We are Home

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

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

  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.
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• I don’t know how anyone could experience Antarctica and not believe in a Higher Power.
• Exciting and Awesome.
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• We’re on course (from the Captain).
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• 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)
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• 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.
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• 70 days seems like eternity on a boat.
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• Not many 33 year olds haven’t been on a cruise this long.
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• 70 days is just not long enough… I could stay on for more (except maybe to see my new granddaughter).
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• The cruise went to too many places that were too similar.
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• Fun.
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• Can’t wait to do it again.
• I’m glad I did it, but I’m glad it’s over.

 

Ponce, Puerto Rico

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

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

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

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.