Live! The Grouch on the Prinsendam October 20, 2016 for 30 days.

[aliaschief]

Really enjoying your report as we will be on the Prisendam next summer for 34 days. Thanks.

[IndyDenise]

Is it so wrong to hope that some bad crap happens to you?

 

I just love it when the grouch comes out.

 

#wishing for stopped up plumbing

 

# hair in the food

 

# to bad the Kardashians plus Kanye aren't tablemates

 

#ship loses power ; spam for dinner

 

# where is a canker sore when you need it

[hpf]

Great read so far and can hardly wait for more. You are on my favourite DAM ship and now I am wishing I was there sailing with the Grouch. Oh well, I'll just have to put up with my own grouch until our next sailing and I can hide out somewhere on the Eurodam where he won't find me,

Helen

[whogo]

Sunday, October 23, 2016 Ashdod, Israel

 

Nice red sunrise as we pulled into Haifa, the view was marred by the cranes and port lights. The captain could not tell us our route from Cyprus in advance, explaining that the final legs were assigned later for security reasons. I will use security as the reason I am not providing coordinates today. We were tied up at the dock in Ashdod before 7:00, look the latitude and longitude up yourselves.

 

Loved the cabin sink lights on our 2012 Prinsendam cruise, the vertical florescent tubes lit my face beautifully for shaving. The florescent tubes are now low energy things that give off a dim glow for a few minutes as they gradually attain full brightness. Except for the light on the right that never quite gets there. The right side of my face is in shadow, so excuse the inferior shaving job on that side, I'm sure a few of you have noticed. And if the mirror has me confused about right and left excuse that too.

 

I ate breakfast buffet style in the forward dining room at 6:00, the Lido opened for full breakfast at 5:30, there were lots of early shore excursions including ours to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. We were off in a short bus with 14 other tourists to see the sights. I am not going to embarrass anyone by mentioning names, but someone was sure he left his wallet with cash, credit cards, insurance cards, etc at security. He was absolutely sure that he left it at security, couldn't be anywhere else. Our guide phoned and reported that there was no unclaimed wallet. There was a scramble to arrange transportation back to the port for the unfortunate couple and I'm not naming names. A while later with another phone call our guide reported that the unfortunate husband had remembered where he had left his wallet in the room. What are the odds that the unfortunate husband would not be me? Kudos to my primary care giver.

 

With an excellent guide we toured the usual tourist route through Jerusalem. Viewed the city from the Mount of Olives, visited the Garden of Gethsemane, left the bus to walk into the old city and visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, then through the Christian Quarter, Jewish Quarter and Roman Cardo to the Western Wall. Fun to hear all the different languages and see the different forms of Orthodox Jewish dress. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher has such a Dark Ages feel to it that it creeps me out. We did not stand in line to kneel at the crucifixion spot or to enter Christ's tomb. We did see Adam's tomb. Google Mark Twain and Adam's tomb for a fun read from "Following the Equator" (I think).

 

The Judean Desert begins the minute you cross over the Jerusalem mountains, the change is abrupt. What a barren landscape! We passed a few Bedouin camps and I figure their goats eat dirt and drink dust, there is no water or greenery in sight. Don't know how they manage to survive.

 

We dropped down and down from Jerusalem until my GPS read 1338 feet below sea level at the Dead Sea, the lowest place on Earth. The Dead Sea is not misnamed. I overheard a Brit grumble that it sucks, literally. It is a slippery, sucking mud hole. He was being kind. It is also toxic. Splash some water in your eye and it will burns like crazy, a drop in your mouth and you will wish you didn't have taste buds. Don't get me started on the heat. I did enjoy a beer in the Lowest Bar in the World. Good, well run tour to all the places I wanted to see, but I was happy to get back on the bus after a long day and return to the ship.

 

Only lost once at trivia today. Only played once at trivia today.

 

We ate dinner at our first Lido pool barbecue and I did not enjoy it at all. It was too dark to see the food, which made me think it was too dark for the cooks to see what they were doing. The cooked meat or uncooked meat, was kept in plastic tubs, didn't seem to be kept hot or cold, whichever was required. The prepared food was out in the open with no sneeze guards and the heating pan lid handles and the serving tong handles were all either greasy or sticky. I watched my wife eat. I was at my grouchiest, only my wife suffered for it. Still having a great cruise.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Catching up

That BBQ doesn't sound good. Now I know why we don't go to them anymore.

Love your tour information.

[Skipper's Mom]

Catching up

That BBQ doesn't sound good. Now I know why we don't go to them anymore.

Love your tour information.

We don't do buffet, anywhere. Yuck!

Sunday, October 23, 2016 Ashdod, Israel

 

Nice red sunrise as we pulled into Haifa, the view was marred by the cranes and port lights. The captain could not tell us our route from Cyprus in advance, explaining that the final legs were assigned later for security reasons. I will use security as the reason I am not providing coordinates today. We were tied up at the dock in Ashdod before 7:00, look the latitude and longitude up yourselves.

 

Loved the cabin sink lights on our 2012 Prinsendam cruise, the vertical florescent tubes lit my face beautifully for shaving. The florescent tubes are now low energy things that give off a dim glow for a few minutes as they gradually attain full brightness. Except for the light on the right that never quite gets there. The right side of my face is in shadow, so excuse the inferior shaving job on that side, I'm sure a few of you have noticed. And if the mirror has me confused about right and left excuse that too.

 

I ate breakfast buffet style in the forward dining room at 6:00, the Lido opened for full breakfast at 5:30, there were lots of early shore excursions including ours to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. We were off in a short bus with 14 other tourists to see the sights. I am not going to embarrass anyone by mentioning names, but someone was sure he left his wallet with cash, credit cards, insurance cards, etc at security. He was absolutely sure that he left it at security, couldn't be anywhere else. Our guide phoned and reported that there was no unclaimed wallet. There was a scramble to arrange transportation back to the port for the unfortunate couple and I'm not naming names. A while later with another phone call our guide reported that the unfortunate husband had remembered where he had left his wallet in the room. What are the odds that the unfortunate husband would not be me? Kudos to my primary care giver.

 

With an excellent guide we toured the usual tourist route through Jerusalem. Viewed the city from the Mount of Olives, visited the Garden of Gethsemane, left the bus to walk into the old city and visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, then through the Christian Quarter, Jewish Quarter and Roman Cardo to the Western Wall. Fun to hear all the different languages and see the different forms of Orthodox Jewish dress. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher has such a Dark Ages feel to it that it creeps me out. We did not stand in line to kneel at the crucifixion spot or to enter Christ's tomb. We did see Adam's tomb. Google Mark Twain and Adam's tomb for a fun read from "Following the Equator" (I think).

 

The Judean Desert begins the minute you cross over the Jerusalem mountains, the change is abrupt. What a barren landscape! We passed a few Bedouin camps and I figure their goats eat dirt and drink dust, there is no water or greenery in sight. Don't know how they manage to survive.

 

We dropped down and down from Jerusalem until my GPS read 1338 feet below sea level at the Dead Sea, the lowest place on Earth. The Dead Sea is not misnamed. I overheard a Brit grumble that it sucks, literally. It is a slippery, sucking mud hole. He was being kind. It is also toxic. Splash some water in your eye and it will burns like crazy, a drop in your mouth and you will wish you didn't have taste buds. Don't get me started on the heat. I did enjoy a beer in the Lowest Bar in the World. Good, well run tour to all the places I wanted to see, but I was happy to get back on the bus after a long day and return to the ship.

 

Only lost once at trivia today. Only played once at trivia today.

 

We ate dinner at our first Lido pool barbecue and I did not enjoy it at all. It was too dark to see the food, which made me think it was too dark for the cooks to see what they were doing. The cooked meat or uncooked meat, was kept in plastic tubs, didn't seem to be kept hot or cold, whichever was required. The prepared food was out in the open with no sneeze guards and the heating pan lid handles and the serving tong handles were all either greasy or sticky. I watched my wife eat. I was at my grouchiest, only my wife suffered for it. Still having a great cruise.

 

 

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[Cruizer Bill]

Thanks for taking us along with you! :)

[PatsyAnne]

Lurking and eagerly awaiting the next day in your adventure.

 

 

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[EDLOS]

At 81 years old, I prefer Curmudgeon to Grouch. You can be a Grouch at any age, whereas Curmudgeon is like fine aged wine, a finish of crankiness, flavors of grouchiness, and a hint of nastiness.

You are ready to serve it up at the slightess provocation, embarrass your spouse, friends and relatives and especially your grandchildren's future in-laws.

On a Cruise, there are myriad opportunities to display you acquired skills, your cabin, your cabin attendent, the food, the waiters, the entertainment, the weather, the list is endless as evidenced by the Cruise Critic Posts.

[whogo]

Monday, October 24, 2016. Haifa

 

The day of the week mats are still in the Prinsendam's elevators. They would be handy, if I used the elevators. Without a watch I walk in dazed confusion and am the last fan to find out that the Cubs are going to the World Series. You would think it would snow or something to let me know that the fabric of the universe has been twisted.

 

At 6:30 my GPS said we were driving east into the sunrise at 9.4 mph toward Haifa at N32°52.959', E034°58.379'.

 

I have not seen Chester, my room steward, since day one. That is fine with me, my cabin is being well maintained and I don't need to hear about his home, family, prevailing wage scales or the climate. I figure that a steward that chats with me is letting someone else get his bed made in the afternoon. I am sure Chester is happy not to see crazy window/towel bar man.

 

We enjoyed a long, hot, snag free day of touring Christian sights; Mary's house, the Church of the Annunciation, Peter's house, and a baptismal spot on the Jordan River. I waded in up to mid calf and had fish nibbling at my feet. Some people would have paid good money for such a pedicure. The best stop was the first century ruins of Capernaum including St. Peter's house and a synagogue Christ would have known. We ended the tour with a scenic view of Haifa harbor, the Prinsendam, and the Ba'hai temple.

 

Lost at trivia.

 

Table mates in the dining room included a kindred spirit grouch. I was well pleased by excellent leg of lamb. We will never know what Mrs. Whogo's vegetable cutlet was made of. Cubs win the pennant and a sea day tomorrow, I have the world on a string.

[whogo]

Tuesday, October 25, 2016, sailing towards Rhodes, Greece

 

At 7:41 the navigation screen said we were at 33°49.30'N, 032°42.16E traveling at 12.4 knots toward the top left corner of the screen.

 

Cruise director Bruce mentioned before last night's show that Israel was a popular place to go ashore. In Ashdod (Jerusalem) only 14 passengers remained onboard and in Haifa only 32. Fellow passengers reported that some cruisers were too infirm for their excursions. One woman was escorted from her Jerusalem tour to a place she could rest to be picked up later, others managed to struggle slowly along. Our independent tour had spry individuals. I have seen a couple of cruisers with new slings and a woman with a big splint on a finger.

 

The cast show had great voices, but was not to my taste, Celine Dion type love songs. I left before they switched to Simon and Garfunkle.

 

Finally did breakfast right, first breakfast early of orange juice and fruit before second breakfast in the dining room. Chose a tasty full English today.

 

Sunny day again, we have been blessed with good weather. It gets hotter than I need and the sun is intense. I can not imagine doing this itinerary in July or August. Caught enough of the Life at Sea question and answer presentation in the showroom to learn that our Captain is Jeroen Schuchmann, Chief Engineer is Peter Massolt and the Hotel Director Cees Tesselaar. I am not an expert enough cruiser to know whether these gentlemen are better or worse than my last officers and I don't have a good enough memory to know if I have sailed with them before. This trouble free cruise is making for boring reading.

 

Holland America's security photo of me is from 2012. I guess the check in people thought my appearance had not changed enough to merit a new photo or maybe could not be bothered to snap a new one. Security staff would prefer a newer photo, you should see them flinch each time they see what four years have done to me.

 

Excellent dinner with good company, the boneless loin of lamb in pastry crust was excellent. Keep feeding me lamb and I will be happy. Looking forward to exploring the old town of Rhodes tomorrow.

[Skipper's Mom]

Is the CD Bruce Scudder?

 

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[Krazy Kruizers]

Love your reports.

The only name I recognize is Cess Tesselaar -- had him as hotel director on several ships -- Maasdam and Ryndam (I think).

[whogo]

October 26, 2016 Rhodes, Greece

 

At 6:30 we were at 36°26.99'N, 028°14.34E approaching Rhodes at 6.4 knots. We docked pointy end out for a speedy escape, as did the Seabourn Odyssey across the dock and the Celestyal Cruises Neteli (never heard of that one) nearby. Nice sunny day, a bit cool at dawn, but quickly rising above the predicted 72°F/22°C.

 

My dining room breakfast order of eggs over easy has arrived over medium two days in a row until today when over easy eggs arrived scrambled. It is a nightmare, my biggest problem at this point, except for the way some of my underwear returns from the laundry folded inside out. Aside from the inside out abomination I like the nice, neat way the laundry folds my boxers. Am considering changing to their method at home. Much more study is needed, I won't make such and important change willy nilly.

 

We were off early to walk the the old town of Rhodes on our own. Admired the fortifications from the ship and then headed in through the well hidden St. Catherine's Gate and kept the town wall on on our right as we headed past the ruins of the 14th century Church of the Virgin of the Burgh towards the Archaeology Museum. There were thousands of small shops on this route and millions more in the rest of the town plus plenty of restaurants. I was delighted to watch a pigeon drinking from a fountain's stream of water. The Archaeology Museum of Rhodes started slowly with nothing but grave markers and inferior statuary, but we came across the well described Neolithic rooms and then plenty of other pottery, brass objects, and mosaics, also a lovely, cool, shaded garden. A fellow cruiser tipped me off to look for the magnifying glasses which appear to made from curved crystal with markings to show their power. We walked the Street of the Knights to the Palace of the Grand Master, but had to detour for a drink before entering. The Palace is an imposing edifice with round towers flanking the main entrance and then yet another archaeology museum and I reached the pass out threshold for museums. I may never want to see another piece of old pottery. Enjoyed a special exhibit about Lord Nelson, didn't see what connection he had to Rhodes.

 

Mama Sophia's was a good choice for an al fresco lunch. Wait staff/owners were personable and Mrs. Whogo was pleased with her Greek salad. I chose goat. Don't know if I ever ate goat before. This was like my mother's Swiss steak with kind of stringy meat that fell off the bone. Tasty. Kind of fun having cats and dogs roaming between the tables. Continued hobbling over cobblestone streets to check out more gates and squares. We finished at Evreon Martyron Square and its memorial "in eternal memory of the 1604 Jewish martyrs of Rhodes and Cos who were murdered in **** death camps".

 

Broke with tradition and won at afternoon trivia. Followed the Seabourn Odyssey out of port, they may be heading to Santorini, too.

 

Excellent swordfish for dinner. Conversation at our table for eight was difficult, we were in the noisiest spot. I could only hear the people who were right next to me. There are still people out and about at 11:00, although there is not much going on.

[kazu]

Uh Oh. If my eggs were medium instead of over easy I would be grouch too. :) Seriously.

 

Never seen my laundry inside out but since it is done I guess I could handle putting it right side out.

 

Seriously, great reports. Thanks and we love swordfish too :)

[ski ww]

Loved reading your report. Having done that part of the world a couple of years back it brought back good memories.

Allan

[whogo]

October 27, 2016, Santorini

 

Couldn't believe the World Series was not on the big screens in the Showroom at Sea, Holland America missed a revenue opportunity. Who doesn't want to buy a beer and watch a ball game? So what if it was at 3:30 in the morning. Turned on the TV at 5:30 and the only sports to be found was Missori vs Texas A&M women's volleyball. What the… All the bars were closed, the only place to buy a beer was from my minibar. I "watched" the inning by inning commentary on the complimentary New York Times website. The woman I am traveling with wanted no part of it, slept right through. I will have to watch her for further un-American activities.

 

The Cubs won a World Series game. It sounds so preposterous that I still can't say it out loud.

 

Sporadic email problems are now constant. Thunderbird says it is downloading message 1 of 98, but nothing downloads and there is no error message. Don't know whether it is Mediacom (my email provider), Holland America's system, Thunderbird, or my Macbook. Webmail works, but eats up internet minutes.

 

At first glance Santorini looked like it had snow capped mountains. At second glance it still looked like snow capped mountains, but I realized I was seeing the white villages of note. Santorini is a tender island using Greek ferries instead of the Prinsendam tenders. The Prinsendam dropped off the HAL excursion takers at one spot (Athinos?) before holding a position near Fira. We are in port with a Costa ship and the Seabourn Odyssey. Mrs. Whogo and I boarded a tender about 9:45 and paid €15 each for a boat ride to Amoudi Bay, a bus ride up the hill to Oia (pronounced ee-uh) and a later bus ride back to Fira and the Prinsendam.

 

I did not have much faith in Greek ferry pilots, concerned that their monopoly on the trade would lead to sloppiness. The ferry ride to Oia was uneventful, I was impressed by the way the ferry pilot efficiently backed in to a short pier. The bus ride up the hill was in a huge coach that seemed like overkill on a small island. Walked the pedestrian street of Oia, which, surprise, is lined with shop after shop after restaurant after shop, more upscale than the shop after shop in Rhodes. I do not have enough X chromosomes to appreciate so many shops. Interesting architecture and a couple of windmills made for great photo opportunities. I was happy to have overcast skies and cool temperatures, although photos would be more impressive with a bright blue sky.

 

Took a break for cool drinks at an outside table with a nice view of the village and the distant Prinsendam. Mrs. Whogo moved inside for better wifi reception for her iPod. She was gone for about 15 minutes when I heard her ask for help logging in. Ordered another beer and people watched while Mrs. Whogo checked her email. Finished touring Oia and caught the bus to Fira. The road is a twisty thing and the driver did not pay much attention to the center line. I did not worry, figured we outweighed any oncoming vehicles. Tensed up a bit for a cement truck and then another. Made it safely to Fira or you would not be reading this.

 

There are three ways from Fira down the cliff to the Prinsendam. You can take the cable car (aerial tram), walk down a switchback trail with many steps, or ride a donkey down that same trail. All I have heard about the trail is how stinky it, what miserable beasts the donkeys are, and how steep the walk is. Breakfast table mates said they would take donkeys up the trail. I knew they were crazy. Guess what we did? We rode the donkeys. It is not like us at all. €5 each with my donkey tethered to Mrs. Whogo's and a mule skinner Greek leading the way. Glad we had him, those without had trouble getting their donkeys to move. This was a new experience for me, my last time riding an animal was on a pony ride when I was about five. All fine. Mrs. Whogo's donkey slipped. What? Aren't donkeys supposed to be sure footed? Mrs. Whogo's donkey slipped again, making its knees buckle, or whatever donkeys have instead of knees. Her donkey slipped four more times, no damage done, but a little disconcerting. Tipped the mule skinner for getting us down safely.

 

Ferry ride back to the Prinsendam went smoothly. I was impressed by the Greek ferrymen, those guys know how to handle their boats, knew just how to work their engines. Made me appreciate the twin screws and wish I was assigned to a twin screw tender lifeboat instead of the single screw lifeboat. Curse my luck.

 

Lost at afternoon trivia, had a fine dinner of quail, and lost at evening trivia. The dance program does not interest me, I will do battle with my email again and read. Continues to be a great cruise.

[Barrheadlass]

Love your reports. Going donkey riding in Sicily next week and hope for no slippage!

[easyboy]

Enjoying your review.

[anaco_angler]

Whogo, you are one funny guy. You don't seem to take yourself too seriously--a rarity these days. But beneath all the humor and snark there lurks an insightful review. Please keep it coming We are making our first voyage on the Prinsendam next June so I'm paying close attention. And I will be ready with a suitable gift for our cabin steward in lieu of pounds, euros, or dollars.

[tatt2ed]

For what i thought was a safety issue is not actually safety related at all. In efforts to reduce weight and increase fuel mileage the captain has 1 main computer that controls all towel bar heaters. Rather than have thousands of switches that wear out and add unneeded weight there is now only one main switch. I would suggest going to the bridge and introduce yourself to the captain and recommend he change the automated towel heating system to better suit your needs. And so you know the captain also appreciates 8 x 10xs , might get your request pushed thru quicker. Dont bother calling the purser he will just act like you are brain dead , go right to the bridge and knock really hard. It gets quite loud on the bridge so i would even suggest kicking the door as not to hurt your eating hand.

[whogo]

October 28, 2016 Iraklion

At 6:00 our position was 35°24.42'N 025°16.33'E traveling towards the bottom left corner of the screen. Won't it be exciting when we cross the prime meridian?

 

I was unable to login for a while last night, the system said it was down. All in all the internet has had the best speed that I have seen at sea.

 

I am not happy with my assigned lifeboat. The single propellor is corroded. The tender lifeboats' twin screws are nice and shiny. Wouldn't everyone prefer a shiny propellor? In an emergency I will find a way onto one of the tenders. I worried that the little reflective tape crosses on the bottom of the boats were patching small holes. I was told they are there for visibility when the lifeboat turns upside down. That is not reassuring.

 

There is a demon in the electricity. In addition to my email problems our key cards keep needing replacement. Replacement cards did not work even once. I think the front desk staff is playing pranks on us. Oh, you'll say I am demagnetizing the card or these things just happen, but you are not paranoid.

 

The high efficiency bathroom lights are not saving them any money in my cabin. I leave them on so I don't have to wait five minutes for them to brighten up.

 

Took our first ship's excursion to the Archaeology Museum and the Palace of Knossos, dork dots blue 14. I just said that I'd seen enough ancient pottery to last a life time, but our guide Maria made more pots interesting. A bee pennant and frog in gold were favorites. A bowl had 3d figures of a man with his big herd of cattle on the inside, another had little rings inside that made it looks like the last of a bowl of Cheerios. We concentrated on the Minoans and heard a lot about Greek mythology.

 

The ruins of the Palace of Knossos show that it was once very grand. Rooms were jumbled up enough to make it seem like the labyrinth of the Minotaur legend. The most interesting thing that I learned today is that 55% of Greek women are named Maria. We were satisfied with our ship excursion. A guide pieced things together better than if we had toured the museum or palace alone. On the downside it takes a long time to load and unload a bus, even with only 34 of us, and the tour only moves as fast as the slowest participant. The tour was listed as strenuous, not much to it but a few stairs and uneven surfaces. I heard that the guide for the second bus was hard to understand.

 

Mrs. Whogo went out on foot on her own to mail postcards and walk the downtown area, saw the church whose treasure is St. Titus' skull. October 28 is a national holiday and she enjoyed seeing families out dining and little boys chasing pigeons. A mist fell as she returned to the ship. On a gray day the city of Iraklion was not at all attractive from the ship.

 

Lost badly at afternoon trivia and then tied for first with three other teams at evening trivia. We gain an hour tonight as we travel west and tomorrow is a sea day, should be relaxing. Great cruise.

[kazu]

Oh Whogo, I am still smiling.

 

I too have had my cards not working. It seems some of us are lucky that way ;)

[muffin]

I am enjoying my tag along journey with you both....

[Krazy Kruizers]

Loving your "Live" reports.