The 2009 Collins Family Cruise Photos

Photos from around the ship:

For 38 days we lived on the MS Amsterdam. It was a lovely floating city/hotel, and we enjoyed our stay aboard very much. These photos will give you a glimpse of our life on the ship: Ray on our Bunk, just after boarding the ship.

This is where the top bunk was hidden when we got on the ship. This is the only time we ever saw it this way!

Richard standing in the entry way to our room. The bathroom is to the left (Richard's right), and the sofa was converted to a bunk. Photo taken from the bed (yes, those are Ray's feet in the lower left & right).

Top deck of the ship. This is more than 10 stories off the water!!

Statue

Almost every day the room stewards made these really neat animals.

Karen and another animal.

The kids had fun with a stuffed doll riding!

Richard and a "penguin".

Our ship, the Amsterdam, at anchor at Puerto Montt, Chili. We were on shore (that is Karen' bonnet in the lower left).

These animals were put in our room when the room steward made up the room for the night, which usually happened when we were at dinner. We came home this evening to find a monkey hanking from the ceiling. Richard and Karen had their small monkey join the big one.

Sunrise in the Falkland Islands, where we were just pulling into the harbor. Looking across the 'sports' deck of the ship.

We anchored some distance from Port Stanley, our Falkland Island destination. So we 'tendered' in to port, using the ship's life boat/dingy.

The stern of the Amsterdam. This photo is not very good because it was taken through a tender (dingy) window, which had water on it.

Another neat animal.

This is the 3rd deck (not including the crew decks) of the Amsterday, which was a nice walkway all the way around the ship. It made a great walking deck, and if you were ambitious you could go hiking here: 3.5 rounds per mile. Frankie and Ray did this fairly often, and once in awhile the kids would join in for a mile or two.

We were anchored out in Puerto Montt too, and the tenders took us ashore. The kids had fun on this trip because the tender doubled as our liferaft: during the whole cruise they wore a wrist band that had their lifeboat number on it, in case of problems the crew could deliver them to their liferaft. But today, it was just a tender.

Laura with the kids. She was the ship's daycare person, and took great care of our kids.

In ports we usually tied to the dock, like we are here in Coquimbo, Chili.

Karen, Richard and Frankie take a stoll around the aft deck pool.

At almost every stop the crew checked one or two lifeboat/tender. They would pull it out from the ship, maybe lower it a bit and make sure everything worked smoothly.

Richard shows off the new gap in his mouth. He has just lost his tooth, as we celebrate his 7th birthday!

Richard's birthday dinner. Jenny's family was nice enough to join us.

Richard and Jenny.

The ship baked Richard a birthday cake.

During the cruise the maximum number of kids aboard was 4, so we always had 50% or more of them!! Our two with Jenny & Mia, with the daycare provider, Trisha.

This is one of the piano players on the ship, and he offered to give Richard piano lessons!! His name, oddly enough, was Frankie too--Thanks Frankie!

The library was Ray's favorite hangout.

This was our hallway on the ship. Standing in the stern, taking the photo looking foreward. Our room is the 3rd door on the left, so we were in the very back of the ship.

The Lido pool. The roof could open in good weather, or close if it were cool out.

This huge map was one of the kid's favorite spots on the ship. Richard did his school work (during sea days) near here, and whenever he got a break he would come over and play with the consol (the pedistal in the foreground). This would light up different cruises, like Magellan's first trip around the world, using lights behind the chart.

One of the dance hall floors.

Karen on a stone statue on the Amsterdam. With children accounting for less than 1/2 of 1 percent of the ship's population, our kids were spoiled!!

The Queen's Lounge was where they put on all the shows. There was a show every evening (usually put on twice, because the lounge didn't hold enough to seat everyone). Most of the shows were really good.

There were fresh flowers on the ship the whole cruise!




Rio de Janerio

We left home on the night of the 10th of March, and arrived in Rio the morning of the 12th. We spent the next 5 days in the Premier Copacabana Hotel just 3 blocks from the beach. For the most part we spent our time getting used to the heat (with daytime highs in the 90's it was 110 degrees warmer than the week before we left Fairbanks!) and the time change (7 hours from Alaska).

Rio had a lot of statues. Another one

This impressive building is a Catholic church in downtown Rio.

The waves were a little too rough for Karen to get in the water, but she had lots of fun playing in the sand.

Some of Ray's training is plant related, so when he saw this growing wild he just had to have a photo!

On our last day there we took a tour that took us up to the top of a mountain overlooking the city. As you can see, Rio is a very pictureque. There is a lot more of Rio in other directions, but these two photos were the best ones we got.

Sugarloaf mountain.

At the top of the mountain we were on there was a HUGE (120 feet tall) statue, called Christ the Redeemer. Our photos (one) (two) (three) don't do it justice, so here is a link to an aireal photo. For more info on the statue, visit wikipedia.



We boarded the Amsterday Tuesday, March 17. We hired a cab through the hotel, and were promptly taken to the cruise terminal. We left our luggage with a porter and then we went through the line. Though fairly long, they had plenty of counter people to get us our key cards, so it was fairly painless. Then we went through security (very similar to airport secruity) and boarded our ship. Since the layout was essentially the same as the Rotterdam that we took our honeymoon cruise on, it was easy to find our way around and it didn't take us long to get to our stateroom and drop off our stuff (luggage would show up in the evening). By 5 pm all the guests were aboard and we cast off, heading for Argentina. After 2 days at sea, we arrived:

Buenos Aires

Tourists on a bus.

There were some wonderful gardens in Buenos Aires, with many beautiful flowers.

Parks and high rises.

Corner musicians, with street vendors in the background.

A beautiful church, which was very ornate on the inside.

Our ship usually docked in a secure area; you couldn't get close to it unless you had a pass to enter through the terminal gates.

Clock tower not too far from the harbor.

Richard and Karen always wanted to go to a park and play, and we usually managed to find one for them.

United Buddy Bears, a UN traveling exhibit. (Sign.)

One of the many terrific statues we saw. Another one, in the center of a traffic round-about.

This "flower" was made from recycled aircraft parts.




There were only 2 ports we spent two days at (Buenos Aires and Lima). We enjoyed our 2 days in Buenos Aires, and the evening of the second day we cast off and headed for Uruguay. By the time we got up the next morning we were pulling into the port of Montevideo. Although we could see shiny new skyscrapers off in the distance, the area around the port was a little old and dilapidated. Not to mention quiet; there were very few people around (though that may have had to do with the fact we were visiting on a Sunday). We strolled around, went to a park and then returned to the ship before it got too hot in the afternoon.

Montivideo

Most of the people on this street were from the ship!

There many ornate buildings near the port.

We found a small park with a very nice statue, and a play area that Richard and Karen played in for half an hour. Richard pushes Karen on the swing.

Another street full of ornate buildings.

If we didn't have such excellent food on the ship, we'd certainly be buying our food at this terrific outdoor market. Closeup.

In almost every city we visited we did see signs of poverty. Here a street person sleeps in a doorway.

As was often the case, our ship dwarfed the local buildings.




We left Montevideo in the evening, and headed for the Falkland Islands. This was quite a ways, so it took us 2 days to get there. We enjoyed our time on the ship, relaxing, using the gym, the swimming pool, reading and using the computer.

Port Stanley

Although we were only in Port Stanley (the principal city for the Falkland Islands) for a day, we did a lot. We mailed a bunch of mail; talked to the education department about putting our kids in school here (in case we come back with our boat, and want to spend the winter), went to Gypsy Cove and saw penguins and geese, stopped at a park so the kids could play, and visited a school.

Port Stanley from the sky deck of the ship.

This building housed the Post Office. Dr. Who fans will probably get a kick out of the red phone booths!

Port Stanley has a well protected bay. Our tenders were busy all day, ferrying people back and forth to the ship, which had to anchor out in the outer bay.

A church, with whale bone in the front yard!

There was a small inlet, which was full of small sailboats.

Derilict ship.

A penguin in it's burrow/nest.

Penguins on the shore of Gypsy Cove. The sand is a quartzite sand, very white and clean, that is eroding from the rocks that make up there area around the cove. Frankie taking photos of the cove, while Karen watches Ray take their photos.

During the Falkland Islands war, a large number of land mines were set out. As this sign indicates, not all of them have been found!

This penguin was just outside his den, enjoying the morning sun.

Karen, beside a quartsite wall. The beds in this area are nearly vertical!

Geese.

There was a nice gravel walkway from the parking area to the cove (about 1/4 mile total).

Penguins.

This penguin pokes his head out of the den to check me out.




We left Port Stanley in the evening, and headed for the Cape Horn.

Cape Horn


The Chilean Navy maintains an outpost on Cape Horn. I'm sure all the boats that venture that way appreciate their efforts, and the fact that help is not far away when passing this treacherous spot. The Amsterdam stayed behind the island, avoiding the worst of the foul weather, but we could look beyond and see the rugged seas past the cape. Not that we completely avoided them.

The wind was blowing around 50 knots (~56 mph), with gusts to 80 knots (~90 mph). This was enough to cause whitecaps even in this sheltered area, and it picked up enough spray to make it hazy between us and the hill. Even from 3/4 mile away we could see that some of the violent gusts that came down the hill picked up large amounts of water from the surface, so it appeared to be raining up!




When we left Cape Horn our captain was careful to maneuver the ship so the side was never exposed to the full force of the wind. Even so our 100' (and over) height caused quite a bit of heeling as we turned from the Cape and headed into the inside passage. We cruised the inside passage overnight, arriving at our next stop early in the morning.

Ushuaia

Ushuaia is a town in the southern end of Patagonia. We didn't have much of a chance to explore the town, for shortly after we arrived we boarded a catamaran (boat) and took a cruise down the Darwin Passage.
Richard's friend Jenny, on the catamaran coming back from looking at penguins.

Ushuaia and the back end of the Amsterdam (to the right), from the catamaran.

This rock out in the channel was covered with sea lions.

The reason for our trip: penguins on the beach! More. And more! Etc.

Ray and Karen on the back of the catamaran that we took to see the penguins.




We left Ushuaia in the evening, and headed for the Chilean Fjords, arriving in Punta Arenas the next morning. The ship was docked quite a ways from the center of town, so we took a cab into the center of town. It was a Sunday, so everything was very quiet and peaceful. We walked a few blocks and then went to the central square, where there were knick-knack booths set up. We browsed around some and then took a cab back to the ship.

Punta Arenas


Directory of c:\Ray\photos\cruise_fav\08-Punta Arenas Fancy house/hotel? in downtown.

We walked down this street.

A very pretty house with fancy woodwork. I'd like to do some of my buildings like this!!




We left Punta Arenas in the evening, and headed up the Chilean Fjords. we spent the next 2 days cruising Chili's "inside passage", which reminded us a great deal of Alaska's "inside passage". Not surprising: the same geologic activities (glaciation) carved them both.

Inside Passage


As a geologist, Ray found the scenery here fascinating. The mountains that form the fjords of Chili are caused by the collision of tectonic plates (specifically the Antarctic plate and the Nazca plate are colliding into the South American plate in Chili), and as one of the most active geologic areas of the earth (and a part of the 'ring of fire'), there are volcanoes, high mountains, glaciers, faults galore, hot springs, ocean--years and years worth of exploring. With luck we'll get to go back and spend more than a couple days going through the area on a cruise ship.

Though mostly cloudy, there were breaks in the weather that gave us chances to get good photos.

The passages were mostly wide. Here you see the front deck of the ship (which wasn't usually open, but they made an exception this time), with the mountains alongside the fjord in the background.

Though it has been many years (millenia?) since this area was covered with ice, these sculpted hills still have no soil over the bedrock--they were scraped clean and it takes a really, really long time to rebuild the soil.

Ray thinks if you went over and investigated, you would find slickenslides all over the surface (that is where one rock--say, embedded in ice--has been gouged across the surface of another--like this bedrock--essentually scratching the surface of it.

Ray suspects this is a fault (the left knotch in the hilltop, following the gully down to the righthand corner of the photo).

The miles crept behind us.




At the northern end of the the Chilean fjords lies Puerto Montt. With not one, but 2 volcanoes in the background, it was a neat place to visit.

Puerto Montt


Puerto Montt, with the Osorno Volcano in the background (if I've identified it right!).

We went for a walk along the waterfront, and found this giant mosquito in a park along the waterfront. Nearby there was an old train.

Naturally the kids wanted to stop and play in the park.

The downtown area of Puerto Montt was a busy, modern area.

A llama was there to see us off--back to the cruise ship.




Valparaiso

After Puerto Montt it was another sea day before we got to Valparaiso. Valparaiso is the sea port for Santiago, the capital of Chili. We had a lot of fun visiting the port, but when we went ashore we forgot our cameras, so no photos of here (alas!).

We were tied up to a dock, but it was an industrial area and we had to take a bus to the terminal. Close to the terminal exit there was a train station, so we took the train into the center of town. The town was built into the side of some steep hills, and close to where we got off the train there was a funicular (external link; may fail). This is the one we rode up. It was really neat, and over 100 years old! The primary operation is by having 2 cars, 1 going up counterbalanced by 1 going down. [In the UK I've seen one at the Centre for Alternative Technology that was operated with water power, but this one was electric.] At the top there was a nice set of paths, decks, restaurants and gift shops. We browsed around for awhile and then took the funicular back down, and the train back to the terminal, and the bus back to the ship.



We left Valparaiso in the evening, and the next morning when we got up we were in Coquimbo.

Coquimbo

The ship was docked, and after breakfast we went ashore and strolled down the dock. There was a fish market along the shore that we had fun exploring.

There was a HUGE cross on the hill overlooking port.

Naturally the kids had to stop and play on the whale "slide". Richard is at the top, just in front of the 'fin'.

Fishing boats, complete with pelicans!

Plenty of fish in the fish market. This is where the fish came from!

Sea lion, waiting for goodies.

Better set your parking brake!!!

Coquimbo climbs the hillside.

Chili is thinking ahead: these wind generators look useful...with a little more work!




It was another sea day after we left Coquimbo, as we cruised up the coast of Chili. This time we weren't in protected waters, but it wasn't too rough so you could hardly tell we were at sea most of the time.

Arica

This was a neat town. Very, very dry: it is close to the Atacama desert, the driest place on earth.

We were again in an unsafe industrial area, so we had to take a bus to the gates. On the way there were some warehouses with pelicans on the roof.

On top of the hill overlooking town was a statue of Christ.

Arica was a very nice town, and the center was new & modern, complete with fountains.

Some local girls put on a very nice dance for us. Not the best for taking video, we did manage to get a short movie of them dancing (caution: large file).

There was a military acadamy there, and the cadets put on a show.

A sailboat harbor. We always checked these out, in case we sail there ourselves!

We rented a cab and took it on a little tour, and on the way back from the top of the cliff where the statue was we snapped this photo of town. As you can see, the foreground is powder dry; there is just nothing growing there.

The center of Arica. It was a small, friendly town and we enjoyed our stop very much.

Downtown was a mix of old buildings, neat buildings and modern buildings.

In the center square there were booths set up, selling handicrafts. While there Richard got to try out a policeman's horse.

Bird on fence.

Movie of town, which ends looking at our boat. Note the dry, dry foreground. Shot from up near the statue.




After we left Arica, we cruised north to Callou, Peru's main port. This is our second stop where we spent 2 days. This is a port we had visited on our honeymoon, and we enjoyed both visits. This time we didn't do any more than bus through Callou though--the first day we took an arranged tour, and the second day we took a short bus trip to Miraflores.

Callou


We had booked a tour through the ship, and the first stop was Peru's National Museum of Archaeology. It was filled filled with neat figurines. In a room beneath the museum, there was even a gold room!

After we left the museum, the bus drove past Miraflores, which is perched on a cliff above the bay. On the edge of the bay was a very fancy restaurant, which we never did get to visit (though it sure looked interesting).

Our second stop was the Pachacamac Ruins, an Inca (and pre-Inca) ruins where we started by visiting a small museum of stuff found at the site like this knotted string, believed to be used to help keep track of accounts. Beside the museum was this cactus garden. Then we drove on, stopping at the ruins of a pyramid, and houses. This walkway was part of the Incan road that ran the length of the Inca empire. Though the site was very dry, right below it were some fertile croplands, seen here behind Frankie and Karen. This is the same today as it was in the Incan times. Another view of the pyramid. View toward the coast how green it is anywhere there is water--and how dry anywhere runoff isn't available.

There was a pathway leading up to the top of the pyramid, going along this wall. These walls had red plaster on them at one time, but (as you can see) it is mostly gone now. After hundreds of years I'm surprised it isn't all gone, but perhaps the very low rainfall here helps. We had our photo taken atop the pyramid. The final steps to the top.

Our third stop was at a horse ranch for lunch. They greeted us with a dandy show. We imagine this is a lot like what the conquistadors looked like. Note the stirrups; they are made of wood! They also brought out a 10 day old colt, who was a little wobbly on his feet, but still showed these horses unique gait. Here is a short movie of the horses (note the unusual gait; this is supposed to be unique to these horses, and the smoothest riding horse there is.

The next day we spent some time in Miraflores. We went to the Maranotha Hotel and made some phone calls, and then strolled across the street to a sort of mini-mall. This was a neat place, built into the top of the cliff. This view is looking south along the coast from the middle floor of the mall. On the top of the mall there was a small playground. On the way back to the boat we passed this neat church.




After we left Peru we had another day at sea. Then we stopped in Manta, Equador. Where we never even went ashore! So no photos. Then it was another sea day before we arrived in Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica.

Puerto Caldera

We docked a short distance from a great beach, so we all went ashore and went swimming.
Directory of c:\Ray\photos\cruise_fav\15-Puerto Caldera
Frankie strolls back from a dip in the ocean. The small waves allowed even Karen to play in the water. Our ship in the background doesn't look so big, until you realize that is a bus on the pier next to it!

This little train gave us a ride to and from the ship.




We left Puerto Chiapas in the evening, having had a very different experience than the time we stopped here on our honeymoon. (During our honeymoon we'd gone on a tour, and gone rafting down a river.) Then it was another day at sea.

Puerto Chiapas

We arrived in Mexico and cleared customs in the morning. We didn't do much here, but did go ashore to investigate these neat buildings. Inside they had some dancing and music for the tourists. This port had obviously spent a great deal of effort getting set up to handle cruise ships, and we found the whole area tidy and clean.




The next morning we docked in our second Mexican port:

Huatulco


It looked like a great beach next to the ship so right after breakfast we headed ashore. we found someone renting snorkels and while we were negotiating that someone else suggested a water taxi to a better beach. We took him up on it, and got a good photo of our ship from the water taxi.

He took us to this beach, which was crouded but very, very nice. It was hard to keep track of the kids with this many people! (Karen is in the photo, wearing the red life jacket next to the lady sitting down.) The boats in the background are the water taxis.

There was a steady stream of people swimming down the shore here so Frankie went down to check it out. She reported great snorkeling over coral and fish, so Richard wanted to go. His fins kept falling off, so Ray towed him down and spent half an hour touring the coral & looking at all the fish with him. Though we only spent 2 hours here, it was one of the best stops of the trip.




Another overnight ocean voyage put us in Acapulco.

Acapulco


We had bought another tour here: swimming with dolphins. Unfortunately we didn't get an opportunity to get photos, though the tour did provide us with a great video (which is unfortunately too big a file to put on here.) The dolphins were in a pool, which we all got into and swam/petted/kissed the dolphins. The dolphins were in a water park, and after swimming with them the tour gave us a couple of hours to play--which the kids took full advantage of!

Frankie, Karen and Richard in a waterslide pool.

Karen wanted to do bungee jumping so she climbed up onto trampoleen and had a blast.

While Karen was flying, Richard and Frankie were sliding. Down the water slide. No one wanted to leave, but our time was soon up and we took the bus back to the ship.


It was another day at sea when we left Acapulco. We arrived in Cabo San Lucas, on the end of the Baja pennensula. Ray had tried to make it down here once before, in the mid-1980's, but there were too many interesting things to see and only managed to make it halfway before he ran out of time!

Cabo San Lucas

The Amsterdam anchored a fair ways out from port, and we tendered in. The first step was to find a phone and call home to make sure everything was going ok. It took awhile to find one that would work for us, and then we headed back to the docks. Where (as when we arrived) we were accosted by numberous hawkers trying to sell us rides. We negotiated with several, talking the price down to $15 for the 4 of us to do a boat tour. After the tour we returned to the Amsterdam.

We passed by these pelicans snoozing.

The boat we were on was a glass bottom boat. This photo is through that glass bottom. In real life it was a lot more interesting, but usually the fish flashed by too fast to catch.

We toured by some terrific rock formations.

This area is at the very end of the Baja peninsula, well battered by the sea. This cave wasn't very deep. Richard wanted to go ashore and explore! Maybe next time.

As we got close to rounding the end, the water got wilder. As did the formations!

Another tourist on the boat took our photo.

Seal on rock.

In another photo I did manage to catch the Amsterdam through the hole, but Alas! it was a Bad Photo.




When we left Cabo San Lucas (hopefully to return and explore those caves, beaches and rocks!) we had another day at sea before arriving back in the US.

San Diego


Clearing customs in San Diego turned into something of a headache for the ship, it seemed. We were hours late getting our clearance to go ashore. The first port this happened to us in! But we were cleared by mid-morning. Just a couple of slips down was the aircraft carrier Midway, which had been turned into a museum.

It seemed very strange to see the tails of planes up over our head like this.

The Knot, or chip log. This is an old fashioned way to measure your speed at sea. As the sign says, you throw the wooden 'chip' (the triangle) in the water, and then count the knots in the string as the chip pulls it out. The number of knots, located every 42 feet, were counted over 30 seconds. The number of knots counted was you speed in knots! Somehow I doubt the Midway every used this means of telling speed...

All these knots are useful at sea, especially in a sailboat! I really like how this display was set up, and the multi-color ropes makes it very easy to see how the knot was tied.

Interesting statistics about the Midway. It was very strange to think that, at 61,000 tons, the Amsterdam weighted more than the Midway as it was first built.

Midway flight deck.

The Amsterdam from the deck of the Midway.

Richard looking out the window of this helicopter. Ray thinks this type of chopper was the kind that picked him up after his plane crash in 1978. It sure looked big sitting in front of the house at Minchumina!!

There was a nice yacht harbor next to the Amsterdam. Someday perhaps our boat will be moored out here...




Due to some really funny regulations in the US, we couldn't simply sail to Seattle; we had to go to canada first! (For some unfathomable reason, the US limits foreign flagged ships to a single stop in the US, so in order to do more than one stop you have to stop in a foreign country after your first stop!) It was a 2 day trip to Canada, so we had 2 sea days before we tied to the dock in Victoria British Columbia.

Victoria


When we sailed the Acrux to Alaska we considered stopping in Victoria, but weren't sure about customs. So we went to an alternative port. Victoria is a very picturesque place, and now I wish we'd visited. Next time?

Victoria, from the deck of the Amsterdam.

There were many picturesque buildings in Victoria.

A sea otter.

We were told that Victoria has more sea planes taking off & landing than anywhere else in the world!

Capital building.

Really neat hotel.

There was a kind of mini water taxi company with really cute little boats. We took a tour on it, taking a photo of the Amsterdam from the water.



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