Calle Florida; the main shopping area. Jim bought a new belt but I can tell you from the size and number of the shopping bags being carried back onto the ship, we were in the minority in not buying much. Even though we had been here in December, I still feel that I have just barely scratched the surface of this fascinating city. There was a folkloric show late in the afternoon in the showroom and then in the evening we headed to Monte Video.

Port Stanley, Falkland Islands

2010-02-20T09:27:00.000-08:00

We made it! This is a commonly missed stop on these cruises as the weather is often too bad to anchor or even to get there. Both Amsterdam and Veendam missed it recently so we are feeling very lucky. This was my last chance for penguins so we had booked an excursion. I had wanted either one that went to King penguins or Rockhopper penguins but both were full so we were on one to Bluff Cove for Gentoo penguins. Now the excursion involved the tender, a small bus and then 4x4 Land Rovers and warned that is was not for those with back or neck problems, but I couldn’t miss my last opportunity for penguins up close and personal so I did it. It was a rough ride, but I survived it and am not a whole lot worse for it today! There were several thousand Gentoo penguins on a nice stretch of beach on a private farm AND 5 King Penguins!!! So I got my King penguin pictures after all. They are bigger than the Gentoo and have the distinct yellow around their upper chest - really beautiful - and then to make it even better one had a new chick hatched just the day before. They were a long way off but with my zoom I shot a ton of pictures. I hope you can see the adult feeding the chick between her feet.

I thought the Falklands were very interesting. They are very flat; the highest hills are only about 2,000 feet. There are no trees except in the town where people have planted them. It has a very different kind of beauty similar to how I picture areas on Scotland. Port Stanley looks very British or Irish and of course, the people speak a very British English. When we got back on the ship we found that we had been there at an interesting time for another reason. Apparently the President of Argentina had signed a new proclamation that morning claiming all the area including the Falklands and stating that any ships sailing in that area must have some sort of a special Argentinean permit. We don’t have this permit so we shall see what happens when we arrive there in a couple days.

Later in the evening we had dinner in the Pinnacle with the Ice Pilot, Captain Pat Toomey and had a great meal as well as getting to hear some more of his stories. He was a great addition to this cruise as he took the time to do pre and post Antarctic lectures. He has been at sea for his whole adult life and his wife often accompanies him.

Now we have two sea days before Buenos Aires. I’m sitting in the showroom writing this as they are giving Tango lessons. There are at least 40 couples (probably more) taking the lesson. The instructor is a really cute young man who is a member of the Pampas Devils who will be dancing on the ship for a couple nights. It’s times like this I wish my bones were in better shape as I used to love to Tango even though I needed someone that was a really good dancer to lead.

Antarctica Day 3 and next

2010-02-18T11:59:00.001-08:00

Antarctica Day 3

Today was expedition cruising at its best - the Captain has been reminding us, our itinerary is totally based on weather and ice conditions. This morning we were supposed to enter the Antarctica Sound (Iceberg Alley) and see Paulette Island. Our approach to the Sound was blocked by pack ice that had not been reported. It was a huge area of sea ice and some icebergs that the winds had blown up from the southwest. After looking around for a while the Captain decided to head straight for Elephant Island. There was an expedition ship on the north side of the ice and we were on the south… There were 12 miles of ice between the two ships and both were looking for a channel to get through - neither found one. We finally doubled back to where we had started in the very early morning hours and then headed northeast. We had lost so much time that now there was no time to go to Elephant Island and we are headed straight for Port Stanley in the Falklands (plan D). We passed a number of huge icebergs but less and less of the small ones as we went north; by bedtime, there were none to be seen. For the many times that I’ve said I find the sea endless fascinating, I have to admit I miss the icebergs! Especially the ones with penguins on them.

At Sea Heading to the Falklands

We left Antarctica at about 1:00 this morning and woke up to gray, foggy skies but again we have smooth passage in the Drake.

This morning was the Penguin Races; I had my penguin all dressed up in my sparkly necklace… we didn’t win the race but she was the best dressed penguin! Jim played in the Texas Hold’em tournament and was the 3rd out - good thing we aren’t gamblers.

We had lunch at the table with our Ice Pilot, Captain Pat Toomey. We had eaten lunch at his table a few days ago and he is really interesting… we are taking him to the Pinnacle tomorrow night as he will disembark in Buenos Aires. He gave a talk this afternoon describing what we actually did and the routes we ended up taking. He had done one just after Ushuaia detailing Plan A, the best possible itinerary and the one we would do if everything was perfect.

All in all it was a quiet day after the excitement of the Antarctic and it was nice not to be wearing the extra clothes and going in and out on the freezing decks for pictures. It’s still freezing out there, but I don’t have to go out.
.

Antarctica Day 2

2010-02-17T10:54:00.000-08:00

The day stayed very cold but there were patches of sun that would peak through the clouds giving us some very interesting lighting for photography. We went by many icebergs of all sizes; bergy bits, growlers to huge tabular icebergs and ones with the wonderful shapes and caves. We saw whales, seals, penguins and many types of birds.

We made it into Paradise Bay and saw the Chilean Base and the Argentinean Almirante Brown Base where we landed before. There was an expedition ship doing landings at Almirante Brown and you can see the people up on the hill. This is the hill that Jim and most of the others in our group climbed and then slid down on their bottoms - great fun for adults that don’t do that kind of stuff much these days. It looks considerably different with much of the snow melted but we could easily see penguins everywhere from the ship.

We cruised for a couple more hours and then reached Cuverville Island at about 12:30 pm. Here the snow and ice had also melted back considerably in the couple months and we could see literally thousands of penguins on the land and in the water around the ship. The Captain was able to get the ship very close here and actually spun the ship around so both sides and the aft could have a nice view. Very soon after we left Cuverville Island the fog descended and you couldn’t see anything… time for lunch and a nap while the ship headed toward Deception Island. I had thought we would be able to go into the caldera of the island, but Prinsendam is too big.

At about 4:00pm the Captain came on the speakers and announced that since the heat and hot water had been out all morning he was giving everyone a free bar for 1 hour prior to dinner; a very nice gesture since the ship did get quite chilly! Jim and I went to Explorers Lounge and had our free cocktail (his usual Jack and I had an Irish Coffee) then headed to the Lido for dinner. At about 7:30 we arrived at Deception Island - the tour guide announced it on the speakers and said “it’s out there, we can see it on radar“… but all we could see was fog. Suddenly the fog lifted enough that we could see the entrance called Neptune’s Bellows - mother nature seems to like Prinsendam. We made a circle around the island and the fog stayed up enough for us to see the whole thing, but not to the top of the hills. Shortly after that we headed to bed.

Antarctica - day 1

2010-02-17T03:16:00.000-08:00

Wow, blue skies - you couldn’t ask for a better day. We were slightly delayed in reaching our first scenic cruising location, the approach to Palmer Station, but when we arrived a little after noon it was bright and sunny. About a dozen people from the American base came out to the ship in zodiacs to give presentations and have a meal and nice hot showers. Holland America has an agreement with them and it works well for both parties. It was fun seeing the zodiacs approach the ship and really helped put what we were seeing into size perspective. After seeing the zodiacs up close it really showed how special the Polar Cirkel boats we had on MS Fram were - ours were semi-rigid sided and had actual seats and a rail down the center to hold on to and a rail at the front of the boat that really helped when you were getting in and out. Most people were along the side rails on Deck 4 or on one of the exposed front decks… I’m a wimp, I parked myself on the back deck outside the lido. It was much warmer as I was pretty much out of the wind and much of the time I was in the sun. I really didn’t care that I saw where we have been rather than where we were going. The guy in the hot tub was on the deck below and if I weren’t such a camera nut, I’d have probably been there too… great way to see the Antarctic! After the sun went down at about 9:30 it got really cold really quick so we gave up and went back to the cabin… and missed the golden light. Watching out the window the light was so beautiful on two icebergs that Jim ran upstairs to get it, but pretty much missed it.

This morning we are sitting in the very back of the lido watching out the aft windows and running out to the back deck when there are shots… it’s gray and cold. The sun does break through every once in a while and make some marvelous shots. We are in Deception Bay and just passed Almirante Brown Base where we landed before. There was an Expedition ship anchored there and we could see the people up on the hill that Jim climbed and slid down on the snow.

We’ve seen a number of penguins in the water along with several kinds of seals and a number of different birds. The picture at the bottom shows penguins (tiny black dots) on the land taken with my 400 zoom so I am really glad we had the chance to see them up close on Fram!!!

Ushuaia

2010-02-15T02:24:00.000-08:00

When we arrived in Ushuaia the skies were sort of mixed, clouds and rain. We waited about a half hour and then walked into town (taking the umbrella). We hadn’t had time to see any of the town when we were there in December so we wandered around a bit and looked in the souvenir shops. Then we stopped in an Irish Pub and had an Irish coffee… tasted really good. We shopped in a couple leather shops and I bought a new belt and a really cute fur jacket that’s also really warm!

The Valentine’s Day ball was held last night after we left Ushuaia even though it was only the 13th. The Captain decided to hold it when the seas would be relatively calm instead of chancing the Drake passage which we would be in tonight. They decorated the Showroom at Sea (yes, it used to be the Queen’s Lounge) with red and pink and white balloons and streamers… it looked really cute.

This morning (Sunday) Jim got up at about 6:00 to see Cape Horn. We were just rounding the Horn as he headed out to get some pictures. I was a bit too lazy to get out of the nice warm bed and I settled for seeing it out the window and on TV from the Bridge Camera. Smooth seas and almost cloudless skies! The picture doesn't look like blue skies, but it really was that way... this cloud just happened to be in the picture. It was beautiful and almost unheard of weather. The Captain was able to completely circle Isla Horne before we turned south to continue on into the Drake Passage on our way to Antarctica. Right now we are having Drake Lake… a far different experience from our southbound passage two months ago! Keep your fingers crossed for us for good weather! I would love to have some blue skies while we are doing the scenic cruising in Antarctica since we had gray skies most of the time on the last trip.

I’ve forgotten to mention that on many of the evenings the waiters are dressed in theme costumes. Last night for the Valentine formal night they had on red vests with red bow ties and today for he Chinese New Year they are in Chinese costumes. The ship decorates for each occasion…some more than others.

Punta Arenas, Chile

2010-02-14T02:09:00.000-08:00

Friday we were docked in Punta Arenas. We had booked and early excursion to Magdalena Island to see the penguins - we had to be in the showroom at 7:30 for it. We had a short bus ride to the ferry and then a 90 minute ferry ride out to the island. I’ve never seen a ferry boat quite like this one. It had a vehicle ramp on one side and a long skinny cabin along the other - about the width of a train car. During the ride we went in and out of rain, but had no rain while we were on the island.

Penguins, penguins, penguins… thousands of them. These were Megellan penguins, a variety we hadn’t seen before. They are in the end stage of the molt so some were already in their new feathers and able to go into the water and others were still molting with patches of feathers on their bodies. You could still pick out the young ones even though they are now the same size as the adults, but the feathers they are shedding have a brownish color to them. Instead of making rock nests like the penguins in the Antarctic, these dig burrows into the ground.

Our hour on the island went by much too quickly, but I managed to shoot about 350 pictures. I almost forgot, there is a large lighthouse at the top of the island and many of the people walked up to it. It was lovely… but I spent my time down near the shoreline with my little penguin friends.

Holland America did not give out the Antarctic jackets as they have in the past and a number of the passengers are quite upset as they had planned on them. I had also thought we would be getting them, but realized that we hadn’t been asked for our size request so I purchased a heavy hooded sweater in Ecuador - it’s proved to have been a good purchase!

This morning (Saturday) we passed several big glaciers on our way to Ushuaia. They were spectacular… and would have been even more so if we had had a little bit nicer sky. The subdued light is good to bring out the details of the glacier… but I don’t think you can beat photos with blue skies. We will dock in Ushuaia in a couple hours - it’s trivia time. More later.
Pictires soon - trouble connecting

Fjords of Chile

2010-02-11T13:49:00.001-08:00

We have been sailing down through the fjords for the last two days. It is very beautiful, but the skies are gray, misty and sometimes rainy. My photos are pretty 'gray' so I won't post any yet. I'm hoping I can photoshop them a bit when we get home to pop the colors out of the gray.

Tomorrow we will be in Puenta Arenas... penguins. Internet may become spotty so I'll post as I can until we are back out of the Antarctic..

Puerto Chacabuco, Chile

2010-02-10T03:12:00.000-08:00

Tuesday- We are in Puerto Chacabuco, Chile. We are now in the Chilean Fjords. It is very beautiful even if it is gray, misty and raining. We came into the inside passage area during the night so when we woke up this morning about 7:00 we could see the islands all around the ship. We were moving along very slowly and by 9:00 had arrived at our anchorage off Puerto Chacabuco. Frank (the onboard tour guide) had told us that there is nothing to do in this port unless you were on a tour… over 400 people did go on tours so they restricted the tenders until about 10:30 to get all the tours off before they opened them to passengers going in on their own. Since it is cold and raining, we decided not to go ashore and have enjoyed a very quiet day on the ship. It is very beautiful outside and when the sun breaks through the clouds for a few minutes it is spectacular. Now if mother nature will be nice to us and give us blue skies… we have three days of scenic cruising ahead before our next port.

The Captain just made his announcements prior to leaving port - he said there was a big storm in the Pacific and that it would be very rough tonight as we will go back out there and then south before we re-enter the fjords about 7:00 in the morning.

Random Thoughts:

The plumber finally fixed the water pressure problem in our cabin on Sunday and now we actually have enough water coming out of the shower head to take a real shower!! Our cabin has a full sized tub, but I haven’t been able to fill it to take a bath. I tried one night and after an hour I had 3 inches of water in the tub so I gave up on the idea of a nice soak and just had a quick bath.

Although all of the crew is happy and smiling and friendly as they have always been on Holland America, I’m not sure how they actually keep it up - they have to be exhausted especially with the illness problem we had where the crew had to work many extra duties. The cutbacks are noticeable; the stewards seem to have to tend too many cabins and the waiters wait too many tables - service is just much slower than it was a few years ago. I guess if people insist on these low prices, something must go and it is beginning to show. If you have never cruised before you wouldn’t notice anything, but if you have been on HAL for 10 (or so) years as we and many many passengers on this cruise have, we all notice it. One passenger summed it up perfectly, it seems that the crew/staff are reactive instead of proactive.

After saying all that, it really is a great cruise and the ship is just the size I like. She is easy to get around and there is never a line to wait for anything. I’d have no problem being one of the little old ladies that lives onboard the ship. I haven’t heard of any actually doing that on this ship as there have been on several of our other cruises. Maybe they need a mascot ‘little old lady’…. hmmm I might apply!

Puerto Montt

2010-02-09T06:28:00.000-08:00

Sunday night was Superbowl night on the ship - they had it in the cabins and also on the three screens in the Showroom at sea and in the Explorations Café. I watched the first half, but since we had a tour in the morning I went to bed at about 10:15 - Jim watched it all. Since we were pulling for New Orleans I’m sorry I didn’t see all of it. They had the showroom decorated for both teams and a ‘Tailgate Zone’ set up with munchies.

Monday we anchored at Puerto Montt. We had what might have been the best ship tour we have ever taken. We first went to a small town and had an hour to wander around and shop for handicrafts. It was lovely and very Bavarian-feeling - much German influence there. We walked a few blocks to a church up on a hill, took a few pictures and then headed down to the craft market near the bus.

After that we headed to a ranch called a fundo which is smaller than an estancia. It was a working horse ranch and we were treated to some folkloric dances by some children and then the cowboys (called huachos) did a rodeo type show. It was very well done, but we had to watch in from inside the dining room as it had started raining. This area gets about 10 feet of rain each year so they were well prepared for this. There were musicians playing traditional local instruments and singing. One of the dancers was a little boy, much younger than the rest of them… he totally stole the show! We were served wine and appetizers and then a full lunch with more wine and then dessert and a cordial… it could have been nap time on the way back to the ship, but we were only about 15 minutes from the port so there really wasn’t time.

It was dinner time not long after returning on the tender, but we weren’t hungry… we decided to have dessert and coffee. Then we went to the Crows Nest to listen to Buddy on the piano for about an hour. They off to bed… I think we only read about 15 minutes and we were ready for sleep.

Isla Robinson Crusoe, Chile

2010-02-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

Saturday we visited one of the very remote inhabited islands well off the coast of Chile. Isla Robinson Crusoe was formerly known as Mas a Tierra or Aguas Buenas. It is the largest island in the Juan Fernandez archipelago. They are designated as World Biosphere Reserves. The weather was ‘iffy’ gray and misty so we delayed tendering over until about 10:30. It seemed that most other people did the same as we had quite a wait for a tender and it was full when we finally did get on one.

The island has several hundred people living on it - it’s beautiful… just tall tree-covered mountains rising out of the sea. We hiked up to some caves that we could see from the ship. There were 6 or 8 of them and they appeared very similar to the Japanese caves we visited at Rabaul, Papua New Guinea last year and were probably used in defense of the island during WWII. There were also some very old canons displayed in places and signs that were depicting the historic actions in the 1700’s. Sadly they were all in Spanish so I really don’t know what we were looking at. I’ll have to Google more about it when we get home.

We also walked along the coast for quite a distance. You can see that they are developing for tourists as there were a number of restaurants and bars, but almost all were closed. We did find a nice café that had the huge spiney lobsters - many people were eating them, but we just had a beer and sat at an outside table for a while. While we were sitting there a rainstorm came through, but it only lasted about 10 minutes. I was amazed when we came back to the ship that we had been gone for three and a half hours - a good hike for a gimpy person like me - but I was tired when we got back and slept like the dead last night.

The weather is getting noticeably colder as we head south; we should start into the fjord area of Chile soon.

I’d love to report that our trivia team is far in the lead, but the truth is we are somewhere near the bottom and strongly maintaining that. But we love it and have a great group - we have 5 original players and two additional ones so if we are all there, one of us has to drop out that day as the teams are limited to 6. It’s actually nice to have the extra person as many days someone is missing.

The ‘bug’ that hit us is on the downslide - not nearly as many people are sick and they are starting to relax some of the really heavy sanitary measures that were in place - the gentlemen dance hosts are again available for dancing. They are still serving all the foods in the buffet and the constant sanitizing is still going on throughout the ship. We escaped the bug and I am happy to report that our colds are gone. I never really got sick, just the cold, but it sure knocked my energy level down to say nothing of the million tissues I used.

Valparaiso, Chile

2010-02-05T10:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Valparaiso, Chile. This was our first Ensemble exclusive shore excursion and it was a very nice one. We started with a bus tour of the city which is much like San Francisco. It is built on the many hills that come all the way to the sea. There are many very steep and winding roads along with Victorian era houses and buildings. It looks like a place I’d want to explore a bit more. We then stopped at the Museum Fonk which is about Easter Island. Since that was one of my favorite stops on our World Cruise I really found it interesting. It’s a bit too bad that two tour buses from our ship arrived about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. The museum is quite small and it got very overcrowded but we had just about completed the tour with our museum guide, so we looked at what we especially wanted to see and then boarded the bus and headed for the Casablanca wine valley. We rode through the mountains for about 45 minutes - it looks much like the Rockies near Denver with some palm trees added among the pines. The William Cole winery was really beautiful and although it is a small family ‘high end’ winery it has developed a nice visitor program. We did a short visit to the vines where Carmen (our winery guide) told us about growing grapes and then we visited the cellars for a quick tour and then on to the tasting room. They served three different types of wine for tasting one white and two reds and then we were offered a huge selection of appetizer-type foods - really a full lunch. Afterwards we headed back to the ship - most people napping from the wines.

In the afternoon we had a good folkloric show onboard the ship with a group of local dancers. They presented dances from the four regions of Chile.

As we sailed away from Valparaiso, the swells increased just as the Captain told us they would and the ship has been doing a bit of rock and roll all night and today (Friday) a sea day. We are headed to Isle Robinson Crusoe if the weather and seas hold up. The Captain did tell us that the Amsterdam was here 14 days ago on the World Cruise and had horrible winds and waves and after sailing all the way out to the island bumping all the way along had to miss the stop and then bump its way back to the mainland coast of Chile. I love hearing the Captain talk about the ‘bumps’ as he says boomps, like bump with a long U. We are having a number of whale sightings and some seals and sea lions.

At Sea

2010-02-02T10:48:00.001-08:00

Another day at sea. Well… Jim and I are getting really lazy; this is the second day in a row that we have slept until 8:30. That’s really unheard of for us. We did just have a couple time changes so maybe that explains part of it. Another might be that these are the quietest cabins we have had; you don’t hear anything at all from the neighboring cabins and the doors are all set off the main hall so you don’t get any hallway noise either.

This morning book club was delayed until 10:30 to accommodate the “On Deck for the Cure”. I made book club, but have to confess I didn’t get moving in time for the walk. They will have another one later in the cruise and I’ll try to make that one. Our Trivia team is holding firm to last place this time. It’s funny we seem to be able to win on some of the port days where they give little prizes, but we can’t win on the sea days for the cumulative scoring.

I’m not sure I mentioned some of the little gifts HAL has given during the cruise… I know I mentioned the journal and key holders, but they just gave us some (quite nice) hats and scarves all embroidered with the 2010 South America Grand Voyage logo. There have been a couple others too, but I can’t think what they are right now.

The temperatures are getting noticeably cooler as we are going further south. Today is gray and cloudy with a temp of about 70, but with the wind and no sun to offset it, it feels quite cool out. When I went to “Orca (Killer Whale) racing” at 2:00, everyone was wearing sweaters or sweatshirts. Orca racing was a cute take-off of the traditional horse race.

Arica and Iquique, Chile

2010-02-01T14:12:00.000-08:00

We had two port days in a row. Yesterday we were in Arica, Chile which is only about 25 miles below the border with Peru. It is also very much a desert port, surrounded by the brown sandy looking hills. There was a tall hill overlooking the port with a statue of Christ similar to the one in Rio. Jim and I wandered through the town, but since it was a Sunday morning everything was closed up except the cathedral. The church was very interesting in that is it constructed of iron. There was a service going on so we were not able to explore it, but looking in through the doors it looked very beautiful. Then we hired a taxi for an hour to take us to the top of the big hill. On the way there, we passed the ‘resort’ part of town that had nice sandy beaches and resort hotels along with the discos. The view from the top of the hill showed how big Arica is - about 200,000 people. It seems to go forever; I had no idea it was that large - our guide showed us the green valley coming out of the hills which was the reason the city is located where it is… water is a necessity and it never rains here.

We headed back to the ship as Jim said he really thought he was catching the cold I had… by last night he had it. Talking to others on the ship, it seems that the cold has been going around for a couple weeks. But, at least we haven’t gotten the Norwalk virus which has also hit the ship - apparently brought on by some new passengers in Callao (Lima). (I’m knocking on wood as I type this). Yesterday the ship went on ‘protective measures’. Sanitizers are everywhere and anything that people commonly touch have been either put away or are being constantly cleaned. In the buffet all food is served by the staff and the common items like salt and pepper have been removed from the tables. The Captain and staff are everywhere explaining and it seems that about 90% of the people are accepting it and just going on with things… the other 10% are bitching loudly about everything.

This morning we docked in Iquique, Chile just as we were waking up. After my coffee and sweet roll I headed into town on the shuttle. What a grate town! The entire center of the town [city?] is a UNESCO Heritage site and is full of Victorian era wooden buildings. The central plaza has a wonderful clock tower and many of the buildings are being restored and painted bright colors. There were several little market areas with local handcrafts. It was one of the most unique port towns I"ve ever visited. Everyone commented on how clean it was... even well away from the main square.

We've had a few internet problems over the last couple days, but it seems to be better. I have a number of pictures to add to this post... I'll see how it goes. :-)

Catching up again

2010-01-30T12:46:00.000-08:00

Well, after two days of staying in the cabin so I wouldn’t spread my cold I’m feeling much better and not going through tissues every minute or two.

Yesterday the port was for Pisco, Peru and I’m sorry I wasn’t feeling good enough to do anything. The port was really in the desert; not a tree to be seen. It was about 30 miles to Pisco and they ran a ship shuttle to Paracas which was about 12 miles away. Wildlife was the main focus of this port, there were flamingos, many types of seals, other birds and Penguins. I can’t believe I missed penguins. Jim was able to get some shots using the long lens as we left port.

Just before we sailed from the port the Captain came over the speakers and announced that we would be making a scenic departure that would allow us to see the Candelabra on the side of the mountain. We cruised very slowly as our tour guide, Frank, narrated over the speakers. This strange creation is many hundreds of years old and believed to be related to the Nazca lines [did I spell that right?] which are only about 100 miles from here. Unlike those lines which are only visible from the air, since this is on the side of a hill and the sun was perfect for some shadowing it was perfect.

This morning I made it to the book club at 9:00 - we are reading Like Water for Chocolate. Carolyn, the librarian is a retired school teacher and does an excellent job leading the discussion. At 11:30 we played trivia and then at 12:15 we had a CruiseCritic lunch. After that I decided it was time to read for a while and now I’m sitting in the Ocean bar ‘working’ and listing to pre-dinner music. It's a tough life, but someone has to do it!

Callao, Peru (Lima)

2010-01-28T07:17:00.001-08:00

We are in Callao, Peru; an overnight port and the end of the cruise for 74 people. 90 people are boarding as the new aft balcony cabins on deck 8 have opened. Apparently it is a full ship all the way.

Yesterday we took the shuttle into Miraflores and walked along the Malecon looking in the shop windows and looking for somewhere to have lunch. After passing by KFC, Burger King, Chili’s, Tony Roma and several more American chains we decided we might as well go back to the ship. It wasn’t terribly hot, but it was so humid you had to drink the air. We had done a city tour of Lima on our World Cruise last year so we decided not to do it again this year. We were planning on an excursion to a wildlife preserve, but it was cancelled due to weather and tides.

There was a nice deck BBQ yesterday evening for supper. Good food and some music from local musicians. Later I planned to go to the folkloric show, but I fell asleep and then decided to skip it. I usually love the shows and do some great photography at them. The name of this dance group was the same as the one on the World Cruise, so maybe I didn’t miss too much.

So far our weather has been pretty good, but we are missing some really bad stuff. The Cusco / Machu Picchu areas have just had disastrous flooding which washed out the roads and railway. There was a big overland excursion planned from the ship which has been canceled - I’m sure those people are hugely disappointed as it was one of the major sites for this voyage.

The Captain said that Veendam which is now in the Antarctic has 4 inches of snow on her decks on her first day following the Drake Passage. He has posted some pictures from Veendam on his blog. I can’t remember the URL for his blog, but you can get to it by going to the Holland America website and then ‘ships’ then Prinsendam. I really like Captain Shooenderbeek; he is very funny and personable and he ‘tells it like it is’. We knew we recognized him, but it took a while to figure which ship we had sailed with him before. It was the Veendam out of Tampa about 4 years ago. David, Ted & Becky, Barb & Bill -- you were all onboard with us for that cruise.

Now the not so good news… I seem to have caught a nasty head-cold. So I’m grumpy (and snotty!). But.. I guess it’s at an ok time as we have nothing special planned for a few days. More later.

at sea

2010-01-26T07:50:00.000-08:00

These two sea days are wonderful… very relaxing - but with much to do. If that doesn’t make sense, you probably have never been on a cruise. Sometimes I’m too busy reading and relaxing and I loose track of time and end up missing a lecture I had planned to attend. The great thing… the ship (most ships) tape the main lectures and play them back on the TV so you can see them later.

Yesterday evening was our first Ensemble cocktail party and everyone attended except one person. The Captain, Hotel Manager, cruise director and several other officers and staff attended. There were excellent hot appetizers - probably more than was needed; certainly no one left hungry!

Today, I’ll probably attend a couple lectures but other than that I have no plans.

At Sea - crossing the equator

2010-01-25T07:08:00.000-08:00

It seems like we have been very busy. Saturday we crossed the equator. At 2:00 we had a visit from King Neptune and his court. They did an excellent production of this - starting with the Captain sounding a long blow on the ship’s whistle and making the announcement. King and Queen Neptune judged 6 passengers and 40 crewmembers that were pollywogs; all failed and were sentenced to “the doctors” who covered them with whipped cream and spaghetti noodles. All good fun, they then jumped in the pool to get the worst of it off. I’m sure the crew hates to clean up that mess and the pool sure needed a good cleaning; they had emptied it down to about half so there wasn’t too much water in it.

On Saturday evening we were invited to a Cocktail party with the Officers and a number of other guests. I was surprised since we aren’t in a suite for this cruise. It was very enjoyable and we enjoyed visiting with Roger, the bar manager, and Kevin the assistant cruise director. Earlier we met with Roger to finalize the details for the Ensemble cocktail party on Monday.

Sunday we were in Manta, Ecuador. We took the shuttle into town and wandered through the market and purchased a couple things. Jim got a t-shirt and I bought a lovely embroidered shoulder bag. It has a nice wide padded strap so I can carry stuff more comfortably than using my little tote bag. After several trips, my tote bag is starting to look pretty grungy… I guess I’ll have to treat myself to a new one when we get home. After the market we walked about a block and were in a great park with huge shade trees… we sat there for a while just catching a few photos of local people. Then we headed for the pharmacy to get a couple things… a gel pack to keep in the little cabin fridge so I can use it on my back. It won’t be frozen, but has to be better than putting ice cubes in a ziplock baggie which always seem to leak.

Random thoughts:

The food has been excellent - I love the variety but often get the beef. Last night I had pheasant and it was perfect.
I really miss having a balcony; not just for the use of the balcony itself, but being able to see out through the full size of the sliding door. Our window is quite big, but you can’t see anything except sky unless you are standing. Well, as long as I’m being honest… I really miss being in an D suite. I like having the cabin space, the special amenities and most of all the Neptune!
Our cabin would be perfect for someone that suffers from seasickness. We are on the lowest passenger deck and almost mid-ship. We feel almost no movement… I miss rocking and rolling! There is a huge difference in what we feel in our cabin /vs. what we feel in the public areas or the lido when the seas are a bit rough - we are surprised that the ship is moving as much as we are.
All of the staff and crew are wonderful - I haven’t found one grumpy person. It still amazes me how they learn everyone’s names so quickly. Our steward was worried that something was wrong because we put our ‘do not disturb’ sign out in the evening… sometimes before he has turned down the cabin. We have assured him that it’s ok, we really don’t need anything if the sign is out.

Well, I guess that’s it for now… I’ll add pictures later.

Fuerte Amador, Panama

2010-01-22T13:37:00.001-08:00

I’m a bit behind so I’ll try to catch up. The Panama Canal is always fascinating - no matter how many times you pass through it. We spent time sitting on the shady side of the ship and then coming inside for a while. After leaving the Canal we anchored off Fuerte Amador which is the main port for Panama City. They ran tenders all night so those that wanted to go ashore could do so and return at their leisure. Seabourn Legend is anchored near us; she is a ‘yacht’ class luxury ship holding only about 200 passengers… very nice!

This morning we had to have the alarm clock at 6:00 since we needed to be ready for our shore excursion to the Embera Indian Village by 7:30. We rode on a bus for a little over an hour and then on long dugout canoes for about 20 minutes to reach the village. There was a rather nice presentation done by the ‘Governor’ of the village that explained about their culture and clothing. Then he answer many questions. I particularly liked the one about what types of food they eat and where it comes from… “there is a supermarket in a village about 5 minutes away by boat”. So much for a really traditional lifestyle. Their costumes were very colorful and I took many pictures. We also had a ‘traditional’ snack of fried fish and fried plantains along with some cold soda. Although it was hot, the weather fairies were good to us and it was cooler than I had expected.

Tired, hot and somewhat hungry we did make it to Trivia… we won so now we are the proud owners of Dam mugs.

I haven’t had time to get the photos off my camera yet so I’ll come back and add them tomorrow.

Panama Canal

2010-01-21T04:41:00.001-08:00

We have just entered the Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal. We approached them about 5:30 this morning while it was still quite dark. Jim and I went forward on deck 7 and I tried to get some pictures as we approached the first lock, but I probably just got ‘art’ as they are liable to be blurry when I see them on a bigger computer.

We have been through the canal several times so I will go in and out all day, but probably not stay outside… it’s going to be really hot.

Yesterday we spent a couple hours wandering around in Puerto Limon but didn’t find anything very interesting except in the park we watched a sloth in the trees for about a half hour. He was awake and moving through the branches which was fairly unusual. They move their limbs so very slowly they almost make a koala seem speedy! I’m going to make this quick post as we are going in and out of internet range as we move through the locks.

Isla Providencia, Colombia

2010-01-20T07:14:00.000-08:00

Isla Providencia is exactly what a Caribbean Island should be - unspoiled by tourist stuff! There are 5000 inhabitants and they get about 15,000 visitors a year. You can tell that they are working hard to increase tourism as they have built a beautiful walkway with many sitting areas all along the coast and then up and over a hill and down to a small beach area. The Captain said that we are the largest ship to have ever visited this island. The tender ride was about 2 miles as there is a large reef that the ships cannot cross. Although we didn’t plan for any beach or snorkeling days on this trip… this would have been a perfect stop. I was sorry I hadn’t worn my swimsuit under my clothes. I did take off my shoes and roll up my pant legs and wade a bit - it felt so wonderful I had serious thoughts of just dunking and swimming in my clothes, but I did resist as I didn’t want to be wet the rest of the day.

Today (Wednesday) we will be in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

2010-01-19T04:45:00.001-08:00

We have just anchored off Isla de Providencia, Columbia. This should be interesting… no shore excursions were offered here and even the onboard “Travel Guide” Frank doesn’t know anything about this stop. We have had a couple of these sort of unknown stops on other cruises; some have turned out to be wonderful and some really blah. I’ll let you know about this one later.

The passengers on this cruise are just slightly older than us… the mid age is probably about 70ish. Most everyone seems to be quite well-traveled and some have wonderful stories. There are no children onboard and only a few people younger than 60. We have found several people that were onboard Royal Princess last year for the World cruise - it’s fun to chat with them .

Yesterday we went to the Grand Opening of the new aft pool deck which was a late morning party with the band playing and free drinks… but the pool and hot tubs were just being filled and not opened yet. Shortly after that we went to the first gathering of the Cruise Critics - great bunch of people as always. Sadly, by going to the CC gathering we missed trivia so, of course, the team won. What does that tell you??!! I also went to the speaker lecture on Columbus’ sailing to the new world.

More later…

Santa Marta, Colombia

2010-01-18T04:24:00.000-08:00

Santa Marta is a small port city. I figured it would be pretty hot by noon so we headed off the ship a little before 10:00. We rode the shuttle into town and then headed for the market. The first market was the tourist stuff so we kept on going about 10 blocks later we saw ‘the market’. As many of you know markets are one of my favorite places to take pictures. This one was great in that everyone wanted their picture taken! Wow, did it get hot quickly! After the market, we decided to head back to the ship as there wasn’t much else to see - we wandered back to the shuttle slowly down some different streets just sort of absorbing the atmosphere and then back to the ship.

We had a nice lunch in the buffet and then just relaxed until 3:30 for trivia. Jim got to watch both football games so he’s happy. So am I as he was able to use his headphones so I don’t have to hear the TV. We have learned that his headphones are the only way we survive regular sized cabins… he needs noise and I need quiet!

Things really are coming around to normal on the ship and the passengers are much happier. The midship pool was filled and had a lot of people in and round it and the aft pool (with the new deck space) will have its grand opening this morning. Later this morning we will attend the first CruiseCritic get together.

Santa Marta, Colombia

2010-01-17T04:48:00.001-08:00

7:00 am Sunday and we have just docked in Santa Marta, Colombia. We will have a shuttle to take us into town. There are a couple cathedrals and a market that I am very interested in visiting, but I’m not sure whether Sunday will be a good day for this. Since most of the fresh flowers sold in the US are grown in Colombia I’m thinking the market might be beautiful with flower stalls.

I haven’t mentioned Trivia yet… we are part of a great ‘for fun’ team. Our team name is For Fun. We have 5 regulars and an extra has dropped in a couple times. We actually won the first session… we are now the proud owners of Holland America bag tags! That was the Key West port day. On all the sea days they are running a cumulative score with a grand prize at the end of each segment. So far we haven’t done as well on the sea days, but we have fun and the team never argues about things.
I’ve gone to a couple of the lectures. There was one on how the Asian people crossed the land bridge from Siberia to North America and headed south… It was good. And yesterday we went to a lecture by a professional travel photographer on using your digital camera. One of his questions for the audience was how many are using point & shoot cameras and almost the whole audience raised their hands… then he asked how many use SLRs and 6 of us raised our hands. This is obviously not a serious photo crowd! Then again I’m still remembering our Antarctic trip in November when over half the passengers had wonderful cameras. I asked the photo shop staff if there would be a photo contest and “they didn’t know”. Duh - figure it out. I am in serious need of beating Jim this time since he beat me by placing second overall on the World Cruise.

Well… I was just about to say that things were smoothing out onboard but Jim just went in to take a shower and we have no water.

Now I know one shouldn’t compare cruises, but I’m going to do just a little. So far the food has been very good, the beef is so tender you can cut it with a fork and everything has been perfectly as ordered. And of course, I’m having the traditional Holland America bread pudding every day at lunch, but I need Melania to send me the dessert chef from Royal Princess. I knew that those desserts were really exceptional and so far although the other desserts are all good, they don’t begin to compare with the ones we had on RP. HAL is doing a great job of making this ‘special’ everything is geared to “our special grand voyage passengers”.

I’ll write about the port when we return - and I promise to add some pictures too.

Sea day - Caribbean

2010-01-16T06:22:00.000-08:00

It is Saturday morning and we are just south of Jamaica in the Caribbean. Seas are moderate so we have a bit of rocking which we enjoy. It started nice and sunny, but we just went through a squall with some rain - ahead looks sunny again. Yesterday was a beautiful day up in the 80’s and mostly sunny all day, but there was a wind that made sitting on deck not too pleasant. None of the pools or hot tubs are filled or open yet and people are not happy about that. When it was still cool that didn’t seem to be a problem.

Last night was the Captain’s Welcome (a formal night) and we went to the dining room. The food was very good, but the service is so slow that I doubt we will go often. For those of you that know us, that isn’t unusual for us as we most often go to the Lido for dinner. We spent most of the hour and a half sitting with either dirty plates in front of us, or nothing. We excused ourselves before dessert was offered. As much as I hate to say it, I find the dining experience on this and other ships we have been on recently far below what we received just a few years ago. Our tablemates are delightful, but I just do not enjoy 2-hour dinners.

Our cabin went from very cold (first two days) to way too hot. Yesterday we spent the day turning the dial down… it’s now down all the way and we have a fairly comfortable cabin this morning. I’m putting our extra blankets under the bed in case we go back to cold!

We have received several very nice gifts, faux-leather journal and bag tags, nice big zippered tote bags with the Grand Voyage 2010 logo and an Amaryllis bulb with a vase. Since they grow very quickly, I’m trying to grow mine now as I don’t want to bother trying to take it home… the vase is glass and very large.

As many of our Ensemble passengers still had not received their Welcome letters, I asked the desk to make copies for me from my extra and we personally delivered them to all the cabins… now I know everyone got a copy.

Stay tuned!

Key West

2010-01-15T04:12:00.000-08:00

Thursday - We docked in Key West at about 10:00. It is about 60 degrees and there is nothing special we wanted to do, so we stayed onboard and made the Welcome calls to all of the Ensemble passengers. In doing that I found that no one had received their welcome letters. Back to the “Front Desk”. She told me they were delivered last night… after some checking she found them and said “they forgot”. The letters will be delivered right away. It is now 3 hours later and we haven’t seen them yet, but we will keep checking. Things are a bit more disorganized than on past Holland America cruises. An example - our steward came in last night at 10:30 to turn down the bed and deliver the HAL gifts. We were already in bed, as I expect most people were on the first night. They are still saying all the glitches are due to the long dry dock and it will get back to normal soon.

The ship is lovely, at least the main areas which aren’t still under construction. The aft pool and several aft decks are closed for construction that is supposed to be completed today… it doesn’t look promising. We just looked down from the lido deck and I’d guess there isn’t a chance of it being finished today. The library seems to have a fairly large selection of books which I love as I spend most of my down time reading. I was able to connect to the internet easily from our cabin this morning - This is really important to me!!

The Ensemble letters were finally delivered about dinner time - I had made several other trips to the desk asking about them. It seems that over half of the people in the group were moved at boarding so our manifest with the cabin numbers needed a lot of updating.

Friday will be a sea day… more soon.

We are on the ship!

2010-01-14T05:19:00.000-08:00

We are onboard. Our trip to Fort Lauderdale went smoothly; no glitches at all, but I still hate the air travel part of any trip. We stayed at the Ramada Inn Airport Cruiseport which is a typical 1960’s style motel. It has a restaurant, airport and cruise port shuttles and offered a complimentary breakfast. There is nothing luxury about it, but it was clean so it worked just fine.

I can’t say much about the weather in Ft. Lauderdale except that Denver was probably same temperature. It wasn’t very Florida-like to need jackets. It really didn’t matter as we had dinner as soon as we got to the hotel and then just relaxed a bit and then were ready for bed.

We took the shuttle to the port at 11:45 only to find that Prinsendam had arrived late from dry dock and boarding would be delayed. At about 3:00 we finally boarded the ship. I have to admit we have been awfully spoiled by having suites in the past as today we waited in line for about an hour before we finally reached the check-in desks.

Our cabin, is actually pretty nice for an outside (window) cabin. There is a fair sized seating area with a loveseat and chair. The small walk-in closet looks like it will have plenty of storage and there is a full size bathtub in the bathroom! The crew is working double time trying to get everything ready for passengers since she has been empty for a while. Our cabin is only about half ready. The bed is made and we have towels, but no other amenities like soap. It’s now 5:00 and our steward just delivered our ’gift cards’ and shore excursion tickets.

Thank you to Richard and Alice for the Pinnacle and to someone else also for the Pinnacle…. There is no name on that card, but I think I know who sent it. We wish you were here with us!

Our first piece of luggage just arrived and I need to start doing my Ensemble Host duties. So I’ll write more later.
--------
Our luggage arrived all at the same time so we were able to pretty much unpack before dinner. Since we had not eaten since breakfast at the hotel we were ready and it was very good; prime rib seemed to be the popular choice at our table. After dinner I got the cabin numbers for those that were missing from my list and then asked the purser’s desk to deliver the Welcome letters. At 9:00 we went up to the Crows Nest to listen to the Piano man and have a quick nightcap then it was off to bed. Thursday we will be in Key West.

We're Packed

2010-01-11T07:22:00.000-08:00

Sunday was packing day. We are all packed with the small bag still open in the bedroom for all those last minute items. We did so well packing I'm worried now that we have forgotten stuff. The big bags both weighed in right at 48 lbs so we shouldn't have any overweight bag charges.

I ordered the unlimited laundry service for the whole cruise... not cheap, but I just don't see myself going to the launderette while cruising. I also ordered a large package of internet minutes - it is a bit less expensive to order it pre-cruise.

I've double checked on everything and I feel like we are actually ready to go! David is taking us to the airport on Tuesday morning. Newspaper is stopped, mail is taken care of. Fred will be taking care of the house and, of course, Peter and Beth will help him out. But, the biggest THANK YOU goes to Michelle and Shannon, Luxury Cruise & Travel's part-time agents that take care of all my clients while we do our traveling. Words really can't explain how greatful I am to them! Soon (or actually not so soon, as they are younger!) they too will be able to make some of these wonderful long trips.

I have a friend/client that is sailing on the Queen Mary2 World Cruise. He is sailing the first segments, New York City to Hong Kong. His blog is one of the best I've ever read - you might want to check it out. http://pfsjoberg.blogspot.com/ Be sure to go back through the archive and start at the beginning.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T07:35:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Time is certainly going by quickly, we have less than two weeks to go until we leave for Fort Lauderdale and then board Prinsendam on the 13th. We have a pile of stuff that is growing daily in one corner of the bedroom. We don’t pack until a couple days before we leave; if I pack stuff earlier I can never remember what I have put in a bag and what I haven’t. Old age??

We received our cabin assignment and the upgrade fairy didn’t exactly love us. We will be in 446. That is an outside (window) cabin on the lowest passenger deck, but the location is great, portside and mid-ship. This will certainly be a ‘learning experience’ for us as we have never booked anything except a full S suite on Holland America. Since we are traveling as the Ensemble Hosts, we are more than happy with our outside cabin! We did have an outside cabin one time when we were hosting an Alaska cruise and we did just fine. Although we will obviously miss the balcony, I’m lamenting not having free laundry and dry-cleaning and the Neptune!!

We have already booked a number of shore excursions. They are the ones we really want and wanted to make sure they didn’t sell out. Several of my friends have done this cruise or parts of it and sent us their recommendations pro and con on shore excursions. The most helpful was “skip the dance (Tango/Samba) shows; the ones they bring onto the ship are better.” I think I have all the penguin excursions booked, but I was disappointed to see on the Fram blog that the King penguin babies are getting very big… I might not get to see penguin babies after all.

I’ll post again before we leave.

First post

2009-12-18T11:10:00.000-08:00

We are soon to head out on another of our adventures. This time it is a 70-day Grand Voyage around S America and Antarctica on Holland America's small ship, Prinsendam. We will be the Ensemble Travel Group's onboard Hosts for about 30 passengers. We love the small ships and are really looking forward to Prinsendam; all my clients that have sailed on her give wonderful reviews and many book her repeatedly.

Our Ports of Call will be: Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US; Key West, Florida, US; Santa Marta, Colombia; Isla de Providencia, Colombia; Puerto Limon, Costa Rica; Enter Panama Canal Cristobal; Exit Panama Canal Balboa; Fuerte Amador, Panama; Manta, Ecuador; Callao (Lima), Peru; General San Martin (Pisco), Peru; Arica, Chile; Iquique, Chile; Coquimbo (La Serena), Chile; Santiago (Valparaiso), Chile; Isla Robinson Crusoe, Chile; Puerto Montt, Chile; Puerto Chacabuco, Chile; Darwin Channel Chilean Fjords; Amalia Glacier Canal Sarmiento; Strait of Magellan; Punta Arenas, Chile; Cockburn & Beagle Channels; Ushuaia, Argentina; Cape Horn & Drake Passage; Wilhelm Archipelago; South Shetland Islands; The Antarctic Sound; Pt. Stanley, Falkland Islands; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Montevideo, Uruguay; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Salvador, Brazil; Recife, Brazil; Fortaleza, Brazil; Belem, Brazil; Crossing the Equator; Santarem, Brazil; Boca da Valeria, Brazil; Manaus, Brazil; Parintins, Brazil; Devil's Island, French Guiana; Bridgetown, Barbados; Ponce, Puerto Rico, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

We have been to some of the ports before and just returned from an Antarctic Adventure cruise on MS Fram. I am particularly interested in the ports in Brazil including over a week on the Amazon; we have never done any of that. The southern parts of Chile including the fjords and around the Horn and the Strait of Magellen have been high on my 'must do' list. It will be interesting to compare how Prinsendam handles the waters of the Drake Passage in comparison to Fram as we head south to the Antarctic. Although we won't be making landings in Antarctica there are opportunities for me to get some more penguin photos on the Falklands and Punta Arenas, Chile. On our last trip the penguins were on the eggs; it was too early for the chicks... I'm hoping to see some this time.

We have been through the Panama Canal several times including earlier this year on our Royal Princess World Cruise and each time I find it just as fascinating. It will be interesting to see how much progress has been made in a year on the canal expansion project.

As the Ensemble Hosts, we will be leading two private excursions for our passengers in Montevideo, Uruguay and Santiago, Chile. They both sound wonderful, but I won't spoil the surprise for any of those passengers that might read this early.

Please pardon this ad, it must be somewhere for my counter to work. :-)

>Gardeners Supply