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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