Review of Prinsendam Trans-Atlantic, Nov. 2-18, 2017

[RetiredMustang]

4 Nov., Cartagena

 

Here are the first four pages of the program:

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

4 Nov., Cartagena (Cont.)

 

Here are the other two pages of the program:

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

4 Nov., Cartagena (Cont.)

 

Here are the port guide pages:

 

 

 

 

We had been to Cartagena before and toured the city, including the Roman amphitheater and other ruins. And, this time we did not arrive until midday, and we are not fond of afternoon shore excursions, so we just stayed aboard and explored Prinsendam some more. I did notice two other ships in port with us that I found interesting. The first was HAL’s Veendam, with her extended aft:

 

 

And the other one was the Thomson Dream, which I had last seen a few years ago in Barbados harbor. The first time I saw her was when DW and I embarked on her in 1996, when she was HAL’s Westerdam, the one before the current ship of the name:

 

 

Here is the dinner menu:

 

 

I had the cauliflower soup and roasted chicken; DW had the borscht and strip loin.

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

5 Nov., Malaga

 

Here are the first four pages of the program:

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

5 Nov., Malaga (Cont.)

 

Here are the other two pages of the program:

 

 

And the port guide pages:

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[Sir PMP]

Jacqui,

 

By all means share the thread with your roll call -- sharing photos and info (and biased opinions) is why I'm doing the review.

 

Dave

 

Always a great review Dave, thks, be on her soon again..

[RetiredMustang]

5 Nov., Malaga (Cont.)

 

We had booked a tour called “Granada & The Alhambra”. We drove through a bit of Malaga, and then drove about 2.5 hours on highways and freeways to Granada, with a freeway rest stop en route. The bus then went up to higher ground above the city for the tour of the Alhmabra.

 

We had not done any extensive research before the cruise, and we were both a bit surprised at the size of the Alhambra; I think we had the impression it was a large single palace with maybe a few other buildings. The Alhambra was actually much bigger, encompassing two palaces and gardens of the sultans when it was under Moorish control, and then a palace and church from when the later Christian rulers of Spain took over.

 

We broke up into smaller groups, each assigned to an Alhambra licensed guide. Our group started by visiting the sultans summer palace and gardens. Mostly we were outside and did not enter many rooms. The summer palace was not that far from the regular palace, but our guide said the higher elevation on the hill gave it cooler breezes.

 

Here are shots of the lower part of Alhambra and of the city of Granada below, taken from the path of the summer palace:

 

 

 

Here are photos of the summer palace and gardens:

 

 

 

After that, we retraced our steps a bit and then entered the main portion of the Alhambra. We passed shops and stopped at a large souvenir shop for a restroom break and for those who wanted, to purchase souvenirs. As we went from there to the other palaces, we passed the Christian Church of Santa Maria, erected obviously after the Christian Spanish rulers took over:

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

5 Nov., Malaga (Cont.)

 

We next visited the Palace of Charles V, Spanish king and Holy Roman Emperor. It is a square outside, with a circular inner court, and is now the Alhambra Museum:

 

 

 

Next was the Sultan’s main palace complex, the Palacios Nazaries. We were able to view outside areas, where I was able to get some photos, and a few interiors where no flash was allowed, so I didn’t get many shots there:

 

 

 

I was able to get some photos of some of the intricate tiles and decorations of the palace:

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

5 Nov., Malaga (Cont.)

 

Here are some more photos of decorative tiles:

 

 

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

5 Nov., Malaga (Cont.)

 

On our way out of the Alhambra, we passed by a structure called El Partal, which had been renovated last century, and is a good-looking building:

 

 

We then went to a commercial street by the grounds and had a good buffet lunch at one of the restaurants. After, we had some free time for a bit of shopping, or we could use our tickets to return to the Alhambra site and walk around some more.

 

We then met again at the bus area and boarded the bus for the long trip back, which also included a freeway rest stop.

 

We found this to be a very enjoyable shore excursion, with a lot of interesting history and architecture. It was a long tour, but not too physically taxing – there were a few steps and some uphill walking, but doable for someone reasonably mobile.

 

We returned to the ship and then relaxed for a bit before early dinner. Here is the dinner menu:

 

 

I had the seafood soup and the pot roast; DW had the asparagus and chicken Kiev.

 

More later,

Dave

[Alida]

Dave, thank you for the photos. I will be on it in May 2017, now I have an idea what to expect, thank you for all you have sent.

Jolanda

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[RetiredMustang]

6 Nov., Cadiz

 

Here are the first four pages of the program:

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

6 Nov., Cadiz (Cont.)

 

Here are the other two pages of the program:

 

 

And the port guide pages:

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

6 Nov., Cadiz (Cont.)

 

We had booked a shore excursion called “Panoramic Cadiz and Jerez with Sherry Tasting”. We had originally booked a slightly different tour, but when it was cancelled because of not enough sign-ups, the ship offered to substitute the one we took.

 

The tour started with a windshield tour of Cadiz, during which I got at least one shot reasonably in focus without too much window glare:

 

 

We then headed out into the country for a drive of not many miles to the town of Jerez de la Frontera, which has become famous for the fortified wine called sherry (Jerez is pronounced something like “heh RETH” but it was corrupted to “Sherry” and the wine was named for the town.)

 

We drove around Jerez for a few minutes, past the Tio Pepe winery, which has one of the world’s largest weather vanes:

 

 

About 10 years earlier, we had toured the Tio Pepe winery, but this time we went to the Domecq winery instead. It apparently billed itself as fully accessible, and the Prinsendam Shore Excursions Manager was with us to assess if it truly were. We parked outside the entry and walked into the grounds:

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

6 Nov., Cadiz (Cont.)

 

We had a tour of most of the buildings, including a display of the grades of sherry:

 

 

We walked through several cellars when casks of the wine had been purchased by people, many of them famous, who had signed their barrels, and then ended up at a tasting room where we sampled several of the wines. Domecq is the bottler of Harvey’s Bristol Cream, and many of our group preferred that label, and some bought bottles (of course there was a shop). They had a display of many of their wines outside the shop:

 

 

We then rode the bus back to Cadiz. This was an easy tour, not too taxing, and as the Shore Excursions Director attested, is accessible -- so long as you could get on and off the bus withassistance, the winery was all available to someone in a wheelchair.

 

Here is the dinner menu:

 

 

I had the salad nicoise and the quail; DW had the phyllo parcels and the flat iron steak.

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

7 Nov., Lisbon

 

Here are the first four pages of the program:

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

7 Nov., Lisbon (Cont.)

 

Here are the other two pages of the program:

 

 

And the port guide pages:

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

7 Nov., Lisbon (Cont.)

 

We arrived in Lisbon after a scenic cruise up the Tagus River. We had wanted to take a morning tour of Lisbon sights, but the shore excursion was cancelled due to lack of enough sign-ups. We had thought about just going ashore but the ship’s berth was some distance away from the sights, so we decided just to stay aboard.

 

I was able to get some photos from the ship of some famous Lisbon landmarks, the Monument to the Discoverers, the 25th of April Bridge, which resembles the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and the statue of Cristo Rei (Christ the King) near the southern end of the bridge; the statue resembles the famous one in Rio de Janiero:

 

 

 

 

Here is the dinner menu:

 

 

We both had the gourmet greens and the prime rib.

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

8 Nov., at sea

 

Here are the first four pages of the program:

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

8 Nov., at sea (Cont.)

 

Here are the other two pages of the program:

 

 

 

Here is the dinner menu, the second gala night:

 

 

I had the shrimp cocktail and the crab legs; DW had the citrus tomato soup and the filet without ravioli.

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

9 Nov., Funchal

 

Here are the first four pages of the program:

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

9 Nov., Funchal (Cont.)

 

Here are the other two pages of the program:

 

 

And the port guide pages:

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

9 Nov., Funchal (Cont.)

 

We had booked a shore excursion called “Scenic Madeira”. We drove through the city and up to the highest point on the island, the Pico do Ariero, where we hoped to get a nice view from the viewpoint at 5,937 feet. Unfortunately, the clouds were at about 5,600 feet. There were restrooms at the viewpoint and a shop and café. We went into the shop and I saw the kind of scenery we had hoped to see, in a photo on the wall:

 

 

In contrast to the actual view from the viewpoint:

 

 

 

Oh, well. We drove back down the mountain and on to the village of Santo da Serra, where we stopped for coffee/tea and cake at the golf course clubhouse:

 

 

By the time we had reboarded the bus and driven to another, lower, viewpoint the weather had turned fine. We had good views of the resort town of Machico below us:

 

 

On the way back to Funchal, we passed the airport, whose runway was extended on pillars over the coastline and roads:

 

 

And, I was able to get a photo of Prinsendam in port with another ship, the Marella Celebration. This ship was the one on which we took our very first HAL cruise – she was Noordam III back then:

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

9 Nov., Funchal (Cont.)

 

We went back to Funchal and walked a short way on pretty streets:

 

 

to a winery to sample some Madeira fortified wine, and purchase some if we wanted:

 

 

 

Afterwards we walked back to the waterfront either to catch the bus back to the ship, or to be told the way to walk back if we wanted to stay in town for a while.

 

 

After we got back to the ship, I was able to get a closer view of the old Noordam:

 

 

Here is another view of her as we sailed:

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

9 Nov., Funchal (Cont.)

 

Here is the dinner menu:

 

I had the bean soup and the tagliatelle; DW had the cucumber soup and the chicken scaloppini.

 

More in the next post,

Dave