Back to Black and the Med too.... Live from the Prinsendam

[sail7seas]

I am very impressed. Cees, the hotel manager was at the suite reception and when Elvyra joined us and I told him how wonderful she is :).

 

As you can see I am behind, but I am trying to catch up!

 

For those that do suites, I neglected to mention that there was a farewell suite reception for the first segment. We missed it as we were touring but this is something I don't recall seeing before, and I thought that it was a very nice touch.

 

In all the years of sailing HAL, I only remember Suite Farewell party a total of four times and only on two ships. We had Suite Farewell both weeks of a b-to-b on Eurodam with Stan Kuppens as Hotel Manager (as was his title at that time) and twice on Maasdam. :) Those were the best parties of all because by then most of us knew a number of people. :)

 

Which Cees is Hotel Director? Is it Cees Tesselear?

 

 

 

 

 

captain Andre is getting off tomorrow and captain Tim Roberts will take command. The takeover is a whole four hours. They both know the ship well :)

 

 

 

That is how it is on all the ships now.

Captains used to have two or three day handovers and now it's hail and farewell..... A few hours together and gone! :)

 

Edited October 9, 2014 by sail7seas

[thetexasaggiecruiser]

Sadly last night, DH was in the oak room and left his camera there when we went to dinner.

 

He quickly realized it had been left behind and left the dining room to pick it up. 45 minutes had passed and the camera was gone. Even worse, so are the pics on the memory card. It is now the next day And so far neither the memory card nor the camera have turned up.

 

What a shame. I can't believe someone would steal a camera. I hope it turns up and was one of those things where someone meant to return it and then got distracted or something. Or finally feels guilty. So sorry that happened.

 

Istanbul is starting to cause some concern for some passengers. I have heard some say they are now not getting off the ship! Apparently 20 were killed last night!

 

Captain Andre has come on today ( we arrive in Istanbul at 6 pm) to advise that they have been in close contact with tour operators, local authorities, Seattle, etc. and that the old town and the port area have not been affected by the demonstrations. We have a private guide who is number one on tripadvisor, so we are hopefully in good hands for our tours tomorrow and the next day.

 

Hopefully the weather improves.

 

I hope you have a safe and uneventful time in Turkey. Sounds like you all are in a good area and have put yourself in safe hands.

 

Thank you again for all the updates!

[sail7seas]

Jacqui,

Your reports are wonderful and very enjoyable reading.

I, too, lost a camera on a ship and never recovered it. I realized I had left it behind within 15 minutes but it was gone when I went to retrieve it. I had a name and address sticker on it so it could easily have been returned to me by an honest person.

 

Hope Istanbul is quiet and you have a great tour.

Thanks for taking the time and effort/expense to share with us. :)

[RuthC]

Still enjoying your reports, Jacqui. Keep 'em coming!

 

That's a shame about the camera. I do hope that the finder turns it in the next time they are near the Front Desk. Sometimes it takes a while before the finder gets around to it.

 

Take care in Istanbul. Another shame that so many places are being terrorized by a few who can't learn to live & let live. Istanbul is such a fascinating city, it would be so sad to see it taken from the itineraries.

[Vict0riann]

I always worry about losing my camera ashore, but I've never even thought about it on board! How terrible, I'm so sorry. I usually take a number of smaller memory cards, and if we're going ashore someplace I consider "risky", I put in an empty one, so I will at least retain all the old photos, but I never have worried about having it taken on a ship.

[Lizzie68]

Last year on our Alaska cruise I left a beautiful cashmere wrap behind in the Queen's Lounge. I realised it as I got to the elevator, and went right back (maybe 60 seconds later) but it was gone. I talked to the bar staff there, reported it to the Neptune concierge, contacted HAL when we got home. But no luck. Unfortunately, there are opportunists everywhere.:(

[sail7seas]

Last year on our Alaska cruise I left a beautiful cashmere wrap behind in the Queen's Lounge. I realised it as I got to the elevator, and went right back (maybe 60 seconds later) but it was gone. I talked to the bar staff there, reported it to the Neptune concierge, contacted HAL when we got home. But no luck. Unfortunately, there are opportunists everywhere.:(

 

How awful. I hate reading when things like this happen. That person should be ashamed.

 

[K & S]

Jacqui,I am so sorry about your camera! I truly would not expect such terrible behavior from someone sailing on the Prinsendam. Since it is a small ship maybe you will see your camera "being used" during the course of the remainder of your cruise. If so...incorporate the help of the CC's and get it back!!

 

Only 8 days till we leave:)

[hpf]

Jacqui I'm sorry to hear about your camera going amongst the missing, let's hope that it will be turned in.

 

Perhaps someone knew it was yours and decided to try and post your pistures for you. I guess that is just wishful thinking.

 

Be careful and safe in Turkey also all your ports and enjoy the rest of your cruise.

 

Helen

[rafinmd]

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and may the Elegant Explorer's crew come up with an appropriate feast on Monday.

[DrTee]

I predict the camera will be found!

[kazu]

Jacqui,I am so sorry about your camera! I truly would not expect such terrible behavior from someone sailing on the Prinsendam. Since it is a small ship maybe you will see your camera "being used" during the course of the remainder of your cruise. If so...incorporate the help of the CC's and get it back!!

 

Only 8 days till we leave:)

 

I am keeping my eye out. So far we haven't seen it but not that many have been out. Maybe at the sail a way today.

 

If someone has it deliberately, I suspect they would. Ot be dumb enough to use it on board

 

I predict the camera will be found!

 

Not yet, but I hope your prediction comes true.

[kazu]

Jacqui I'm sorry to hear about your camera going amongst the missing, let's hope that it will be turned in.

 

Perhaps someone knew it was yours and decided to try and post your pistures for you. I guess that is just wishful thinking.

 

Be careful and safe in Turkey also all your ports and enjoy the rest of your cruise.

 

Helen

 

I thiught I was an optimist until I read your post Helen. :). You've got me beat hands down

[kazu]

In all the years of sailing HAL, I only remember Suite Farewell party a total of four times and only on two ships. We had Suite Farewell both weeks of a b-to-b on Eurodam with Stan Kuppens as Hotel Manager (as was his title at that time) and twice on Maasdam. :) Those were the best parties of all because by then most of us knew a number of people. :)

 

Which Cees is Hotel Director? Is it Cees Tesselear?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is how it is on all the ships now.

Captains used to have two or three day handovers and now it's hail and farewell..... A few hours together and gone! :)

 

 

Yes Sail, it is Cees Tesselaar

[kazu]

Today we are arriving in Volos, the port of the Argonauts ( hopefully we all remember the story of Jason and the Argonauts and the Golden Fleece ). This is indeed the place where they sailed from . We will be heading up into the mountains which is supposedly the home to the Centaurs.

 

We are off to see the mystical monasteries in Meteora.

 

Meteora has been a stronghold of the Orthodox East ever since the 11th century. It is a rock forest that rises from the Thessalian plain. The mountains climb up for miles and way up on top are the monasteries. They were built using pullies and baskets to get the materials up. They are up so high even on good days there will be clouds.

 

Today, we are heading out bright and early with taxis in Volos. This is one of the first tours I booked. I had read many good things about them on the ports boards, blogs and on tripadvisor so I wanted to make sure we had them. We have 6 cars and 23 people on this tour (max 4 per car). We head out and there was Nikos waiting for us with all the cars labelled in each persons name. Smooth as glass and we were off!

 

It's a bit of a ride to Meteora so Gigianne and I were happy to hear he had wifi in his car and as Nikos gave some An interesting talk on the history of this magical area and the monasteries. There were 21 monasteries originally. There are now four working monasteries. As he talks, the rain starts to fall. Nikos is surprised as there was no call for rain and says not to worry, it shouldn't affect Meteora. The rain continues to fall harder and harder and it is not boding well for our fantastic views at Meteora. We arrive at a little souvenir shop outside Meteora, not to shop (we can do that later if we want) but to wisely use the facilities on Nico's advice as they are much nicer than at Meteora. Five minutes later we are climbing the mountain to Meteora and it is clear that the rain is not stopping and that the view we were anticipating is not to be. Nicos has umbrellas for us all and the intrepid travellers are still going to climb all those steps to get to the monasteries that are centuries old. It's a long climb but we do it. When we cross over the wooden bridge to connect to the next mountain, I took a look down. I was glad it was somewhat foggy as I could see enough to see how very high we were. I immediately yelled to my companions...."don't look down". The monasteries are exquisite.

 

To enter women are required to put on skirts that the monastery supplies. For those that know me, I am a skirt girl, but not today as it was cold and looked like rain and I knew we had to climb. So all the ladies donned one of the skirts. Here's my question, when do the men on our tour wear skirts -LOL ?

 

It was worth the climb. The church is beautiful with gorgeous icons and mosaics. Walking around you found the rooms with the huge (and I do mean huge) wine casket. Yes, the monks make wine. Meow walking and you actually found the baskets and pullies and the track that they use to get things up the mountain. Fascinating! We might not have been able to see the view, but the monasteries were still worth the hike. As we made our way down, we saw the ship's tours slowly making their way up. We waved to our co-passengers as we made our way down. The rain made the steps carved from stone slippery so our group opted not to visit another monastery (one group did) and headed for a visit to the shop and then to lunch in a Greek restaurant that Nikos recommended hoping that while we did that the rain would stop and we could still catch some views. Nikos gave us all a DVDs with pics of Meteora so that we didn't lament the lack of pictures as well as small book on each of the four monasteries. Lunch was fabulous. Dh had that lovely stew-like dish they make in the clay pot. Nikos said it was the best here of any place he knew and DH agreed. The owner had a pork and fennel dish he had just finished cooking and recommended that so, what the heck, when in Greece.... It was different but quite good. The weather forecast for Meteora was even worse. Nikos was quite upset as he obviously wanted us to have a good time and said that this had not happened in 4 years. We decided to head back to Volos as it was quite a distance and see how the time was as we got closer so we could decide if we could get to Marinystka (sp?). As we got close enough, it was do-able but would get us back later than my comfort level allows. We could tell that the boys were uncomfortable with the idea so we sadly nixed it. Nikos took us on a bit of a tour in Volos and they have a lovely spot there with fishing boats and a replica of the Argo. (The Argonauts boat) that has been built based on historical data. Really quite sharp. glad I a cruising on the Prinsendam and not on that ship!

 

Back on board, on our verandah, we see the HAL tours returning very late (dam, we could have gone to Marinystka without worry). I'm not sure why they were so late as all the one that my fellow roll call members was on was going to Meteora only.

[kazu]

It's our Thessaloniki day. We originally had planned on a private tour today. Gigianne had booked it with thessaloniki day tours. I will check the name but they ere the only ones on trip advisor and had 5 good reviews. There should soon be a sixth one by yours truly. In fact I did it in Nikos' cab on the way to Meteora. Long story short......having wifi in his cab, Georgina checked her emails and found an email that morning from the company that they wanted to add more people to our private tour. Are you kidding me???? You send this one day before the tour when you know your client is cruising? Georgina was understandably concerned and sent them a reply that no this was a private tour and, at the very least she would have needed to know how many. This company has not been the best at replying and we needed an answer. She did this as soon as we were on our way to Meteora. She and I wew both very concerned about this and Nikos our driver in Volos agreed it was unprofessional. When we got back in the car on our way back to Volos, there was still no reply from the company. Both Georgina and I were very uncomfortable and decided we couldn't risk the trip with this company and the tour was cancelled! Mind you, both the men gave this a huge thumbs up, so at least someone was happy. So, Thessaloniki turned into a DIY port. Although we had intended to see Pella and Virgena with the company, thessaloniki is a beautiful city with lots to see....many lovely artifacts, monuments and great archaeology finds. So off we trundled.

 

The city has a ho ho bus so up we climbed to get an overview of this lovely city. Oh my, it really is pretty and amazing. The statue of Alexander the Great is beautiful as is the Arch in the middle of the city. Ruins abound. Once we had seen the sights from the bus and had our bearings, we got off near the markets and explored the array of vegetables, fish, etc. sadly when we came out we apparently made a wrong turn and missed the flower market. What!?! Kazu missed flowers? Bummer.

 

We continued on and found lovely shops, promenades, outside cafes and a monument or too. This is supposed to be one of the best shopping cities next to Athens and although we are not technically shopping, we are window shopping. Low and behold we hit a sunglasses place, si I nipped in to see if there was something to replace the lost sunglasses on the P'Dam and indeed there was. Purchase quickly made, new sunglasses on and we carried on. Then we spotted a purse store. Gigianne wants something better to carry her camera in and I wouldn't mind something oversized that could pass as a carry on as it may turn out that my carry on will be a check in. Time will tell. So we wander in and DH follows. We both find something we like. They are faux leather but very nice and not plastic, but we don't like the price. DH to the rescue as he gets the price reduced if we each buy one and so, we both cave to help each other out :)

 

By now our little coffee stop that we had a few hours ago has worn off and it is time for another stop. We find this very cute place And have some very different, very delectable sandwiches and some lovely bruschetta type things that were free. Oh and free wifi too :)

 

Still no snakes from the tour company for Georgina. I have one as she cc'd me when she emailed and I replied all stating my agreement and disappointment with the company.

 

We headed along the promenade and then back to the ship. We are always back early. We don't want our names called on the loudspeaker thank you very much.

 

Bravo is on again in the showroom tonight. So far that's the only repeat performance and no complaints by me.

 

The adagio continues to astound.

 

Piano man Don is getting thumbs down though. It seems he spends more time imitating than singing. The crows nest is not the same as our last cruise. Oh well, you can't have everything.

 

Julian G was the performer in the showroom the night before. He is a pianist who has performed in Carneghie Hall, Singapore's Symphony Stage, etc.

 

Food on board has continued to be good. We enjoyed the cellar master dinner so much that we have re-booked it again for this segment. Hopefully the menu changes a bit. Cellar master Bernie says the wines will change:)

 

Speaking of Cellar Master Bernie, he has been doing an exceptional job at doing many jobs. Our beverage manager Omaar was taken off the ship by ambulance (he is doing fine I am told) and Bernie is doing that job on top of his own. He has a fantastic memory and is always cordial and kind.

 

Questions? What do YOU want to hear about.

 

Live from the Prinsendam as I catch up while we cruise the Bosphorus strait. With a jacket on. Brrrrrrr

Edited October 11, 2014 by kazu

[DrTee]

I love Thessaloniki! Spent a week there for a conference.

 

I don't know if you have any more Greek ports, but if so, be sure to try a frappe. It's a coffee drink and so delicious!

 

I also love the Greeks' custom of providing you with a snack when you order a drink. You never know what it's going to be, so fun.

[kazu]

We interrupt this thread for a live medical evacuation update

 

 

 

We have seen two ambulances come when we arrived in port and/ or as we were about to leave

Port.

 

Tonight we are sailing the Bosphorus and heading to the Black Sea when Captain Tim came on to announce we were turning around and heading back ti Istanbul. A passenger needs serious medical attention. We were only going back about an hour or so and not docking. While eating dinner we Saw the boats arrive heading towards us. I'm not Copper but if I understood correctly, one was the med evac boat and the other a security boat. The waves looked clear up here but those boats were rocking. Two crew members from the Prinsendam quickly jumped on board and had things set to right and the boat more steady and helped the passengers aboard. I heard several say that the crew members were heroes as they were the ones that made things happen. I have never seen a med evac like this one and I have To say that I am impressed,

 

Huge kudos to the crew of the Prinsendam for their wonderful actions and care. We are back on our way and Captain Tim has expressed best wishes for the passengers and will keep us informed. I join with him in the best wishes for them and thank him and the crew for the quick work to take care of them. We have a sea day ahead of us and then Batumi, Georgia, not a good place to be hospitalized. Captain Tim had assured us they are in good hands.

 

Live from the Prinsendam heading back to the Black Sea

[pearliemae]

It's a bit of a ride to Meteora so Gigianne and I were happy to hear he had wifi in his car and as Nikos gave some An interesting talk on the history of this magical area and the monasteries. There were 21 monasteries

To enter women are required to put on skirts that the monastery supplies. For those that know me, I am a skirt girl, but not today as it was cold and looked like rain and I knew we had to climb. So all the ladies donned one of the skirts. Here's my question, when do the men on our tour wear skirts -LOL ?

 

It was worth the climb.

 

We were in Volos as a port of call in the middle 90's and went to Meteora. I took a long skirt and a long sleeved top, knowing that would be required for the women. DH was in sandals and bermuda shorts, as it was a very hot day. The monks gave him a pareo like sheet from a large pile to wrap around himself before we entered the monastery. Saw several different men wearing similiar outfits.

 

Have to repeat what you said, it was worth the climb. We had a clear day and the views were fantastic.

 

Thanks for posting a great blog!

Edited October 11, 2014 by pearliemae

[sunsetbeachgal]

I must have missed something...did Captain Andre' get off after your first leg of the cruise?

[sail7seas]

I love Thessaloniki! Spent a week there for a conference.

 

I don't know if you have any more Greek ports, but if so, be sure to try a frappe. It's a coffee drink and so delicious!

 

I also love the Greeks' custom of providing you with a snack when you order a drink. You never know what it's going to be, so fun.

 

Ahh, Frappe. I totally forgot how much we loved them. I tried making them at home but they never tasted as good. ;)

 

[kazu]

I must have missed something...did Captain Andre' get off after your first leg of the cruise?

 

No, Captain Andre did not get off in Athens. Captain Andre got off in Istanbul and Captain Tim Roberts took over as master (the 10th). Captain Andre will be back for the Christmas cruise.

[kazu]

Wifi

 

Just before the second leg, they did an update of some sort. It caused some Issues for some, (They couldn't log on) not For me, but they were rectified for those with problems a couple of days later.

 

The wifi was pretty good before but since the upgrade, update or whatever they did, it is really quite fast.

 

Probably the fastest I have seen it at sea.

 

Jessica the techspert confirmed that we have the new wifi system

[KirkNC]

I can't believe someone took your camera, that is very disturbing.

 

Please let us know if you get an update on the medi evac passenger. Hopefully they will recover.

 

Enjoy the Black Sea!

[DrTee]

Ahh, Frappe. I totally forgot how much we loved them. I tried making them at home but they never tasted as good. ;)

 

 

The trick is using instant coffee (Nescafe), which most Americans find abhorrent. But I suspect the setting has a lot to do with it too. I love Greece.