Hello and welcome to another Laurie & Gene adventure. I know
I've started these blogs before and never finished but I will do my best to
complete this one.
So, we are on board Holland America's Prinsendam
enroute to Amsterdam with stops in Hamilton, Bermuda, Horta, Azores, Cherbourg,
France, and Bruges, Belgium. We'll disembark in Amsterdam and spend 4 days
there before flying on to Florence, Italy for four days and finally Rome for 5
days. We'll stop in NY to visit with the grandkids before heading home in early
June.
We thoroughly enjoy Holland America ships (HAL) and this is our
4th trip with them, The Prinsendam was built in 1988 for the Royal Viking Line
and HAL acquired the ship in 2003 and completely refurbished her. It's smaller
than most with only 835 max passengers and a crew of 435 (pretty good ratio).
We are almost full with 800 guests on this voyage. The ship is about 700 feet
long with the standard 12 decks. Four laps around the Promenade deck is just
under a mile and we've been diligent so far and walked both days since we
boarded in Fort Lauderdale on May 6th.
We rented a car at Sarasota airport and dropped it off at the
Alamo center just outside the Port Everglades security booth. The shuttle was
waiting for us and 15 minutes later we were checking in. No lines and by 2 pm
we are enjoying our lunch on the Lido deck.
We have an upgraded suite which is quite roomy with a huge closet
and larger than most bath room. A nice balcony on the starboard side which will
give us land views as we head north along the European coast. It will take 2
weeks to get to Amsterdam and so far, the weather has been sunny, warm &
with smooth seas and a light breeze. The Captain does expect the weather to
change as we approach Horta due to a large low-pressure system that is tracking
north. We're skirting the south end of it but there will be some "ocean
motion" in our future. We'll have to wait and see how a smaller ship
handles the seas.
HAL is a more senior clientele ship and yes, the average age is
60+ but it doesn't seem crowded and the staff is very attentive. The food is
great. Last night’s escargot, rack of lamb and cheesecake was superb. Laurie's
fillet and shrimp was perfect & no she does not eat snails! Our cruise
consultant from Cruises Only really took care of us this trip. Besides the
upgraded suite, we got beverage packages for each of us which allows for 15
drinks each/day if they don't cost more than $8.00 each. She also got us a $200
credit towards internet minutes, a free upgraded specialty restaurant dinner
and $150 on-board credit. Plus, everything I spend on board up to $400 is a
cash back once we return. Not a bad deal.
So, the ship was in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday morning after
transiting the Atlantic from a 2-month tour of the Mediterranean and needed to
restock. We didn't leave until about 10:30pm.
We have open seating/anytime dinning and our table of 9 the first
night was made up of folks from Florida, go figure. We prefer to be in a group
setting for dinner and look forward to meeting other travelers. Last night we
sat with a couple from Atlanta and a much younger couple from Palm Harbour.
Roger is a graduate of a prestigious culinary arts institute in Switzerland where
he was born and now manages an Assisted Living facility's food service. His
partner, Jenny is the HR manager for the facility. I suggested he have his tax
account write the trip off as a business / research expense. He was intrigued
by my suggestion.
The evening’s entertainment was a musical collage of rock from
the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Elton John and many others. A very energetic group
of singers and dancers. Yesterday's lecture was presented by a professor from
University of British Columbia and a recognized expert in geology. He focused
on a cataclysmic event some 66 million years ago which caused a mass extinction
on earth caused by an impact from space of an object large enough to create a
crater several miles in diameter and thus the Gulf of Mexico. While generally
fascinating, I did manage to doze off twice during his 45-minute talk.
Last night’s gala or formal dress night was fun and late so we
slept in and had breakfast sent into the room. Our 1-mile walk was followed by
a relaxing hour starting this blog and then off to lunch. The clocks will move
ahead an hour today and we'll have a lecture this afternoon on what to expect
in Bermuda.
Well the lecture was a big disappointment. The speaker was Les
Krantz, a published author and NY Times columnist who had no ability to engage
his audience and spent the first 20 minutes talking about how great he was and all
his accomplishments. He mentioned the word Bermuda twice, a slide of a Bermuda
onion and a picture of Bermuda grass. By then, we and 90% of the audience had
walked out. He stood there and read from his laptop. He has six more scheduled
lectures and we plan to miss them all.
Dinner was fun with a couple from Palm Beach who are truly world
travelers. Goldie is approaching 7-star mariner status which is over 700 days
at sea and her husband is a 5 star. They owned several rental apartment
buildings in Palm Beach and have sold most of them and spend their lives
traveling. They have homes in Brevard county, Florida as well and have some
fascinating stories.
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