Prinsendam 2006 Circle of the Sun, About to begin...

Greetings:

I sit here in snowy Ottawa with my wife, affectionately nicknamed Gruxy, hoping we are ready to board our 8 a.m. flight to FLL. We built in a two day safety period before sailaway which seems paranoid but with our iffy weather we felt it wise to suffer two days at the Deerfield Beach Resort (glad I remembered those long unused Hilton Honours points).

We hope to get over to the Keys and a great crab shack I remember in Islamorada if it's still there and I can find it.

We didnt sleep too well last night with the mental packing, double checking and second guessing. Grux handled the first and I the latter two so you can guess who did the packing. I hope we are speaking again soon.

I hope to keep an online trip diary a la Slinkie and Grumpy which I and many others enjoyed so much last year. I believe a fellow voyager will be doing the same so the trip should be well documented. I almost feel at home on the Prinsendam without ever having seen her thanks to that great thread but no promises that a similar standard will be achieved.

Well I now have a URL to circulate to family and friends (many are both) and hope to post again on our first sea day, the 6th if I get the satellite system figured out. I sure hope our cabin,...er...stateroom is in a wireless hot zone. Query? Why wouldn't the whole ship be hot?

Until that time...

Ides of March:D

Query? Why wouldn't the whole ship be hot?

Have a wonderful cruise. We've enjoyed sailing the Prinsendam twice, so will look forward to your posts.

Ides, I am very much looking forward to your reports on board the Prinsendam. May you and your DW have safe travels to Florida and enjoy a little sunshine before boarding.

Bon Voyage !!!!!

Greetings:

 

I sit here in snowy Ottawa with my wife, affectionately nicknamed Gruxy, hoping we are ready to board our 8 a.m. flight to FLL. We built in a two day safety period before sailaway which seems paranoid but with our iffy weather we felt it wise to suffer two days at the Deerfield Beach Resort (glad I remembered those long unused Hilton Honours points).

 

We hope to get over to the Keys and a great crab shack I remember in Islamorada if it's still there and I can find it.

 

We didnt sleep too well last night with the mental packing, double checking and second guessing. Grux handled the first and I the latter two so you can guess who did the packing. I hope we are speaking again soon.

 

I hope to keep an online trip diary a la Slinkie and Grumpy which I and many others enjoyed so much last year. I believe a fellow voyager will be doing the same so the trip should be well documented. I almost feel at home on the Prinsendam without ever having seen her thanks to that great thread but no promises that a similar standard will be achieved.

 

Well I now have a URL to circulate to family and friends (many are both) and hope to post again on our first sea day, the 6th if I get the satellite system figured out. I sure hope our cabin,...er...stateroom is in a wireless hot zone. Query? Why wouldn't the whole ship be hot?

 

Until that time...

 

Ides of March:D

Bon Voyage!! - we've sailed Prinsendam once and loved every minute of our time on board - she rides well and the 'crew' we had was wonderful.

Will look forward to your posts.

Safe travels to Florida and Bon Voyage!!:)

It's definitely a trip of a lifetime, thank you for sharing your log of the trip with us! Look forward to information regarding the Prinsendam and her wonderful Crew and Staff. We sailed on her last July in the Baltic and loved both the ship and her crew!:D

Hope you both have a good trip down & enjoy your short stay in our sunny Florida...

We're looking forward to your suggestions & comments..

Only 16 weeks & two days till we board the "Prinsendam" (April 26) for the Amazon.. .:)

We hope you have fair skies & calm seas & a wonderful cruise!

Have a wonderful trip of a lifetime!

We'll all be looking forward to reading your travelogues and appreciate you being willing to take the time to document your wonderful voyage.

Bon Voyage and safe travels!

Blue skies ... calm seas ...

--rita

Ides of March and Grux- We shall get used to those names very quickly. Thank you for giving us a daily log and lots of details please about the Prinsendam. We too shall be on her soon when we head to the Amazon with Serendipity and others in April.

Have a great time. I was on it twice. I hold it very special to me. My first time was down the west coast of Africa, Lisbon to Cape Town and from Auckland to Singapore, a very special 36 days where I met my girlfriend just under 3 years ago. I did love the ship and would like to go back on it someday. I have a friend joining in Cape Town sailing to Bombay. I do hope that you do get to Mombasa and Zanzibar. I was on the Pacific Princess that was to stop there last Aug. but it was cancelled. Many unhappy people. Will be reading your posts.

Oh goodie-goodie-goodie-goodie-goodie! I'm sitting here clapping my hands in delight about your upcoming thread! You're really going to take us all along with you? Really for real?

Yippee! I can't wait! Sure sounds like a Happy New Year already!

Oh goodie-goodie-goodie-goodie-goodie! I'm sitting here clapping my hands in delight about your upcoming thread! You're really going to take us all along with you? Really for real?

Yippee! I can't wait! Sure sounds like a Happy New Year already!

I'm with you, Ruth. At least I know that when my "trip of a lifetime" ends in February, I'll have a nice world cruise thread to sink my teeth into. Sure will ease the pain. :)

Blue skies ...

--rita

Woowee - I'm with you, Ruth -Looking forward to it all. Seems like Grumpy just finished. Time travels fast.

Have to keep up even on our 10 day on Volendam in March.

Thank you, Ides for undertaking a huge responsibility - keeping thousands on the edge of their seat (wishing we were in your seat!).:p

And a big thanks to Grumpy, also.;)

Have a great trip - looking forward to your posts. Penny

We certainly hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we enjoyed ours. I'm really looking forward to your reports. I think I know what crab shack you are referring to. It was there last fall, hopefully still there.

Don't keep us waiting to long between reports... some of the readers here get pretty restless between episodes....:D

Bon Voyage and have a really great, long cruise.

And so begins the online trip diary of the Good Ship Prinsendam on its 2006 World Voyage from the perspective of neophyte world cruisers.

Days -2 to 0

Two very pleasant days were spent at the Deerfield Beach Resort just north of Fort Lauderdale. We were quite surprised by the extent of the damage still evident from Hurricane Katrina in the Lauderdale area. Many uprooted trees, broken branches, broken roof tiles and windows filled with plywood. It was somewhat reminiscent of the ice storm we had in Ottawa a few years back.

Being genetically incapable of simply staying at the resort and enjoying its amenities, we drove halfway out the Florida Keys hoping for a memorable crab lunch. We did find the restaurant at World Sportsmen in Islamorada but unfortunately the storm surge during Katrina had wiped out the serving area on the docks. Snow crab was also out of season but we still had a wonderful meal (blackened tuna) on the terrace of the main building and saw Poppa Hemingway's sister ship the Piller.

Embarkation on the Prinsendam was very quick and painless. We had anticipated endless waits as we experienced when boarding the Celebrity Galaxy in Rome last September. We were checked in an in our cabin within an hour. Marvelous.

We explored the ship before sail away and were tremendously impressed. It is a relatively small, intimate vessel which I found reminiscent of a fine old private club with beautiful curved wood paneling, wood or brass handrails, and beautiful artwork throughout. I particularly enjoy the Stephen Card paintings of past HAL ships that have been discussed on these threads. One should see the originals to truly appreciate them.

There was an open bar for sail away at the Lido pool and we were off exactly on time.

I will stop now because I do not know how much each post can contain and will bring this diary up-to-date very shortly.

Ides

Days 0 to 2 (so far)

Returning to the day of embarkation, we were initially pleased with our cabin which is a category E outside state room on the Dolphin Deck also known as the Ballast Deck being the lowest of the passenger decks on the Starboard side aft. The cabin is quite spacious with a walk-in closet, a wonderfully comfortable king size bed and tub with shower. The window appeared quite large and it was nice to see the fish swimming above. What I didn't immediately notice was a large piece of clear plexiglass mounted flush with the inside cabin wall 14 inches from the window until I put my head through it trying to look out. Grux thought this was incredibly funny but I failed to see the humour. When she did the same thing an hour later I showed far more class and didn't laugh until she had regained consciousness.

The first dinner was like a high school reunion as many passengers had taken the world cruise within the last few years and knew each other and the crew quite well. Our table mates being three diverse but very interesting couples did not know each other previously but each were veterans of at least three world cruises with HAL, Cunard or Crystal. Having ourselves never been on a cruise of greater than 11 days we were impressed by their experiences but were told several couples on the boat had more than 20 World Cruises in their portfolio and with at least one of them these were consecutive. As the old saying goes” Whether rich or poor, it's nice to have money”.

Our first night was a bit of a disaster at least for me. Being very near the engines and propeller shaft, the noise level under way was very high as was the vibration in our cabin. At midnight I was standing in my underwear attempting to take the pushrods off the curtains as they were buzzing against the infamous plexiglass panel. Those who know me will realize this was not a pretty sight. I also had to put a towel over the closet door as it was vibrating in its frame. I finally did get to sleep but awoke thinking I was having heart palpitations before I realized the bed was vibrating like someone had put a quarter in the slot. (I hear they have such beds).

A good part of the next day was spent with Susanna of customer relations who moved us to an available cabin amidships portside which is blissfully quiet and has an unexpected advantage of being under the Internet Café in a wireless hotspot so I need not leave the cabin to post.

After another great dinner we attended the show and much to my surprise it was excellent. On my previous cruises the onboard entertainment could only be described as painful but this presentation was witty and wonderfully executed by the kids.

Things I really like about the Prinsendam so far:

-the Lower Promenade Deck has a wonderful uninterrupted walking track entirely around the ship with four laps to the mile; (I wonder why you can't promenade anywhere on the Promenade deck)

-high definition televisions in the staterooms;

-the fact that it is natural to introduce yourself automatically to everyone you meet knowing you will be with these people for a long time. On shorter cruises it seems it's not worth the effort.

Minor Gripes:

- its too bad you cant go right up to the bow pulpit on the Prinsendam as you can on the Crystal ships;

- it's too bad that HAL doesn't have bridge cams that post on the Internet so that friends at home can enjoy some of the visual experiences as well.

Our first port of call is Bridgetown Barbados on Monday so I will probably post again on Tuesday.

Until the time

Ides

And they're off!!!!!:D

I'm looking forward to sharing this journey with you. Thank you for taking us all along---if I can't be on the ship itself this is the next-best thing. :)

What are a few of your first up-coming ports? :confused:

The World Cruise tends to have better entertainment the the usual garden-variety short cruise. Will you please let us know who's appearing on stage?

Oh goodie-goodie-goodie-goodie-goodie! I'm sitting here clapping my hands in delight about your upcoming thread! You're really going to take us all along with you? Really for real?

Yippee! I can't wait! Sure sounds like a Happy New Year already!

My thoughts exacty RuthC :D

Thank you thank you thank you Ides of March for taking me along. I just yesterday printed out Grumpy and Slinkie's world voyage and put it in it's own special binder. Looks like I'll have to be getting another one soon. :)

Sorry your cabin was not to your liking, but I'm so glad they could find you another one. Hope that's it for moving ;)

Enjoying your posts and your humor.

Ides..Thank you for taking us along on your World Cruise..:) I wasn't able to print out Grumpy's cruise, since we tuned in too late, but will try to follow yours & print it out for my DH & our Friends who are also joining us..Hope you don't mind..

We're also booked in an "E" Cabin on Main Deck..Checked the deck plans & it looks like they have a self-service laundromat on Main Deck Aft..

Have been trying to purchase the "Downey Wrinkle Release Spray" & only can purchase it in 3 large (33oz) bottles... I doubt if we'll ever use that much...However if the Prinsendam has a laundry &/or offers a pressing package, just might forgo ordering the spray...

Have a wonderful time & thanks again for taking us along..

Betty

Enjoying your posts very much. Keep up the good work! Thanks.

I know this trip will be fantastic as last years was; by the way, I had an occassion to me the plexiglass in those windows last year.

Well.... Ol' Grumpy is really enjoying this, IOM.... Next best thing to being there. It's great that Susanna was able to move you to a cabin away from the engine vibration... Getting a wireless hotspot was really an added bonus... so how did you create the vibration and how did you know there was a better cabin for you to move into?:rolleyes:

As time permits, please list the officers and staff... it will be interesting to see who is still around from last year.

Besides that plexiglass in the cabin, watch out up on Lido deck aft. Those rascals that clean the windows seem to enjoy cleaning the floor to ceiling glass panels so good that you think it's a doorway.... Not a pretty sight when you walk into one with a tray of food... and hearing the laughter with a distinct Indonesian accent...

This is wonderful,readiing about your escapades. On Friday we thought of you boarding and it feels like yesterday that we did that last year. As Grumpy mentioned it will be wondeful to here who is aboard this wonderful ship again this year crew and passengers. Have a safe and happy trip. Alsas