Photos from Prinsendam Circle South America (Jan 3, 2008)

[bobnsandi]

Just some of the 8,000 photos we took on this cruise. This was an amazing experience, particularly Antarctica. Captain Gundersen put this beautiful ship into many places we would have never seen otherwise. The itinerary was remarkable for its contrasts: sweltering on the Amazon river and ice in Antarctica, great cities and tiny villages.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobswanson/collections/72157603555497829/

 

Hope you enjoy the photos.

 

Bob and Sandra Swanson

[photodoodle]

I'm only part way through the photos, but they are great! And you live in Maui!?!?! I want your life! (I just returned from a few days in Maui - I love that island.)

[photodoodle]

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the penguin collection! I makes me want to book a trip this instant. The albatross shots are also fantastic. It's not easy to photograph a bird in flight, although it helps when it's a really big bird!

[x lindsay x]

Wow another great collection of photos capturing SA/Antarctica. Thank you for posting.

 

As much as I love penguins I particularly enjoyed your "doc dance" picture.

[midgecruiser]

Wow!! Great pictures. Thank you for sharing this amazing cruise. What a great itinerary. I hope to take this cruise some day soon with my sweet, handsome man. Sensual, exotic, romantic, adventuresome, spiritual, untouched beauty, nature. Sigh....yes please!! What a wonderful experience that your photos have captured. Looks like a trip of a life time......

 

Wendy

[george@sea]

Just some of the 8,000 photos we took on this cruise.

 

Greetings fellow flickrite!!

 

Really Nice Shots!! I'll be on the Prinsendam next January for the same cruise. It'll be the second time I'll have been down in Antarctica. First time in 2002 on the Ryndam. Hopefully will have Blue skies in Antarctica this trip. This time around I have a better camera so hopefully better Pictures. <G>

[bobnsandi]

Greetings fellow flickrite!!

 

Really Nice Shots!! I'll be on the Prinsendam next January for the same cruise. It'll be the second time I'll have been down in Antarctica. First time in 2002 on the Ryndam. Hopefully will have Blue skies in Antarctica this trip. This time around I have a better camera so hopefully better Pictures. <G>

 

We had remarkable weather. While the seas were heavy in some parts, the entire cruise had great weather. We were very blessed.

 

Thank you all for your kind comments. We took about 8,000 photos and will try to process additional images as we have time. However, cruising seems to always take precedence.

 

George, what is your Flickr handle?

[iflyrc5]

Thanks so much for the photos - would really like to see more of your Amazon Photos and hear more about that part of your trip - we will be on the Prinsendam up the Amazon in Dec 08.

[skyedoggie]

What wonderful photos - we thank you for sharing them:) We are putting this on the wish list for future cruising!!! I'm guessing this may have to wait til the 65 plus 10 month retirement cruise for me. Don't know how I could wrangle that many days off from the office at this point, but I'll work on it!

 

Thanks again for sharing and we are wishing you many more happy and healthy days at sea:D

 

Blessings,

[bobnsandi]

We weren't sure about the Amazon part of the cruise beforehand. Note that this Grand Circle cruise was more like "7 cruises in one" that were back-to-back. We signed on for a first-time look at South America, but especially for the Antarctic. We were rewarded in many ways for our choice.

 

The Amazon was very interesting, but was really hot. I think we had "good" weather, really, as other cruisers/visitors talk about 100F temps as standard. We had a few 90's, but otherwise it was not that bad. The river is fascinating, and we do love river cruising. The towns were interesting, but as with the rest of Brazil, we were disturbed by the crime level. It seemed like each port had its stories of passengers and staff being mugged and injured.

 

Also, the visa and medications situation really turned us off of any visit to Brazil. We "bit the bullet" (sorry for the wording), figuring that the entire cruise would be a unique experience. It was.

 

That all said, we might consider an visit to the river, using Manaus as the base, and take a flat-bottomed river cruise boat, so we could see other parts of the Amazon.

[george@sea]

George, what is your Flickr handle?

 

Bob, sorry for the delay in this Reply. Been pretty busy. Anyway, Flickr handle is sobergeorge. I have a few sets and collections of my travels from the Hal cruises that I've been on. I've commented on a few of your great pics. :-)

 

George

[mchell810]

I have to join the chorus of voices: Thanks for posting your amazing pictures. I long do do the SA cruise and your pictures enhance the feeling!

[bobnsandi]

Bob, sorry for the delay in this Reply. Been pretty busy. Anyway, Flickr handle is sobergeorge. I have a few sets and collections of my travels from the Hal cruises that I've been on. I've commented on a few of your great pics. :-)

 

George

 

Thanks for the info, you've been added as a contact. Thanks for the comments.

 

Still adding new images to the sets and groups, but it will be slow progress.

 

 

Bob

[Williebill]

Wonderful Photos; thank you! The scenery was beautiful and I always love to see pictures that wonderful Prinsendam. Also, thanks for letting us share with both of you the birthday pictures.

Bill

[JORAY]

Just some of the 8,000 photos we took on this cruise. This was an amazing experience, particularly Antarctica. Captain Gundersen put this beautiful ship into many places we would have never seen otherwise. The itinerary was remarkable for its contrasts: sweltering on the Amazon river and ice in Antarctica, great cities and tiny villages.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobswanson/collections/72157603555497829/

 

Hope you enjoy the photos.

 

Bob and Sandra Swanson

 

Bob

 

We have justed booked the same cruise for Jan 2, 2009 cruise on the Prinsendam with two cruise friends.

 

We would like to to ask you some questions by E-mail -- would you send your E-mail address to me at JORAY10250 (at) AOL (dot) com

 

Ray

[Paul123]

Thanks for the photos...they are amazing. We are looking at the possibility of doing all or part of the HAL GWV in 2010 which covers S. America...Panama round to Buenis Aries (no Brazil!!) including I think it is 4 days in the Antartica. They intend using the Amsterdam for this speacial cruise. Would you please tell me what the itinerary was for your cruise as I would like to compare port calls to the Amsterdam itinerary. Do HAL hand out those jackets that you were both wearing or do you bring your own keep warm clothes?

 

Thanks

 

Paul

[bobnsandi]

Thanks for the photos...they are amazing. We are looking at the possibility of doing all or part of the HAL GWV in 2010 which covers S. America...Panama round to Buenis Aries (no Brazil!!) including I think it is 4 days in the Antartica. They intend using the Amsterdam for this speacial cruise. Would you please tell me what the itinerary was for your cruise as I would like to compare port calls to the Amsterdam itinerary. Do HAL hand out those jackets that you were both wearing or do you bring your own keep warm clothes?

 

Thanks

 

Paul

 

For the "Grand" cruises, they seem to like to give out gifts to the passengers. There were special jackets given out, but we wore ours (red/orange color). The official "color" for the voyage gifts was a rather strange purple shade (lilac?). When passengers got together, it looked like a bunch of grapes, or maybe a convention of Barney's. That said, they were quite mum about what the gifts would be ahead of time, so we brought our own jackets, not wanting to be left out in the cold. We had the luggage shipping option, and were able to pack a lot more suitcases for 3rd party shipping.

 

We understand that the Grand South America will be repeated in 2010, and are signed up. We may skip the Brazil part, but the Antarctica part of this cruise was awesome.

 

Don't know the itinerary for the Grand World in 2010.

 

I'll dig around and post the itinerary for the Grand South America 2008, so you can see the ports. Here it is:

 

http://www219.pair.com/swansonr/misc/prinsendam_jan_2008_itinerary.pdf

 

There is a pretty good port discussion on CC under "South America", we got lots of information from there.

 

Bob

[JORAY]

For the "Grand" cruises, they seem to like to give out gifts to the passengers. There were special jackets given out, but we wore ours (red/orange color). The official "color" for the voyage gifts was a rather strange purple shade (lilac?). When passengers got together, it looked like a bunch of grapes, or maybe a convention of Barney's. That said, they were quite mum about what the gifts would be ahead of time, so we brought our own jackets, not wanting to be left out in the cold. We had the luggage shipping option, and were able to pack a lot more suitcases for 3rd party shipping.

 

We understand that the Grand South America will be repeated in 2010, and are signed up. We may skip the Brazil part, but the Antarctica part of this cruise was awesome.

 

Don't know the itinerary for the Grand World in 2010.

 

I'll dig around and post the itinerary for the Grand South America 2008, so you can see the ports. Here it is:

 

http://www219.pair.com/swansonr/misc/prinsendam_jan_2008_itinerary.pdf

 

There is a pretty good port discussion on CC under "South America", we got lots of information from there.

 

Bob

 

There is also a Jan 2, 2009 Grand South America cruise -- Looks like yours only it goes down the East side first, and returns up the West side of South America and back to Ft Lauderdale as a round trip.

 

http://www.hollandamerica.com/find-cruise-vacation/CruiseDetails.action?durationCode=4&noOfFlexibleMonths=1&portCode=FLL&shipCodeSearch=PR&flexibleMonths=false&pageNumber=1&voyageCode=P910&destCode=W&dateCode=1_2009

 

Ray

[JORAY]

The official "color" for the voyage gifts was a rather strange purple shade (lilac?). When passengers got together, it looked like a bunch of grapes, or maybe a convention of Barney's -- BOB

 

 

LOL :D

 

Ray

[bobnsandi]

There is also a Jan 2, 2009 Grand South America cruise -- Looks like yours only it goes down the East side first, and returns up the West side of South America and back to Ft Lauderdale as a round trip.

 

http://www.hollandamerica.com/find-cruise-vacation/CruiseDetails.action?durationCode=4&noOfFlexibleMonths=1&portCode=FLL&shipCodeSearch=PR&flexibleMonths=false&pageNumber=1&voyageCode=P910&destCode=W&dateCode=1_2009

 

Ray

 

We are told that they reversed the itinerary, and will also do so for 2010 (when we are booked to repeat the experience). We were told that they got a license to re-visit South Georgia in 2010, which is why we have our $100 down on that cruise.

[dr1ce]

Just some of the 8,000 photos we took on this cruise. This was an amazing experience, particularly Antarctica...

 

Wow, I can't wait to check them all out! I thought uploading 700 was a task! :eek: Kudos to you--tags, in groups, etc! Wow! Don't you love Flickr?! Thanks for sharing; SOOOO jealous! ;)

[fitty]

Hi,

do you happen to have pictures of the ship, staterooms, etc. i am really looking forward to seeing the ship since the dry dock.:)

[yiddishkopf]

I loved your photos -- the icebergs, the penguins -- they are great.

 

My SO and I were on the Ryndam around South America in 2000 but at that time the ships didn't go to Antartica--they offered a flyover for about $1,400 per person and we didn't think it was worth that much money.

 

After seeing your pictures I'm tempted to take that route again.

 

Thank you for your time and effort in posting them.

[bobnsandi]

Hi,

do you happen to have pictures of the ship, staterooms, etc. i am really looking forward to seeing the ship since the dry dock.:)

 

The bathrooms were upgraded, which brought a lot of comment from folks who had previously cruised on the Prinsendam.

 

The big upgrades seemed to be public areas, such as the library and coffee bar. The library is first-rate. Oh by the way, the Internet did NOT get upgraded and was a disgrace.

 

We are uploading more photos, and will try to get some stateroom images in there.

 

Thanks, everyone, for the kind comments.

 

 

Bob

[RuthC]

Oh by the way, the Internet did NOT get upgraded and was a disgrace.

Would you explain this further, please? The Internet Center was supposed to have been moved and incorporated into an Explorations Cafe. Wasn't it moved?

In what way was it a "disgrace"?

Actually, I liked it just fine when I was aboard last summer. There were a lot of stations, with a variety of angles to the windows, and some "stations" for lap-tops users to sit.

The Internet Manager was good, and that's always helpful.

What I never figured out was if one could access the New York Times for free, since it had not been converted to "Powered by the NY Times".