Live from the Prinsendam as the wizard & witches cruise May 17 - June 17, 2013

[innlady1]

Is the roll call for this cruise the longest in CC history? It's amazing with over 4800 posts.

 

We had a big one on the Good Nuts Cruise on the Noordam in '09...but I don't remember how many posts.

[sail7seas]

Sounds great.

Have a wonderful time.

 

Fair Winds and a Following Sea......

 

[2ozbods]

Sitting up in bed with our iPads waiting for you to cast off. Can see crowd building on aft deck. You should be away by now. What's the hold up?

[shrimpboat123]

Best I could get of the sail away.

 

[MissShelllly]

Here's a side view

 

It was exciting to watch you sail away. See most of you soon.

 

Michelle.

[jgw321]

We got some screen shots, the quality is not as good as I have seen before.

 

Gail, email me and I'll send you a zip of some of the better ones. I'll give them all to Jacqui when I see her after Tilbury. I'll try and put something together for the blog in the morning.

[MissShelllly]

Here are two more my DH took. By the way, we were laying in bed with our iPads as it's early morning here.

 

Edited to say I have quite a few screen shots. JGW probably has more though. I'm happy to share them when we board.

 

Michelle.

[innlady1]

Nice screen shots!

[Vict0riann]

I took about 15 screen shots - I don't know how to post them on CC, but if someone sends me an email address, I'll forward them. (I'm at my name (Ann McCarthy) all together, lower case, at shaw.ca.

[Traveller1]

It was wonderful to watch the Prinsendam this afternoon in dock and then sail away..Thanks to all the wavers and especially the ones with the Canadian flags at the stern...a lovely sight. Heard the ships horn too..not quite as good as being there but lots of fun anyhow.

Enjoy yourselves.

Wendy & Al

[hpf]

Bon voyage to all of you on the Elegant Explorer, Have a great cruise and also a great M&G.

Helen

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Have a great cruise...

[jgw321]

I have quite a few screen shots. JGW probably has more though.

 

I have 27 plus two of the google map and one of a tanker coming in at the same time, none of them are really good though. Only a few shots of the wave, the palms got in the way at the crucial time. I shall bring all I have on my laptop. Bring a USB stick and we can pool everything after Tilbury.

[catl331]

we found 100 percent maple syrup on the P last wk. for breakfast. Is it still there or was it for Grand Med?

 

Thought the ship was cold! Everyone had a cough at some time or another. I waved to webcam coming in yest. but I don't think anyone else was awake other than the pilot. It was before six a.m. Gene Young's fiancé is Jodi and was part of his team. We had a grand farewell to Fermin.

[jgw321]

I waved to webcam coming in yest. but I don't think anyone else was awake other than the pilot.

 

I was awake (and not the only one watching the webcam) but I didn't see you wave. It was rather dark.

 

You can see the Prinsendam coming in and also going out again with the new lot on board at http://sturnidae.com/Baltic/TA.htm

[Krazy Kruizers]

Here are two more my DH took. By the way, we were laying in bed with our iPads as it's early morning here.

[ATTACH]271588[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]271589[/ATTACH]

 

Edited to say I have quite a few screen shots. JGW probably has more though. I'm happy to share them when we board.

 

Michelle.

 

Thank you.

[1of4]

I waved to webcam coming in yest. but I don't think anyone else was awake other than the pilot. It was before six a.m. Gene Young's fiancé is Jodi and was part of his team. We had a grand farewell to Fermin.

 

I was awake and watching too (I get up at 4:00 for work). Like JG, I couldn't see anyone waving as it was still dark.

 

Too bad you felt cold. That is always what I find too. The more tired I am the more cold I feel. I thought it was living in snow 6 months of the year...guess not!

[LindaM]

Who is your cruise director?

 

Jacquie, if you can....please find out who will be the Captain and Cruise Director for our Sept. 2 cruise. It's from Amsterdam to Barcelona.

 

Thanks!

 

Linda

[kazu]

Who is your cruise director?

 

Jacquie, if you can....please find out who will be the Captain and Cruise Director for our Sept. 2 cruise. It's from Amsterdam to Barcelona.

 

Thanks!

 

Linda

 

Linda - our cruise director is Gene - I will see what I can find out for your Sept. 2nb cruise. I know our hotel manager will not be Firman as he is retiring in 14 days:D sad for us - good for him

[1of4]

Kazu!

 

Nice to hear from you!!!

 

When I was listening to the chatter on the web cam when the Prisendam was coming in on Friday I heard them confirm they had spotted a funnel cloud. They monitored it for a few minutes and said that it was a definate funnel but it had not touched down yet.

 

I held my breath and prayed it would just go away. I guess it did because I saw that nice Canadian flag in the web shots.

[kazu]

Hello everyone

 

 

sorry to be so long to report in. It has been very, very busy.

 

Embarkation was slightly delayed as the Prinsendam had a surprise health (CDC) inspection. We still got on by 11:45 am which I thought was quite good, and yes, our cabin was ready. By the way the Prinsendam scored a 97!

 

 

One thing I noticed was that there were no lines. Embarkation worked a bit differently than I have seen in the past. Those not 4* or in a suite were given a # when they would be called to register. As a result all the staff were taking care of the 4* and suites initially and the line up was very quick.

 

Prinsendam was at pier 4 - very different - she looked large from our room as she was so close. Pier 4 is being renovated apparently. Hopefully soon. The terminal building was very hot and we were all feeling it.

 

We have friends I haven't cruised with in 21 years (and Jose never has) and at long last they 'caved' and are on the first 1/2 with us. We were nervous as they were flying in the same day, but by 12:30 there was a knock at our door and there they were!

 

The next knock at the door was Jeanette & Ken (maygrovecruisers) with their Kiwi flags! Yes, I am happy to report that the New Zealanders made it - what a relief!

 

Of course with the various knocks on the door and a drink with our friends, the time had flown by and we were afraid that we were too late for the Mariner luncheon. We dashed down to the MDR but alas, we missed it. It ended at 1 pm. So we headed up to the Lido.

 

Have to say that although I am not a code orange fan or a Lido fan that I was very impressed. There were not long lineups - good choices and we found a lovely spot to sit which was quiet next to the new aft portion of the Lido.

 

The men got a hot meal - fish mostly and the ladies opted for a hamburger and salad. I don't remember HAL hamburgers being this good - but I did hear a report of one person complaining that the cheeseburgers were too thick! LOL!

 

Once we had filled our stomachs, we decided to head to our cabins to see if our luggage had arrived - I wanted to get it done as I had invited the witches and wizard and Dorothy and my friends back to our cabin after sail a way so we wanted things as tidy as possible.

 

We all had a great time at the sail a way and our flags and we waved ferociously to you. Many pictures, many hugs and much cheering as we headed out to the ocean. Many of us thought it was the best sail a way ever and we had an absolute total blast.

 

My cohorts in crime returned to our cabin afterwards and we had some nice drinks. Two cc members were kind enough to help me out and Gail had made lanyards for the group and Janet the appropriate miniatures for the witches (broomsticks), the wizard (a wizard), Dorothy, (toto), and Missie's Mom who has been a huge help with the cabin crawl and poker run - got the scarecrow. Yup, it's a yellow brick road theme - no question about it.

 

Time flew by and it was off to dinner.

 

There had been a bit of a muck up - I had requested a two top and an adjoining two top for my friends and had an email from HAL that it had been done but when we checked our key cards - what did we find out - we had a table for 6. A quick visit to the concierge and this was rectified within two hours so that by dinner time we had our table for 2.

 

 

ok - I am going to see if this will work - cursing the ipad softly - but I will do my best - if it works. I will work on the rest and post by tomorrow.:D

[Copper10-8]

Who is your cruise director?

 

Jacquie, if you can....please find out who will be the Captain and Cruise Director for our Sept. 2 cruise. It's from Amsterdam to Barcelona.

 

Thanks!

 

Linda

 

Your captain will be Capt. Tim Roberts and HD Cees Tesselaar; unk on the CD. The current one disembarks in mid-July

[innlady1]

Thanks, Jacqui, for checking in...sounds like you're all having a fabulous time!

[kazu]

Just a quick note (copying and pasting still struggling with to let you all know that Stephen Card - the noted mariner maritime artist is on board with us until Bermuda:D

 

I was delighted as I was delivering meet and greet invites (a witch and wizard helped too) when someone said "I bet you are with cruise critic". I replied yes - how did you know?

 

Introducing himself was the one and only Stephen Card who kindly joined us at the meet and greet (more on that later when the paste works and I get more help):o

 

What a pleasure to meet him. Turned out he got onboard and is actually a guest lecturer (lucky us):D

 

Just a wonderful man and I was thrilled to meet him and thrilled that he was kind enough to join us at the meet and greet. It was a pleasure to introduce him to the group.

 

I think we should get his tiles (big hint) and am looking forward to it.

 

copy and paste is not working - I am inept - so I will seek some help and send you more shortly:confused:

 

But I thought I would share this joy with you live:mad:

 

[sail7seas]

we found 100 percent maple syrup on the P last wk. for breakfast. Is it still there or was it for Grand Med?

 

Thought the ship was cold! Everyone had a cough at some time or another. I waved to webcam coming in yest. but I don't think anyone else was awake other than the pilot. It was before six a.m. Gene Young's fiancé is Jodi and was part of his team. We had a grand farewell to Fermin.

 

 

Could you tell us about the Grand Farewell to Firmin?

 

I'd love to hear about it. :)