Live – Rotterdam, Prinsendam, Queen Mary II

Now that Donna has issued her Bon Voyage, I feel like I’m officially leaving shortly for an extended odyssey. It will start with the July 12 Classic Transatlantic from New York to Rotterdam. After a short stay in Rotterdam I’ll continue on to the 21-day Arctic Explorer cruise on the Prinsendam, and conclude with a return crossing on Queen Mary II. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to have a door-to-door live thread here. I know the final segment is on a Cunard ship, but the raison d’etre for the entire odyssey is the Prinsendam Voyage, so I consider the whole thing a HAL trip. I’ll be doing this as a narrative thread but there will be a companion blog with (I hope) pictures, menus, and Explorers at arctictriple.wordpress.com. I know that there will be some days on the Prinsendam without internet access but I’ll try to catch up as soon as possible when access returns.

Part of my shtick is I try to close each day’s entry with a “parting shot” which could be a comment on the day’s events, something general about cruising, or even something totally unrelated to the current cruise. While this isn’t a daily post my first parting shot will be a bit of history. This will be my first live thread on the HAL forum but I have started with some on other boards. I picked up my basic pattern from keith1010 on the Crystal forum, and capnpugwash on the Cunard forum, and have also learned a lot from RevNeal and arzz on their threads from last year’s Arctic Explorer and others like WCB, tomc, and Ironin. Special thanks to Cruise Critic member Ironin for help setting up the blog. I’ll even be stealing a bit from tomc (regrettably not his wit).

Roy

This post comes to you live from my residence.

Looking forward to "joining" you on your voyage!

Cheers,

Deb

I'm sure I'll enjoy comin' along for the ride. I'm especially interested in your perspectives on the Rotterdam---I haven't sailed her since her reconfigurations, and she used to be very special to me. I'm also interested in your perspectives on the Prinsendam. Since I just returned from sailing her in the same part of the world, it should be interesting to read what you have to say.

Bon Voyage.

Hey, my sister and family will sail with you across the Atlantic Ocean. They're also from Maryland (Severna Park). They have 2 teenagers, one of each gender. Have a fantastic voyage.

AWESOME!!

Joanie

What a fantastic trip! I'll be anxiously watching for every word you share.

THREE ships - amazing!

Looking forward to your "Live" thread.

sounds fantastic to me. I'm looking forward to all of it:D

Wow, a three ship journey! I will be following along as soon as you post. It sounds like you are going to have an incredible experience as you travel to so many places on your three ships.

Wow, what an amazing trip!!

Looking forward to reading all about your voyages, absolutely fantastic!

:D

Sounds good. Thanks for doing this. I'll be looking forward to reading it.

I can't wait. Am I envious of this fantastic itinerary? Yes!

Mrs M

Looking foward to this

I'll be coming "home" on the QM2 next year - anxious to hear about that especially.

rafinmd,

Three ships, how wonderful, will be interesting to read about your cruises.

Wishing you safe travelling.

Hope you thoroughly enjoy your cruises.

Oh goody! Looking forward to reading about your travels. Have a wonderful trip!

Sounds like a unique voyage(s). I'll be following along, maybe getting ideas since my DW will no longer do long flights (transatlantic).

Bon voyage Roy! This is going to be quite an adventure - thanks for taking time to allow us to follow along as it unfolds. (Thank you, too, for the kind words.)

Thank you all. epixx, is your sister a member of Cruise Critic? It may be too late now, but if she would like to join our Meet and Greet she can email me at royaferguson at operamail dot com. I'm about 20 miles from Severna Park.

buckirj1, it looks like you have a potential HAL cruise on the back burner. I'll likely get into some comparisons with QM2 late in the trip.

DeepWaterMariner, I do do long flights (and will again next year to Asia for the Zaandam, but whenever I can divert to a ship it's a BIG plus.

Ironin, I think the blog's pretty much the way I want it now. We'll see how it works out under satellite internet conditions.

I'm probably 60% packed. Still going to be a busy day tomorrow.

Roy

Our daughter is the lead singer of the halcats on your cruise. Tall nadia hi from her family from Anaheim!!!

Not bad, Roy, you haven't even left your living room yet, and you have nearly 20 replies on your original post!

I'll see you on the ROTTERDAM!

Frank

Bon voyage and have a terrific trip. I would love to do that somedaybut my DH would never travel for that long. So, i'll travel along with you through your blog and dream. Thank you for takeing the time to do this for all of us.

Helen

Wow, what a great cruise, and I look forward to reading your comments. Thanks for posting!

Roy, looking forward to your adventure.

Best wishes for a wonderful adventure and safe travels.

Keith

buckirj1, it looks like you have a potential HAL cruise on the back burner. I'll likely get into some comparisons with QM2 late in the trip.

Roy

Thanks, Roy. I'm looking forward to the comparisons. I'm pretty much committed to NCL this fall and next, but might be able to squeeze in a May cruise if all goes well. I'll take the Maasdam NE/Canada cruise sooner or later. Hope you have fun on top of the world:)

Rita

Thank you hpf, Keith, Rita, natashamichelle, and scopewest.

I left home just after 1PM today but headed away from my route of travel. I am Treasurer at our local Volunteer Fire Department and our Annual Meeting is tonight. It’s an important function that I hesitate to miss. I had booked a ride to the station but the reservation got lost so I started the afternoon with a 5-mile walk (I did drop my luggage off in the morning). The day’s plan is to finalize my reports in the afternoon, attend 6 and 7 PM meetings and the Airport Shuttle picks me up at 8:20 to catch a 10:30 train to New York, unfortunately arriving very late (1:49am), but I’ll just have to sleep a bit late Tuesday morning. I am definitely on my way since I will not be returning home for 6 weeks.

Roy

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