TheAccidentalCruiser

I have ordered "Queasy Beads" before from Carol. She didn't have the color that I wanted on her website, so she made a custom set for me that didn't cost any extra. She asks for you to measure your wrist, she sends you a picture before she mails them out for approval, and I love em. I even wear them on land occasionally!

Aren't they pretty :) ? And I didn't see just quite the colors I wanted either, so extra thanks for the info about your custom bracelets.

Have you found that the Queasy Beads worked as well for you as the normal cuff-style sea bands?

Yup - our Juneau day will have six ships but... the two NCL ships will trade pier (AJD) , one leaving as the other arrives. I've watched them do the little dosey-doh on the Juneau Harbor Cam many times.

 

Ketchikan we only have five but the arrivals are staggered are some are in the afternoon so night not be so crowded all at once. Such as for us Oosterdam leaves an hour before Infinity arrives. So ships in port "at the same time" might be reasonable.

But then, by Alaska standards, Juneau's pretty big. The 32,000 residents will still have the 10,000 or so pax from five ships well outnumbered, unlike the mere 8000 Ketchikanites (Ketchikaners? Ketchikanians?). Even with the two of them staggered, you gotta wonder what a six-ship day is like for the locals in either town.

Our four Ketchikan-day ships aren't staggered (all those I imagine some of the pax will be staggering by sail time). All will be in port from 08:00 to 13:00. Worse, two of them arrive an hour before mine does. The only saving grace is that that arrival will be at 6:00, an hour when I expect cruise ship passengers don't exactly pour out onto the docks. If I can pour my own self into town before the 8:00 am ship gets there, I may get to see some of Ketchikan before it sinks. ;)

Three ships in the same Alaskan port at the same time.

 

It's called CROWDED.

The day we're in Ketchikan, there'll be 4th ship with us, although just for that one port call (a "one-port stand"? ;)).

Population of Ketchikan = 8200. Combined passenger capacity of all 4 ships = 8372.

Later in the season Ketchikan will have a few days with six ships in port at once. I'm a little afraid the town will collapse under the load and sink into the sea.

Washington state (where I live) calls it an EDL, or Enhanced Drivers License. I'm ordering two copies of my birth certificate so I can get the EDL going at the same time as my passport, since the EDL is good for land and sea re-entry to the US. (You still need a passport for re-entry by air, which mystifies me a bit.)

I hope you find your papers before we all go nuts trying to help you!

 

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(And I really hope no one out there is going nuts over my silly problems. That's my job.)

Maybe the ships are in a Domestic Portnership

Being a first timer out to sea a couple of years ago with my hubby, I didn't know if I would be sick or not, so we looked at some of the Sea Bands too. The big fluffy cuff looked like it was cut off an old sweatshirt...lol

I decided to make my own. I went to Walmart in their watch section and got a couple of their sport bands. They're made of Neoprene and velcro, and look, well, 'sporty'. Then I sewed a rounded button to the inside.

So, it either worked, or we were meant to be on the ocean, because neither of us got sick.

Good luck!

 

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It's very helpful to know that your diy version seems to have worked.

Neither Beacon Hill Park nor the Governors House have a Japanese garden. Hatley Castle has the best surviving Japanese garden in the Victoria area - and it's IMO superior to the one at Butchart (it's not just that the original upper garden was done by the same designer as Butchart, on a higher budget, with a greater focus on authenticity of style and the opportunity to learn from his prior two installations - but there's also another lower section by different landscape architects so it's a two-fer). Only open until 5pm for ticket sales though - unfortunately the good gardens in general have limited hours, and since they're much less famous than Butchart, don't tend to offer any extended hours on cruise days.

 

Esquimalt Gorge Park has been renovating their Japanese gardens - the first in the country, and the first by Isaburo Kishida before he went on to do Butchart & Hatley. Unfortunately since it was run by a Japanese family, when they were interned the place literally fell to ruin and isn't even close to it's original form. It is however the only place you could definitely visit, since there isn't a giftshop selling tickets - as long as the public park is open you can come in (daylight hours). Ballpark $20+tip cab ride from the pier, about half as far as Hatley and basically right on the same route.

 

Depending where you are in WA I can offer two potential alternatives for a separate visit from your cruise - Nitobe Memorial garden and tearoom on the main UBC campus in Vancouver, and Portland Japanese Garden in Washington park in PDX. I assume you already know of Seattle's Japanese Garden.

It will be interesting to see what signs of disrepair/destruction remain and how the re-emergent garden incorporates both the original garden structure and any aspects of the damage that may have been kept by the restorers. Many of the fine old gardens in Japan underwent cycles of destruction and abandonment: one garden is especially noted for the rich & luxuriant moss that grew through a couple centuries of neglect.

The Nitobe Garden at UBC is at the very top of my next-to-visit list. I lived in Oregon for about ten years and visited the Portland Japanese Garden many times - I have a very special love for it. I've only been to the Seattle Garden once or twice since I moved here, which is ridiculous - I'm going to have to do something about that. :)

While you are waiting for an answer.... just want to advise that sunset will be 8:45pm that day.

Thanks. I am figuring on about 2 or 3 hours of useable daylight, and hoping that 1) the ship won't be late into - or skip - the port, and 2) the rain won't be coming down in buckets :cool:

If the last use was in "90, definitely just sign the form that you no longer have it and apply for a new one. It would be expired too long to renew anyway.

And likely written in King James English ;)

That's the worst thing about thinking I've lost it: those poor monks went to so much trouble with all the illuminations and fancy calligraphy. :D

Timeline:

1985 - Passport first issued

1990 - Passport last used for international travel

1995 - Passport expires

2000 - 15-year limit on simpler renewal process expires

2005 through 2016 - three moves, one bedbug scare, and one failed roof installation cause major disruptions to my life and belongings

2017 - discovery that passport is not where I thought it was

You are right, I should just go ahead and apply for a new/reissued passport. The big thing advantage to having the old passport would have been that then I wouldn't need a certified copy of my birth certificate. I don't have one; and even if I did, it probably would have been kept in the same unknown location as my existing passport.

Thanks so much to everyone for all your help and good wishes.

Sorry you are so stressed and i hope you find it soon.

Thanks. :)

had to laugh though...... You w ant us to tell yo the ww.w.w where we hide cash and/or jewelry , too?

Let me rephrase (after all, as long it's not the location of your passport that I'm concerned about). What types of places do people in general tend to keep important documents such as passports?

So whoever wins this contest........gets what? :)

 

Camera bag?

You win an already-opened electricity bill envelope, sans bill (& sans electricity), with illegible notes on the back listing the items needed for US passport renewal. :D

Thanks so much to everyone for all your responses, and reassurances.

I should have been more clear earlier: the last time I used my passport was in 1990. (That was air travel: this will be my first cruise.) I'm pretty sure I've seen my passport since I moved into this apartment 9 years ago, but not entirely sure I've seen it since all the furniture had to be moved around after the big roof leak three years ago...

I'm booked on the Oosterdam for an Alaska cruise departing three months from tomorrow (hurray!). My passport is expired, so I figured I'd go ahead and get the renewal process underway well ahead of time. Went to pull it out of my lockbox/firesafe, and...

Nope. Not there.

I am almost entirely certain that it hasn't been stolen, because I haven't had a break-in since the last time I used it. I'm confident that I've just misremembered where I put it, and it is some obvious and logical place that will become self-evident to me the moment I find the thing.

But I'm panicked enough (oh no oh no oh no I can't find it!!! :eek:) that I'm doing a really lousy job of thinking where any obvious and logical places might be. I know it's not in my safe deposit box because I don't have a safe deposit box. I'm pretty sure it's not in the freezer because who would put their passport in the freezer??? and anyway, I just cleaned out the freezer last week.

Those are the only two places I've been able to think of so far, which means that I'd really, really, really appreciate it if some of you could tell me where you might keep your passports when you're at home. :)

My HAL cruise will call at Victoria, BC from 6pm to midnight on Saturday, May 13. I really like traditional Japanese gardens, and I'd heard that Victoria had several nice ones beyond the one in the Butchart Gardens. (Trying to see the Butchart in such a short time, with only 2 or 3 good hours of daylight, on the last day of my cruise, just seems like a recipe for disappointment.)

Googling around, I've seen references to Japanese gardens in Beacon Hill Park and in the Government House grounds, but haven't found any photos or specifics. Does anyone know of a traditional Japanese garden within taxi distance of Ogden Point that would be open on a early Saturday evening?

You may receive shore based AM/FM radio, if you bring a radio. The ship doesn't put any on the TV. There is rarely any local TV on any cruise ship, anywhere, due to various restrictions. Remember, in Alaska, the distances are great, and huge portions of the area are relatively empty.

Thanks. :)

I'm mostly hoping to catch an hour or so as the ship enters & leaves ports of call. If it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen - I may be able to find one or two other things to do on the ship. :D

Phillip said: Shipping and loading are more expensive in Alaska.

njhorseman said: Your statement "Loading food in the Caribbean is usually far less expensive as well" is rather puzzling too.

(Since someone else has already resurrected the thread) I wonder what puzzled njhorseman about this. Food produced in, say, Kansas can be shipped to, say, Ft Lauderdale via well-established and robust rail or road systems. To get the same food to Alaska; you generally either have to fly it in or barge it across some very unruly stretches of the Pacific Ocean.

If he's still reading this thread, I would be more than happy to pay the going rate in Ft. Lauderdale for all the bulk foodstocks from the Lower 48 that he can deliver to Anchorage.

Haha, this make me laugh. Back bacon is lovely. Streaky bacon is the cheap stuff here. Found it quite odd that that is all that seems to be available when we visited America couple of years ago.

Unless I'm wrong about "back bacon," something very much like it is widely available in the US; but you have to steal it from Hornet and his ilk: it's what Americans call "Canadian Bacon."

(I have no idea about the "English bacon" the OP mentioned, unless it has something to do with Sir Francis.)

Going on an Alaska cruise in early May, so I figure I'm going to need sea bands. I'm a first time cruiser, but have used sea bands before on small boats and they work for me.

Except that they're ugly. And scratchy. And when I went to buy some on Amazon, there were these other anti-nausea acupressure bracelets (Psi Bands) that are a lot nicer looking, for twice as much. Checked out Etsy, and ooh boy! - you can get all sorts of bling-ey beaded bands for however much you might be willing to pay.

So has anyone here tried the fancier versions of sea bands? Did they work for you? Did they seem worth the bother? Did wearing matching* bracelets three fingers above both wrists turn out to be a fashion statement you were comfortable with?

(*Come to think of it, I guess they don't have to match as far as color and so forth. Have been thinking I might try making my own, and the idea of coordinating but not matchy-matchy bracelets could be fun to play with...)

Originally Posted by Doug R.

On one of my cruises I was in the buffet for breakfast and there was a tray of Bacon marked "English Bacon". There was an elderly American couple in front of me. The man remarked that it looked good and it was unfair that it was only for English passengers. I replied that it was for everyone and that they should help themselves. The woman said "Oh no We don't want to risk getting into trouble." I sighed as I helped myself to some. The Jamaican man replenishing the sausage links could hardly keep from bursting into laughter.

Good! I get all the Canadian Bacon. :p

So I guess the streaky bacon is only for the people who run through the dining room naked? :D

(And do I even want to know who gets the back bacon?)

(Did try searching for this but most results were about scanners and ham radios)

I'm going on an HAL Alaska cruise in May, and I love listening to local radio stations when I travel. Public radio especially often has a great sense of the community that makes me feel like a temporary insider. I'm thinking about fetching along a small portable radio & earbuds for on-deck listening.

Do the ship's communications and navigation equipment interfere with am/fm broadcast signals? I understand that reception will fade in and out with distance, mountains, being on the wrong side of the ship's hull, etc.; and may not reach at all to my low-deck OV cabin; but want to know if it's worth the bother to fetch the radio along?

Or is it by any chance customary for the room tv's to be hooked up to ship antennas and pipe in local tv & radio reception?

Also, are there any on-board regulations about operating radio receivers (as opposed to transmitters)?

Marysb,

Thanks so much. Being able to see the menu helps a lot.

Still in place for dinner. And I suspect if you order breakfast in the morning. People are talking about placing orders the night before and not ordering directly from the MDR ;)

It still seems counter-intuitive that orders placed earlier, in writing, directly to the kitchen would be the ones charged. Unless the chargeable items are just not available from the MDR?

For 2017, this site lists the ships scheduled* in each port of call on a given day and where they are scheduled* to be docked. You got to the page for your POC, find your date, and you should see your ship listed.

This just came out a couple of weeks ago, so I'd guess the 2018 version will be available in mid-January 2018. In the meantime, if you can find a ship from your cruise line in the same port on the same day of the year, that should give you a pretty good guess.

Most POCs will have a little three-letter (or two-, or one-, or a number) code after the ship name. That's the Berth Code, and there's a link back on the page you selected your port from. For instances, in Skagway under the "SKG" Port Code, you might see "BRD," which means the ship is scheduled* to be at the Broadway Dock. If it says "anchor" or "anchorage" or "tender," you can assume you'll be tendering.

*I keep saying "scheduled" for a reason. These things can change at any minute, based on the wildly variable wind, weather and & tides of the Pacific NW and SE Alaska. In April, you can probably bet on at least one delay or disruption of some kind due to weather. In the worst case, they sometimes have to skip a port entirely, but it's more likely to be a last minute schedule change.

Not to to second-guess the Celebrity incident mentioned above, but wiping out a berth like that is just the sort of thing a captain might be trying to avoid by anchoring and making the passengers tender.

Maybe pay for your coffee herehttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/cruise-ship-tourists-get-coffee-at-alaska-homeless-shelter-1.3571586

Have anyone here seen cruise ship passengers (presumably other than themselves) taking advantage of the Ketchikan homeless shelter?

I take the flat moldable plastic vases with me on all our cruises & they work very well..The store flat & then when you are ready to use them put in warm water & mold them to the size you want..:)

 

Amazon sells them: https://www.amazon.com/Flat-Foldable-Moldable-Plastic-Vases/dp/B00GDLDCNM

 

You can also buy them on e-bay..They are called Wonder Vases on e-bay..

Hol-eey cow. I'd never heard of this before your post. Those vases seem very nice, while also strange and amazing. I may have to get one just to gawk at it in wonder.

Sometimes when I'm bored driving around Seattle, I do a comparison count. For every five Starbucks I pass, I generally get about six pot shops. :cool: