REVIEW - Prinsendam Amazon Cruise

[GrammyPL]

HAL'S MAIDEND VOYGE UP THE AMAZON - PRINSENDAM NOV. 20 TO DED 18

We went down two days ahead of time and stayed at the Comfort Inn. On the day of embarkation we had very long lines to get on the ship. The Zuiderdam was also boarding and I guess mayve they just didn't have enough good people to process us. After Boat Drill we met with our CC.s in the Crows Nest. Hi Gang.

ROOM - We had room 385 in the back of the ship on Main Deck. (Not a veranda cabin) The room was a litttle small but had a large walk in closet and a large bathroom. We had one of the rooms with a tub and it was huge. The only problem was that the shower in the tub was stationary and a little on the low side if you are tall. We had a refrigerator and I asked the wine steward to empty it so we could put our own stuff in it. The TV was only about a 15" but who spends much time watching TV. It had a nice new round mirrow that pulled out and must have about 10 times magnification. There also was a new hair dryer that was just fine for my short hair. We had new mattress and the new corforters. They also had fruit for us on our little table.

[localady]

Welcome home GrannyPL!!!:)

Looking forward to your entire review!:cool:

[GrammyPL]

SHIP-I love the ship. It is smaller then the other HAL ships and is easer to get around. It doesn't have as much stuff as the larger ships. There was no piano bar-that was played up in the Crows Nest. You had just a limited amount of things in the stores. There were only 5 five cent machines in the Casine-but I managed to make a nice donation there. There were just 2 seatings for dinner. The 6:00 and the 8:15. We ate at the 8:15 at a table for 8 and had the best time we have every had with some great tablemates. Most of the people on this cruise had done a lot of cruising. They all seemed to have 100 days or more. There were two laundry rooms and they were free of charge. It even put in its own special soap. I would suggest you take dryer sheets and Shout with you.
PORTS-I will only tell you about the Tours that either my hubby, myslef or our tablemates took.
DOMINICA REPUBLIC-No one took a tour from our table. At anchor. 20 min tender ride for 3 stores and 1 bar.
ST. BARHELEMY-Really beautiful harbor. Has some very expensive shops. Everything is pricey.
GRENADA-The island was really hit by the Hurricane. Most roofs had blue tarps and a couple of churches had no roofs at all. The ship took up a collection and gave it to a school to use for fixing their roof.

[GrammyPL]

CROSSING THE EQUATOR-The ship had a King Neptune Party for the crew. What fun that was. We also recieved certicicates for the crossing
AMAZON RIVER-It was a lot different than I thought it would be. The river is very wide in some parts and also shallow and very very muddy.
SANTAREM, BRAZIL-We passed the meeting of the waters during breakfast. That is when the muddy Amazon meets the aquamarine of the Tapajos River. We docked. This is a large city of 300,000 people. Mostly major stores but a few stands set up by the ship. Someone at our table took the Tapajos River & Jari Canal Boat Tour. They thought it was terrible. You spent 2 hrs. in the middle of the wide Amzaon - 15 min going up a Canal that didn't look like a forest - swam 15 min and 2 hr ride back to the ship.
BACA DA VALERIA, BRAZIL-You tender into a small village Some of the natives were in costume. They had a few stalls set up selling all homemade suff. Hand carved wood and beads. Everyone thought this was one of the best ports.
MANAUS, BRAZIL-Docked for 2 days. Very large city. The Opera House tour was great and well woth it. The Curise through the Rain Forest and the Lake January & Alligators by Night were both very good. It was fun to see the River Boats that were docked with us. People would come and put up hammocks to sleep in. There was shopping and a shuttle right by the ship.

[GrammyPL]

PARINTIN,BRAZIL-The Festival Show was something not to miss. The greatest. Parintins by Trycycle was also liked
DEVEL'S ISLAND-No tours. Tendered in and wilked arount the island. A lot of history here. Had a mall gift ship. Eveeryone loved the island.
TOBAGO-This was one big disaster. The treatment of the Captian, Crew and Passenges could not have been worse. I hope HAL never sends a ship there again. The story is too long to print here.
The rest of the islands are ones that are on a lot of other cruises and I won't review them here.
OTHER STUFF-We thought the food was great. In Manaus, the chef bought all sorts of differnt fish and fruit that he prepared for our meals. It was nice to try some other foods. Some we liked and some we didn't. The dinning room was open each day for both breakfast and lunch as well as the lide. We always ate in the dinning room. They had Low Carb and Vegetarian dishes on the menus. We had dinner the first night in the Pinnacle. Very good as usual. The staff was mostly Indonesian. Very nice to see that. In the main dinningroom we had Dutch, Indonesian and Filipino nights. We tried some of their foods. The Indonesian and Filipino Crews both put on shows for us. Other Entertainment was varied and some were brought on at differnt ports so we had a good veriety. But-We love the Champagne Strings. Lectures were brought on board to talk about the Amazon River and other Topics of interest.
MORE OTHER STUFF-A hint for those on the next year's trip. Do your laundry before you enter the Amazon river as the river is so muddy that they can not make water and they shut the laundries and also no laundry for those that sent it out. We had paper napkins for lunch and they turned the tablecloths over to use them more then once. They also asked you to reuse your bath towels for a couple of days. Of couse we picked up water in Manaus and you could wash then. But the same thing happend on the way out of the Amazon.

[GrammyPL]

We did have toilet problems. They were replacing some tubing and shut the water off for part of a day. They sent us a letter telling us this in advance. One of the back elevators quit working and they never got it started again. The ship goes into dry dock after a 16 day Christmas Cruise. They should have everthing in ship shape condition after that. We had very rough seas between St. Thomas and Nassau (one very long day and night.) Our table was fine, but a lot were missing for dinner
I would recommed this trip to anyone. It was the greatest. If you have questions - I will try to answer them. Penny

[dakrewser]

Thanks Penny - but you must tell us more about Tobago!

[ATC]

Thank you Penny.

[localady]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise, GrammyPL! How do you rate the Prinsendam against the other ships you have cruised on?:cool:

[Aussie Gal]

Thanks Penny for taking the time to write. My sister is on the Amsterdam doing S.A. at the moment and in her latest email she mentions she has booked the Prinsendam for April 2006 Amazon cruise, so the Prinsendam may be doing that cruise twice a year from 2005 onwards.

I have printed out your comments and will give them to her on her return. I am so glad you enjoyed it, we also hope to do it in a couple of years time.

Jennie

[HeatherInFlorida]

Thank you so much for your review! That cruise is one that is on my Wish List so I really enjoyed reading about the ports.

Must be feeling just a tad cold way up there near the Falls!

[rkacruiser]

In March/April of this year, I was aboard Royal Princess when she did the Amazon River cruise and would agree that Boca da Valeria was one of the most interesting ports we visited. I enjoy getting to meet the native people and that certainly was a great opportunity to do so.

[andre2p]

Thanks Penny for taking the time to write. My sister is on the Amsterdam doing S.A. at the moment and in her latest email she mentions she has booked the Prinsendam for April 2006 Amazon cruise, so the Prinsendam may be doing that cruise twice a year from 2005 onwards.

I have printed out your comments and will give them to her on her return. I am so glad you enjoyed it, we also hope to do it in a couple of years time.

Jennie
Jennie,

does that mean that the schedule is out for 2006? I am interested in booking the Amazon cruise for '06 as soon as I can/is possible.

Andrew

[RuffinReady]

Thanks Penny for your great review. I will be going on the Prinsendam in May. Do you know where they are going to drydock the ship? How were the matresses, I have heard that they are going to replace the linens before the world cruise in January.


Ruffin

Bermuda Star (long time ago!)
S.S. France (Transatlantic -1965)
S.S Atlantic (Transatlantic, Mediterranean - American Export Lines - 1966)
Europa (Caribbean - 1969 - North German Lloyd)
Statendam (Caribbean - 1975)
Sunward (Bahamas - c. 1980)
Song of America (Caribbean - 1988)
Crown Princess (Alaska - 1999)
Royal Princess (B2B to South America - 2001)
Crown Princess (Baltic - 2002)
Royal Princess (B2B2B; Transatlantic, France, Belgium, Holland; Gt.Britain-2002)
Galaxy (Caribbean - 2003)

Prinsendam (B2B; Transatlantic NYC to Athens – May 2005)

[Aussie Gal]

Andrew,

I haven't seen the schedule, in fact as soon as I received the email from my sister I went into the website. I think the Cruise Consultant on board must have the itineraries. Sorry I cannot help you more.

Jennie

[GrammyPL]

Tobago Mess
We were suppose to anchor off of Tobago, but before we got there the Captain found out that we would be able to use the 1 boat slip that they had. At about 7:00 we pulled into the harbor and there was another ship where we were to be. The Captain had waited for the pilot boat but it didn't show up until after we anchored ourselves. There was a P.O.Ship also anchored that was bigger then us. Most of the tours were to start at 8:00 or 8:30. We showed up 10 min early in the Queens Lounge to go on the Highlights and Culture Tour. At that time the sun was shinning. We sat and sat and sat. The local customs guys didn't come to our ship. They went to the P.O.Ship and stayed there. We sent a tender over after them. It was about 10:00 before the first tender of ours was able to leave. Of course by now all the other tours were in the lounge waiting to get off the ship. The seas were a little on the rough side but not that bad. The thing was--they had a floating dock with no bumpers. That mean that the dock was going up and the tender was going down. Also-since the dock only could take 1 tender at a time we had to take turns with the P.O. tenders. The dock was really rough and our tour people said that if anyone didn't want to get off the tender -they would get their money back.

[GrammyPL]

Tobago Mess
For our tour they had about 12 buses that held about 20 people or so. By the time the first group got off the tender it was so late that everyone got sent to the show we were to see. The first group waited 1 hr for the show to start and our bus, the 9th missed some of the show. Of course by the time they got people off the tenders it started raining and it rained the whole time we were there. Our bus was lucky we had a tour guide that spoke English, but that was not the case with the other poeple at our table, they did not understand a thing their guide told them. After the tour. We again had a long line for both us and the P.O. Boat tenders waiting to pick everyone up. After we left port the Captain apologized for what had happened and sent a glass of wine to everyone on the ship. I know the weather is not anyone's fault-but if we ha gotten off on time and without any ship to share the dock with, we would have seen some of the island before it rained. I just feel that Tobago treated our Captain with no respect or did they seem to care what anyone on a HAL ship thought. I hope HAL never stops there again until they straighten out their Por Authority. Penny

[GrammyPL]

Ruffin = We had the new matresses and new linens. They were both great. I hope they will be on our next cruise.

locallady---I loved the Prinsendam.. I know she is smaller then the other ships but she is great. I do like the Rotterdam and that series of ships. I like the middle elevator. The Maasdam class is OK. But I really don't like to Vista class at all--to big.

Heather---You bet it is cold and snowy up here.

Have a good Christmas Everyone. Penny

[jhannah]

What a mess, indeed. You'd think that with Tobago being such a poor country and so dependent on tourism dollars that they'd really have their act together in this regard. Guess not! I agree that HAL should rethink stopping there if this is the type of treatment they and their pax are going to be subjected to.

Thanks for your review, Penny. We loved the Prinsendam this year and have booked her for a British Isles cruise next August. I'd love to do the Amazon some day.

[dakrewser]

Sorry to hear about the Tobago fiasco, and we had such a(n unexpected) good time in Trinidad last fall! Ah well, the rest of your cruise seemed to go well, and we can be thankful for that.

[Longtimer]

In many ways it sounds like we were on a different cruise. We enjoyed meeting everyone in the crows nest after boat drill. Are we glad we did the trip-Yes. Would we do it again or recommend it-NO. The food was certainly not up to the standards that HAL has and many of us were asking where they were getting the weird menus. SEATTLE!

The ship had water problems from the get go. We had to stay four extra hours in Kingstown and Georgetown to take on water. Once in the Amazon the situation was worse. We had a delux suite (deck 12) and waited for several days to get back laundry. The water can't be filtered by the ship. Took on water in Manaus.

The tours left a lot to be desired. The Tapajos and Jari Canal should be scraped as a tour. THe river is low at this time of year. Boat 5 (ours) took over three hours in the hot sun going to the canal and we went in for 15 minutes and back out. Really on flat land that had been cleared. Then another 90 minutes to the so called beach for a swim. Very steep beach and the water was very warm. TO make matters worse we had to climb down a pipe ladder that was vertically hung from the side of the ship. They told us to remove our shoes. Most onboard were unable to make the climb. Warm water to drink that they ran out of and a few warm cokes. Other boats had iced down sodas water and beer and fruit. Many of us wrote to the shore excursion office for all the good it did. They sent a letter to the tour outfit and that was the end of it. NOthing done.

Maybe maiden voyages aren't the way to go. If you want more let me know or my daughter will post.

[GrammyPL]

Longtimer---It was nice meeting you and your daughter. I agree with you about the Tapajos & Jari Canal Boat tour went. At least that is what the people that took that tour from our table said. We didn't take it. I am glad of that. As far as food goes. I guess everyone has their own opinion of it. Our table thought it was fun to try the different dishes. As I said - some we liked and some we didn't. As far as laundry goes. I guess that is always going to be a problem for any ship in the Amazon as they can't make water or take it on till Manaus. Sorry you didn't enjoy the cruise as much as we did. Maybe it was our great tablemates that made our trip so wonderful.

Jhannah-I agree that Tobago is really stupid to get a cruise ship upset when they want to have them come into there port

[alsas]

You are why we love the boards of cruise criric.The information was well written,and easy for all of us to understand.We also love the ship and know it is not perfect. Hopefully when it comes out of dry dock most of the major problems will be gone.thanks for the review....tell us about the menu if you have the time. happy sailings

[GrammyPL]

alsas---Thanksgiving we had a wonderful traditional dinner with turkey and all the stuff that goes with it. Of course, thay had other things on the menu if you didn't like turkey. In Manaus the Chef pick up all sorts of strange sounding fish that he prepared in different ways. Since they don't give you the menus any more I couldn't tell you what they were. He also try some different fruit. We did have the meatloaf one night. I ordered it and didn't like it at all---so switched dinners with my hubby. To me there was always something different on the menu but also the regular food to chose from. I did like trying different foods since I don't know when we will be on an Amazon cruise again. Penny

[Cruiseoften]

GrammyPL - enjoyed your comments re your Prinsendam cruise, it's on our 'wish list'. We crossed the Atlantic on her and loved the trip, we had such amazing weather.

Re the Casino - didn't realize that the slot machines are changed depending on the itinerary. On the Atlantic voyage we had various tables and 5¢, 25¢ and $1 (maybe also $5 but I'm not sure) slot machines. On our last night I had $10 in my 'fun money' fund and decided to try the $1 slots - good thing I did, I came away with $600 :D

[GrammyPL]

Cruiseoften---How lucky you are to have won......I gave them a nice contribution. They had all different machines, but the ones that were allways busy were the five - 5 cent machines. I think they could have put in one or two more of them. But, maybe I would have lost more money if they had more of them. Penny