Anne Frank House

Posted on October 31, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

photo of Anne Frank and her quote

At some point in my childhood I read a book called Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl so I knew of the story of Anne Frank and her family during World War 2. Though not fresh enough in my memory to remember all the details of the book, the main story is not the sort of thing that is read and then forgotten like most childhood books. Of course this one was not fiction either being the true story of a Jewish family living through terrible times in the words of a girl who lived it.

Anne Frank House

Our river cruise on Viking Skirner ended in Amsterdam. During the time leading up to the cruise they sent out information on booking a tour of the Anne Frank house, in case people wanted to do so in order to see it after disembarking there. The instructions were that it could not be booked until 6 weeks before going there – and that it filled fast so booking it right at the 6-week date was recommended.

random person at the door to the Anne Frank House

Our friends that we sailed on that cruise with live in an earlier time zone and said they would get tickets for the four of us as soon as it opened to them. They were trying for disembarkation day, but ended up with the day after which worked out fine since we were all staying in Amsterdam for 3 days. On the day we went there someone in the hotel said they’d seen a long que there the previous day and that all of the people in the que had tickets. Someone else said they had gone and got right in.

museum entrance

We found the house, but the entrance for the Anne Frank Museum, which includes the house, is in a new-looking building around a corner. What looks like separate buildings on the outside are now all one building on the inside, though that was not the case back in Anne Frank’s day.

Anne Frank at the wax museum

There were 2 lines to get in. One for people going straight to the museum and the other for people who had tickets for the introductory program, which ours included. For that program you have a specific entry time and can’t come earlier because you would miss the introductory part. If you come late you can still go into the museum, but will not get to see the introduction, which was in a sort of classroom that had some photographs and a few artifacts from Anne’s life. There was also a timeline with dates and photos from her birth to her death.

timeline of Anne Frank’s life

The introduction there included some history before the story begins as well as the sad ending. She was actually born in Germany rather than in the Netherlands, but the family fled Germany early in Hitler’s reign in hopes of escaping his wrath against Jewish people. They were not an especially religious family and her father was a decorated veteran of the German military in World War 1. One of the things Anne said at some point during her ordeal was that she looked forward to the time they could go back to just being people rather than Jews. Something she never got to experience.

annex from the classroom window

Pictures are allowed outside the house, and were allowed in that room, but no photos are allowed once you enter the museum itself. There was a window from the classroom where a photo could be taken of the annex where the family hid, which can’t be seen from the road. The house seen from the road is the front house and the annex is behind it, though the two are connected. There is nowhere else in the museum tour that you can see the actual annex from, only that window in the classroom.

When the family first moved to Amsterdam they lived a normal life, but once Hitler took over things got worse and worse for Jewish people. The Jewish children were sent to separate schools from the other kids and all of the Jews had ever increasing restrictions put on them. Otto Frank ran a business in the lower floors of the house with a warehouse at the bottom and offices above. The warehouse extended into the back house or annex, though the top two floors and attic of that building were unused. The family lived in a different house at the time as that building was just used for the business.

artifacts in the classroom

Knowing that things would only keep on getting worse for them, Otto made plans for going into hiding in an unused portion of the annex building attached behind his workplace along with the family of a Jewish employee. A select few of his non-Jewish employes and some of their family members were the ones who enabled the hiding to happen by bringing them food and other necessities throughout the more than 2 years they stayed hidden there.

Things got worse for Jewish people in the Netherlands with a roundup of the first unlucky people taken and killed to serve as a warning for the rest. When summons began to come for others, one of the ones summoned in the first group was Anne’s sister Margo who was just 16 – 3 years older than Anne. Rather than sending her to certain death the family went into hiding the next day along with another family of 3. Later one more man joined them.

bookcase at the wax museum

A revolving bookcase hid the entry between the annex and the business below. On the lower floors the warehouse extended into the annex building beneath the previously unused upper floors where the families were hiding. Most of the people working there had no idea about the hidden people so they couldn’t make any noise or run any water during the day while the business was open. They also could not look out the windows or have any light show through to the outside at night so that nobody would know they were there.

After they had spent over 2 years in hiding the war was nearly over. They were just waiting for the allies to work their way up to Amsterdam so they could finally be free. Nobody knows how they were found or who turned them in, but one night the Nazis came and arrested them all. They were sent out on the very last train to Aushweitz. After being separated and most eventually sent to other concentration camps, Anne’s father Otto Frank was the only one of the 8 people to survive. One of the people who had helped them hide found the diary, one of the few things not taken by the Nazis, who cleared out all the furniture and anything else they thought had value. The actual diary Anne filled up early on, but she kept writing on whatever paper she had available, which an employee who had helped them found scattered about and saved for when Anne returned along with the diary. Since she never returned it was given to her father, who published it as that had been Anne’s wish to publish the story of their time in the secret annex.

poster at the wax museum

People are given audio boxes before they get into the actual museum, which have different things to say in the various rooms you pass through. Most of it is also written near pictures or items in the rooms. Once you get to the actual secret annex there is no more audio until leaving the annex into additional rooms of the museum. The annex is mostly empty rooms because it was left as it was after the Nazis took everything. The tour does of course exit through a gift shop as do most tourist attractions everywhere. There is a display there of many different versions of the diary published over the years in quite a variety of languages. There’s also a book available of Anne’s fictional writings from her time spent in the secret annex.

Up until recently I found it hard to fathom how one psychopathic leader could get so many people to support them. Unfortunately, not everyone learns from history. There’s an old saying that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The atrocities of World War 2 started by dehumanizing Hitler’s chosen scapegoats and getting others to believe those people are responsible for all of their troubles. Eventually when there are enough people who believe the lies and no longer see that group as fellow human beings, but rather as perpetrators of whatever horrendous deeds are attributed to them it opens the door for terrible things to happen. Those tactics are still at work.

Anne Frank House

Although pictures were not allowed at the Anne Frank Museum, Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum in Amsterdam has a figure of Anne, in a room that contains a few furnishings that may be similar to what were in the house. Since the Nazis took everything the replicas are probably not exact. There’s also a wax replica of the bookcase used to hide the entry to the annex and pictures are allowed in the wax museum.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025
Posted in Day Trips, Europe, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Flyover at Canada Place, Vancouver BC

Posted on October 30, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Zaandam at Canada Place

When cruising out of Vancouver BC, the train is an easy way to get there for people coming up from the south if they happen to live close enough to the Amtrak Cascades route from Portland, Oregon to Vancouver BC. The morning train north is supposed to arrive shortly after noon at 12:30 pm. Since cruise ships often don’t start boarding before noon it’s pretty convenient when the train arrives on time. The train station is not near Canada Place where most cruise ships dock, but the sky train is just across the street from the train station and the Waterfront Station skytrain stop is just 4 stops away. From there it’s a very short walk to the parking garage at Canada Place, which is where cruise passengers enter for boarding. People can also opt to take a taxi or uber from the train station to the ship. You do have to take the right exit from the underground skytrain stop to come out at Canada Place since the station does have more than one exit.

view of Vancouver between ships at Canada Place

Unfortunately the train doesn’t always arrive on time. When we took the train up to Vancouver for our cruise on Holland America Zaandam our train arrived at the station quite late. Once it stops you have to wait first for the luggage to be unloaded, then for the car you are in to be allowed to go. Ours happened to be the last car dismissed so we were at the very end of the customs line. It was about 2:30 by the time we left the station. Our all-aboard time was 3:30 so had we been boarding that day we still would have made it to the ship on time, but probably would have been pretty stressed with worry about not making it near the end of the train trip and while waiting to be allowed off. We went a day early just in case of the train getting there late. Our hotel was not that close to the sky train so we tried to take an uber. Some sort of traffic delay due to construction and a closed road was keeping all the ubers from getting to the train station, though there were taxis there. As our uber kept getting farther and farther away and the people next to us said their third uber had just cancelled on them we gave up, cancelled ours and took one of the waiting taxis as did the other people who couldn’t get an uber to arrive. We got to the hotel just before 3, but had we been going straight to the ship and taken the sky train we would have arrived sooner. Already being in town the next day we were of course able to board much earlier.

Canada Place

The weather was nice that day, but by the time we got checked into the hotel and all it was past 3 so kind of late for most tourist activities. We walked to Canada Place and around the waterfront area a bit before dinner, and made plans to go to Grouse Mountain on the day we got back. The downside of the train is that there is not a convenient southbound train for cruise ship travelers. The morning train south leaves Vancouver at 7am, which is about the time ships start disembarking. Ours wasn’t even scheduled to dock until 7am so we had no chance of catching that train since it takes awhile after the ship docks before they let anyone off, and customs for the train closes about 15 minutes before its scheduled departure. The afternoon train leaves at 4:45, so there’s a lot of time to fill between disembarking the ship and catching the train. You can take a bus, but none of them had times any more convenient than the train.

view of Canada Place from the Zaandam as it returns to the dock

Pan Pacific, the hotel at Canada Place, will let people check luggage for the day. At the time of our cruise it was $5 per bag if picking them up before 3pm or $10 if later. Previously when storing luggage there they had limited the amount they would take to the space in their closet by the desk at the entry, but this time when we got back to pick up ours they had rows of it strapped together outside of that closet so apparently you don’t need to rush off the ship to get your luggage there before space fills up anymore.

view of Vancouver from the Zaandam just before docking

The day our ship returned it was pouring down rain in Vancouver, unlike the day it left when it was nice and sunny. We’d already spent all of our port days on the cruise in the rain so we decided not to go to Grouse Mountain. The people at the visitor center said that was a good plan since it wouldn’t be a good place to go in the rain. Even though it doesn’t take up a lot of time we decided to do Fly Over Canada instead. You don’t actually fly over Canada, it’s a motion ride at Canada Place. It’s inside and dry, other than the ticket booth and entrance which are on the outside of the building. There is at least a roof over the area just in front of the ticket booth and entrance.

Canada Place

The ride didn’t open until 10am, which was also the opening time for the aquarium at Stanley Park where we might have gone instead if it opened sooner. There’s not a whole lot of places for just hanging out waiting for stuff at Canada Place or anywhere to sit that doesn’t belong to the hotel or a food spot. There’s a little café on the main level and another café up by the Fly Over. Underneath the main part of Canada Place there’s an entire food court, which is where you find the most seating. Since it’s all intended for eating it’s not the most comfortable furniture around, but seating there is plentiful. Entering from the ground level of Canada Place it seems like the food court is underground, but the other side of it opens up to the outside across the street where it has a below street level outdoor fountain you can look down to from the sidewalk.

flyover entrance where you wait to go in just before the ride starts

The visitor’s center inside of Canada Place sells discount tickets to attractions in Vancouver. You can get tickets for the flyover there cheaper than buying them directly from the flyover, but it’s just a voucher so you still have to go to the flyover booth to get a time stamp for a session with space available. The flyover entrance is up on the third level outside of their gift shop. Up there we found out that in addition to Flyover Canada they also had Flyover Iceland. The Canada one was by far more popular, but we decided to do the Iceland one since we have seen various parts of Canada, but never been to Iceland.

the first room

It starts in a room where you watch a screen on the wall that is initially stars, but once the video starts it has a computer-generated troll narrating a troll’s view of the early history of Iceland. There were only a couple other groups of people there, a mom with two young kids and another couple. One of the kids was scared and pretty whiny throughout the introductory movie. When that was over we lined up in a hallway waiting for a safety video before entering the main theater. The kid got really upset there screaming that she wanted to go home and eventually they left. I don’t know if that was by choice or not, but if the kid was carrying on like that on the ride besides ruining it for everyone else it wouldn’t have been safe for her if she squirmed out from under the seatbelt and fell off the ride so they may have told them to leave.

the screens on each side of the first room are a starry sky before the video starts

When you first walk into the ride it is seats with an aisle and a metal wall between the seats and a screen showing mountains in the background. There are nets under the seats to hold people’s belongings during the ride. Once everyone is seated and belted in the wall folds away and the seats rise up and out into the space in front of the screen. Everything goes dark so you don’t see exactly how it all happens. When there’s light enough to see again the row of seats is suspended in the air. While a movie of scenery plays the seats move as if you are actually flying over whatever is in view at the time. It flies over mountains and lakes, rivers and fields, wilderness, glaciers, and a city. Sometimes it’s just scenery, but sometimes there are boats or a small plane, animals, or people within view. In one river there’s a sinking kayak. Another scene has horses which initially looks like a herd of wild ones until you hear a dog barking and see that one of the horses has a person on it.

people on the flyover ride (internet photo)

In some places the ride seems to drop down to where you feel like you could just about dip your toes in the water. Other times it flies up the side of a mountain. Usually there’s nobody there, but on one mountaintop it almost seemed as if we were going to kick a climber right off the top until at the last minute the ride veered away. The motion effects are very real, not just visual. On some motion rides the effects are mainly visual so if you get queasy you can close your eyes, but on this one that doesn’t really help. The chairs have quite a bit of actual motion in them so if you start feeling nauseous closing your eyes removes the visuals, but it doesn’t stop the motion. It’s not a good ride for people who are prone to motion sickness, but for those who are not it’s a great one. The scenery is beautiful and ever-changing and it truly does feel as if you are actually flying over it. The whole experience takes just over half an hour, but the ride itself is only minutes. It feels much longer if the motion upsets your stomach.

They needed a place where people could sit and recover where the ride exits if they’re feeling a bit nauseous, but other than their café at the gift shop there is nowhere to sit anywhere in the vicinity. As with just about every attraction everywhere the ride exits into the gift shop, which has the café to one side of it. Our ride vouchers included a coupon for a free cookie or slushie there though if your stomach is barely holding things in when exiting the ride neither is appealing. I don’t know if everyone gets that voucher or just if you buy the ride at the visitor center. Unfortunately photography is not allowed during the ride so I don’t have any pictures from it.

Besides Amtrak, busses and Canadian trains stop at Pacific Central Station

If you’re taking the Amtrak after a cruise and killing time in Vancouver while you wait and run out of things to do or the weather is too horrible to go out and do anything, hanging around Canada Place through lunchtime is better than going to the train station before lunch because Canada Place has that entire food court while the train station just has a few places. When we were last there all that was available at the station was a coffee shop, a sushi place, and A&W hamburgers.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025
Posted in Canada, Holland America, Port Cities, Zaandam | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Regensburg Walking Tour

Posted on October 24, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Regensburg

Regensburg, Germany

Regensburg is located at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers, the Danube’s northernmost point. It was listed as a UNESCO Heritage Site in 2006 for its old town, the best-preserved medieval city in Germany. It has about 1500 listed heritage buildings of which 984 are in the UNESCO World Heritage Old Town. There’s also a 12th century stone bridge with 16 arches crossing the Danube River into the old town. Regensburg is the 4th largest city in Bavaria and 8th largest on the Danube River, also the oldest city on the Danube. It has a population of over 170,000. Younger residents generally speak English as well as German since it is taught in their schools.

stone bridge

Regensburg has comfortably warm summers, cold winters, and often clouds. The temperature typically ranges from winter lows in the mid 20’s F to summer highs in the upper 70’s F, but it does sometimes get colder or hotter. Average rainfall is about 25 inches, 3 inches less than Germany’s average of 28. The warmest month is July and the oldest January. Snow can occur from November to March. July is generally the rainiest month averaging nearly 3 inches.

Viking Skirnir in Regensburg, Germany

Regensburg River Cruise Port

In Regensburg our ship docked right in town just a short walk away from some of the town’s major sites like the gothic cathedral that towers over everything else, the 12th century stone bridge, and the famous ancient sausage kitchen restaurant. The ship was only docked there for a few hours, then it had to back out of that area and head into a small canal to go through a lock in order to bypass the stone bridge, which is too low for the ship to pass under. It was nice to have the ship right in town where people could come and go as they wished during the time it spent in port.

riverside walkway

Regensburg Walking Tour

On a very cold foggy early December morning Viking Skirnir docked in Regensburg, Germany. The included excursion at this port was a walking tour, which started right at the ship with no need to take a bus anywhere. At several degrees below freezing even warm winter clothes weren’t quite warm enough, especially for the standing around waiting for everyone to get off the ship so the tour can start part.

It’s a catfish?

The first stop on the tour was a statue not far from where the ship docked. The guide asked for guesses as to what people thought it was supposed to be. People guessed tadpole and other similarly shaped things. Not one person said catfish, which is what she said it is intended to be, though it really does not look like one.

little open square between buildings

Viking provides little audio boxes to all of the passengers, which are tuned to a specific channel for the guide you are assigned to. The guide has one for speaking, everyone else one for listening. The guides are locals who choose their own path through the city, ending at the ancient gothic cathedral that towers over the rest of the city even though some of the other buildings are quite tall.

street corner

Other than one end of the old historic 12th century stone bridge, Regensburg escaped the bombings that destroyed so many other cities during World War 2. Buildings in the old town are from generally from the 11th to 13th centuries, but there are buildings dating all the way from Roman times to the 16th century.  Like all of the small German towns, there are many churches. They aren’t the only places with tall towers though.

mostly empty tower

The rich merchants of past centuries built stone towers next to their homes to display their wealth even though most of the tower just held empty space rather than useable rooms. There is still just empty space in some of those tall towers. The stones the towers are built from had enough value back then that the towers were somewhat of an investment in that the owners could increase the height to show off ever more wealth or decrease it if the need to sell off stones happened to arise.

the cathedral towers over the other buildings

Narrow cobblestone streets lead through the pastel-colored buildings as they wind their way through town. Sometimes more space opens up on a small square or wider road. The largest open space we saw was set up as a Christmas market just down the road a bit from the giant gothic cathedral. Like many of Europe’s tall ancient buildings it was partially covered in scaffolding as renovation and restoration seems to be constant to maintain these structures.

inside Saint Peter’s cathedral

The inside of the gothic cathedral was beautiful, but quite plain compared to the excessively ornate churches in some of the other towns. This one mainly had stone pillars and giant stained-glass windows. I personally prefer stained glass windows to all the gold-plated stuff. Anything is better than the one that had coffins and skeletons on display at Melk Abbey in Austria.

Saint Peter’s Cathedral

The cathedral is called Saint Peter’s. It has been in existence since about 700 AD, but due to several devastating fires was rebuilt in the current gothic style with construction beginning in 1273. At nearly 350 feet high the church’s towers are taller than the building is wide or long. Gothic style churches reach for the heavens with towering pointed arches. The stained-glass windows were mostly installed in the 14th century. The outside of the cathedral is quite intricately detailed.

Christmas market

The Christmas market in Regensburg had a lot more booths that looked like their merchandise might actually be handmade rather than mass produced then some of the markets we saw in other towns. It was by a church, but not the gothic cathedral.

buildings on the other side of the Danube

As is standard with these tours so far it ended at a church, this time the gothic cathedral. The guide had said the next service wasn’t for awhile so people could go inside to warm up and listen to the choir practice, but it was a Sunday morning and when we went in there was a mass in progress so we didn’t stay.

wiener dog museum

On the way into town we had passed a wiener dog museum, but it was closed.

gift shop in the wiener dog museum

On the way back it was open so we stopped in and checked out the gift shop. They packed a lot of stuff in that tiny gift shop. It cost extra to go into the museum so we didn’t see that part.

ancient sausage kitchen

That street came out near the stone bridge and ancient sausage kitchen which is the oldest in the world. They not only make sausages there, but also serve them since it is a restaurant. Like many places alongside rivers in Germany, it does suffer periodic floods. The guide said that the sausage kitchen handles the flooding by flooding the building themselves with clean water so that the dirty river water can’t get in. Then they just have to let the water out when the river subsides rather than having a massive cleanup.

riverside walkway and stone bridge

From there it wasn’t too far back to the ship, and a lot faster going on our own than the slow meandering of a guided tour. Since the sausage kitchen is right on the riverfront it’s easy just to follow the river back to the ship.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2925
Posted in Europe, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Patagonia Nature in Depth

Posted on October 17, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

trees along the trail

At Holland America Oosterdam’s port stop in Puerto Chacabuco, Chile we booked an excursion called Patagonia Nature in Depth. This excursion promised a walk through the Aiken del Sur private 5 square mile park with superb views of lakes, rivers, hills, and mountains along with a typical Patagonian barbecue lunch.

lake view at the end of the hike

It said a 15-minute bus ride would bring us to the park on the shores of Lake Riesco with clear transparent water. First a visit to the information center with interpretive stations on the geography, history, and biology of the region. That is followed by a walk down the River Trail passing over bridges and through forest, prairie, and swamp zones. Plants include wild fuchsia. The return trip is on the Waterfall trail passing the 65-foot tall Old Man’s Beard waterfall. This is followed by lunch.

parasitic flowering plant that hummingbirds like

There was a warning to dress warmly in layers and wear sunscreen and insect repellent and that the guide may not speak English very well. Our guide spoke English pretty well. We saw very few bugs. It was a nice warm sunny day. Since the guide said this region of Chile only gets around 50 sunny days a year and over 200 rainy ones we got lucky on the weather. It is about a 15-minute bus ride from the port to the park. There were 3 busses from our ship. Overall it was a good excursion, but one thing they could have done better would have been to send the first bus on its way once it was full and same with the second instead of waiting until all of them loaded and then traveling together. The last one to load pulled out first and then the second so the first people on the bus ended up last for everything.

stairs on the trail

On the way to the park the guide on the bus gave out information about both the area and the park as well as some of the plants we would find there. He was quite knowledgeable. The bus first stops briefly at a visitor’s center which has a very small number of restrooms for such a large group. Another reason why having the busses come one at a time would have been preferable. They also had water available so people could have a drink before going for the hike. Although there were 3 busses, the hike went in 4 groups so there was one additional guide besides the ones on the busses.

trail guide

Most people went with the guide from their bus, but the random guide’s group left first and we happened to be outside and ready so we went with the first group rather than the last, which was the rest of our bus. They waited long enough between each group starting out that the groups did not run into each other along the trail. From start to finish the hike was about 3.5 kilometers or just over 2 miles, though they said it was 2 kilometers before we started out walking. That must be the standard number they tell people on hike excursions because we did another hike in a different port where they also said it was about 2 kilometers and that one was more than 4. I was happy with the longer hikes since I regularly run farther than that, but some people who aren’t accustomed to walking much thought it was pretty far.

plant sign

There were a lot of interesting plants along the way. Many had signs next to them saying what they were. There were also some larger signs about the flora and fauna of the area.

wild fuchsia

Wild fuchsias grew in the forest. Also a pretty little orange bell-shaped flower that the guide said was a parasitic plant, but hummingbirds like it. There were foxgloves too, but those are not native to the area.

bridge on the trail

The trail was mostly river rock between logs, and relatively flat. There were some stairways and quite a few bridges along the way. In several spots a fairly large tree had partly fallen and leaned far enough over the trail so people had to either duck under the tree or step off the trail to go around it.

foxglove (digitalis)

Every now and then the guide would stop and talk about something particularly interesting along the trail. Mostly plants, but he did like to talk about pumas, the top predator of the area. There are also foxes and the world’s second smallest deer living in that park along with other species. There were some plants that are used locally for medicinal purposes, like a tree with a powdery substance on its trunk and branches that locals use to heal burns. There were also some edible plants and berries, one of which had giant leaves and thick stems.

cow rib fern that doesn’t look that much like a fern and baby trees that look just like ferns

One plant that looked sort of like Oregon grape with the leaves stretched out and flattened was called a cow rib fern. It looked nothing like ferns that I am familiar with. There was another plant that looked similar to bracken fern, but was not a fern at all, but rather baby trees.

blades of grass – blade being the key word on this plant

A plant that looked a lot like grass was the only thing native to the area that he said we shouldn’t touch. It wasn’t poison or anything, but the edges of the leaves are so sharp they use it as a knife so people could easily get cut from that plant.

tree with a hole burned through it

Other than a few trees that the guide called mother trees that survived the fires, the whole area was burned about 80 years ago by early settlers who were given whatever amount of land they could clear for farmland. Burning it was the quickest way to clear it so that’s what they did with no thought to the environment or ecosystem. The mother trees were larger than the other trees. One that the guide said had survived because of being covered in snow at the time of the fires had a hole burned through it.

standing nurse log

There are also some trees growing from nurse logs, which is not unusual for a forest. Generally the nurse log is a fallen log laying horizontally on the ground that trees grow out of. In this forest there were some standing dead logs that living trees grew around. There was also one tree sprouting from the top of a stump with roots growing down around the stump. That is not so unusual as an upright nurse log. The guide said they called that one the octopus tree.

tree killing fungus

One tree had a fungus that resembles fingers on the trunk. Or at least that’s how the guide described it. They look more like worms to me.  The part you see isn’t the actual fungus, but rather innards of the tree that the fungus living inside of the tree forces it to expel. It eventually kills the host tree. Not all fungus is bad though. The underground fungus network that connects the forest allows the plants to share nutrients and communicate with one another. That is with all forests, not just this one.

Old Man’s Beard Falls

Much of the trail was paralleled by a shallow stream. In one place the trail came out by a waterfall named Old Man’s Beard Falls. We had previously passed a tree with some lichens that were also named old man’s beard. The guide said that particular type of lichen could only grow where the air is clean and pure.

hiking on the trail

At one point the hike crossed a dirt road. There was a bus waiting there for anyone who wanted to ride it the rest of the way rather than hiking to the end. It waited for all of the rest of the groups though so they did not get there any quicker than the people who walked. Most people walked, but there were some who took the bus. Along the way we saw some berry bushes called Calafate. The guide said they had two types, of which one was good to eat and the other more bitter and seedy. One had thorns on the leaves and the other type had thorns on the stems. On the bush they look somewhat like blueberries. The guide mentioned that most people think of Patagonia as more open land rather than forested, but he said that is Patagonia in Argentina. In Chile it is different.

passing through a meadow

Most of the hike was on a forested trail, but we did pass through a meadow when we were getting close to the end.

building at the end of the trail

The trail ended at a lodge sort of building with a view of Lake Riesco. There was a tiny gift shop and some restrooms as well as a large room full of tables set for a meal. There was a fireplace with meat smoking over the fire in the center of the room. A bar at the entrance to that room held many glasses of a local cocktail in a couple of different flavors. One was a pisco sour and the other a Calafate sour made with berries indigenous to the region that we had seen on the trail. These drinks did not have the egg white foam on top that is traditionally found on a pisco sour. Probably to prevent any chance of giving cruise ship passengers food poisoning from raw eggs. People could have more than one drink if they wanted. Food was not served until all of the groups had arrived.

lamb smoking over a fire

The meal started with a small plate with a couple empanadas and a roll, followed by a bowl of corn, asparagus, and lima beans served cold like a salad. The main course was a giant plate of lamb and potatoes that was way more than enough for one person. Nobody at our table finished it. The lamb was the same as what was smoking over the fire, just from an earlier batch.

dessert

After all that there was more to come with a cake with some sort of berry topping. All of the pieces had a bit of whipped cream on them except mine – like somehow they knew fresh dairy products aren’t friendly to my stomach, though in reality they probably just forgot to put it on that one piece and it was just chance that it ended up with someone who would actually appreciate that rather than be disappointed by it. The blurb about the excursion when you book it did say you could let them know in advance about any dietary considerations, but we hadn’t actually bothered to do that.

dancers

During dinner entertainment was provided by an old man with an accordion and two dancers dressed in traditional local clothes. At one point the dancers brought out some of the guests to dance with them.

Oosterdam anchored near Puerto Chacabuco

All of the busses went back together. For a tender port seemed as if that would overwhelm the tenders and people would have to wait, but it turned out that they had two at the dock and as soon as one left another pulled in so the line kept in constant motion getting everyone loaded up and onboard. We quite enjoyed this excursion as did most everyone else that we talked to.

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Nieuw Amsterdam Cabin 1113

Posted on October 10, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

oceanview cabin

The Stern Cabin

Normally we book cabins near the bow of the ship. We like to be near the front because it’s the best place to watch for flying fish. They scatter when disturbed by the ship moving through the water and fly out to the sides so near the bow is where they are most likely to be seen. We have on occasion been near the center of the ship, but my cruise on Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam with my sister was my first time in a cabin near the stern. We were on deck one just beyond back elevators. That was near to the end of where passenger cabins went on that deck as there were just 6 rooms beyond ours toward the back of the ship with a door to a crew area beyond that. That location was convenient to the food, but far from the Crow’s Nest lounge, theater, and spa, though it’s a relatively small ship so it doesn’t take long to get from one end to the other. The dining rooms were just one and two decks up so very close. The buffet was 8 decks above us which is a lot of stairs to climb or a quick shot up on the elevator.

frigatebird (internet photo)

We didn’t see any flying fish from our room, but discovered a new way to watch for them from the outside promenade. Frigatebirds often circled the ship and whenever they would dive down toward the water it meant there were flying fish above the surface. Unlike seabirds that swim and dive underwater to catch fish, the frigates are not swimming birds so they literally catch their meal on the fly. Most seabirds have waterproof feathers, but frigates don’t and would likely drown if submerged. Wherever the frigates headed on their dive was the place to look to see flying fish, which sometimes the birds caught and sometimes they didn’t. The poor fish were pretty much out of luck. Not flying out of the way could mean getting ran over by the ship, but going airborne made them vulnerable to birds.

flying fish (internet photo)

From the ship flying fish mostly look like white specks, sometimes large groups of them. Some just go a short distance, others stay in the air until they are out of sight. Sometimes you can see the whole fish shape on the bigger ones.

Nieuw Amsterdam in Cabo

The reason why we ended up at the stern on the Nieuw Amsterdam was because of a special price deal offered by Vacations to Go for that room, which was $1000 per person cheaper than the going rate for an oceanview cabin on that cruise when the entire cruise was paid in full upfront rather than just a deposit with the balance paid later. There were only 2 rooms to choose from to get that deal – the one we booked or one on the other side of the ship located under the galley. Under the dining room where ours was is far preferable as there is no activity in the dining room during the night, but there can be people working in the galley. We could not get that same deal on a cabin at the bow even though there are cabins there in the same category as the ones at the stern.

cabin 1113

I was afraid that the engine noise might be pretty loud in that room, but it actually wasn’t too bad. We could hear it, but it was a quiet background noise rather than really loud. It did seem a bit louder to me when my head was on the pillow in bed, but my sister said she didn’t notice any difference. We did hear a noise from below for several nights that sounded like something banging against a metal wall. We thought maybe someone hung something on the inside of the exterior wall that swung back and forth and hit it making that noise and then removed the offending item a few days later. The decks below ours were crew decks so we didn’t know what was directly underneath our room.

It seemed like there wasn’t a lot of storage in this cabin, but it may have just been due to one side of the closet being inset so it was not quite deep enough for the regular size hangers to sit straight and there weren’t a lot of slightly smaller ones. It did lack any of the overhead storage that some rooms have above the couch, but a lot of rooms on this type of ship lack those, though some do have them. Each nightstand had two small, shallow drawers and a shelf, none of which held a lot. There was one small corner shelf above the desk. Luckily the steward did not have things stored in the large drawer at the end of each bed. Sometimes they have stuff in there making those drawers unavailable, but after asking the steward to remove a pile of ice buckets in one of them we had those drawers to put our things in. They held a lot more than both small drawers and the shelf combined in the nightstands.

bathroom

The bathroom was standard for oceanview and balcony cabins on Holland America ships. It had 3 small shelves above the counter and one larger shelf under the sink. There was also some space on the counter to put a few things. Separate shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in the shower and hand soap and lotion dispensers by the sink were provided in the bathroom. Holland America provides separate shower products, which is quite nice since there are lines that just have the nasty all-in-one. Most of the cabins on Holland America ships other than inside or accessible ones have a bathtub rather than a shower, which also makes more space to hang things to dry. That comes in handy not only for wet swimsuits, but also for doing laundry in the cabin sink on long cruises. Holland America does not have guest laundries and sending laundry out for the crew to wash is expensive until a person reaches 4 stars in the loyalty program and can have it done for free. The deck plan shows all of the cabins farther back than the one we had having just showers rather than tubs even though they are all oceanview rather than inside cabins.

shower products

The room seemed smaller than previous cabins we’ve had on Holland America ships, but that may have been due to the fact that it had a pretty low ceiling. We’re not tall people and my sister could touch it from flat feet. I could if standing on my tiptoes. She noticed that the hallway outside of our room had a dip where cabins slightly forward of ours would have had higher ceilings, but then the floor went back up just before getting to where ours was. Most likely the cabins on higher decks also have higher ceilings. I don’t remember the cabins I’ve been in on previous Holland America ships having particularly low ceilings.

connecting door, TV, and closet

Cabin 1113 has a connecting door to cabin 1117, the one next door on the side one cabin closer to the stern. Normally I would try to avoid booking a cabin with a connecting door unless I happened to be traveling with the people in the next cabin and wanting direct access to each other’s rooms. You can hear the people in the next cabin more through a connecting door than through a wall. In fact we could sometimes hear the people in that room if standing right next to that door, but not from anywhere else in the room. So they could probably sometimes hear us if they stood right next to the door as well. On this particular cruise since my only option other than paying a lot more was a cabin under the galley having the connecting door was the better choice.

Generally there are two wall hooks in the cabins on Holland America ships, as well as some on the inside of the bathroom door. This cabin just had one hook out in the room so it’s a good thing that I brought some magnetic hooks so we had more places to hang things besides in the closets. Cruise ship cabins vary in magnetivity. Sometimes its the door that is most magnetic, sometimes the shower. In this one the door and shower were pretty weak magnetically, but the walls were strong enough to hold a hook with clothing hanging on it. The decorative magnet slid down the door and didn’t stay in place, but the frame around the door and walls in the hallway were stronger so that’s where most people put their magnetic door decorations. It took several magnetic hooks to hold a clothesline in the shower when needing more linespace than the built-in one that pulls across. Since it was a 21-day cruise we did need more linespace sometimes for hanging laundry. For some reason the laundry dried faster on this ship than usual on cruise ships.

annoying bed light

We did not like the design of the reading lights by the beds. It was a tiny little light on a fairly long pole that the steward would leave on and sticking out in the way every night even though we always pushed them up against the wall out of the way which was how he’d find it. We never actually used those lights so they were just in the way. I suppose someone who wanted to read in bed from a regular book might use it. I use the kindle app in my phone and it makes its own light so I can read that in total darkness.

The last Holland America ship we were on had a dim nightlight that stayed on in the bathroom as well as the motion light by the closet, and a curtain between the closets and sleeping area that blocked some of that light even if the bathroom door was open and the motion light on. This room had no curtain to close off the closet area and no nightlight in the bathroom. The motion light would make light from under the door when first going into the bathroom, but it didn’t stay on long so you’d be left in the dark unless turning on the actual bathroom light. Which was also a problem if yours is the card in the slot that makes the light work and you want to go somewhere while someone else is in the bathroom because pulling your card out of the slot would leave them in the dark. Sometimes business cards will work in those slots, but they did not in this room.

couch and table

Furniture in the room consisted of two beds – which can be set together as one if the people in the room want it that way, a small couch (loveseat size), a table, a desk with a chair, and the two nightstands. The desk had no drawers, but it did have a cupboard with a small refrigerator and a little storage cabinet with shelves holding drinking glasses, a hairdryer, and a make-up mirror.

desk and TV

The room had a lot of mirrors, but the only one with enough light for putting on make-up or earrings was in the bathroom. There were lots of lights, just not where the mirrors were. The extra lighting at the mirror above the desk was probably supposed to work for that, but didn’t. There were also no mirrors positioned where you could see your back in one from another. There never are in cruise ship cabins, though it would be nice if there were.

cabin art

Artwork in the cabin was a sort of strange picture above the couch that initially looks like a bowl of fruit in the middle of the desert, but if you look closer it’s on a table with a sand-colored tablecloth. At least it wasn’t a sinking ship like we had for room art on the Zaandam.

our own art gallery in the cabin

We added our own art gallery with things made in art classes on the ship. Usually I have lots of spare magnets now that things like shore excursion tickets are all digital, but on this ship we actually ran out even with some things sharing magnets. By the end we had more art than what’s in the picture. I’ve never done onboard art classes before, though Holland America always has them. This time I went because my sister wanted to and they actually were quite enjoyable. We did watercolors, origami, doodling, and coloring. They had calligraphy too, but we didn’t go to that.

one night the stewards left us a towel dinosaur

There were 4 USA standard outlets in this cabin. Two above the desk and two more just above the little shelf hanging over one corner of the desk. The room had one TV, which hung on the wall next to the connecting door.

chocolates!

On formal nights the stewards left a towel animal and chocolates along with the usual stuff which included the next day’s program and any additional information for the next day like time changes. They also moved the room service breakfast order form from the desk to the bed every night even though we always put it back and never used it.

towel turtle and ducks guarding the stewards tip

Overall we were comfortable in this cabin with 2 people on a 20-day cruise. Storage space would have been an issue with more people. This particular cabin was only for 2, though the ones nearby that held more didn’t likely have any more storage space. At the end of the cruise we left the stewards a towel turtle with 2 ducks guarding the tip, which hid underneath the ducks. Stewards make towel animals for guests, but I’d bet it’s not often guests make one for them. The stewards worked in pairs so we left 2 ducks so each could have one. A lot of crew on cruise ships like finding ducks and if these particular people don’t they will know someone who would love to have them.

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Rarotonga Cook Islands Cruise Port

Posted on October 3, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Noordam in Rarotonga

Rarotonga is an island of volcanic origin in the South Pacific. Though the name has tonga in it, it is not part of the Kingdom of Tonga, but rather one of the Cook Islands. At just over 26 square miles it is the largest of the Cook Islands. The highest elevation on the island is 2139 feet or 652 meters. Money is the New Zealand dollar. Credit cards are widely accepted and tipping is not customary.

view of Rarotonga from the ship

About 75% of the Cook Islands population lives on this island. The island is surrounded by beaches and shallow reefs that drop off into deep water and is forested in the center. Watersports are popular pastimes. Cruise ships are too large for the island’s lagoon harbor so they anchor outside and tender in. There is a road encircling the island with busses running in both directions. It takes about 50 minutes to circle the island. Bus fare is pretty cheap, but it was cash only and they only accepted New Zealand dollars. There are ATM’s within walking distance of the tender pier, but it’s best to come prepared with New Zealand dollars in hand if you want to ride the bus around the island.

map of Rarotonga

Bus service is pretty lacking on weekends with short hours on Saturday and only the clockwise bus with even shorter hours on Sunday. The town of Avarua is just a short walk from the most-used tender dock, though there is another farther dock that is sometimes used due to weather conditions. This is the sort of port that is often skipped due to unsafe tendering conditions. There may be excursion vendors at the tender dock, though they were lacking during our visit.

expensive island tour bus

It was kind of hit and miss as to whether we would stay and tender in or miss the port, but in the end they decided on a somewhat limited tender service. There was not much available at the dock, just an island bus tour for $90 (same price for any acceptable currency, no discount if yours is worth more) which only lasted an hour and had two stops, or the public transit bus which did not have full service that day since we were there on a Saturday. Also the problem of if you got off anywhere there may not be space available to get back on when the next bus came and there wouldn’t be many more busses going by since they quit early on Saturdays.

scooters and cars for rent

Places that took American dollars, euros, or any other non-New Zealand money did not offer any sort of exchange rate so it could end up costing more for the same thing depending on the currency used and its current rate opposed to New Zealand dollars. Credit cards charge the actual exchange rate so they’re the best bet for those lacking in New Zealand dollars, other than the bus that only took New Zealand cash or anywhere else that wouldn’t take credit cards.

market sign

Between the lengthy decision time on whether or not to tender to shore and the long wait for a tender it was 10am before we got to shore in a port scheduled for 8am. Even at that we were way better off than people with tender ticket numbers so high they were still waiting for their call after we returned to the ship.

outdoor market

Just before the ship people started calling the first tender numbers a guy stood up and addressed the group around him in German and they all left together. I didn’t really think anything of it, figuring that they’d all booked some sort of group excursion together through an outside source. There were no excursions available through the ship that port, but I know any time I’ve had anything booked through an outside source at a tender port they’ve always said to make sure and get on the first tender. Such a small thing apparently brought out the pettiness in some people though. People were complaining that nobody explained to the room at large in English what that group was doing, and that instead of each one of them holding their own tender ticket the guy who appeared to be the leader of them had the whole stack. It’s still one ticket per person regardless of who holds onto them and really nobody else’s business what that particular group had going on, but I guess small things anger large groups if they think they’ve been slighted because somebody else got to go first. Probably the same sort of people that leave their towels on deck chairs all day long to keep other people from sitting in them even though they are nowhere in the vicinity. Because they think they are the only ones who matter. Several days later I came across a lady who was still mad about it until I mentioned the bit about that group probably having something booked through an outside source to which she said she’d never thought of that. It did seem to dispel her anger a bit though.

bikes for rent

Deciding to pass on the ridiculously expensive for nearly nothing island tour and not having the right currency or desire to wait for the next bus, we opted to just walk around the area near the port. There was quite an extensive market nearby with lots of small stalls selling mostly souvenirs or food. Some had colorful cloth, which apparently some tourists actually go there to buy. Others had clothing. Quite a few sold the sort of things not allowed on our ship as most people would disembark in either Australia or New Zealand where there are a lot of restrictions on what types of things you can and can’t bring into the country.

playground in Rarotonga

There were a variety of places to eat within walking distance of the tender pier. For anyone with kids there was a pretty good playground there too.

view of the ship from a little beach

We found lots of places with good views of the ship. We saw a shop with cars and scooters for rent not far from the dock, and a bicycle rental stand along the walkway near the sea. Some places had signs advertising much better tours than what was available at the dock, but they all looked to be the sort of thing geared to people staying on the island rather than passing through on a ship. Things could probably be booked pre-cruise through outside sources, but you would want to be sure you had reliable transportation to get to it. There was only one taxi sitting at the pier when we got there. Anyone counting on the bus would need to check the schedule and make sure that would work out for them, especially if they are there on a weekend since bus service is reduced then.

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Enchanted Princess Penthouse Suite

Posted on September 26, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

balcony on penthouse suite R731

Other than mini-suites, the most numerous suites on Enchanted Princess are the Penthouse Suites. The nicest of these are found at the back corners of decks 9-15, which is a total of 12 rooms since there is no deck 13. These suites have balconies that wrap around the back corner of the ship. They run 587 to 682 square feet including the extra-large balcony. There are sliding glass doors to the balcony from both the bedroom and living room areas.

penthouse suite R605

There are an additional 14 penthouse suites located on either side of the wedding chapel and concierge lounge near the back of deck 14, with 7 on each side of the ship. The balconies on these rooms are no wider than balconies on standard rooms or mini-suites, though they are considerably longer since they are attached to a bigger room and run the length of the room. These rooms are about 440 square feet including the balcony.

bedroom in penthouse suite R605

Proximity to the concierge lounge is convenient for suite guests since they have access to the lounge and the services of the concierge within it. They can also get snacks there and sometimes there are events for the suite people that spill over into the adjacent wedding chapel, which is otherwise closed off from that lounge as anyone can go into the wedding chapel when it is not in use.

bedroom in corner penthouse suite R731

Penthouse suites have a bedroom separated from the living room area. It’s more of a separation in the corner ones than in the others where it’s just a partial wall.

closets in penthouse suite R731

The corner suite has a hall of closets at the entrance to the bedroom.

penthouse suite bathroom

These suites have an extra-large bathroom with access from both the bedroom and living room areas. The bathroom has a freestanding shower and separate bathtub. There’s also a separation between the toilet and bathing areas, each with its own sink.

penthouse suite R731 has a bar counter by the doorway to the bedroom

Like all rooms on the Enchanted Princess, these suites have a mini-fridge under a counter, though being suites these come with a complimentary bar set-up that you don’t get in a standard cabin unless your loyalty level is elite.

corner bar in penthouse suite R605

These suites come with full suite benefits, which include priority embarkation and tender, priority on a whole lot of other things like shore excursions and specialty dining reservations, access to the suite and elite only line at guest services, complimentary mini-bar set-up, free laundry service, and upgraded room service menu among other things.

living room in penthouse suite R605

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Things to Do on Holland America Zaandam

Posted on September 19, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Zaandam in Vancouver

There’s always something to do on a cruise ship. Even a smaller ship like Holland America Zaandam that doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the mega ships still has plenty to do. Some people are quite capable of keeping themselves amused while others take advantage of the activities the ship has to offer.

main Lido pool with sliding cover open

Even a small ship like the Zaandam has some built-in things people can do. It has pools, hot tubs, a library with books and games, ping-pong tables, deck chairs, the Crows Nest observation lounge and other places with views, and a promenade deck that goes all the way around the ship.

sports court

It also had a sports court with basketball and pickleball. There’s a casino too and some bars. Most things at the gym are free to use, though there are classes that cost extra. The ship has a spa too, but other than things like sample massages or a boarding day spa tour everything there costs extra.

hiding ducks for other people to find is a thing on cruise ships

People can bring ducks to hide and make their own fun hiding them. It’s also fun to find them if anyone else brought some to hide. Most ducks have a tag that either says conquackulations or oh what luck you found a duck. The finder can either keep or re-hide the duck.

chairs by windows

Movies and shows are available on the stateroom TV. It also has a bow channel if you want to see where the ship is going from the comfort of your own stateroom. Otherwise you can get a great forward view from inside at the Crows Nest or outside on the little open bow accessed from the port side of deck 6 that is open even when the main bow is not. There were also places with window seating on the sides of the ship. Most of the time we were sailing through scenic areas, and sometimes there was wildlife to see as well – which included whales, orcas, porpoises, and of course birds.

sale table at one of the ship’s shops

The ship’s shops are open when it is out to sea. There are shops on 2 different decks on the Zaandam. Exploring the ship is fun too. Even the hallways on the decks that just have passenger cabins have a different sort of artwork on each deck. There is all sorts of other artwork around the ship including the enormous centerpiece in the atrium that looks like a gigantic pipe organ.

one of the kid’s club rooms

There are kid’s club spaces for several different age groups.

Dutch Tea

Eating is always a good part of any cruise, and the Zaandam had good food. Besides meals they also had afternoon tea in the dining room each day. The ship also had a couple of coffee bars besides the regular bars.

movie theater

The ship had a little movie theater separate from the main theater. The movie theater had several showtimes for a movie each day.

production show in the main theater

The main theater had two performances of the whatever the show was for that evening each night. Sometimes it was production shows by the ship’s cast and other nights they had guest performers. During the daytime the theater had port talks or lectures.

bar with a piano

Some of the bars had musicians playing each evening.

scenery in Endicott Arm

Whether we were sailing through scenic areas or not (mostly we were) there were also quite a variety of scheduled activities each day. Zaandam still left a paper copy of the next day’s schedule in the cabin each evening, and it was also available on the app. Their app actually worked most of the time, which is quite an improvement over a lot of ships we’ve been on where the app often had issues.

ping pong tables on the Lido deck

Daily scheduled activities included things like dance classes, origami folding, adult coloring, calligraphy classes, lectures & port talks, Tai Chi, yoga, mahjong, bridge, and trivia. Sometimes they had deck games like cornhole or ladderball. Dancing was often an option in the evening, and each morning the schedule included an option to walk a mile around the ship with a group.

gym

There were also one-time things on the daily program that would only be there just for that day – like sailing through the inside passage or down Endicott Arm to a glacier. Other one-time things included a 5-mile walk for a cause charity walk, an Alaska brunch in the dining room one morning, and chocolate surprise one evening. Another passenger kept telling people that chocolate surprise was just the gift shop trying to sell chocolate diamonds, but that person was quite wrong. Chocolate surprise was actually waiters wandering around deck 5 with trays of various different chocolate treats to hand out to anyone who wanted them. We found the best treats with a couple waiters standing outside the theater waiting for people to come out when the show ended. They had better stuff to offer than the ones wandering around the deck had.

part of the library in the Explorer’s Lounge

It’s always nice to sit somewhere near a window with a good book where you can read and watch the scenery go by. I have the kindle app in my phone so I always have lots of books without actually bringing any, but for those who didn’t bring their own they had a lot of them in the library. It was in the Explorer’s Lounge, which also had view seating, a computer room, a coffee bar, lots of games, and tables where people could spread out the games or puzzles which were also available there.

puzzle in progress on a table in the Explorer’s Lounge

One nice thing about cruises is the option to do as much or as little as you want. If you just want to relax and do nothing you can, but if you want to fill your whole day with activities you can do that too. Or some of each.

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Viking Longship Below Water Level Cabin

Posted on September 12, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Viking Skirnir standard cabin

Viking Skirnir Cabin 118

On our 15-day Grand European Tour on Viking Skirnir we stayed in a standard cabin, which are located on the main deck mostly below water level. Only the little slit window is above the waterline. The rest of the room is below it. The room was very cold when we first got there, and it seemed to take days to get the heat to go up a degree or two. It gradually got slightly warmer when the heat finally rose, but it was still pretty cold in there. The public areas in the rest of the ship weren’t exactly warm either, but not as cold as our room. Whether it was because they keep the ship cold or because of the cold water on the outside of one wall of the room I can’t say. The warmest place was the bathroom because it had a heated floor so we kept the heat on in there. The room had an adjustable thermostat. It just wouldn’t heat up to the temperature it was set for. Too bad the floor heating didn’t extend to the rest of the room. This was a wintertime cruise so the temperature might be better in those rooms in the summer.

window view

Other than being cold and having to stand on the bed to see out the window if you’re shorter than window height, the room did have some good amenities. There was a wide ledge below the window, which was a handy place to put things. The wall under the window was magnetic, where cabins above water level only had the outer bathroom wall for a magnetic surface. We used that wall to hang a clothesline on magnetic hooks for things that were dry well beyond the dripping point so they could leave the bathroom, but not quite dry enough to put away yet. Being a cold wall they didn’t dry real fast there, but it did free up the shower in the bathroom.

bed with nightstands and above them outlets and controls for the room’s lights

The room had a comfortable bed with two pillows provided for each side. Like ocean cruise ships, the bed can be spread apart into two separate beds if needed. Upstairs in the lounge people could get a small blanket, which besides using up there when chilly, if you brought it to the room it stayed there even if left out when the steward cleaned. Quite useful in a cold room. There was a small nightstand on each side of the bed. No drawers, but it did have a cubby for a bit of extra storage and enough surface space for small things like a phone to sit at night. It also had a pull-out shelf if someone needed more surface area for something.

closet, drawers, and TV

Though the room was somewhat small, which is to be expected since the longships aren’t very big, it did have ample storage for 2 people. It had 3 drawers, a closet with half hanging space and half shelves, and space under the bed for suitcase storage. It only had one empty bathroom shelf above the countertop rather than the 3 most ocean ships have, though there was a second shelf there supplied with one tube each of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and hand lotion. If you moved any of those products off of that shelf they were replaced the next time the steward cleaned the room. There was also bar soap provided at the sink.

bathroom

Racks above the toilet held two each of bath and hand towels. Other than when we first boarded and they were at the opposite end of the counter the steward always put the washcloths right next to the sink. That area tended to get a bit wet so we moved them to the towel rack. Towels left hanging were not replaced when the room was cleaned, but those left on the floor were. The bathroom had a small clothesline that could be pulled across the top of the shower, and an additional shelf under the sink.

shelf of products

The room was cleaned twice daily. It had a sign for the door with whatever their version of do not disturb on one side and room available for cleaning on the other. Putting that out with the cleaning side showing makes for faster service as the stewards generally clean the rooms they know are empty first.

Quietvox charger

The room had 4 each of American and European outlets, though one of the European ones was taken by the charger for the Quietvox audio boxes used for the daily tours included with the cruise at each port. There was one of each outlet above the nightstands and one on either end of the long narrow desk that ran from where the closet ended to the outer wall. We found a hair dryer hidden in the closet.

desk

It looked like there were 6 drawers under the desk, but there was actually just one set of 3 and what looked like the other 3 drawers had a refrigerator hiding behind it. There was a skinny little ledge above the desk useful for holding small things. One end of the desk was open underneath with space for a stool and a garbage can. The stool was the only furniture in the room besides the bed. There was a big screen TV above about half of the desk and a mirror over the rest. There were also mirrors on the back of the cabin door and in the bathroom.

view of the Main River from the cabin window

The room had quite a lot of lighting. There was one under the shelf below the sink in bathroom that stayed on all night. Lights in the closet came on automatically whenever it was open. There was also a lamp for each side of the bed as well as low-light wall lighting for each side in addition to the overhead lights. The bathroom and closet lights worked whether the room card was placed in the slot by the door or not, but the others did not. The slot could sometimes be fooled by a business card into working without the room card, but only if the card was undamaged so it’s best to just leave a card in the slot rather than taking it in and out if not using the room card.

Skirnir in a lock

For anyone who can afford it, I’d recommend booking one of the above water cabins. They cost considerably more, but they do come with a great view and are a lot quieter. Sound travels through water so below the water you hear a lot of things that the above water cabins don’t. When underway as the ship often is at night you can hear its engines. The movement of the ship passing through the water is also loud sometimes. Even when it is docked you often hear sounds from passing ships. Some of the smallest boats passing by have the loudest engines. When the ship passes through locks at night you hear the water gurgling and a high-pitched sort of whistle or ringing that may go on for quite some time, then the whooshing sound of water rushing in or out. Occasionally there’s the crunch of the boat bumping a wall in the lock too. Above the waterline unless there’s daylight and you happen to look out the window at the right time it’s easy not to even notice passage through the many locks along the journey, but in the below-the-waterline cabin it doesn’t matter whether you can see anything or not, you will know. These cabins do make the journey more affordable though.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025
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Puerto Chacabuco, Chile Cruise Port

Posted on September 5, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

view of Puerto Chacabuco from the ship

Puerto Chacabuco, Chile

Puerto Chacabuco is a small town in the Patagonia region of southern Chile in the Aysén Province located at the head of Aysén Fjord. The town is named after a ship that explored the area in the 1870’s. Fish and shellfish processing are the main industries there. There were fish pens in the bay near the tender port.

docks in the port

Money in Chile is the Chilean peso. One US dollar was worth 978.76 Chilean pesos while we were there in January, but is now down to $968.19 since the US dollar has been declining in value compared to the currencies of other countries. Annually the temperature varies from 34°F to 63°F and rarely falls below 23°F or climbs above 74°F. Average rainfall is about 280 days a year with an accumulation of over 121 inches.

port building and Oosterdam at anchor

Puerto Chacabuco, Chile Cruise Port

Puerto Chacabuco is a tender port, which means that the ship anchors offshore and passengers are brought to shore in smaller boats called tenders. It’s a very small port. There’s a floating dock where the tender comes in.

tender at the dock

The tender drivers on Holland America Oosterdam were quite skilled at docking them, coming in very smoothly each time. Unlike the ones on the Noordam last year who had great difficulties docking tenders. There are a lot of tender ports on an Antarctic cruise so they get a lot of practice.

walkway into the port building

After docking there’s a ramp to walk up to shore and then an outside pathway leading into the port building. The building is mostly full of seating areas for people waiting for excursions or using the free Wi-Fi. There were restrooms both upstairs and downstairs as well as free coffee and snacks upstairs. The free Wi-Fi there was faster than the usual cruise ship port Wi-Fi which is kind of surprising considering how tiny the town is.

costumed locals

After walking through the building when we went out the other side there were 4 people in the area’s traditional clothing that people could take photos of or with.

port building

Outside of the building there’s a parking area where the excursion busses go. A dirt road up a little hill leads to the port exit. There were initially people just outside of the port offering last minute van tours. Later there was a girl with a sign for those tours just outside of the port building in the port. Taxis were also available just outside of the port. Ship cards were required to get back in after leaving the port area.

shopping booths in a canvas tent near the port

There’s not a lot to do right in the port area other than the van tours for anyone who didn’t book an excursion. There was a large canvas tent with local people selling mostly handmade items. Lots of wool hats and other knitted things. One booth had sandwiches and other edibles for sale.

Viña del Mar shipwreck

It’s an easy walk from the port to a shipwreck on a beach. It’s a large rusted hulk of a passenger ship built in 1911. You can also get great photos of the cruise ship from near the wreck or from just outside of the port building. The rusted hulk of a wrecked ship was the Viña del Mar, stranded there since 1963. It was on a routine voyage when a viscous storm with strong winds and rough seas caused the ship to run aground.

photo from near the shipwreck

There’s a bit of a town about half a mile from the port, but the whole region is sparsely populated so there’s not a lot there. Most things to do in the area are farther away so it’s a good idea to book something to do at this port before the cruise.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025
Posted in Holland America, Oosterdam, Port Cities, Ports of Call, South and Central America | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment