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Copper10-8

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About Me

  • Location
    City of Angels, CA
  • Interests
    Cruising, Hockey, College football
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Holland America Line
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Europe (all of it)

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Copper10-8's Achievements

  1. Thanks Jeroen! Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar / Happy New Year to you both! We'll be on Koningsdam in six days 😉
  2. Day 10 - 08/13/2023; Going home from Vancouver, BC (con't) Boarding for AC Flight 556 started at 12:45 pm at Gate D69. The aircraft was a Boeing 737 MAX-8, the fourth generation of Mr. Boeing’s narrow body 737. Yes, this is the aircraft type that was grounded worldwide from March 2019 until November 2020 after two fatal crashes that involved catastrophic failures in the MCAS system. Lucky for us, there have been zero incidents since the lifting of the grounding. Once off the gate, taxi time was about 17-20 minutes enroute to Runway 26 Left. Take-off put us “feet wet” over the Strait of Georgia, followed by a turn to port and, before we knew it, we crossed over into U.S. territory and the San Juan Islands. Puget Sound was next up, followed by “feet dry” over Tacoma and southbound towards the Washington/Oregon border. The flight then took us into Northern California. I wound up watching the first episode of the first season of “1923” with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, one of the prequels of the immensely popular mini-series "Yellowstone” while the AC flight attendants served a pretty good lunch. After a little deviation from our course to avoid some weather and turbulence over Central California, we arrived in SoCal via the IRNMN or Ironman approach which took us over Santa Paula and Moorpark in Ventura County, before crossing into Los Angeles County over Thousand Oaks, heading for Malibu and following the coastline to Santa Monica where we started the downwind leg. We basically followed the 10 Freeway eastbound until turning base leg south of downtown L.A. The base leg took us to Huntington Park where we turned final, keeping the 105 Freeway on our port wing, and picking up the localizer for Runway 24 Right in the North complex of LAX. . The landing gear and flaps were lowered in the vicinity of the 110 Freeway, and we got a nice look at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, home of the NFL’s LA Rams and LA Chargers, on the right side. Landing on 24R was uneventful with a total flight time of two hours and twenty five minutes. Taxiway Alpha Alpha took us to the south complex and Taxiway Bravo to Gate 62 in Terminal 6. Baggage claim went well however, after that we were subjected to the zoo known as getting a taxi home at LAX. You see, that involves getting on one of the shuttle buses outside baggage claim that will take you to the LAX-IT Lot, located just east of Terminal 1, where all the taxis congregate. The problem are those same shuttle buses. They make a loop starting at T1 so when they get to T6, they’re pretty much full with pax’ suitcases already overflowing the somewhat small storage rack. So, here you find yourself standing room only on a bus holding on to dear life in between a bunch of luggage on the floor of that same bus. It’s a mess! Once on a yellow cab, it was an easy drive on a Sunday afternoon down the 405 Freeway to the homestead where Carmita and Stiv were waiting! Thanks for cruising with us! It was another fun one!
  3. Day 10 - 08/13/2023; Going home from Vancouver, BC The alarm clock on this last day of the combination land tour and cruise went off at 0600 hrs. (the child bride) and 0630 hrs. (moi). We were all packed up and with luggage tag/color Red 2, we were anticipating disembarking the elegant and beautiful Nieuw Amsterdam around 0830 hours. With that, we had planned to be seated inside the Pinnacle Grill restaurant for brekkie by 0745 hours. So, when I planted my feet on the deck of our humble abode on Deck 8 and walked to the balcony door and opened the curtain, Nieuw A was just about to cross under Vancouver’s Lions Gate Bridge to enter Vancouver Harbor proper. This is the suspension bridge that crosses the first narrows of Burrard Inlet and connects the City of Vancouver to the North Shore municipalities of the District of North Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver, and the District of West Vancouver. Said bridge opened in 1938 and is officially known as the First Narrows Bridge. The term "Lions Gate" refers to the Lions, a pair of mountain peaks north of Vancouver. Northbound traffic on the bridge heads in their general direction. A pair of cast concrete lions were placed on either side of the south approach to the bridge in January 1939. We then proceeded to our assigned berth of Canada Place. CP has three cruise ship berths; two located on the west side (West and North) and one on the east side, yes, you guessed it, known as the East berth. Celebrity Eclipse had beat us by an hour and was already berthed at Canada Place East. We went starboard side alongside CP West at 0700 hours using one of two “jet-way-type” CP gangways attached to Deck 2. Right on our heels and assigned CP North was big Brilliance of the Seas of Royal Caribbean International. As stated, we had a leisurely breakfast inside the PG and by the time we were finito around 0820 hours, the disembarkation process had already started. Up to our cabin one last time and then, per directions, down to the starboard side of the Main Stage with our carry-ons where we briefly took a seat. The line to the Main Stage was long however, was moving. No dilly dallying! When “Red Two” was called, we led the way to the gangway, one final scan of our ship’s I.D. and we were off. Once inside Canada Place cruise terminal and thanks to the aforementioned “Direct transfer to YVR/Vancouver Airport”, there was no long queueing inside waiting for customs, looking for your luggage, and standing in long queues for bus transportation! Instead, we were directed to the front of CP place, went down one set of stairs just off the beginning of the Canada Place west-side quay where our bus/coach was already waiting. Took our seats and, once our group was complete and onboard, our driver got us going directly to Vancouver International Airport in the City of Richmond, BC. YVR is located roughly 9 miles southwest of Canada Place and you get there by going south, mainly on Granville Street which itself is part of Provincial Highway 99 that connects the City of Vancouver to the U.S, border where it continues south as Interstate 5. After crossing the Granville Street Bridge, we passed through several neighborhoods like Fairview, prestigious Shaughnessy, and Marpole, interspersed by commercial areas. Upon arrival at Vancouver International Airport, the procedure for buses carrying passengers has been for a while now to go to a holding lot in the cargo area and to wait there for approval to drive to the departure terminals. Just like in May, that wait was not long at all and we were soon on our way to YVR’s Main Terminal/International Concourse where we took an escalator up and found our luggage waiting for us. Great program HAL! Check-in at the Air Canada counter was a breeze, as was the bag drop off across the way. YVR is one of eight Canadian airports with United States border preclearance (CBP) facilities, which are situated in the International Terminal. We were seen by a friendly agent who commented on our respective places of birth in our passports, that being the Netherlands and Cuba. Security screening was next which at YVR is performed by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA). After that, we found ourselves inside the D Pier where we moseyed over to the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge near Gate D52 where we spent the next two or so hours.
  4. Last couple of days by request 😉 Day 9 - 08/12/2023; Sailing the Inside Passage (con't) Sailing this portion of the Inside Passage is always nice because there are parts of it, i.e. the two 90 degree turns at Blackney Passage and Chatham Point and the passage at Seymour Narrows, that are very scenic and close to shore. Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas, slated to arrive at Canada Place in Vancouver with us at 0700 hours, was sailing not far behind us. Going in the opposite direction in Canadian waters, perhaps on a deployment to Alaska and/or training with the Canadian Coast Guard at CCG Base Seal Cove, Prince Rupert, BC or CCG Base Port Hardy, BC, was the US Coast Guard’s USCGC Swordfish (WPB-87358), an 87’ Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boat homeported in Port Angeles on the North Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. We really like this part of the Inside Passage in British Columbia! The On Deck for a Cause walk, a non-competitive five kilometer walk around the ship’s Promenade Deck/Deck 3 was scheduled for 1:30 pm. We also lost that hour we gained last Sunday night to bring us back on Pacific Standard Time. Dinner for us was in the Lido Market. We used to wait until the final minute to start packing, basically at the conclusion of the 9:00 show in the Main Stage. About four or so cruises ago, we changed that modus operandi and now we start filling the valises before dinner, leaving them unlocked on the sofa for those final things. We like it a lot better this way, it’s more relaxing. Our disembarkation tags and color are “Red 2” and we have complimentary bus transportation to YVR (Vancouver International Airport) tomorrow (Sunday). HAL is also introducing, for us, a new luggage disembarkation procedure and that is that our bags, once off the Nieuw Amsterdam in the morning, are placed directly into a large cargo truck and hauled to YVR where we meet up with them. So, that makes things a lot easier in that we don’t have to go chase them down in Canada Place cruise terminal in the morning, and we also don’t have to present ourselves to either the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) at Canada Place which can be a somewhat length affair at times. Good move HAL! The main entertainment tonight was another performance, their third if you count the program inside the BB King’s Blue Club last night, of “Major Fourth”, the quartet of one lady and three male vocalists at 7:00 and 9:00 pm. They were once again very good! We grabbed a night cap in the Ocean Bar and headed to our cabin around 11:00 pm in order to have the luggage out in the corridor outside our cabin by Midnight. Tomorrow, as stated, is the end of this cruise and our flight home! It’s been fun! See you manana!
  5. Nada! Nor from San Marino, Andorra, Vatican City....😜..
  6. The average number of countries represented by the crew of a HAL ship ranges somewhere in the 4oties to low 50ties, depending on specific dam ships. There has been an influx in recent years from countries like Thailand (restaurant service) and African countries like Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe (restaurant hosts as well as service) To break it down a bit more: Deck officers/captain on down: the majority are still Dutch/from the Netherlands, with the Brits second. There have been/are HAL captains hailing from Canada, Ireland, Norway, Belgium, Poland with officers below that rank also from Germany, Italy (not that many), Greece, Romania, etc. The sailors, "boatmen" (life saving attendants), quartermasters/helmsmen are exclusively Indonesian. Locksmiths and plumbers are exclusively Filipino. Security officers have been/are from the USA, Canada (Calgary PD's finest 😉), Australia, the Netherlands, the Philippines and India while the security guards hails from either the Philippines (the majority) or India. The medical staff (doctors and nurses) used to be US or Canadian however, since Princess started running that dept. have been almost exclusively South African with a few exceptions. The crew docs are still for the most part Filipino/Filipina Chief engineers are just about exclusively Dutch, the vast majority, or English with those below that rank hailing from Romania and some Filipinos. Engine room workers are Indonesian or Filipino The hotel directors, now called hotel general managers, have been/are from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, the USA and India. The Front Office GRM's have been/are Dutch, Filipina, Croatian and some others. The FO staff is for the most part Filipina, with an international sprinkling depending on position, such as hailing from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, the USA, etc. Executive chief housekeepers have been/are from India, Serbia, the Netherlands, while the room stewards are almost exclusively Indonesian. Same with the laundry dept. Beverage managers have come from the Philippines, Poland, Turkey, Peru, South Africa with the staff (bartenders, servers, baristas, etc.) are almost exclusively from the Philippines. Cellar masters have been more international from places like The Netherlands and South Africa The Pinnacle Grill, from its inception as the Marco Polo and Odyssey restaurants, have been international with managers from the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Hungary, Serbia and, most recently, Columbia, and food servers from Hungary, Romania, Montenegro, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Belarus, South Africa, etc. The entertainment staff is also international with CDs hailing from the USA, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, etc., the dancers from the USA, Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, etc. The Spa staff, starting from the time when they were supplied by Steiners, has always been international, coming from South Africa, Jamaica, Trinidad, Australia, the UK, Japan, the Philippines, Brazil, etc. same with the shoppies. I've actually worked alongside a shoppie from the People's Republic of China once Prob forgetting some countries............
  7. True that however, what you will find on HAL name tags are the national colors/flags of the countries' language(s) (besides English) that the particular crew member can converse in. So, you will find a variety of Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, and Polish flags attached to a crew members' uniform. They don't unfortunately, do it for the Indonesian, Filipino, Thai, Indian, etc. crew. When you are hired by HAL as a crew member, they give you a little pamphlet to fill out once aboard your ship on your first contract, with personal info questions on it, one of which is the ability, or lack thereof, to speak a language apart from English. It will ask you to clarify that proficiency from fluent to just being able to utter "donde estan los banos" or "una cerveza por favor". That info then goes to the crew officer where his/her clerk will cause the flag of that country (language) to be placed on the name tag underneath the crew members full name and position. If you look at the attached pic of HAL former Captain James Russell-Dunford (May he rest in peace) and his hotel manager Cees Tesselaar, you will, notice that Cees, a Dutchman or "cloggie," has both the Netherlands/Dutch and German national colors on his name tag, indicating that he is fluent in both the Dutch and German languages Just a bit of trivia
  8. A very Merry Christmas to all! ps Thanks for the ride in Zuiderdam's fast rescue boat, 1st Officer Martijn!
  9. Thanks! "Frieten met mayonaise" / Fries with mayo! That's how one grows up in Holland and here's proof of same from a summer vacation in Callantsoog, Noord-Holland ! 😁 Continue to enjoy Nieuw Statie, Brian! Looking forward to continue to read your always entertaining reporting style 👍
  10. Hey Brian; have a great cruise and a Merry Christmas to you and Michelle! Have you tried a "Broodje Kroket" in the Grand Dutch Café yet?
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