luvteaching

Good morning, Thank you everyone for the kind thoughts for my friend Wayne and his wife Karen. I've no updates at this point. We're packing up today - or rather I am, DH will watch and getting ready to disembark the Crown Princess and board the Eurodam. We get our Covid test today at 4:30 in the Medical Center and then I can finish filling out the HAL paperwork on-line. DH was sitting on his scooter yesterday with the seat turned to watch tv, fell asleep (briefly) and took a header landing on the carpet and hitting his head on some shelving. He has a big goose egg above his left eye, has some abrasions on his nose but is otherwise fine. I called down to ask for some "muscles" to help me get him up although he was trying hard to do so himself. A nurse and another staff person came then 3 other young men who helped him into the wheelchair and then onto the bed. He then thanked them and asked if I'd be going up soon to the buffet to get cookies. I definitely knew he was ok then. He ate well last night (It was the Baked Alaska Parade) and we had to fill out an accident report at the front desk. Someone will be here at 10:00 to talk to us about it. There's always something! Thanks again for all the caring thoughts. Karen

Another vote for bringing back the 14 day itinerary out of Seattle! We loved visiting Anchorage, Homer and Kodiak!' DH would like to see the return of the cold soups. We're currently on the Crown Princess and there's a cold soup on the menu every night. Tonight's is Alaska Berry. There is also a hot soup each night. The production shows. I hadn't realized how much I missed them until I attended the ones on Princess this cruise. The dancing ones are fine but I miss the singers and dancers. Karen

Good Evening from Icy Strait Point, We've had a good day today. Roy - could you add my friend Wayne and his wife Karen to the Cares list? I taught with him for 18 years, he's beat melanoma for 13 years but got Covid, then pneumonia twice, and is now on hospice. They say 2 days to 2 weeks. His wife Karen has done a super job of giving him a wonderful quality of life. He's a very special person and was a wonderful 5th grade teacher. Thank you. Here's the sunset tonight from our balcony.

Good afternoon from Glacier Bay, The Crown Princess is providing a nice experience. We were in Skagway yesterday and no rain in town. We did the train to the summit and we were in a fog and it was wet at the top. Oh well. Today is Glacier Bay and it is blue sky, sunshine and shirtsleeve weather - at least for this Pacific Northwesterner! We've spent a lot of time on our balcony enjoying the glaciers. We were close to Marjerie Glacier, Johns Hopkins, Lamplugh, and Reid. At 5:-00PM we're due in Icy Strait Point for 3 hours. We're planning on riding the gondola, wandering into the cannery and shopping, and picking up fresh mini-doughnuts! Johns Hopkins Glacier

Greetings from a wet and soggy Juneau everyone! This is our week on the Crown Princess before transfering to the Eurodam. So far all is well. We have a mini-suite (using up credits) and the location is good. However, who decided (in a handicapped accessible cabin) to have no outlets on either side of the bed? There is one set of two plug-ins at the desk and then one behind each of the tvs (yes, we have two) but that's it! There are no USB charging ports at all. The food has been good and the entertainment has been excellent. I didn't realize how much I missed the production shows until watching "Encore" last night. I do enjoy the dance ones on Holland but the music is such a nice addition. We're still docking but we'll venture out for a bit once the crowds get off. What we'll do is weather dependent. If the rain lets up we'll walk out to the whale statue or over to the Alaska State Museum. If it doesn't we'll go get postcards and come back on ship. Karen

Good evening, The bags are packed and the ones we're checking are in the car. Only the carry-on and my backpack for the morning. I can handle that. It was cooler here today especially this afternoon. Tomorrow we board the Crown Princess and the plan is to be out of the house in the neighborhood of 9:15 AM. We'll see how that goes. Karen

Good afternoon from a fairly warm (for us) Pacific Northwest. It was close to 90 today! We rain to town for errands and got our Covid test at our local health department site. In 15 minutes we were told we were negative not only for Covid but also two strains of flu! Who knew? Now on to packing. We are on the Crown Princess on Saturday so DH can ride the train in Skagway. When we get back on the 3rd to Seattle we walk across the pier and get on the Eurodam. Karen

Next Monday we'll be there on the Crown Princess and 2 weeks today we'll be there on the Eurodam. We love two weeks of cruising and swapping cruise lines is fun. Karen

Good morning, We've done Alaska many times on both lines and are leaving in 6 days for a week on the Crown Princess and a week on the Eurodam. We did a week on the Westerdam in July. We prefer HAL for a number of reasons. However, we're doing Princess so DH can go to Skagway and ride the train! The Princess ships, to me, feel so big and so crowded. I don't care for the layout of the buffet area - it feels cramped and closed in to me. I do like the entertainment on Princess and the people they bring on - Libby Riddles in Juneau, Scott Hite (I think that's his name) in Skagway, etc. On HAL we love going to Sitka - so unspoiled. We also liked, on the Westerdam, the partnering with the Raptor Center for an on-board presentation. The Lido Buffet area is much more spacious and user friendly. The cabins are more spacious as well. HAL does well with accessibility. Make your decision based on ports and what you want to see. Karen

Good morning, My husband uses a scooter and it's an easy walk/scooter over to Creek Street. If you like local shops stop at Parnasus books! Karen

Juneau is now under a "Special Weather Statement" with heavy rain Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday. My weather app shows 1.34 inches expected tomorrow and 1.83 inches on Wednesday. That's wet! Karen

We used to take a sport coat, etc. for DH but now do a pair of dressier slacks, button down shirt, tie (sometimes) and a sweater vest and he looks pretty darn spiffy in my opinion! On the Alaska cruises a suit isn't necessary. Karen

We had 8068 on the Westerdam a month ago. It's right next to the glass elevators. I checked and you could see a very small portion of our balcony but not much at all. If you were at the railing the riders could see but not if you were sitting on the chairs (at least not more than your feet!). Karen

Nobody asked to see it because it's attached to your passport and comes up on their screens that you have completed the process. I'll be heading to Canada tomorrow and have completed my ArriveCan. They won't ask to see it but if I hadn't done it I'd be pulled over and denied entry until it was done. Karen

The cruise terminal is about 6 miles out of town. They have a great shuttle service running to the Convention Center. Sitka has it down to an art getting people on excursions and to town. Karen

We got that email as well. I'd been on the HAL site over the weekend and saw Future Cruise Credits listed and was wondering where they came from! Karen

Good evening, It's been a rather warm day, 85+, in our neck of the woods. I'll be ready for Monday when the high is in the 70s! Our DS (who stays with his dad every Monday so I can go to water aerobics) turns 46 on Sunday and he requested my homemade lasagna (with cheesy bread) for dinner. So today I got the meat mixture done. Tomorrow, before the kitchen heats up (I hope) I'll get the pasta made, cooked and the lasagna put together. I make the noodles and bless DS and DDIL for getting the pasta attachment for the Kitchen Aid for me one Christmas. This recipe is called a BBQ lasagna, is super simple, and just uses what cheese you have in the fridge! It's a family favorite. BTW, the lemonade pie was a huge success yesterday and the mini-croissants worked great for sandwiches. Karen

Good morning, It's another rather warm day in the Pacific Northwest (for us). Catch up time for me on back issues of the Daily. IRS - I was on the phone, on Tuesday, with the IRS for 5.5 hours! My issue did get resolved but 4.5 hours of that time was on hold and I had 3 different transfers. It all came down to what we'd paid in federal withholding had not been transferred on one of their forms. So, what started as a refund of just over $5000.00, then went to us owing just over $9000.00, ended up being a refund of just over $6000.00 so the time was worth it! In honor of yesterday's "Take your Houseplants for a Walk" day: https://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/roseisrose/ I'd better get busy. Friends are coming for lunch and the menu is mini-croissant sandwiches, pasta salad and I made the lemonade pie yesterday. Hopefully they'll enjoy it! Karen

Good Evening Dailytes! It's in the mid-80s in the Pacific Northwest and that's plenty warm for this area! Our wired-in smoke/fire alarm keeps going off from the heat but I figure it will stop in a couple of hours. It's sporadic so I can deal with it and our son will come look at it tomorrow for us. DH's comment" I have plenty of energy. I just don't care to use it." That's after falling asleep off an on all day! We're cruising again in a month - yay. One week on Crown Princess (to go to Skagway and ride the train) and then walk across the pier and get on the Eurodam for a week. We're having company for lunch on Thursday and I'm going to make the lemonade pie. From those who have made it do you have any hints for me? Did you use the regular 12 oz (354 mL) size of lemonade or the smaller one? I'm going to make it tomorrow for Thursday's lunch. Thank you! Karen

At Seattle there are "pushers" and they are great! They take you all the way from carside at the pier, through check-in and then to a waiting area. From there, once boarding begins, shio's crew take over and wheelchair people on. It used to be that they took you to the cabin but not sure on that aspect as we now use a scooter which we pick up at the pier and DH motors on! At disembarkation you are given a bar (usually Pinnacle) to report to and there the staff will wheelchair off and down the elevator then port staff take over. They'll take you to your carside, shuttle, etc. They do accept tips (used to be they didn't but I asked this time as we needed one for a short distance and he assured me he could accept them). Karen Karen

There aren't wheelchairs available at the port. If you think you are going to need one check out Scootaround or Special Needs at Sea and get one rented for the cruise. The only port you'll have wheelchairs available is Seattle. Sitka does offer a golf cart ride up from the ship to where you catch the buses to town. Karen

Good morning Jacqui, Since DH did so well on the Westerdam cruise and is chomping at the bit to cruise again I'll add our one we had booked last year as well. We're doing our own version of a back-to-back with the Crown Princess on Aug. 27th (so DH can ride the White Pass Railraod at Skagway) and the we'll get off, go across the pier, and hop on the Eurodam (Sept. 3-10). It gives us 2 weeks of cruising! I know adding the Princess to the list isn't doable for you but please add the Eurodam. Thank you! Karen

An ambulatory room is a bit bigger and has some nice things. We had one on the Westerdam last week (DH needs a handicapped room). There was a button on the wall to open the bathroom door. The bathroom was super spacious (we had a signature suite) and we did well. We've had handicapped balcony cabins as well. If you look up the site halfacts and then navigate to your ship you may see pictures of your cabin. Karen

Good afternoon, In the PNW we are having a cooler day with the sun recently coming out and a nice breeze. This weekend isn't supposed to be that warm but by Tuesday we'll be up close to 90. The big deal that is being made, besides it being hot, is that it won't cool down much during the night so relief won't be as readily available. I sent in our Income Tax at the end of February and kept checking the "where's my refund" site about mid-April. It always said the return couldn't be found. I finally got through on the phone to a real live person who checked and came back to tell me not to panic for several months, that they still were working on returns from the year before! I put my panic mode on hold and finally checked the where's my refund site when we got back from the cruise (last Sunday) and lo and behold the return is being processed. There is hope! Karen

Just off the Westerdam. Ordered a glass of wine nightly and it arrived within 5 minutes or so. Very prompt service.