Live from the Prinsendam September 2 - 30, 2018

[Alberta Quilter]

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Rouen, France

I was awoken early in the morning with the vibrations running through the cabin. We had just turned into the Seine River. We had breakfast in the MDR as soon as it opened at 8 am. There we sat with others whom we had eaten various breakfasts or lunches earlier in the cruise.

We went up to the Crow's Nest to watch some of the sail in down the Seine. It was a little too high up there, though, IMO.

Team Trivia was at 10 am this morning. We tied with three other groups for first place. However, we won the tie-breaker! The Cruise Director announced that even with the passenger emergency and the pilots strike in Antwerp, we would arrive in Rouen on time.

Right after trivia, there was commentary from the EXC Guide about cruising down the Seine. For this, we went out onto the Promenade Deck. The bow was open but the sides are too high. We found the sweet spot was up one deck above the bow. It was quite lovely. Very quiet sail in. Very pretty, until we got to the industrial part of Rouen.

We then had an early lunch as our tour was in the early afternoon. One of the changes to the itinerary affected our port time in Rouen. We were originally to arrive in Rouen at 6 pm and depart at 6 pm tomorrow. Instead, we arrived at noon and will depart at 5 pm tomorrow. That meant a change in tours...

I need to give you some background here. In November, 2015, DM and I did a river cruise from Paris to Rouen and back, followed by another cruise on the Rhone and Soane. The one thing we didn't get to do on our river cruise was a tour of the Monet Foundation in Giverny (where Claude Monet lived and painted The Water Lilies) because it closes for the season at the end of October. So, with this cruise, we were bound and determined to go to Giverny. However, HAL's tour was $140 pp! So, I started to figure out how to do this excursion ourselves. I researched train schedules, asked questions on CC, researched the Monet Foundation, everything I could find out. The easiest way was to rent a car and drive but neither DM nor I wanted to drive in France. I determined that we would take a taxi from the ship to the Rouen train station, take the train to Vernon, take a shuttle from Vernon to Giveny and then walk ten minutes to the Monet Foundation and then do it all in reverse to get back. I thought we could do it all, with lunch, for the cost on one HAL tour. I started to question the timing and how to figure out what return train to catch. Now, remember, we were to arrive at 6 pm on Day 1 and leave at 6 pm on Day 2. So, even if we left early enough, I fretted about booking a return train ticket only to miss the train if we lingered somewhere too long or otherwise delayed. And then someone posted on CC about train strikes in France that could be extended. That did me in! It is for scaredy cats like me that HAL offers shore excursions! You see, we have a significant amount of OBC from both HAL and our TA so using OBC to buy the tour would be like getting it for free! So, I decided that we should do the HAL tour. But then HAL raised the price of their tour to $150 pp!! Then I fretted about the tour being sold out so I purchased the tour online, in advance of the cruise. And then, HAL changed the itinerary a week before this segment, increasing our time in Rouen so we could have done the tour on our own on Day 1. Sigh.

What we did was change our Giverny tour from Day 2 to the afternoon of Day 1. And we booked another tour for Day 2.

Our tour to Giverny was quite nice but too short a time at Giverny. The tour was a 4.5 hour tour but it takes 1.25 hours to travel each way. That gave us two hours there. It's probably enough time if one has the place to themselves. The tour guide was pleased that there didn't seem to be many people there but, to us, it was a little crowded. I'd hate to see it when the guide considers it crowded!

The guide tooks us directly to the side of the garden, one has to walk in a tunnel beneath the road, where Monet created the lily pond. There is a bamboo forest (and all the fencing is bamboo) and then the lily pond. It is lovely and fairly serene. However, waiting at the viewpoints to take a picture can be an exercise in futility! I had to wait behind some tourists who needed the perfect selfie before they would move on... It almost felt frantic to me to stop, take a few pics, and get out of the way so that someone else could do the same. I didn't get to SEE the garden. I was already way behind in the tour group because of the perfect selfie tourists. I caught up to them at Monet's house on the other side of the road. Now the garden over there, on that side, WOW, what a lovely jumble of colours and flowers! I think that is what DM wanted for the garden at our cottage but never quite achieved. Of course, it would have been possible if she had a similar team of gardeners!!

We toured the house fairly quickly. Afterwards, I went back to the Lily Pond side to try to SEE it. I did see it a little better; it was a little less crowded but at the viewpoint, I was stymied by two lovers who had to look deeply in each other's eyes and stroke their faces before they moved out of the way and allowed others to get to the prime viewing spot. I did sit on a bench and looked at the pond for a few minutes, though.

We had some time to go through the gift shop and purchased a few things, mostly postcards. Then it was time to get back to the bus and home to the ship.

We did not eat in the MDR tonight because we knew we would be back too late for our dining time. Instead, we took advantage of that fact and booked Canaletto so that DM could get her veal liver. I had the gnocchi with short ribs. Both were very good (at least, DM told me her liver was very good, I refused to try it for myself!).

 

After dinner, we took the free shuttle into Rouen to see the Cathedral light show. Every summer, there is a light show projected onto the outside of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Rouen. It happens after sunset; tonight it would be at 9:30 pm. There were two short shows, each about 12 minutes. Both shows were run again at 10 pm. The first one was about the Vikings and the second one was about William the Conquerer. The first one was better because it "used" the ornate Cathedral exterior more to tell the story than the second one did. We got there early enough to get a seat on the steps, with some other passengers from the ship. I had carried a small stool (we brought it from home) for DM to use as it would have been difficult for her to stand or sit on the steps. The only problem we had was finding a taxi to take us back to the ship. It would have been a 40 minute walk back; the shuttles had stopped running before the show ended. We walked for a bit, trying to find a hotel to call us a taxi when we spotted one. However, he had been called by someone else. The driver agreed to come back for us but we were now six people and would have to take two taxis. After about 20 minutes, a taxi showed up and then the first one came back. So we all got back to the ship about 11 pm safe and sound.

[Alberta Quilter]

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Rouen, France

As mentioned in the prior post, we booked a whole new tour for today. We went to Honfleur, a coastal town of France. The tour left at 8:15 so we had to be up early. We, of course, had another room service breakfast to make it easier on ourselves.

Honfleur is about 1.25 hours from Rouen. We had a walking tour of the old town and then had another hour of free time. There was a unique church in Honfleur. It had been built by ship builders back in the day and had been added onto a few times. It was a totally wooden church with massive posts and beams. Very different from all the churches we've seen on this cruise.

In our free time in Honfleur, we purchased a palmier at a bakery and sat by the old harbour to eat it. We poked into some other shops but made no other purchases. There are several art galleries here, too. They have an antique carousel and we sat by that, too, and watch a father and son ride it.

We got back to ship shortly after 1 pm and had a quick lunch in the Lido. DM rested for a while while I wrote up reports. We met the rest of our Trivia team and somehow managed to pull another win out of our butts! We thought for sure we were going to lose. We did change some answers at the last minute, fortunately from wrong answers to right ones. As one of our teammates noted, we are going to be hated. I responded that I was okay with that!!

Tonight was Sel de Mer in the Pinnacle Grill. Once or twice each cruise, the PG is transformed into a seafood restaurant. This was our first time to try it. Unfortunately, DM came down with a cold! Her nose would not stop running! She was actually quite miserable and didn't really want to eat. Of course, it's hard for a restaurant to serve a small portion of a fish. They really tried. She had three pots of tea during dinner, and ate what she could. The meal was quite good. I'm glad we tried it but I'm not sure we'd do it again. BTW, as of time of writing this report, we have not yet received our 4 Star Mariner discount for this pre-purchased meal. I will have to go show my email to the new PG manager.

 

The entertainment tonight was a comedy magic show by Basilio Tabacchi. He was a little too corny for us and we left. DM went to bed to try to nurse her cold and I worked on the puzzle with a few other ladies.

[Alberta Quilter]

Friday, September 21, 2018

Sea Day

The day started roughly. Very roughly. Early in the morning, the seas got really rough and everyone could feel it.

DM had a good night and felt much better in the morning. I had a good night and didn't feel so good in the morning. We had breakfast in the MDR. After breakfast, I went to check out the puzzle but had issues with looking down at the same time the ship was going up and down like a yo-yo. I thought I had read reports that the Prinsendam handles the seas better than other ships. Having experienced what I experienced today, I don't believe that for a minute!

Trivia was at 11:00 this morning. I had to ask DM to change seats with me so I was looking at a wall instead of the horizon going up and down through one of the windows. I was much better after that. Anyway, we won again today! My goodness, we're good. Well, not really. We're just lucky (and the other teams had some issues with today's questions, too). By no means have we had perfect scores, except that one day a few days ago.

We had been invited to an Indonesian lunch today as had other passengers who had booked a Collector's Cruise (two segments). We had done other Collector Cruises before but this was the first time we were invited to an Indonesian lunch. I was a little concerned, given how rocky the seas were but decided to go anyway. It was quite good but neither DM nor I particularly like peanuts and some items were served with a peanut sauce. Once we advised them of our aversion, they accommodated our request and brought us peanut free courses.

We had also been invited to a Walk Around the World Wine Tasting at 2 pm. We chose not to go as Brett was giving one of his talks on La Rochelle and Bordeaux at the same time. As we didn't know much about either port, we wanted to go to this talk. Also, given how the seas were, I wasn't sure about sampling 12 wines...

Well, Brett's talk was in the Showroom, all the way forward, not a good place on a day like today. We got there about 20 minutes early, stopping for some pop along the way. As we sat and waited for the talk to begin, we could feel the ship go up and then down and then crash into the waves. Parts of the ship would rattle and shudder. Rather unnerving. Well, I started to feel worse and worse. Just after Brett started talking, I had to leave. That's when I humiliated myself. I started to walk back to our cabin which is at the other end of the ship. I won't get into great detail about it because it will gross you out but suffice it to say that I threw up just as I was entering the Explorer's Lounge where there were about ten people listening to Adagio play. I was still carrying my cup with half of my pop in it so I had something to spew into, besides covering myself with vomit. I have no idea how the floor fared; hopefully it was spared. If it wasn't, someone cleaned it up really well. I quickly raced into the ladies washroom at the other end and washed my face and hands and flushed my pop/vomit mixture. Fortunately, I didn't meet anyone on the way downstairs to our cabin where I changed and laid down.

DM came to check on me right after the talk was over; she chose not to stay for the Ask the Captain session. I slept off and on the rest of the afternoon. The Captain had earlier advised that he expected the seas to settle about 6 pm and he was right. I did not go to tonight's gala dinner but DM did as she had made a special order of marinated herring for her entree tonight. I didn't want her to have it sent down as the smell of the herring may have sent me to the bathroom again! I did order something from room service and was able to keep it down. By the time it arrived, the seas had calmed as the Captain predicted. After DM came back, we went to the Library - me in my "gala" shorts and tshirt! We made it an early night as DM's cold was acting up again.

 

[kazu]

More great posts :) Your days in Rouen sound great!

 

Glad you finally got to the gardens :)

 

Honfleur is so pretty.

 

So sorry to hear you were ill. Hope you are fully recovered today (y).

 

Uh oh - on Sel de Mer. That problem was supposed to be fixed. Hope to hear that you get your discount as you should (y)

 

May the seas stay VERY smooth for you for the rest of your cruise (y) :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Wonderful reports.

Sorry that your mother has a cold and you are ill from the seas.

Hope you get your discount.

[dfish]

Isn't Giverny wonderful? I was there long ago and just loved it. I bought myself a copy of Claude Monet's cookbook and the stuffed onions are a real hit!

 

My discount for Sel de Mer showed up after the meal, so yours should show up shortly. Fingers crossed.

[Seattitude]

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Antwerp, Belgium

If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium! Isn't that the title of an old movie?!

We had an overnight in Antwerp. DM decided to take today off from touring so she could catch her breath. Our time today in Antwerp was cut short by 3 hours, leaving at 1 pm instead of 4 pm. As a result of that change, all HAL tours left quite early.

Since DM wanted some time to herself, I chose to take a tour to Ghent. This one involved chocolate! How could I resist?! We left at 7:15 am. It took an hour to get to Ghent. Most of the historic centre of Ghent is car free. There are still buses, trams, and bicycles so it is not vehicle free and one still needs to be careful when crossing streets. The shops don't open until about 10 am.

The tour consisted of a walking tour of Ghent and a visit to a chocolate shop with a short tutorial on making chocolates. We had some free time, too. Because the chocolate shop is so small, we had to split into two smaller groups of about 18 or so each. My group went with the tour guide who was with us the whole time; the other group went with a guide who met us in Ghent. They were to do the chocolate shop first and we were to do it second. We zigzagged through Ghent looking at old building facades. The guide told us some interesting stories about them and the symbolism. For instance, there is a lovely Marriott Hotel in the centre of Ghent. The original buildings were crumbling down but this Marriott investor who was from Ghent, bought the three buildings and took them down, saving the bricks for the facade of the new hotel. It still looks like three separate buildings. On one of the buildings, there are two golden swans facing away from each other. The guide mentioned that when he got married, the invitations had two swans facing each other; this is a sign of enduring love. This building, with the two swans facing away from each other, used to be a brothel! And now it is a Marriott Hotel! He took us into the hotel for a quick look at the inner courtyard. We all did this quick walk in with an abrupt U turn; rather funny looking if someone saw us. Anyway, the courtyard is stunning. There is a high arch of glass, like a gigantic skylight. The outside reveals nothing of the inside (well, other than the swans...).

He took us to so many places, I can't even think to tell you all about them. We did go to the chocolate shop - after all, that's why most of us booked the tour! We had the short tutorial on how to make chocolate. I was standing next to this big vat of melted chocolate that was constantly stirred in the machine. There was a faucet of dripping chocolate under which I wanted to put a glass (my head wouldn't have fit!). It looked sooo good! Every evening they put in 5 kg blocks of chocolate and the machines melt them slowly overnight and keep them at a constant temperature for making chocolate. This particular shop has three people making the chocolates. They only sell in their shop; they don't export them anywhere else. Of course, we got some samples which were delicious! And we could purchase more, which I did. We'll see if they make it home!! I wouldn't want them to go bad or anything...

We had just enough time after the chocolate shop to tour the Cathedral nearby. This Cathedral was not ornate but some of the decorative components were. We weren't there long, maybe 15/20 minutes. Everyone got back to the bus right on time so we returned to Antwerp on time.

DM spent her morning in bed! She had eaten an early room service breakfast with me before I left and then crawled back into bed and slept for another couple of hours. I had placed the Privacy Please card in the door when I left. She then laid in bed until almost 10 am! A crew drill started that lasted for an hour so she had a leisurely bath and only left the room just before I got back to the ship. I found her starting her lunch in the Lido and reading the newspaper when I got back. We sailed on time at 1:30. However, the Captain announced that there was a harbour pilots strike today in Belgium and so there was no Belgium pilot to take us out. They had been working on that issue while we were touring and had gotten a Dutch pilot to take us out from Antwerp. This meant that we had to make a service call in Vlissingen to drop him off.

Team Trivia saw us come in first with a perfect score! After trivia, Brett, the EXC Guide gave a talk on Rouen. He is very good at presenting the material and always throws in some funny pictures to make his talk entertaining, too.

Tonight was our first Gala night of this segment. There seemed to be a large turnover in guests between the two segments. On the first segment, I hardly noticed any tuxedos. On this segment, there were many more. Not a ton of them but noticeably more. There are other passenger differences, too, which I will get into in a future report. Back to Gala Night. We have early fixed dining in the forward MDR. This dining room is very much a widened hallway so many pax have to walk through the forward dining room to get to the aft dining room which is a combination of fixed and open dining. DM and I were alone at our table; I noticed one couple come through the "hallway" (they have to walk right past us), she in her "gala" sweat pants and he is his "gala" jeans and tshirt. I did not see them do the walk of shame back through the MDR "hallway" so can only assume that they were allowed to dine. I did hear talk the next morning about people disrespecting the cruise line, and their fellow guests by not following the dress code. Come on, people, there are other ways one can eat if one doesn't want to participate in Gala Nights. OK, this rant is over.

The entertainment tonight was Brett Cave, a UK pianist and singer. He sang songs of Billy Joel, The Beatles and Elton John. He was very entertaining, even if he was a little hokey at times. Even DM enjoyed it and she's not usually very fond of Elton John and barely knows much about Billy Joel.

We lingered in the Library until the elevators were returned to normal use - they're used quite a bit after a show lets out. On our way to the Lido for DM's night time tea, the Captain came on about an emergency. There was an ill passenger who might require a blood transfusion and they were asking anyone who had a current donor card and who had a specific blood type to make themselves known to the medical staff. (Ahhh, the beauty of being behind on one's reports - I asked the Cruise Director the next day if they found a donor and she told me that FIVE people stepped up but the donation was not required YET. Kudos to the five people and hopefully the passenger is getting better!)

 

 

My DH and I would like to go to Ghent when we visit on the Prinsendam in May. You made my mouth water describing your visit to the chocolate shop. Who did you use to take this tour?

Thanks,

Jodie

[erewhon]

Catching up with your reports.

Sorry to hear that you were ill, hope the seas stay calm for the remainder of your cruise.

[Alberta Quilter]

My DH and I would like to go to Ghent when we visit on the Prinsendam in May. You made my mouth water describing your visit to the chocolate shop. Who did you use to take this tour?

Thanks,

Jodie

 

It was a HAL tour. I only decided to go the evening prior.

[kazu]

AQ, I've heard reports that the seas were a bit rough the last couple of days. I hope your and your DM are ok.

 

Hopefully you succeeded in getting your discount on your Sel de Mer dinner?

[Alberta Quilter]

Don't you just hate it when people abandon their live threads?! I know I do. I am so sorry but between internet frustrations and the rough seas, not to mention all of the eating and touring, I haven't been able to write up my reports.

 

We are both fine now. Yes the seas have been not so great. I've never taken so much Sea Calm in my life as I have in the past week.

 

Yes, the Night Auditor finally came through with the SDM discount. There seems to be some bizarre accounting, too, but I can't confirm that for sure until I can review my credit card transactions. We've encountered some more hiccups but HAL handled them well for the most part.

 

I may abandon the daily reports for the remainder of the cruise and do one or two summaries instead. I'll see how it goes with the internet in our hotel tomorrow, I'm not sure if it is included with our room rate. We disembark tomorrow morning and fly to Amsterdam. We fly home on Monday, arriving one hour after we leave!

[kazu]

Don't you just hate it when people abandon their live threads?! I know I do. I am so sorry but between internet frustrations and the rough seas, not to mention all of the eating and touring, I haven't been able to write up my reports.

 

We are both fine now. Yes the seas have been not so great. I've never taken so much Sea Calm in my life as I have in the past week.

 

Yes, the Night Auditor finally came through with the SDM discount. There seems to be some bizarre accounting, too, but I can't confirm that for sure until I can review my credit card transactions. We've encountered some more hiccups but HAL handled them well for the most part.

 

I may abandon the daily reports for the remainder of the cruise and do one or two summaries instead. I'll see how it goes with the internet in our hotel tomorrow, I'm not sure if it is included with our room rate. We disembark tomorrow morning and fly to Amsterdam. We fly home on Monday, arriving one hour after we leave!

 

Believe me, I know how it can be when the internet doesn't co-operate the one time you can do your posts. Live threads are not always easy to do and we appreciate everything you have done :). A summary is great - whether you do it in your hotel or when you get home. Looking forward to any of your additions :)

 

You've had a busy itinerary and rough seas haven't helped at all :(. So sorry to hear it.

 

I'm glad it seems your Sel de Mer has been sorted out.

 

Sorry to hear about hiccups but glad they were sorted out to your satisfaction.

 

I hope you have an easy disembarkation tomorrow, an early check in and a relaxing hotel stay.

 

And, of course, a safe and enjoyable flight home.

 

thanks for all you have shared with us and what else you choose to share. It's been very enjoyable :)

[doncarlos]

thank you for all your effort in providing these great reports . like Kazu, we have an upcoming similar itinerary so your logs with ideas are very helpful. Kazu, we will be awaiting yours as well . Stay well and write when you can .

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad you are both feeling better.

Don't worry -- many of us know that there can be hipcups when doing a Live report.

We can wait until you get home to do a final summary.

Have a safe flight home.