Monthly Archives: April 2016

Getting to Know the ms Prinsendam

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Prinsendam Holland America’s Smallest Ship

The embarkation process for the ms Prinsendam is amazingly smooth. Our American Airlines flight 112 from Miami direct to Barcelona arrives at 10:15 a.m. A cab puts us at the cruise port by 11:30, and within half an hour we are aboard the Prinsendam and in our stateroom.

When I did my initial Google search for “Prinsendam,”  what comes us first is the sinking of the ms Prinsendam  off Alaska in 1980. No, Holland America did not raise that smaller 523-passenger Prinsendam,  scrape the barnacles off and  place it back in business (as some recent passengers believed  based, on their web  posts).

The new ms Prinsendam was built in 1988. It carries only 793 passengers, making it Holland America’s smallest vessel.  And like the original ms Prinsendam, it is one of Holland America’s most beloved ships. We quickly learn that a substantial number of ultra-loyal passengers on board prefer not to cruise on any other vessel.

Prinsendam Small But Comfortable

Ms Prinsendam's tiny size is part of its appeal

Prinsendam dwarfed by mega-ship. Tiny size is its appeal.

At only 669 feet long and 106 feet wide, the Prinsendam is an easy ship to move around.  Although it is only 51 feet shorter than the 1,258 passenger Maasdam, the  Prinsendam carries about 450 fewer passengers. That gives the ship a comfortable, homey feel, a place where everyone relaxes.  The Prinsendam quickly works its charm on us. (While writing this, I notice the Prinsendam 2016 voyage is extended from 25 to 30 days. I have a surprising desire to do it all over again.)

Still, there are a few things about the Prinsendam that take us some time to adjust to. The Lido restaurant has two separate buffet areas but for some reason, most passengers congregate in the starboard (right side) buffet.  They’re missing a lot.

At breakfast, it is the ignored port side restaurant only that offers eggs Benedict.  We soon  choose to have breakfast only on the port side where Edwin cooks better eggs than anyone else on the ship; his omelets are the best I’ve ever had.  After a few days, we will graze at both buffets but usually sit on the less crowded port side.

We inquire at the front desk about the possibility of upgrading from our ocean view room to a verandah suite.  There are vacancies but it’s not clear which staterooms are available for the full length of our cruise.

Our Prinsendam Cruise Becomes Two Cruises 

Our 25-day cruise turns out to be two back to back segments: a 14 day Mediterranean & Aegean cruise and a 12-day Black Sea segment. New passengers will be coming aboard for the last part of the cruise and some staterooms that are empty now may be reserved for later.   If that is the situation, we may need to switch cabins, not a problem for us.  As it’s the weekend, the Seattle office is closed. We are also 7 to 8 hours ahead of them. It will take time to determine where and when we might move.   In the meantime, we partially unpack and continue exploring the ship.

Looking at the Black Sea itinerary, we see we will disembark the Prinsendam in Istanbul two days before the second  segment  ends  in Athens. The one port we will miss is Kusadasi, Turkey, known for its excavated city of Ephesus. We should be able to see Ephesus at Izmir on the Mediterranean segment. No loss there. And Istanbul over Athens also is a better place for us to disembark.

Waiting until boarding the ship to make excursion reservations for Sochi, Russia, turns out to be a problem. Sochi is on the Black Sea part of the cruise.  The excursion office will not allow us to reserve any Black Sea trip until that cruise leg starts in another 12 days.   The woman in charge of excursions is adamant in enforcing this rule. She could care less we technically are on a single cruise itinerary.  Since anyone on the Black Sea segment is free to schedule trips until they embark in another 11 days–and we’re blocked from doing so–it’s probably good-bye Sochi for us.

The cost of a Russian visa fee is $160 for anyone going ashore who is not part of a tour, it’s safe to say we won’t see Sochi–due to excursion office red tape, not the Russians’.  Fortunately, most other departments—particularly the front office staff—are operated with more reasonable and accommodating people.

If you join the 2016 cruise, book all your excursions ahead of time. You can always cancel when on board. It’s what we should have done, but who knew this is a twosome?  We have questions about the tour that can be answered only aboard ship.

NOTE:  In 2016, this Prinsendam cruise is extended from 25 to 30 days and is more accurately named Mediterranean and Black Sea Explorer.  I like this itinerary even more. As I said, for a few minutes I consider doing the cruise  over again.

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Apostrophe in Name Causes Computer Chaos

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Outdated Computer Codes A Problem for Many Nationalities

Back in Florida, trying to access airline reservations for our 25-day Prinsendam Mediterranean and Aegean Explorer cruise, I face an obstacle most people never encounter.  It is the dreaded  mark added to Irish surnames by the English. The  apostrophe almost always causes computer chaos.   

I never know how a computer will treat the apostrophe.  It may implant a gap between the letters O and K, use a hyphen to join them or entirely erase my name from the system. People with a deliberate name gap (as in van Damme) or a hyphen (Smythe-Jones) face a similar crapshoot with computers.

Apostrophe replaced by blank space 

My passport contains the apostrophe. Linda’s new one, however, does not.  I ask Holland America not register me with an apostrophe. They insist on using the apostrophe to comply with my passport.  But this causes computer chaos. The computer removes the apostrophe and inserts a blank space between the O and K. This new name certainly does not match my passport. I hoped the HAL system at least would bunch the letters together, as some systems do for easier name recognition.

For our cruise, I know in advance how Holland America spelled our names differently.  At least I can access my airline reservation but that space lodged between the O and K differs from my frequent flyer accounts.  Unable to link those accounts with my reservations, I will have to save the boarding passes and send them in afterwards for mileage credit.

It’s maddening that more than 50 years into the so-called Information Age, sloppy software programs are unable to handle anything but simple last names like Smith or Jones.  Computers are not capable of processing the world’s multi-ethnic names.  (Which is why this blog’s URL is Travels with Tim OKeefe without the apostrophe.)

Losing the apostrophe for foreign travel

Following the cruise, I apply for a new passport under the name OKeefe.  My old one was due to expire in a little over six months, anyway.  But will the new passport arrive with or without the dreaded punctuation mark? Thankfully, it does not contain the computer confounding apostrophe.

This experience is one more illustration how the Internet has taken over our lives in many incremental ways, just as Skynet did in the Terminator series.  My new U.S. passport may be computer compliant but the new name also strips away a distinctive part of my family heritage.

Yet I haven’t totally sold out to Skynet. Having dual citizenship, my Irish passport retains the apostrophe.    As does my driver’s license. And my tombstone damn well will read O’Keefe.

Note:  Google’s search engine is smart enough to understand the apostrophe, find a name with it and post it properly.  Corporate America’s computers are out of date.

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Ms Prinsendam Mediterranean & Aegean Cruise

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Prinsendam Cruises to Lands of the Legendary

The email from Holland America about its Mediterranean & Aegean Explorer cruise on the Ms Prinsendam is unexpected and a pleasant surprise. We had not heard a word from the cruise line since our 35-day Caribbean trip 2010 aboard the Maasdam.   The email title “President’s Picks -Private-Sale Fares,” is interesting enough to  open it.

Linda and I prefer longer cruises and the Med voyage is 25 days. It is especially appealing to me because of my past interest in Greek and Roman history. In high school, I took four years of Latin and another four years in college for reasons still hard to explain.

The truth is I simply enjoyed reading the thoughts of Roman generals, historians and poets in their own language.  My Latin-English dictionary was dog-eared when I left Washington & Lee Univ.  (Amazingly, instead of a single Latin teacher as in my time, W&L now has a full classics department offering majors in Latin, Greek or both.)

The Prinsendam itinerary stops at many ports where some of the ancient world’s legendary figures lived or fought in battle. I am convinced to book the cruise and like the bonus that it ends in Istanbul, a place Linda and I look forward to spending three days after the trip ends.

jason and the argonautrs

             Jason and the Argonauts Seek the Fabled                                   Golden Fleece  

The emailed “invite” arrives August 12. The cruise departs September 28. At the moment, we are in Virginia and aren’t able to return to our Orlando home until September 15. That is only 12 days before the flight to Europe.  Can we get ready in such short time?

The cost of the almost last-minute airfare will decide whether we go. On Kayak and other sites, flying into Barcelona and returning from Istanbul is about $2,500 for each of us, or more than half of the cost of the cruise. Maybe Holland America can do better.  They do much better with flights under a thousand dollars each with very good connections.  That settles it. After booking an ocean view stateroom on the Prinsendam, I borrow Linda’s passport to enter both our travel documents online.

The Long Way Home

When we depart for Florida almost a month later, we listen to a CD audiobook as we always do on the 12-hour drive home.  One of the characters mentions something about her passport and Linda turns to me. “Just where are our passports?”

We stop at the next rest area and frantically search the camera bags where we routinely keep our respective passports. They are not where they should be.  Are they still in the computer desk at the family cottage where we stayed?  They must be.  What a blunder on my part to place them is a drawer after filling out the online forms.

The drive to retrieve the passports is 4 hours.  Then another 4 hours to retrace our route and return to North Carolina. This back and forth journey will add a second travel day. It also means one less day to prepare for the cruise. Not good. At the next I-95 exit, I turn the car around, back to Richmond.

The ancient Greeks and Romans undoubtedly would interpret this passport fiasco an omen. Is it good or bad? This mistake should never have happened but discovering it now definitely is a “good” thing.

What are the odds our audiobook would mention “passport.”  Arriving home without ours would mean finding someone in Virginia who could quickly retrieve and FedEx them. That could be tricky.

The disc takes up where it left off. This story will end by the time we return to where we are now. Luckily, we have two other audiobooks to fill the remaining drive time.  Wonder what we might discover from them?

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