Prologue

In the first week of October 2009 we finally paid in full for our eagerly anticipated Grand Voyage of South America, the Antarctic and the Amazon Basin, the complete circumnavigation of this amazing continent with the added bonus of visiting the frozen continent of Antarctica and the hot and steamy Amazon.

This 'trip of a life time’ is for the duration of 70-days. We embark at Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) onto Holland America Line's ms Prinsendam on 13th January and disembarkation nearly two and a half months later at the same port on 24th March.

The ms Prinsendam is the smallest of the 15 ship fleet of the Holland America Line. She is 38,000 tons and can accommodate a maximum of about 750 passengers on this particular cruise. As with all Holland America ships her officers tend to be European and her crew mainly comes from the Philippines and Indonesia. The Filipinos work as stewards and stewardesses in the bars while the Indonesians are the restaurant and cabin stewards. They are renowned for their friendliness and diligence.

Being relatively small means the Prinsendam is able to manoeuvre in both the Antarctic and the Amazon, areas not accessible to larger vessels.

This Grand Voyage is described as the "definitive experience of the Southern Hemisphere, encompassing 13 countries and 32 ports and all three big 'As': the Andes, the ice of the Antarctica and Brazil's exotic Amazon rain forest".

(Left click mouse on map to make it more legible and then after, left click the arrow at the top left of the page to return to normal viewing again)

As with our last 'trip of a life time' when in 2007 we circumnavigated the world on the ms Amsterdam, another Holland America Line's ship, we booked this voyage through Cruise Specialists International (CSI) based in Seattle, conducting all our business on-line. We again used the excellent services of their representative Shannon Nelson. Our deposit was paid in the earlier part of 2009 and we opted for a balcony stateroom.

To our surprise we were able to secure one of two quite unique staterooms that were slightly over sized and with large balconies. It appears we acquired this through a cancellation allowing the cabin to suddenly re-emerge at about the same time as we booked. Subsequently however, due to some major construction work being undertaken while the ship is scheduled to be in dry dock immediately prior to our Grand Voyage, these cabins are now scheduled to be taken out of service for the duration of our voyage.

After the initial disappointment of losing this much sought after cabin, we were delighted to find that our Seattle based agent managed to negotiate a very favourable deal with the shipping company whereas for a small premium we were offered a Superior Veranda Suite (as shown above and below) and quickly opted for stateroom number 68.

Most of the cabins on the Prinsendam do come with very large walk-in closets which will prove an absolute necessity as there are scheduled to be 13 formal nights on this voyage and 57 smart casual ones. This means, for Maria anyway, an impressive amount of evening wear to be accommodated in our stateroom.

Significant benefits arose from us booking the voyage early and also from being in suite category accommodation.

Firstly, all our baggage would be picked-up from our home in Naples prior to the cruise and delivered back there post-cruise. This of course saves us the unenviable task of personally transporting a massive amount of baggage to and from the ship. Bearing in mind we will be experiencing the four seasons over this 70-day period, a wide selection of clothes will be required to be packed. Secondly, all the mandatory service charges (tips) of approximately $23 per day will be paid by the shipping company saving us about $1,600. Thirdly, we will receive four complementary litre bottles of liquor of our choice plus a bottle of champagne for use in our cabin. Fourthly, additionally we will have access there to unlimited soft drinks and bottled water supply for the duration of the cruise. Fifthly, a free laundry service will also be made available to us for the duration including dry cleaning, pressing and washing. Sixthly, we will receive a princely sum of $3,000 ship board credit from HAL and a further $300 contribution to a tour or to use as ship board credit from our agent. Finally, in Buenos Aires we will be invited as ship guests to an exclusive special event including dinner and a show.

Without doubt these 'perks' should add greatly to the enjoyment of our Grand Voyage.

Our travel agent (CSI) is a major player in the more 'up market' cruise world and they do arrange for hosts to accompany their clients on these longer grand voyages. The hosts appointed to this one are old friends Lucia and Henk Barnhoorn (the picture is of the four of us lunching in the famous Carnegie Deli in New York City) who we first met on the 2007 world voyage and with whom we became quite friendly and have stayed in touch. They live in California but are originally from Holland.

It will certainly be fun to meet up with them again. Henk and Lucia will be organising quite a few social evenings on the ship including cocktail parties and special dining events for us their clients. They will also accompany those clients that have booked tours through their company at the various ports of call. An additional benefit is they will deal with any 'problems' that might arise during the voyage and generally make sure that all their clients are ‘contented souls’.

As with our last Grand Voyage we have asked to be seated at a large table that can accommodate 10 persons. This normally means that just 4 passenger couples are seated there while on formal nights a ship’s officer (and their partner if accompanying them) may join them using the remaining seats. If this happens the officer is then responsible for picking-up the tab for the supply of drinks to the table that evening! It's amazing how everyone at the table drinks a little more than usual on these nights!! In the course of the cruise it is likely that the table may have the company of several different ship’s officers as they rotate during the voyage.

Friends from our previous Grand World Voyage of 2007, Bill and Mary Ann from California, kindly invited us to join their table of ten. Other friends of Bill and Mary Ann, Keith and Margaret from Florida and Mary Ellen and Bruce from Lake Tahoe, California, are also scheduled be at the table making it an intimate group of 4 couples.

HAL have a policy of their captains serving approximately three continuous months on duty and then three months off. Thus effectively they are masters of their vessel for a period of six months in a year but bear in mind they are on actual duty as the master 24/7 during this on duty period.

The two captains who share this role on the Prinsendam are Norwegian Captain Halle T Gundersen, who has been the ship's master since its launch in 1988 and the new 'boy' from Holland, Captain Albert Shoonderbeek, who joined the Prinsendam on 30 April 2009.

Captain Albert (pictured above), who will be the Prinsendam's captain during the period of our Grand Voyage, is not new to the HAL fleet as he was Master of the Veendam for a long period prior to this appointment. He is a highly experienced mariner with many years on the high seas that go back to his first ship's appointment in 1981.

One of the very unique factors regarding our illustrious Dutch Master to be, Captain Albert, is that while at sea he writes a daily blog of his activities.

This can be found at www.hollandamericablog.com/albert/ and it really does make the most interesting reading, all the secrets from the bridge and will be a great nautical companion to this one.

After a three month break he again assumed command of the Prinsendam as the ship entered dry dock at Freeport in the Bahamas during the first week of January 2010 when his much-followed daily blog again resumed. As you can read in his notes he is married to an English wife who, incidentally, he met on a vacation cruise and they live in England.

On schedule, FedEx arrived at our home in Naples a week before the Grand Voyage begins, to pick-up five of our bags. Two other smaller ones and a computer would be taken with us as hand-luggage on the day of embarkation. Maria had carefully packed each bag keeping a detailed list of their individual content in case of any mishaps. Extra insurance had also been taken just in case! Pictured above is FedEx's man Kevin picking-up our bulky Grand Voyage baggage from our home in Naples.