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Bimmer09

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About Me

  • Location
    Chicago, via NJ, via Miami, via London, via Northern Ireland
  • Interests
    Opera, theater, ships,driving in Germany, all things French including fries,drums,sailing.
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Any line not featuring Joe Farcus "designs"
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Alaska and hopefully the Baltic

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  1. Thanks Joe but I'll give Esther the day off. I'm aware of Zeerover but it's not our cup of tea. We'll take our customary walk to West Deck for lunch and enjoy the view and atmosphere. Norris
  2. April rain in AK was a record 3.4 inches in 2017. In 2023 it was 2.0. As I have a vested interest I will check the rain this April in Ketchikan and also Prince Rupert, rainiest place in BC. It's always worth taking an umbrella of course-including in the toasty Caribbean. I can easily cancel as it's 2 years away if it seems there's a high chance of rain as you feel. I'll post the rain results on this thread between April 19 and 26. Norris
  3. Yes I see I have read that NS review. What a bout your AFT Vista on the previous NS? Do you have a link to that one? Understood re the 6D MK1 issues. My 6D MKII is still in tip top shape after 7 years of heavy use. I bought a separate camcorder SONY 53 for our Panama Canal cruise. Norris
  4. Joe, Arctic on the NS (deck 7 aft Vista) is June 15, 2025 from Rotterdam (14 day sail). We have Club Orange for that one and will get to spend 4 days in Amsterdam. Norris
  5. LOL Joe- we eat at West Deck when in Aruba. Next visit December 25 2024 on Rotterdam! Norris
  6. Joe, I see that I already followed the Nieuw Amsterdam. I'm reading it again. I see they moved you from the deck 5 Neptune to 7132 on your second week. I booked the equivalent on Noordam which is 7142 and on this December's Rotterdam have 7130 Aft Wrap Neptune. The only non-Neptune I've booked is the Arctic Nieuw Statendam as we have a Vista instead- didn't think we'd spend much balcony time there. Rudi Sodamin has been moved to Princess to help rescue their food-that's the reason we didn't book another Princess cruise after our past 2 Christmas sailings. It was the food vlogging videos that got me interested in trying HAL Pinnacle Class. Did you buy the Canon D90 for the 4K video? Norris
  7. Joe (and Pam) thanks for the video links! Looks like i'm going to be busy reading today! Cheers, Norris
  8. We're all different. We couldn't do 36 days on any ship going anywhere-because we have cats at home and to date our longest trip has been 16 days. If no cats then we could be more flexible- but one of us has a company to run. We canceled 14 days on the Nieuw Statendam going to Turkey, Egypt and Greece, September this year because we were excited to have a musical reason to go to Europe 6 weeks before that cruise and once to Europe is enough per year. Airfares are brutal. The Great Bear cruise couldn't hold a candle to that nor to our Iceland cruise or our Cuba cruise, nor any of our Med cruises . However it doesn't need us to fly to Europe. It gets us cruising in April which is a first, it gets us back to Seattle where we used to fly to the Opera and drive up Mt St. Helens and Rainier. It gets us on another HAL ship but only if we enjoy the first one this Christmas (Rotterdam.) We like Victoria for the gardens, enjoyed Ketchikan for Misty Fjords and the bears/eagles. We've liked the Inside Passage scenery from Ketchikan to Vancouver. We also have two friends we seldom see in B.C. who might come to Nanaimo or Victoria to see us. My partner runs a company that writes financial reports on many businesses and Carnival is one such and it was she who found out about this new itinerary in a press release. My mail found out from HAL a couple of days after I had booked our sailing at her urging . The weather won't factor much for us. We've done Norway, Iceland and have Nieuw Statendam to the Arctic Circle in June 2025. Where do your 36 days begin and on which ship? I've enjoyed reading your reviews. Norris
  9. I Googled a couple of ports for average rainfall... Victoria 3 inches of rain in April, 8 inches October Prince Rupert 8 inches in April, 16 inches October (wettest town in Canada) I've done 3 Alaskan cruises. The first from Anchorage to Vancouver had 5 days of rain and fog then 2 days (Ketchikan to Vancouver 70F zero rain) That was mid August 2011. Following year same time 7 days of sunshine/cloudy no rain Vancouver to Anchorage. It's a different itinerary with only 2 sailings and weather isn't guaranteed. I'm looking forward to it! Norris
  10. I'm glad others are interested in this itinerary. Ten hours in Victoria give us ample time to reacquaint ourselves with Butchart Gardens. We took a very expensive seaplane flight there after of our Anchorage to Vancouver Princess cruise in 2011. Got a taxi in Victoria and had him wait for a couple of hours at the gardens. Despite the cost it proved worth the spend in terms of life experiences. No seaplane this time. Carol has since grown her own garden and is a learned green-thumber. Her garden now is flower pots high above the streets of Chicago. We will walk through Butchart on air... New Canadian ports are welcome. Off the beaten track. It's odd to have 3 HAL cruises booked. Usually we try one cruise with a new to us line before booking another. The itineraries have made us commit, backed up with reviews and YouTube videos from HAL ships, principally Pinnacle class. Only the night-time entertainment looks like a big step-down from Princess and Celebrity. Still it's 9 months until our first sail and maybe HAL can replace Lincoln Center and whatever other room it is currently dialing back. We will likely linger over dinners. A bonus on our Noordam sailing is breakfast in Pinnacle Grill which is a beautiful room. We have Club Orange on our Pinnacle class sailings. I'll be watching the board in October 2025! Cheers! Norris
  11. Thanks for the good wishes! I imagine Ketchikan is a requirement (foreign port) but although we have been there 3 times prior we are happy to visit again. It's a picturesque little town and I'm always armed to the teeth with cameras. I saw some bears on one of our visits there...we visited the rainforest and I had my camcorder with me. I took 3 videos with bears. I can never remember- did the guide say we should "keep quiet and don't move" or was it "run at them while shouting!" I guess I'll find out April 2026. Haven't been in Ketchikan since 2016. We were on the Star Princess. Norris
  12. Jim, I imagine we will. We will get to find out on our Christmas cruise this year on the Rotterdam. If we like that we'll continue with our Arctic and Scotland cruise June 2025 on Nieuw Statendam. Christmas 2025 finds us at the Panama Canal via Celebrity Ascent. After that we'll be on Noordam as described. The good word of mouth via YouTube and this board on the HAL food and amenities impressed me to make the case for trying HAL to She Who Matters. I was right about Princess in 2011. Right about Celebrity in 2016. Right about Azamara in 2019. We have 20 happy cruises under our belts. So I'm feeling lucky! Thanks for your endorsement Jim! I was surprised to be the first to mention this new cruise itinerary. Happy to get my pick of Neptunes though. There are apparently only 2 sailings scheduled. https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/find-a-cruise/l6p07a/n621 That's our itinerary.... Norris
  13. I got an email this morning offering up some new Pacific Coast/Mexico HAL cruises and was instructed to book one pronto. Neither DeckChairQueen nor I have sailed HAL before and yet now I find we have 3 bookings. The cruises show on the HAL website so I didn't bother getting in touch with our PCC. Snagged an aft-wrap Neptune with HIA and booked online. Ketchikan and Victoria are the only ports we are familiar with from our Princess sailings. Anyone else get the email and book? We are on the 7 day Noordam April 19 2026. She also has a sailing in October 2025. Norris
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