Copper10-8

Lifeboat commander

Day 6 - 08/09/2023; Skagway, AK (con't) Upon departing Carcross, Lucy hit the Klondike Highway, known as Yukon Highway 2 in both the Yukon Territory and British Columbia, and in Alaska officially as Alaska Route 98, and made stops on the shore of Tagish Lake on the border between BC and the Yukon for a photo op of the two border signs, once again at the Fraser CBSA port of entry inspection station for a comfort break, at the Welcome to Alaska and gateway to the Klondike sign at the Fraser-Skagway border, and the last one, a mandatory stop at the United States Customs and Border Protection point of entry at the Skagway-Frazer border crossing (actually 7.9 miles south of the border; the Canadian facility is 7.6 miles northeast of the border) where Lucy had to ‘splain how both her U.S. passport and passenger load tally sheet had fallen in between the windshield and instrument panel of her bus on her northbound ride – They let us through and back in the good ol' USA! Back onboard Nieuw A, we had a 7:00 PM dinner reservation at Canaletto, HAL’s Italian restaurant inside the Lido Market. Joining us were Chelly, the police dispatcher at my old department, and her husband Steve, also a former employee of the city we live in, and all four of us worked in. It was really good to catch up! Our restaurant waiter in Canaletto was Yugo Putranto, you know from the 1980 Yugoslav shortened variant of the Fiat 128 fame. From its inception Canaletto has always promoted plate sharing, so that’s exactly what we did with an Antipasto plate, the Veal and Sage meatballs, Minestrone soup, Spaghetti Alle Volone, Braised Beef short rib Gnocchi, Lasagna Bolognese, and Gelato for dessert. We concluded on time to go see the main entertainment in the Main Stage, that being stand-up comedian Ken Boyd at 9:00 PM, so that’s what we decided to do. The big room was packed, and Mr. Boyd turned out to be hilarious. From his Curriculum Vitae; “Mr. Ken Boyd is the perfect combination of high energy intelligence and pure nonsense. Or as he likes to call it "sophisticated ignorance." Apparently, there were lots of folks from the 7:00 PM show that returned to see him again. The four of us finished up the night by partaking in some adult beverages inside the Ocean Bar. Tomorrow (Thursday) is Juneau, the state capital of Alaska – See ya then

Thanks for acting as his spokesperson!

Day 6 - 08/09/2023; Skagway, AK The next stop, and a chance to stretch our legs was at Bennett, still in British Columbia, and an abandoned town next to Bennett Lake. The townsite is now part of the Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site of Canada, managed by Parks Canada. Crossing the tracks and a little bit of an uphill hike will take you to St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, a simple rectangular wood frame structure with a steeply pitched gable roof and an adjoining tower with a steep spire. Surrounded by trees and mountains, it is the only building left in the once-thriving community of Bennet Lake. They gave us 45 minutes there to take in the quiet nature of a once thriving community Back on the White Pass and Yukon Railway, we had one stop left and that was our final destination, Carcross in the Yukon Territory. But first, it was lunch time on the train with the conductors and our guide quite busy handing out lunch boxes to everyone, one per passenger. They contained a selection of cheese & grapes, a mini brownie bar, bag of Lays potato crisps, and a turkey sandwich with mayo or mustard. Not a gourmet meal but it was tasty and hit the proverbial spot The crew had earlier handed out bottles of H2O. Our final stop was reached in an other 45 minutes. Carcross, originally known as Caribou Crossing, is a community in Yukon, Canada located on both Bennett Lake and Nares Lake, divided by a natural land bridge. It is home to the Carcross/Tagish First Nation and is approx. 46 miles south-southeast via the Alaska Highway and the Klondike Highway from the much larger City of Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon. Carcross is mainly known for its world class mountain biking on the near-by Montana Mountain, and for the nearby Carcross Desert, often referred to as the "world's smallest desert. The community has a population of 317 residing in 168 of its 229 total private dwellings, It relies on tourism and the place pretty much dies out in the winter. Btw, the major difference between a Canadian Province such as British Columbia and a Territory like the Yukon has to do with the Canadian Constitution. A province is a creation of the Constitution Act, while a territory is created by federal law. Thus, the federal government has more direct control over the territories, while provincial governments have many more competences and rights. After disembarking the train, we found Lucy, our bus driver from this morning in Skagway waiting for her passengers. She subsequently gave us roughly 45 minutes to do some Carcross exploring before heading back to Skagway and the Nieuw Amsterdam. First order of business was to head for the “pink store” aka the Matthew Watson General store, one part of it formerly known as the Vendome Hotel and the oldest still operating store in the Yukon, albeit only in the summer season! It is famous for two things; their ice cream waffle cones and the ability to get a Carcross destination stamp in your passport. The stamp is self-service and chained to a wooden table, the waffle cones are not! So, after consuming said frozen desert, typically made from milk or cream that has been flavored with a sweetener, we took a stroll over to the Carcross Commons, a collection of separate buildings that have the front painted in different 1st nation/native styles. The plan was to grab a cup of Java for the bus ride back however, due to a massive que at that only coffee shop, that plan went nowhere. The drive out of Carcross took us past the community’s entrance sign, a larger-than-life size sculpture of an anatomically correct bull caribou with his plumbing hanging out for anyone to see. Those crazy Canadians, eh To be con't

Day 6 - 08/09/2023; Skagway, AK So, after having dropped off the park rangers at Bartlett Cove yesterday evening, we rounded Point Couverden (not named after former HAL Captain Jack van Coevorden 😉) and once again entered Icy Straight (thus named when the entire Glacier Bay was a glacier with its calving ice drifting via this “icy strait” into the open sea) and passed Pleasant Island on our port side. In the early morning hours Nieuw Amsterdam, having entered the Lynn Canal, at 2,000 feet, North America’s longest fjord, made her way towards the town and port of Skagway, Alaska. . Lynn Canal was explored by Joseph Whidbey in 1794 and named by George Vancouver for his birthplace, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England. We were going to the Broadway Dock for our berth with a 0700 hrs. arrival. There were three other cruise ships in town today; Celebrity Millennium at the Ore Dock since at 0700 hours; and Majestic Princess and Norwegian Encore at the Railroad Dock, forward and aft respectively. Our shore excursion today was the “White Pass Summit Scenic Railway” departing at 0730 hours from the depot, and we would be taking that train all the way to Carcross, Yukon Territory in Canada! The WP&YR is a Canadian and U.S. Class II narrow gauge railroad linking the port of Skagway with Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon, Canada. An isolated system, it has no direct connection to any other railroad. Equipment, freight and passengers are ferried by ship through the Port of Skagway, and via road through a few of the stops along its route. The line was born of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 but is now in operation purely for the tourist trade and runs throughout the summer months. After a quick and early breakfast at 0625 hrs. inside the Lido Market, we disembarked our ship and walked down the Broadway Dock for our 0715 hrs. meeting time at our waiting bus and guide/driver Lucy who, after departure, promptly gave us a very quick tour of Skagway before dropping us off at the nearby Skagway Railroad Depot. At the Depot, we were broken up into different groups based on the occupancy level of the train cars, as well as our destination, with some folks leaving the train at Fraser, BC in Canada. Our train, pulled by two green & yellow-colored locomotives/engines, was waiting for us and we were seated in a car by the name of Lake Hutshi, car number 538. All 80 of the restored and replica rail passenger coaches/cars are named after lakes and rivers in Alaska, the Yukon Territory and the Province of British Columbia. The ride/climb up to the White Pass summit and the U.S.-Canadian border took 20.4 miles and lasted about an hour. Along the way, we passed the WP&YR shops, the Gold Rush Cemetery (the final resting place of the infamous “Soapy” Smith), Buchanan Rock (with the “On to Alaska with Buchanan” sign), Bridal Veil Falls, Tunnel Mountain, Inspiration Point, the 1901-built Steel Bridge (the tallest cantilever bridge in the world) and then the White Pass Summit at 2,865 feet, followed by the U.S. – Canadian border crossing between the U.S.A. and Canada is marked by a total of five flagpoles, flying the national colors of both countries plus the state/province/territory flags of Alaska, British Columbia, and the Yukon. To be con't

Pic of Bitta is about five years old - his "stache" is a handlebar now

For those folks on this particular cruise being discussed here, where the port of San Diego is their disembarkation port (not continuing on to FLL}, they will be required to see U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, in San Diego, usually inside the terminal building. If the OP is serious about leaving the ship in San Diego as opposed to doing this in the first Mexican port, I certainly hope he will let the Front Office know ahead of time (they will advise him of the PVSA violation). Subsequently, if he choses to disembark without seeing CBP in San Diego (because those interviews/inspections are scheduled at a preset time slot early in the morning), this will result in the opening of a brand new can of night crawlers for him. If he turns out to be a no-show back onboard prior to the ship continuing with her repositioning voyage to Florida, his being AWOL will be reported to both the port agent and, more importantly, to CBP who will initiate a follow-up investigation until he presents himself to them.

Day 5 - 08/08/2023; Scenic cruising Glacier Bay (con't) As stated, the park rangers left the ship around 7:30 pm, the same way they came on so via Jacob’s ladder (always an interesting way!) into their small boat which would take them back to their HQ near Bartlett Cove. We spent some time in the still new Nieuw Amsterdam library on Deck 3 forward, starboard side which, prior to its current transformation, used to be the Tasman general purpose room and, prior to that, the 36-seat Screening Room movie theater. The powers to be in Seattle apparently listened to the folks asking for the return of a full-size library and did a nice job with this new one! For us, dinner was inside the main dining room on Deck 3 aft. The dining room manager gave us a nice window seat on the starboard side where we partook in grazing time. Maria had salmon and I chose the Wiener Schnitzel, a no brainer for me because I love that national dish of Oesterreich! The major entertainment inside the Mainstage was a new one for us, a singing quartet known as Major Fourth. This turned out to be three male vocalists and one female vocalist with excellent harmony. Their show was upbeat with a lot of movement and tunes ranging from doo-whop to Taylor Swift. They were very good and energetic with outstanding voices and we enjoyed their performance! We finished up the evening inside the BB Kings Blues Club with the band of the same name; simply outstanding! Tomorrow (Wednesday) is our first port; Skagway! See ya then!

Hi Nancy; if I'm not mistaken, Roy / poster rafinmd is the man / your contact for the ferries of the Alaska Marine Highway. He has sailed them and, I'm sure, can tell you all about that experioence

Day 5 - 08/08/2023; Scenic cruising Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve After departing Hubbard Glacier yesterday, Nieuw Amsterdam has basically been following the Alaska coast line, about 50 miles off, in a south-easterly direction. This morning, she entered Cross Sound, in between Cape Spencer and Cape Bingham, changing course to the east. Cross Sound leads into Icy Strait where we made a ‘left turn’ into Sitakaday Narrows and up to Point Gustavus and Bartlett Cove. There, Captain Baijens slowed his ship down in order to pick up two U.S. Park Rangers and one Naturalist, arriving via small boat from their Headquarters at Glacier Bay Lodge, who would be with us pretty much the entire day until 7:30 pm. One ranger goes up to the bridge to provide play-by-play commentary while the other, plus the naturalist, set up shop in the Crow’s Nest. The National Park regulations allow for two large cruise ships in the Bay and they are required to have park rangers on board. They are on board both for the education of the guests, as well for ensuring that the ships keep to the rules of the road and do not go sightseeing where it is not allowed. There was a much smaller explorer ship, the 84-guest Safari Endeavour from UnCruise Adventures inside the bay with us. Glacier Bay runs north northwest to south south-east for about 65 miles between two pinchets of Alaska. It ranges from 3-20 miles wide. Glacier Bay and the surrounding land is the site of the Glacier Bay National Park. The explorer Captain George Vancouver found Icy Strait, at the south end of Glacier Bay, choked with ice in 1794. Glacier Bay itself was almost entirely iced over. In 1879 naturalist John Muir found that the ice had retreated almost all the way up the bay. By 1916 Grand Pacific Glacier was at the head of Tarr Inlet, about 65 miles from Glacier Bay's mouth. Glacier Bay contains sixteen glaciers, twelve of which reach shorelines and calved to produce icebergs. The area around Glacier Bay was first proclaimed a U.S. National Monument on 25 February 1925. It was changed to Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, a United States National Park, on 2 December 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Land Conservation Act. The park covers 5,130 miles and most of it (4,164 miles of the park) is a designated wilderness area. Despite the lack of roads, there are over 300,000 visitors per year to the park, mostly on cruise ships. Today, Nieuw A’s older sibling, m/s Eurodam, under the command of Captain Joost Eldering would be ahead of us. She was up Tarr Inlet viewing Marjerie Glacier, while we would first go ‘next door’ into Johns Hopkins Inlet viewing the glacier of the same name as well as Gilman, Hoonah and Lamplugh Glaciers. Glaciers descending from high snowcapped mountains into the bay create spectacular displays of ice and iceberg formation by ‘calving’. With that said, we proceeded northbound into the Bay, passing Strawberry Island, Willoughby Island, Francis Island, Drake Island, and Queen Inlet. Next up was our first look at Lamplugh Glacier. Lamplugh is eight miles long and is named for English geologist George William Lamplugh who visited Glacier Bay in 1884. Thirty minutes later, we were at Johns Hopkins inlet for a look at Johns Hopkins Glacier. Johns Hopkins (don’t forget the first “s”) fills the end of the fjord, stretching about 1-mile wide and reaching 250 feet high above the waterline. The ice front extends under sea level, to a depth of approximately 200 feet, where an underwater moraine protects the deepest extent of the glacial ice like armor against the warm ocean water. Formed from numerous tributary glaciers, the length of Johns Hopkins glacier is about 12 miles from the source in the Fairweather Mountain peaks. While this was all happening, we had a lunch reservation inside the Pinnacle Grill at 12:45 and we had invited Susan (poster AV8rix), an aeronautical engineer and licensed pilot to join us. We had met Susan on Koningsdam for the 2022-2023 new year’s cruise. We were once again served by Edy. Maria chose the Spinach Arugula Salad: Avocado orange, organic seeds, creamy lemon dressing, Gorgonzola, air-dried apples, Roasted Jidori Chicken with Porcini Mushrooms: Cider vinegar jus, quinoa-forbidden rice cake, mâché salad, toasted pistachios; and Strawberry Pavlova: Strawberry consommé, basil, while I had the Tomato Broth with Spicy Lemongrass Chicken: Kaffir lime, cilantro; Pinnacle Burger: Bacon jam, garlic chipotle aioli, Beecher’s cheddar cheese, cabernet red onions, avocado, French fries; and premium ice cream. At around 1:00 PM, we swapped placed with Eurodam and proceeded up Tarr Inlet and the majestic Marjerie and smaller Grand Pacific Glaciers, where we arrived around 1:30 PM. Marjerie Glacier is a 21-mile-long glacier. It begins on the south slope of Mount Root, at the Alaskan-Canada border, and flows southeast and northeast to Tarr Inlet, one mile north of the terminus of Grand Pacific Glacier and 87 miles northwest of Hoonah. It was named for famed French geographer and geologist Emmanuel de Marjerie, who visited Glacier Bay in 1913. Access to Nieuw A’s bow was once again provided, allowing all of us to witness several ‘calving’ occurrences from Marjerie, both small and larger, accompanied by lots of cracking and splashing, always an awesome experience! The park ranger from his position on the bridge provided play-by-play of what we were seeing as well as historical and general information while the captain maneuvered his ship in close proximity to the big glacier so that those with cabins on both port and starboard side could get a good view. After a good hour of viewing Marjerie, Captain Baijens at about 2;30 PM or so, back-tracked Nieuw Amsterdam’s earlier course through Tarr Inlet. When we got back to our room, we found a box of goodies, courtesy of Nieuw A's executive chef Bitta Kuravilla, someone who I have worked with in the past on different dam ships, a very nice and much appreciated gesture! So, basically if you find yourselves “doing” Glacier Bay National Park, count on a full day of looking in awe at these natural wonders. What’s nice is that you don’t have to spend the entire day outside because it can get cold out there. Like they say, dress I layers! You have plenty of time to have a lunch, hang out somewhere, take it easy, jell, you name it. Cruising at its very best! To be con't

Extra! Nothing is free on the train except the incredible view

I agree and no HAL ships will not be calling at Israeli ports while that country is at war. The HAL situation/control room and the duty officer(s) in Seattle have been/are no doubt working overtime on this since yesterday morning! As far as being on non-ship sponsored private tours, please ensure the front desk has your individual cell/mobile phone number and that you, as the person taking that tour, have working cell phone service while abroad. In addition, if you're taking that private tour, please ensure that the front desk has the phone number of a contact person for that tour company. When circumstances like what sadly has been happening in Israel since yesterday occur, one of the captain's priorities will be to get his guests, as well as crew on shore leave, back onboard ASAP and then to leave port. Doing that with ship organized shore excursions is fairly easy because the ship's shorex manager, with the assistance of the tour company representative who is always on or near the ship, is able to get a hold of the bus driver(s) and/or tour guide(s) on the buses. For those of us who have been to Israel on HAL ships. you know tours travel extensively from the port to places like Jerusalem as well as other locations not close to he port. Under the circumstances currently present in Israel, those buses will be instructed to turn around and return to the ship ASAP. Private tours will be given the same orders provided the ship's pax and/or the drivers/guides on those tours can be reached via mobile/cell! My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Israel under these extremely difficult circumstances!

Day 4 - 08/07/2023; Scenic cruising Hubbard Glacier (con't) Dinner at 7:30 on what HAL now calls a “Dressy” night was yet another specialty restaurant, this one known as the Asian Fusion Tamarind restaurant all the way up on Deck 11 midships. If you’ve never been to Tamarind on the five Holland America Line ships which have one, you’re missing out! The service is gracious and the food delicious! Our server was Dayanti from Indonesia. The Tamarind manager is Eka and the host Sareat, both also from Indonesia. We started out with the Satay (Sate) sampler (Thai chicken, Malaysian lamb, Chinese Beef, Indonesian pork, and Vietnamese shrimp that come with green mango, yuzu kosho and black bean powder), followed by Wasabi and Soy crusted beef tenderloin and Mongolian Barbecue Lamb Chops with Jasmin rice on the side as the main. Desert for this one with Passion Fruit Cloud and a selection of ice cream for dessert. Lilly, another Tamarind waitress from our May Nieuw A cruise, and who we had run into this morning at the PG, had ordered a small anniversary cake for us. A very nice gesture! Post-dinner, we did a fast walk from Deck 10 aft to Deck 2 all the way forward where the six dancers from the Step One Dance Co. were performing in one of their brand-new shows “Move”, a wave of sight, sound and motion, and a really good one. Great move by HAL to start replacing the older shows by the Step One dancers who were getting a bit long in the tooth. We finished up this first full day on Nieuw A by going to the BB King’s Blues Club where we watched the last set of the BB King’s All-Star Band and burned some calories on the dance floor. They were without their horn (trumpet) player who had been the subject of last night’s “medical response” call. Hope he’s doing better! As stated, tomorrow (Tuesday) is more scenic cruising, this time inside Glacier National Bay and Preserve. See ya then!

Day 4 - 08/07/2023; Scenic cruising Hubbard Glacier Only one cruise ship at a time is allowed near the glacier’s mouth. Captain Jeroen B. got us as close as possible to Hubbard turning his ship so that both port and starboard cabins/balconies got a good look at her. We encountered a fair amount of floating ice. From a distance, the glacial path looks like a long, gentle ski slope. We left Yakutat Bay around 6:00 pm and headed south for our next destination, Glacier Bay National Park. To be con't

Perhaps, give the Pinnacle Grill a try for lunch on one of your upcoming sea days! Warning alert! There is a charge for the PG! It is not comped! Hoping the remainder of your cruise is without anymore K-9 nourishment

Day 4 - 08/07/2023; Scenic cruising Hubbard Glacier Woke up to pretty smooth seas (just a bit of gentle motion) as we’re making our way southeast in the Gulf of Alaska. The rain from last night was outtahere! After Nieuw Amsterdam left Whittier on Wednesday, a south-easterly course was set in the Prince William Sound, after which we entered the Gulf of Alaska proper from in between Montaque Island and Hinchinbrook Island. Nieuw A has a nice gym up top and we took advantage of it, as dis several other pax One of the perks of a Neptune Suite is the ability to have breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill Restaurant on Deck 2 midships, so that’s what we did. On sea days, the PG is open for breakfast until 0930 hours. The new manager in there is Omar from Turkey. One of our waiters from our May cruise on Nieuw Amsterdam, Edy, is still here. Maria had scrambled eggs, while I had Eggs Benedict. After breakfast, we walked over to the Music Walk where there was a 11;00 AM suite welcome gathering. There, we ran into Twinkle, the asst. beverage manager, a former shipmate of mine when I was working for a living, and a real nice lady. Lunch was inside the Lido Market where they were serving an Indonesian lunch of, among other items, fried rice, beef Sumatra, chicken sate with peanut sauce, krupuk (shrimp crackers), etc. Around 2:00 pm today (Monday), we picked up our pilot, Captain Gary, from his boat “Ocean Cape” at the, believe it or not, Ocean Cape pilot station inside Yakutat Bay. We then proceeded into Disenchantment Bay at Point Latouche, sailed another ten nautical miles up the Bay of Disenchantment, where one reaches the mouth of Russel Fjord and Hubbard Glacier. Hubbard Glacier, a tidewater glacier, is physically located in both Alaska and in the Yukon Territory, Canada, off the coast of Yakutat, some 200 miles northwest of Juneau. Hubbard is certainly gigantic: it's more than six miles wide where it meets the ocean. It is named after Gardiner Greene Hubbard (August 25, 1822 – December 11, 1897), an American lawyer, financier, and community leader. He was a founder and first president of the National Geographic Society; a founder and the first president of the Bell Telephone Company which later evolved into AT&T, at times the world's largest telephone company; a founder of the journal ‘Science’, and an advocate of oral speech education for the deaf. In 1890, Mount Hubbard (and subsequently Hubbard Glacier) on the Alaska-Yukon border was named in his honor by an expedition co-sponsored by the National Geographic Society while he was president. The longest source for Hubbard Glacier originates 76 miles from its snout and is located at approximately 5 miles west of Mount Walsh with an elevation of around 11,000 feet. A shorter tributary glacier begins at the easternmost summit on the Mount Logan ridge at about 18,300 feet. To be con't

Good eye! Yes, that's a Neptune suite 😉

Hi Sir; yes, Kaptein Jeroen Baijens is back assigned to the dam ships, Nieuw Amsterdam, as we speak however, there are still several HAL captains serving with Seabourn at the moment: Tim Roberts, Joost Eldering, Sijbe de Boer and Bart Vaartjes come to mind. Take care and be safe in beautiful Kiwi land and please say hi to the Mrs. for me!

Day 4 - 08/06/2023; Enroute Whittier, AK (con't) Whittier cruise port is located at Passage Canal's entrance in Prince William Sound. The port is approx. 60 miles southeast from Anchorage. Once inside the Whittier terminal building, which is a very short walk from where the train stops, we followed the line for security like a slinky. We were told along the way to remove everything from our pockets, belts, plastic bottles, big watches, and be prepared to remove jackets to go through airport-like screening (metal detector for humans and X-ray machine for carry-ons). Apparently, HAL through their contract security, is now really cracking down on bringing any plastic bottles containing water, soda, or anything else liquid-wise inside. I had purchased a couple of 20 oz. Coke Zero bottles in Denali which were still unopened. The guard manning the X-Ray machine was on his game, spotted them, and advised his colleague by the security table. She had no sense of humor, and out my two bottles went post haste into a large trashcan. Maria had purchased a 16 oz. aluminum bottle of H2O and, imagine that, got to keep it. Note to self; don’t buy anymore plastic bottles of soda for a cruise! The only thing left to do inside that terminal was the obligatory welcome aboard pics by Nieuw A’s photo staff before boarding the younger sister of HAL’s Eurodam via a shoreside gangway to Deck 3 where ship security scanned us on. Our cabin is on Rotterdam deck, port side mid-ships, caddy corner from the Neptune Lounge where concierges Aiko and Mike (her relief) “reside” and do one heck of a job keeping their guests happy. Also met our lead cabin steward, Kus who will be taking care of our home away from home, along with his assistant, Raja. Our valises successfully made the road trip from Denali and were already waiting for us to unpack them which meant no more living out of a suitcase for a week! First order of business was to stroll to our muster station (Boat 08), where we checked in electronically with our boat captain which was followed by a short and sweet safety brief from a crew member consisting of instructions to watch the onboard “Safety at Sea” video and to listen to the captain’s safety speech over the P/A. This is the current post “Covid-style” muster procedure on HAL which eliminates large groups getting together and standing in very close proximity to one another. Btw, your TV channel is set to that safety brief, and one is unable to change channels until after you watch/listen to the entire brief, good idea! At around 7;25 PM, Nieuw Amsterdam let go of her lines and shoved off her berth with Captain Jeroen Baijens taking his big ship out of the Whittier harbor. It was around 8 PM now, so next up was dinner which we chose to partake in inside the Lido Market, as opposed to our table in the main dining room. As expected on embarkation day, the place was pretty packed but we were able to come up with a table where Maria had the New York strip steak, while I chose the salmon. During the dinner, the dreaded “Medical Response” alert was transmitted over the ship’s P/A system. The location was the BB King’s Lounge on Deck 2 midships and we learned later on that the BB King’s horn player was the one experiencing a medical episode. Consequently, the 8:00, 9:00 and 10:00 PM sets of the band were cancelled for tonight. All the best to that musician! With that unfortunate event, tonight’s entertainment became limited. Inside the Mainstage was “We are Alaska” however, it had already started at 8:00 PM. The only other live entertainment was the Billboard Onboard piano duo which had two shows left at 9:00 and 10:00 PM. We decided to walk over to the Ocean Bar on Deck 3 where music trivia was just finishing up. The guy who ran it, Simon, returned at 9:30 PM and brought Rose with him for a game of “Majority Rules” which we played only to discover that we were lousy at it, oh well. We decided to call it a night around 10:30 PM since it had been a long day. Tomorrow is scenic cruising of Glacier Bay, see ya then!

Thanks a bunch for the trivia! We liked your Glitter Gulch! 😉

Day 4 - 08/06/2023; Enroute Whittier, AK (con't) Around 4:00 PM, we pulled into the Anchorage Rail Deport after having passed Elmendorf Air Force Base. It would be another short stop before continuing our way for two hours or so, passing Cook Inlet and travelling adjacent Turnagain Arm and the Seward Highway. As stated, we had a new conductor who had joined us in Wasilla and his name was Vern, a funny guy! He paid our car a visit and played his harmonica to “North to Alaska” by Johnny Horton. Also in Wasilla, two to three HAL agents had boarded who would be checking all of us in via their handheld computers. All they needed to accomplish that were your passports and boarding pass. If they didn’t have your most recent photo on file, they would take a new one on the spot. Just like on land, their computer would spit out a paper boarding pass with your name, your ship’s name, sail date, cabin #, etc. on it. It would save us a lot of time inside the Whittier terminal! You get your actual /ship's I.D./room keys from a sealed envelope in the mail slot outside your cabin once on the ship. At one point, the train tracks left the Seward Highway behind because, unlike 2010, we were not going to the port of Seward, our destination today was Whittier, AK and its port, so we began to follow the Portage Glacier Highway/Road. The town of Whittier, AK can only be reached via road by going underneath a tunnel, more specifically, the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, often called the Whittier Tunnel after the town itself. This is a dual-use ("bimodal") highway and railroad tunnel that passes under Maynard Mountain, part of the Chugach Mountain Range. At a length of 13,300 feet, or 2.51 miles, it is the longest highway tunnel and longest combined rail and highway tunnel in North America. The tunnel originated as a rail-only tunnel excavated in 1941–42 during World War II and was upgraded to bimodal use between September 1998 and mid-summer 2000. The tunnel can accommodate either eastbound traffic, westbound traffic, or the Alaska Railroad but only one at any given time. Tunnel traffic is regulated by overhead lights as to how many cars and at which time, can enter at one time. Prior to traversing that tunnel, there is a shorter 0.9 mile tunnel for trains only, called the Portage Lake Tunnel. Upon exiting the second and longer one, the aforementioned Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, our ship, Nieuw Amsterdam, came into view, although it was by now gray, dreary and raining. The entire rail trip from Denali to Whittier had taken nine hours and twenty-six minutes, our second longest rail trip ever. We said our goodbyes to the incredibly efficient and professional crew of the Kobuk rail car and entered the Whittier cruise terminal building for the second part of our vacation. Did I say yet it was raining? Remember; adapt, improvise and overcome!

It's a nice one Rich, highly recommended for a bit of a different look at Alaska! You just have to get used to early morning wakeups in order to put your valises outside your door 😛

Like Bryan / POA1 said! That's the best way to go! The Neptune concierges have standing orders not to give out their email address to guests/passengers since it's for internal use only

Nice, outgoing young lady and very good at her job!

Day 4 - 08/06/2023; Enroute Whittier, AK (con't) A bit before reaching our stop at Talkeetna, the train slowed as we crossed the 918-foot Hurricane Gulch trestle, towering 296 feet above the creek below. This was followed some 45 minutes after by another stop at “The Wolf’s Sighting” near Willow, AK, the site of a 2019 wildfire, still very evident. Here, we met a northbound McKinley Explorer which also stopped. Apparently, this is a routine thing for the trains which gives the conductors of both trains an opportunity to swap out supplies before each continues on their way. We subsequently met our conductor, David, who came by to chat with his passengers and would be leaving us at our upcoming stop at Wasilla because he was above his federally regulated time limit by that time. Both David and our train’s two engineers would be swapping out in Wasilla sometime after. No, we didn’t see the former Governor and we also couldn’t see Russia from Wasilla, but we tried! 🙃 Lunch for us was around 2:45 and we were seated by ourselves at a booth and resulted in both of us selected a bowl of Reindeer Chili; hearty Alaska-style chili of reindeer meat , diced tomatoes, and a secret blend of spices simmered in an Alaskan Amber Ale base. Topped with cheddar cheese and chives. Very tasty! For dessert, Maria had an Alaska ice cream bar, while I had a chocolate brownie Sunday. Each car has their own galley where meals are prepared by hard working crew. To be con't