Our home now is the Holland-America cruise liner Nieuw Amsterdam for seven days to Alaska ports and return to Seattle. I've no idea where this picture was taken, but it wasn't Seattle.
This year's turnaround Alaska cruises from Seattle do NOT stop in Canada, unlike other years.
We've cruised on Nieuw Amsterdam (NA henceforth) once before. Back in 2018 the annual convention of old submarine sailors was held on NA in the northern Caribbean. Several couples we know cruised along, so we had a good time.
We slept well with just enough motion to make us aware we're at sea. Breakfast in the Lido had the usual good service. All food is handed to you on plates or with tongs to your plate - no self-serve. At 0930 we're a little short of the top of Vancouver Island, hammering along at 20 knots, course NW.
Then we received notice of a $762 lock on our card by NA. Off to Customer Services where it was explained that they DID make the lock (ok-not fraud) and it covers purchases during the voyage - unspent funds will be unlocked and made available again. I don't like it, but I guess I understand it. We'll certainly watch it.
But there are things to do on board. At 1100, O went off to a EXC presentation on Whales. It went into some detail on Humpback and Orca whales and their status. Some pods of Orcas are dying out, others are doing quite well, and scientists are studying them both to find reasons for this. Humpbacks have made a great comeback since being nearly hunted to extinction. The whale songs they played were correctly identified. Good talk with excellent graphics.
D went off to a cooking show by the Chef of the Pinnacle Grill. He showed a few ways of doing King Crab and Halibut. D says he noted that when he is home he goes out to dinner.
O took up a position in Billboard for Trivia and a team formed around him - Jim & Esther from Dayton plus Mark & Sue. With D, the team scored 11 of 15, not too bad. We chatted with Jim & Esther for a while - they were also RVers.
So we did another tour of the ship and returned to the cabin to read. O went to the library to return one Alaskan history book and get two more.
When we became hungry we went to the Lido and sampled some of many things with wine. Then we looked at the entertainment for the evening and thought we could do as well reading.
So we returned to the cabin and there we are now.
Picture at left is the Pacific off the South tip of Moresby Island, Canada. We're still off-shore rather than between the islands and the mainland.
The clocks get set back one hour at 0200 to conform to Alaska time.
Sometime in the early morning, we'll go into the islands, first between Baranof & Kupreanof.
We woke to find land on both sides (Baranof Island in the picture) and that some of our electronics dropped back an hour correctly (others had to be manually set for several reasons).
Yesterday, we were distressed that the internet was so slow. So we each bought a $30 "upgrade" to get better service. Now, we're distressed that the internet service is so slow.
We've also not been impressed, either on this cruise or the Norway one in 2019, with the Navigator web thing HA uses for on-board information - much of the time functions within it are "not available right now".
We looked at all the food options in the Lido Market, selected some, and ate a good breakfast while watching the woods go past.
Afterward we returned to the cabin to see how many e-mails had downloaded during our absence - about 10.
At 0944 we received the below note in Navigator On-Board.
At 1115 ADT we entered the channel in which Juneau is located. Good visibility under a 1,000' overcast ceiling. We could access the pier about 1300. We waited a few minutes then joined the hordes going ashore.
We hiked up the pier (south) to the Tram entry and checked in for our ride up Mt Roberts. The tram holds about 20 people and is handicapped-accessible. The ride up 1,800' took about four minutes. The motor pulling it is a 600 hp DC motor.
There are several concessions at the top, and hiking trails for those who want to continue up the hill to the summit (3,600'). We bought little things and descended.
We hiked the main drag for a while, seeing all the usual tee-shirt and jewelry shops. The Red Dog Saloon is still open but we didn't partake. Instead, we returned to the ship for a break before the next shore activity.
On return, we found the internet acting almost normally and I was even able to upload this website update. Whoduhthunk.
We were served a crab bisque (creamy, heavy), then mini crab cakes, then a rolled paper thing with long king crab legs. D sailed through the whole thing, including my king crab legs.
Tracy came over to say hi and thanks. Looks like a real Alaskan entrapreneur, has several little businesses around town, etc.
We bused back to the ship and boarded. D was cold so we went to the Explorer Bar for her warm-up drink, a glass of port. I had Woodford Reserve neat. Then up to the Lido to get dessert and back to the cabin, where we intend to stay.
I made this update, then tried to upload it. Nope, the internet is down again. I'll try again in the night. G'nite.
Woke to find the ship in dense fog but doing 18 kts regardless, on our way to view the area of Glacier Bay National Park. Lido breakfast, then back to the cabin hoping to be able to view from our verandah while hearing the park ranger do his running commentary on the park and its features.
Observation: The forward-looking area on Deck 11 that we knew as the Crow's Nest is now Exploration Central. Same furnishings, new name.
Then D's cabin key quit working. Down to Customer Service, get new key, that doesn't work either. Back to Customer Services, she programmed two new keys and walked up with us to the cabin. They didn't work either. So she left with both keys and returned a bit later with two that work. Humph.
D thinks she saw two whales briefly. Glaciers began appearing.
Link to Juneau photos
Then we turned around to look at things elsewhere, exiting Johns Hopkins inlet. That put us back into fog.
A half-hour later we came abreast of another glacier, the Margerie Glacier. We can see that it's really big but the fog keeps us from seeing much detail. All we can see is the face of the thing out our port-side stateroom glass door.
The ship stopped abreast of the glacier to give us a chance to hear and see "calving". We didn't hear or see any activity.
The ship gradually turned about using the thrusters to show the glacier to the starboard side staterooms. We dined and watched for calving. After some of this the ship sped up to go to our next planned activity - at Icy Point Strait.
Then the ship scurried to near Hoonah for the excursions at Icy Strait Point. What ship do we see as we approach - our old thing Norwegian Encore. But we had nothing to do with her.
We had a hard time tying up which was blamed on high winds. Once fastened to the floating dock we walked onto the dock and into the line for our tour, the Whales and Marine Mammals at 1830. We boarded the boat tied up to the other side of the dock. There were two, and we got the second, very similar, one. Catamaran hull, high power, fast, capacity maybe 100 on two decks. Beer, wine, booze available with limited selections. Very handicapped accessible.
We headed out to the whale grounds but the crew spotted bears on the beach so we looked at them. Rather hard to see due to the evening lighting but it was mommy & cubs. Resumed dash to the grounds and saw Stellar sea lions in the water probably feeding on salmon. As we approached the prime area we saw two humpbacks diving. We hung around but they didn't re-appear quickly so we went to where other boats were observing whales. There we saw several "blow" and got glimpses of their backs. The crew was good in explaining and pointing out things.
Since we'd started late but we had to meet the ships schedule, the trip was a little short. Still, it was a success. The Lido still had food for us on our return at 2130.
So, a good day. We're in the cabin with a split of Italian red opened and will retire soon - earlier day tomorrow.
We rolled a little during the transit from Icy Strait to here (Sitka) last night but no big deal. We tied up about 0730. Serenade of the Seas tied up across from us around 0830, as we were going ashore.
We caught the shuttle bus, which goes to the downtown drop-off point (where the tenders delivered one, years ago). Some tours started from the dock, others from the drop-off. We hiked the couple of blocks up to the main drag, shooting pictures of the Orthodox church as we went. We found tee-shirts for littles. We hiked the main street shooting pictures of the Alaska Pioneer Home, the old totem pole, and other sites.
We made it to the tour start point at 1030, where we boarded a bus to the Bear Fortress, a habitat for bears who lost their mothers and could not survive in the wild. There were three black bears in one enclosure, and two enclosures with three brown bears each. Interesting watching them move around, eat, and do bear things. The bus returned about 1115 to take us back to the drop-off point, where we boarded the boat for sea otter discovery.
We found a raft of sea otters but they were in a kelp bed very close to a rock, so he didn't dare get very close. Frustrating. But he charged off to find more, while edging toward our ship. Up popped a humpback, so we idled around taking pictures of the whale when possible. His pattern evolved into five-or-six blows, then a deep-dive with tail in the air and all that. We got several pictures, one or two might be useful - tail shot at right.
The captain ran out of time and headed for the ship (not the old-time drop-off point) and tied up to a dock adjacent to the ship dock. We left the boat at 1500 after a nice cruise and walked to the ship. Captain thanked us profusely for coming to Alaska & noted that they would be returning to Juneau that night.
We looked at the menu for tonight, and decided to eat in the DR. Sat with a couple from LA, both of them occupational therapists. We shared cruise advice, they shared thoughts on kids.
Afterward we decided we had done enough and retired to the cabin.
Sitka photos link
WOW - sunshine. Ketchican with temperatures in the 60*s - incredible. It finally reached 68* in the shade.
We did things on the ship until it was too late to do anything ashore. We joined the group for the Photo Tour, actually Ketchican Photo Safari, run by Captain Rob Holston, a local character.
The Safari, in a nine-person van, went to five separate photo opportunity places. At each, Rob showed how quality photos could be posed and taken. He paid attention to iPhone users, showing how to get the most out of them and several tricks we didn't know.
He stopped at the top of Creek Street and showed us several places within 100 yards for good photos, including the old-time bordellos now shops.
He stopped at the city's totem center, where old totems are preserved for study. Some come here to measure parts of old totems to make new ones.
He stopped to buy coffee & cookies, then went on.
We stopped at a private business totem park including a small museum and a full-sized native clan hut, in which he described native life. We walked around drinking our coffee with the cookies. The place also had an open building with old cars including a Stanley Steamer, a Chandler 8, and a 1939 American Bantam.
Another stop was along the waterfront north of town where a New-England style house made a nice photo opportunity.
All along the route Rob told us things - some history, some personal background, some of his political views (no masks under age 28), and of his businesses. He came to town in 1981 as a music teacher, but at various times was a fisherman, charter boat operator, jazz band player (especially dixieland), and so forth. He's very timetable oriented, timed the tour to the near-minute, but we didn't get the impression we were rushed. And we did get back to the ship 18 minutes late.
Link to Ketchican Photos
We should have looked at the menu here before we came aboard. When we boarded, Canaletto's schedule was full. But when we ate, the place was half-empty. Hmm…
We went to the Crow's Nest to look ahead into the open ocean. We will pass along but outside Vancouver island all day tomorrow to make our arrival in Seattle early Saturday.
We're running southeast on the west side of Vancouver Island making for Seattle tomorrow morning. Having a hard time uploading this page, probably because everyone on board is using the internet.
But if finally went up.
This is a day to take it easy, but do some packing in anticipation of leaving the ship.
This reminds me of another set of dislikes about this cruise. HA appears to be deeply in bed with Microsoft Bing and Google. Normally I avoid both of those and use Firefox & Duckduckgo. HA makes it very hard for me to use what I want to use. Humph.
Combined with the prior dislikes (Trivia & Happy Hour timing and location, no DR wine steward, DR staff shortage, Crow's Nest staffing, Navigator problems), we give this voyage rating of satisfactory. Perhaps they just haven't recovered their game.
In the evening we did the Pinnacle Grill. Nice room, well staffed. Although the place is known for its beef, D did salmon & O did halibut. Quite nice.
We returned to the cabin to finish packing, which didn't take long. In the morning, we'll take our own luggage off the ship and Fran will pick us up.
At 2100, we're approaching Cape Flattery & the Straits of Juan de Fuca. G'nite.