Live from the Prinsendam - 28 day Azores and Celtic Explorer - May 5th, 2018

[jgw321]

All OK Jacqui. I will email you after editing.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Here are a couple of screen shots of your group.

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

 

 

 

 

Great pictures!!

[DeeniEncinitas]

Love, love, love it!!!!!

Jacqui and all Bon Voyage and have a wonderful cruise!!!

Kick up your heels dancing the night away! We sure did.

Jacqui, Ann, and all smooth Sailings!

Denise:)

[ski ww]

There were some great shots of all you guys. Looking forward to follow along on your great cruise with your live posts. Wishing all a great cruise. Bon Voyage.

Allan

[rkacruiser]

It's first night Dinner time on the Prinsendam. I wonder where our CC friends have been seated: the annex Dining Room or the aft Dining Room?

[Scrapnana]

What is the annex dining room?

[rafinmd]

What is the annex dining room?

 

Unlike other HAL ships the dining room is only on one level but there are still 2 halves. The big dining room takes up the entire lower promenade deck aft of the aft stairs. The "annex" is a small section just forward of the main section roughly equivalent to where the Explorers Lounge is on the Amsterdam. I believe all flexible dining takes place in the main room and the annex is exclusively fixed dining. It tends to be a smaller, quieter space than the big room and tends to be a desired space. The space between the 2 stairs on the deck is roughly:

 

Port Aft: Dining annex

Port forward: Ocean bar

Starboard aft: Galley

Starboard forward: Pinnacle Grill

 

Roy

[RuthC]

The space between the 2 stairs on the deck is roughly:

 

Port Aft: Dining annex

Port forward: Ocean bar

Starboard aft: Galley

Starboard forward: Pinnacle Grill

Reverse your port/starboard designations.

 

The Ocean Bar is the first space aft of the forward stairs on starboard side. It covers more than half the width of the ship. The Pinnacle takes up the rest of the width on port side, plus some more forward area.

 

The 'small' dining room is just aft of the Ocean Baron starboard, but not nearly as wide as the bar.

The galley takes up the bulk of the width, all the way to the port side promenade.

[jgw321]

What is the annex dining room?

 

In case you are a picture person rather than a words person here is an extract of the deck plan (if CC will let me post it). This dining area is the one with the nice circular staircase.

[scluvsrain]

My fixed dining table was in the annex and I loved it. We sat between the door and the circular stairs. It was quiet and intimate/private. It was a 6-top but there were only 5 of us which allowed for an officer to join us on gala nights.

 

 

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[Krazy Kruizers]

They must all be having too much fun to check in.

[1of4]

I made it to sail away, but just. It had to be silent because my head was misbehaving but my screenshots are all on Facebook tagged to Jacqui. I figured this was the quickest way for me and Jacqui can see them when the wifi is free.

 

Hope you are all busy relaxing and enjoying!

[VennDiagram]

Kazu, a reminder. Please let me know, when convenient, if you rec'd a complimentary bottle of "champagne" in your Neptune Suite. Thank you.

[Scrapnana]

Thanks for the information on the dining room annex. I knew that Prinsendam only had a one level dining room but did not realize there was an "extra" one. (Guess it is time for me to start studying the deck plans!) There must be a lot of people who prefer open dining if that takes up the entire main dining room (I am not one of them).

[rafinmd]

Thanks for the information on the dining room annex. I knew that Prinsendam only had a one level dining room but did not realize there was an "extra" one. (Guess it is time for me to start studying the deck plans!) There must be a lot of people who prefer open dining if that takes up the entire main dining room (I am not one of them).

Actually, not quite. The annex is (unless it's changed recently) all fixed dining but the big one is a mixture of fixed and open.

 

Roy

[rkacruiser]

Actually, not quite. The annex is (unless it's changed recently) all fixed dining but the big one is a mixture of fixed and open.

 

Roy

 

This was my experience on the Prinsendam as well. In the large Dining Room, I think, not absolutely sure, on my sailing, the center section was fixed and the open seating was along the perimeter. The Annex was all fixed seating.

[kazu]

This was my experience on the Prinsendam as well. In the large Dining Room, I think, not absolutely sure, on my sailing, the center section was fixed and the open seating was along the perimeter. The Annex was all fixed seating.

 

The Annex/forward dining room as I call it is indeed all fixed dining :)

[kazu]

The rug in the elevator says it’s Sunday so that means I am behind already. YIKES!

Where to start?

It’s been a busy two days.

We boarded on Saturday. Smooth as silk.

A group of us decided to go for the embarkation lunch. And It was delicious. The flowers on the table were gorgeous and it was a great start to the cruise.

Off to the room and our stewards welcomed us as we came down the hall and there were 2 of our bags waiting in the hallway. They asked our number of bags and were back with the remaining in less than 5 minutes.

Of course, being the crazy person Kazu was I wanted to get as unpacked as I could before the Mariners’ reception. I had the bulk of it done by 2:45 and we headed around the corner to the reception where we found lots of CC friends.

Great fun, especially when dear long time friends who had a risky flight came through the door.

Once it was over, we headed back to the room to finish putting away the odds and sods and then friends arrived for a get together and we had more fun. And they had a surprise for me. A lovely Hermes scarf to thank me for the tours and helping them with their cruise. I was totally taken aback and touched.

All too soon it was time for dinner. We have a great table for 2 in the forward dining room and of all lucky things, our next door two top is Vict0riann. How good is that?

 

Dinner was very good. Based on the the Mariners lunch and dinner I would say that the Prinsendam is still a step above.

[rkacruiser]

My fixed dining table was in the annex and I loved it. We sat between the door and the circular stairs. It was quiet and intimate/private. It was a 6-top but there were only 5 of us which allowed for an officer to join us on gala nights.

 

 

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I wonder if we were seated at the same table. Mine was the 6-top next to the windows as you entered the Dining Room from the Ocean Bar. Initially, when I saw where we had been assigned, I was not "thrilled". After our first night's dinner, I was very pleased with the location. We were able to enjoy a bit of the music coming from the Ocean Bar, no loud hustle/bustle dining room noise, could enjoy conversing with our interesting and well traveled dining companions, and our dining service was excellent. (Our Wine Steward was responsible for all of the tables in the Annex as well as some in the MDR; his service could have been better. But, our Senior DR Steward "filled" in when our glasses got empty and he was not available.)

[kazu]

Kazu, a reminder. Please let me know, when convenient, if you rec'd a complimentary bottle of "champagne" in your Neptune Suite. Thank you.

 

Complimentary bottle in the room as well as complimentary water delivered. :D

 

Thanks for the reminder.

[kazu]

Geri thanks for the great screen shots.

[kazu]

Oh for those that are interested, there was indeed a traditional suite reception last night at 7:30. As usual, you go the Neptune Lounge and it is hosted in the captain's day room.

 

And, there was Captain Dag and HD Rene to welcome us along with a number of ship's officers.

 

Captain Dag is very congenial. And, when I inquired, it seems he will be on the Prinsendam on a fairly regular basis and he seems very happy to be on this ship.

[kazu]

I am going to post pics a bit later - a bit of food porn from our embarkation lunch. It was so very tasty. Everyone had something different and everyone was pleased.

That chocolate peanut butter dessert is to die for. Gerry (gigianne’s husband) gave me a taste. Yum.

Our night started out rocky. I think it’s a storm from Bermuda or the U.S., but the Captain is hoping that the weather will still be good in Bermuda.

The waves and wind were hitting sideways so as good as the P’dam’s bow is it can’t cut through waves that are hitting the ship sideways.

Poor DH had serious mal de mer this morning. His motion ease, ship’s pills (which we were NOT charged for) and ginger gravol couldn’t help. He had to miss the meet and greet. By noon he was eating a green apple, stood up and said, I’m sorry - I have to go back to bed. He knows better. He should be getting some fresh air, but despite my reminder, he didn’t do it.

I hope by the time I get back to the cabin he is a bit perkier.

There were a number hit with this and several “better halves” were missing from the meet and greet with the same problem. My friend who is on board is never sick and she too, had taken to her bed.

Me? I had the Meet and Greet to do so there was no time to be sick -LOL.

I went to the Pinnacle for breakfast and OMG it is the GOOD coffee. I heard one passenger ask where the French Press was and Maude (the PG manager) proudly said “we don’t use those. This is the PRINSENDAM, the best Pinnacle Grill in the fleet and we had our own special coffee machine. If you want a French Press I can get you one. The fellow replied - no this is far better coffee - I was just surprised. Maude smiled and said, we pride ourselves on our food, drinks and service here. If there is anything that doesn’t suit or we can do better just let us know.

She helped me co-ordinate some pre-booked dinners there with friends. The waiters there are very friendly and first impression are that is extra-ordinary.

Our Meet and Greet was at 10:30 AM. We had a great turnout. Only 3 premade name tags were not picked up and there were about 14 hand written ones ( I closed off the name tag factory about 4 weeks ago ;) ). So, by my best guess about a total of 70 taking into account some missing “other halves”. It’s always nice to finally meet the people you have gotten to know on the roll call and to see those you have cruised with again.

After some fun chatting afterwards, it was soon time for the complimentary wine tasting for the 4 and 5* Mariners. Well done and our wine steward recognized our group. She was on the Westerdam with us!

More chatting afterwards and mingling and the day has flown by.

So lucky to have such a great roll call and so many friends on this cruise.

 

[Oliviarobert]

Jeez to bad about the sea sickness ... was my crew affected ? If so are they up and moving ? Hope everyone is feeling better ASAP !

Olivia

[VennDiagram]

Complimentary bottle in the room as well as complimentary water delivered. :D

 

Thanks for the reminder.

 

Thank YOU kazu :)