Crew News

Embarkation Day: Over the years, I have developed an appreciation for staying at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver to both avoid the traffic and having to deliver my luggage to the underground baggage collection point downstairs. April 21st was chaos at the underground location. Last week an option to drop off luggage inside the cruise hallway of the Convention Center was started.to ease the chaos. US Immigration created a second real time-delaying bottleneck. This week the few US Immigration officers were replaced by a facial recognition scan that took mere seconds but a new bottleneck was introduced that required roller bags to take an elevator instead of the escalator down to the Security Scan area. I was onboard in less than 30 minutes from the time I began walking from Exhibit Entrance A to C. Every table in the Lido was occupied from a bit after 11:00 AM when boarding began until the announcement that rooms were ready after noon. Prior to my cookie evaluation process, I tried the Lido chowder with sausage that temporarily numbed my palate, heated the back of my throat, and brought tears to my eyes. All was well after two chocolate chip cookies came to my rescue. I made my Specialty Restaurant reservations at the often overlooked podium near the Deck 9 Spa entrance. Last week on the Koningsdam, only 30 guests took advantage of this second reservation portal while hundreds stood in line at the Deck 2 Reservation kiosk. The gaggle to get to the Muster stations was rough. Before I could get to my Muster Station on the Promenade Deck, a scanner was held out and I swiftly presented my stateroom key for scanning. The struggle to return from Muster Stations was also rough. Elevators were packed as guests figured out that often going down facilitates going up. It took me 20 minutes and all my wiles to snare a ride back up to my walking tour meeting point at 2:30 PM. During the tour, I discovered and was very impressed with the Library. Equally impressive was the new and very modern Morimoto Restaurant. Just a few feet away, the Tamarind Restaurant did not appear to have been touched in the recent drydock. I made the mistake of trying the Pinnacle Grill scallops in hopes that they would be golden brown on both top and bottom. They were not and so I will wait another three years before trying them again, The creme' brulee' dessert was delicious. Tomorrow is the Meet & Greet in the Tamarind Bar and the chance to obtain more feedback on the check-in process changes this week. Lots of new CC faces to put with CC aliases. With two successive sea days,it will be a chance to chase answers, get updated menus posted, evaluate drydock upgrades, and begin processing more than 1500 photos from last week. Tid Bits: There was no Mariner Recognition ceremony last week on the Koningsdam. There are new hand washing stations in the Nieuw Amsterdam Lido. The Canaletto does not follow the fleet-wide specials sequence. The contents of the minibar is greatly expanded. The Tamarind menu on this ship is quite reduced. Passenger are allowed an extra 30 minutes to disembark in Vancouver which causes staterooms to not be ready when passengers board. Mothers Day should have a special brunch next Sunday and an elaborate Lido display before lunch. Internet speed in my aft stateroom is 60 Mbps download and 21 Mbps upload. More tomorrow

The first time I left the ship to find someone from Shore Excursions(all at the end of the pier), I walked through the tunnel of converted ocean shipping containers (protects from falling rocks from the unstable cliffs). Half way to the end of the pier, I caught the optional shuttle (I thought is was for excursions only). On my return trip from the end of the pier, I caught the optional shuttle instead of walking. Both shuttles had large tip jars and the drivers were not shy about asking us to fill them. If the shuttles were mandatory, many disobeyed the directive. It must be noted that not only in Skagway, but in all stops, the gangway ramps were at sever angles . My knees ached for hours. The only truly long line was caused by our late arrival in Juneau where all 2600 passenger lined up to go ashore at the same time. That was true chaos!! Hope this helps.

Today;s check-in eliminated the US Immigration folks and substituted another facial recognition scan that took mere seconds. When I get more feedback, I will post here. For the second week in a row, I observed no boarding passes being checked to verify deck numbers..

My:Pinnacle Grill tonight did not mention fresh fish.

Now I am intrigued to find such onion flatbread in New Mexico. I do enjoy Indian fry bread made with green chilies' As a former resident of Germany, brotchen with melted butter, sliced ham and cheese, or a monster bratwurst with kraut, was a major portion of my diet. Perhaps without the center split, they have been hiding in plain sight I will pose the question to a culinary person.

The cookies on board have not reached the soft and chewy levels but are a substantial improvement from the Koningsdam mahogany-like cookies. I owe any HAL knowledge I have accumulated to the CC community members who keep all of us updated with their experiences and the continuing challenge to find answers.

Feel free to post questions here and I will do my best to get answers.

ESPN and ESPN2 are featured channels on the ship TV.

I have confirmed but not yet observed that the onion flatbread is being served for lunch in the Lido Market. Stay tuned for my personal verification. What is a good topping for the bread?

I can report that the Lido chocolate chip cookies are nicely filled with many chocolate chips and chewy. All is again rightt with the world.

I will ask for you.

I will find out and report back.

Surprisingly, the cookies from both the Grand Dutch Cafe and Lido Market were from the same recipe with the higher chocolate chip rate being those from the Lido. Both cookies were difficult to break without excessive force. Using the Rockwell standard for measuring hardness, the penetration of an indenter pf the cookies would be similar to that of mahogany wood. Without using a softening medium, such as milk, both chocolate cookies should have come with a warning label for crown and denture wearers.

This begins a live thread from Alaska May 5-19, 2024. This thread provides the opportunity for those booked, or thinking of booking Alaska, to pose questions to help in their planning. I have just completed seven days in Alaska on the Koningsdam and will be posting information that I have gathered from that experience. The impressions and observations expressed on this thread are my own. Those with differing comments/impressions are encouraged to contribute to better inform those following. I do not usually comment on food as it is very subjective but the hardness of the cookies will be a matter of interest. Since all of my photographs are made in RAW format and require processing, I may not be posting them. I will be posting links to PDF files that are easily uploaded to my website. To those traveling on this cruise, I invite you to post photos, impressions, and observations to help build a more complete snapshot of this Alaska cruise experience. So it begins.

Other links in my signature (lower right) has other menus that are also available to accommodate any dining issues. In addition, any menu item can be adjusted by informing your MDR waiter the night before you will be seated.