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Copper10-8

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  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?
  11. The current NL Concierge on Westie is Cathy and she's there until late Jan 24, Gabriel is still onboard as the NL relief (his primary position is at the front office) however, he goes home in 12 days on a well deserved vac! Sheila went home on vac in October.
  12. Hey y'all; Thanks! My birthday is actually in March however, today is the official birthday of the United States Marine Corps whom I had the honor nd privilege to serv in as a young Dutch boy fresh "off the boat" in this great country! So HAPPY BIRHDAY to the Cops! 248 Years Strong! Semper Fidelis!
  13. Day 9 - 08/12/2023; Sailing the Inside Passage So, after departing Ketchikan yesterday, Nieuw A sailed southbound Tongass Narrows and made a turn to starboard into Nichols Passage, keeping Annette Island on our port side to Clarence Strait. The two Southeast Alaskan pilots who had been with us for several days had left us in Ketchikan. The strait was named by George Vancouver in honor of Prince William, later King William IV, Duke of Clarence. Capt. Baijens and his navigators then took us to Dixon Entrance, which forms part of the maritime boundary between the U.S. and Canada, although the location of that boundary here is disputed between the two countries. From there, it was a straight shot to Hecate Strait, the wide but shallow body of water between Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands) and the mainland of British Columbia. All this maneuvering took place during nighttime hours. Saturday morning found us in the open (Canadian) waters of Queen Charlotte Sound. A sound is a large sea or ocean inlet, deeper than a bight and wider than a fjord; or a narrow sea or ocean channel between two bodies of land. Queen Charlotte Sound is positioned between big Vancouver Island in the south and Haida Gwaii in the north. Queen Charlotte Sound leads to Queen Charlotte Strait which is the entrance to the Inside Passage route to Vancouver. Queen Charlotte, btw, was the consort of King George III. Pilotage is mandatory in the Strait so at approx. 11:00 AM, Nieuw A slowed down near Pine Island where two Canadian/B.C. pilots came onboard from their boat "R D Riley," and, once on the bridge, a course was set for Malcolm Island, BC. For the next three hours, we had an enjoyable scenic cruise with always interesting 90 degree turns at Blackney Passage, just south of Alert Bay, and at Chatham Point inside Johnstone Strait., with its racing current. Johnstone Strait is a 68 mile long channel along the north east coast of Vancouver Island Opposite the Vancouver Island coast, running north to south, are Hanson Island, West Cracroft Island, the mainland British Columbia Coast, Hardwicke Island, West Thurlow Island and East Thurlow Island. At that point, the strait meets Discovery Passage which connects to Georgia Strait. Discovery Passage has a length of 16 miles and an average width of 1.2 miles, except for Seymour Narrows, transited at at slack tide, where that width narrows to a mere 820 yards. The City of of Campbell River on our starboard side, and located at the south end of Discovery Passage, was up next. So, this being our last day onboard, a sea day, there were activities planned, one of which was the Mariner Society recognition event at 10:00 AM in the Explorers Lounge on Deck 2 aft starboard side. This one was for 5-Star mariners only. After breakfast in the PG, we strolled over there and found a welcoming committee headed by Captain Baijens and Hotel GM Bart Jan Groeneveld. Beverage stewards were hovering around with serving trays of mimosas. The event lasted about 45 minutes which included a photo session and a Q&A period with both gentlemen. Upon returning to the cabin however, we found the two Royal Goede Wagen / Delft’s Blue “tegels” / tiles on our bed. One of the tiles was the current (2021-2022) version, arranged by ship’s class (in our case the two Signature class sisters Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam), which depict a sea monster on the bottom of the tile. The corner ornamentations refer to the crown of the Statue of Liberty in New York. The crown consists of seven points symbolizing the seven continents and oceans. The second tile was the one issued on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of HAL with” Sailing 150 years” on it. To be con't
  14. Day 8 - 08/11/2023; Ketchikan, AK (con't) All Aboard today was at 6:30 PM and we left the dock at approx. 6:55 PM, followed by a southbound sail down Tongass Narrows passed the Ketchikan U.S. Coast Guard Base on Stedman Street on our port side with four ships at the base today; USCGC Anthony Petit (WLM-558), a Keeper-class buoy tender; USCGC John McCormick (WPC-1121), and USCGC Bailey Barco (WPC-1122), both Sentinel-class fast response cutters, and USCGC Sapelo (WPB-1314), an Island-class patrol cutter. The first three are all home-ported at Ketchikan, while the Sapelo is home-ported at Homer, AK. Tonight, was the second and last “dressy” night which was a good reason to celebrate our upcoming wedding anniversary in the Pinnacle Grill Restaurant with a 7:30 reservation. We got ourselves a window seat in the ante room and received grand service from Violet. Maria had the jumbo lump crab cakes, while I chose the heart of romaine Caesar salad. For the mains, Maria had the Alaskan king salmon while I had the petit filet mignon. Excellent dinner! For the main entertainment tonight, HAL was doing something new going, at least we had never seen it before. At 7:30 and again at 10:00 pm (for us), there was a show called Roadhouse inside the BB Kings Blues Club. There used to be a show by the same name inside the Main Stage that was western/cowboy orientated and centered around a country bar. This “Roadhouse” however, in a much smaller location, involved musical and dancing sets by the BB Kings All-Stars, the four Major Fourth vocal performers and the six Step One dancers. It was entertaining! This was followed at 10:15 pm inside the same venue by the comedy of Ken Boyd in a definitely adult/R-rated late night show! Tomorrow (Saturday) is our last sea day cruising the Canadian portion of the Inside Passage on our way to Vancouver, BC
  15. Day 8 - 08/11/2023; Ketchikan, AK (con't) We spent about 45 minutes on our little hike until we reached an elevated walkway trail that lead to a private viewing platform which overlooks Eagle Creek, where the bears are known to come to the stream to fish for salmon. The nearby Whitman hatchery feeds into the river, guaranteeing that the river will teem with salmon every summer. No bears showed up while we were there, as luck would have it, but there were two juvenile bald eagles (brown feathers and not as good looking as their adult parents) perched on logs eating fish, as were some Ravens and a whole bunch of seagulls. Next up was an up close and personal visit to the nearby Alaska Raptor Center annex. In 2014, the Alaska Raptor Center, located in Sitka, AK, partnered with the Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary in Ketchikan with a seasonal enhanced raptor courtyard/exhibit to further their educational efforts. The three raptors present today were Sitka, an adult female Bald Eagle, sent to the Alaska Raptor Center after being struck by a car in Ninilchik, a small town on the Kenai Peninsula. She suffered from multiple injuries, including a hole in her right patagium, or the fleshy part of the wing, and severe damage to her right hallux, or rear toe. She was left with a permanent right wing droop that causes her to drag and damage her important primary flight feathers. Her hallux had to be amputated, leaving her unable to effectively grasp prey. She is non-releasable because, although she is still partially flighted, she would not be able to hunt successfully in the wild. Owlison, an adult female Great Horned Owl, who was admitted to the Bird Treatment and Learning Center in Anchorage with a fracture of the right wrist bones and a wound on her keel (chest area). There was also damage to the tendons and ligaments in that same wing. She is capable of flight, but not well enough to survive in the wild. Owlison was placed at a facility in Ketchikan and lived there for many years before being transferred to the Alaska Raptor Center. Jake, an adult male Red-tailed Hawk who was taken from the nest as a chick and raised by a 13-year-old boy for the first four months of his life. After four months, the family surrendered Jake to the Alaska Department of Fish and Wildlife who placed him with an educational facility in Ketchikan and subsequently with Alaska Raptor Center in 2014. Jake is physically perfect and fully flighted; his injury is behavioral. He is an imprint, which means Jake does not associate with other red-tail hawks. He also will not hunt for himself because he has always relied on humans for food. We have been to the Sitka Alaskan Raptor Center more than once but were not aware that there was a similar/smaller facility in Ketchikan. It is a great opportunity to being able to watch these magnificent raptors up close, learn about their background, and ask one of the keepers’ questions. From here, we walked into the historic Herring Bay Lumber Company sawmill where, in a separate area, Tsimshian carver Kevin was putting the final touches on a new totem pole he had created “Origin of Daylight”. That pole would be officially raised in front of the Sanctuary the week after we left. Southeast Alaska is famed for its totems and most are Tlingit or Haida carved. Afterwards, there was of course time to grab a cup of mocha and some mini-donuts at the General Store before returning to the ship by the same scenic route Upon arrival back at Ketchikan Berth No. 1 and Nieuw Amsterdam, we decided to grab a late lunch at the Dive-In caddy corner opposite the Lido Pool. Below us on the inboard side of Berth #1 was the 1982-built “crabber” / crab fishing boat Botany Bay on her way from Sitka to Seattle, WA, think "Deadliest Catch" (to be con't)
  16. 100% correct, thanks Cheng! Just to add on to that, besides coming onboard per the invitation of the captain, federal agencies like Canada Borders Services Agency - CBSA (the Canadian equivalent of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection - CBP) is in the habit of conducting unannounced inspections of crew living spaces for anything illegal. While working, I have escorted CBSA numerous times during those inspections in places like Victoria, Vancouver, Quebec City and Halifax, at times accompanied by their narcotic detection K-9s which tend to speed things up. Those inspections generally last two to three hours. Happy to say no HAL employees were ever in trouble at the conclusion of those type of inspections, at least at the ones I was involved in
  17. Day 8 - 08/11/2023; Ketchikan, AK After departing Juneau via Gastineau Channel late Thursday afternoon, Nieuw A sailed down Stephens Passage, Frederick Sound and Sumner Strait. Next up was Clarence Strait but before that, in the passage between Sumner Strait and Clarence Strait, midway between Prince of Wales Island on the west and Zarembo Island on the east, is a small cluster of islands with a picturesque passageway between them called Snow Pass. Clarence Strait, 126 miles long, and originally called Duke of Clarence Strait, separates Prince of Wales Island on the west side, from Revillagigedo Island and Annette Island on the east side. Nieuw A then passed Guard Island near the entrance to Tongass Narrows at 1000 hrs. Tongass Narrows is the body of water that extends from the Revillagigedo Channel to Gravina Island in Clarence Strait. It is shaped as a "Y", split into two channels by Pennock Island and it has our final destination, the City of Ketchikan, located on its eastern side. If you come in from the north, which we did today, you will first pass Ketchikan International Airport on Gravina Island located one nautical mile to the west of the central business district of Ketchikan. The airport is an interesting one in that it has no direct road access to the outside world. Everyone going to or coming from the airport must take a seven-minute ferry ride across Tongass Narrows. On the opposite bank of the airport, so today on our balcony/port side, is the Vigor Alaska Shipyard with right smack next door to it, the Alaska Marine Highway System ferry facility. The shipyard provides maintenance for the ferries of the AMHS and, as we sailed by, there were three ferries berthed at the facility, namely m/v Kennicott, m/v Tazlina, and m/v Matanuska. The Alaska Marine Highway System operates along the south-central coast of the state, the eastern Aleutian Island and the Inside Passage of Alaska and British Columbia, Canada, Canada. The ferries serve communities in Southeast Alaska that have no road access, and the vessels can transport people, freight, and vehicles. Nieuw A’s deck and engine team then got ready to have their ship take her place at Ketchikan’s #1 cruise ship berth. Ketchikan has four Panamax sized cruise ship berths. They are numbered sequentially 1, 2,3 and 4, from south to north, along the downtown waterfront. We were safely docked, port side alongside, by 1100 hrs. Behind us at Berth #2 and already present since 0600 hours, was Sapphire Princess, starboard side to. She is scheduled to depart at 1400 hours. Also already at Berth #3 was our stablemate Westerdam, the third of the Vista-class ships with Captain Vincent Smit in command. Westie is in Ketchikan on a relatively short stay with an all aboard time of 1230. This is due her required high speed run south to Victoria, BC, Canada, a distance of 581 nautical miles at an avg speed of 21 knots for a next day arrival on Saturday late afternoon. There were two more cruise ships present in Ketchikan this morning; Norwegian Encore (0700-1315 hrs.) and Seven Seas Explorer (0800-1700 hrs.). Both ships were at the Mill at Ward Cove cruise terminal, a relatively new 2-berth cruise ship pier located approx. 5 miles north of the city and serving only NCL ships and their subsidiaries such as Regent Seven Seas. The Mill at Ward Cove welcomed its first NCL cruise passengers in 2021. Prior to serving as a cruise terminal, it was a pulp mill that operated from 1954 to 1997. At 2:00 PM, Celebrity Eclipse popped up and took the place of Westerdam, the latter having departed for Victoria, BC, at Berth #3. Thirty minutes later, RCI’s Brilliance of the Seas arrived and moved into the still vacant Berth #4. Breakfast for us was in the Pinnacle Grill a little after 0900 hours. At 12:00 Noon, we walked outside on to the dock which was the meeting place for our excursion today. It was called Rain Forrest sanctuary walk, totems and eagles. A bus took us 9 miles southeast of Ketchikan past Saxman, to Herring Cove, a heavily forested area where we met our guide, Stephen hailing from Georgia, and he sure sounded like it Herring Cove sits within the Alaska Rain Forest Sanctuary. Stephen gave us a safety briefing since we would be walking in (black) bear country. I noticed that he had, what appeared to be a flare protruding from his pants pocket, asked him about it, and he stated it was for bear protection. We then started off on our walking expedition in some light drizzle. Stephen pointed out and explained the various tall hemlock, spruce, and cedar growths, some with bear claw markings on them, as we passed and stopped to listen. And yes, from a smallish bridge we were able to spot two bear cubs taking a snooze about 80-90 feet away, our first, and as it turned out, only bear sighting today. Mama bear was not in sight but we knew she was close/nearby! To be con't
  18. Day 7 - 08/10/2023; Juneau, AK (con't) The main entertainment tonite at 7:00 and 9:30 PM, besides the three other venues that have music (BB Kings, Billboard onboard and the Third Avenue West trio in the Ocean Bar), was the second performance by the Step One Dance Company (sthree female/three male dancers) in “Humanity”. We have seen this show several times now as it is one of their older shows and it remains one of our favorites. Great music/Great Dancing and Great special effects projected on the walls of the World Stage by her tech staff using the large room to its advantage. We enjoyed it once again - the one act that always really stands out for us is one of the female dancers in the red dress in a modern dance number - and so, it appears from the standing ovation the cast received from most of the audience, did they, the latter. At 9:30 pm. So during the second show by Step One, they had the “Orange Party” going on inside the BB King’s Lounge. This used to be a “ho hum” affair but this one was packed/standing room only. We finished off our day in Juneau by listening to the BB King All-Star band during their final set at 11:00 pm. As stated, tomorrow (Friday) is our stop in Ketchikan. See ya then!
  19. Awesome thread! Thanks for starting it! 🤙
  20. May Debbie rest in eternal peace! 😔 Thanks for sharing your memories of her with us here!
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