Maybe live from the Nieuw Amsterdam's fourth Alaska cruise, 2021

[julia]

1 hour ago, RuthC said:

Since I went to soft luggage years ago, I always line it with dry cleaner plastic bags on all sides. I've seen too much luggage waiting on the tarmac to take a chance. 

Yep, same here Ruth... I use white drawstring kitchen trash bags to keep things dry.  One (or two) of them become our "clothes hamper" during the cruise, and makes for easy packing at the end.  At home, the bag(s) go straight to the laundry room.

[seaoma]

11 minutes ago, julia said:

Yep, same here Ruth... I use white drawstring kitchen trash bags to keep things dry.  One (or two) of them become our "clothes hamper" during the cruise, and makes for easy packing at the end.  At home, the bag(s) go straight to the laundry room.

 

I do the same thing. I use packing cubes for our clothes so it makes "packing" inside the garbage bag very easy.

[Love the beach]

2 hours ago, RuthC said:

Happy you made it home, if very late. That's one thing I don't like about an Alaska cruise---the time change coming home is brutal. Now you can rest---sleeping through the storm sounds like a good idea! 

Since I went to soft luggage years ago, I always line it with dry cleaner plastic bags on all sides. I've seen too much luggage waiting on the tarmac to take a chance. 

I must have gotten that tip from you Ruth....I do the same thing!

[Boytjie]

@RuthCIIRC you are in Rhode Island. If so, I hope you are safe in the storm since that seems to be where it made landfall. In NYC it has just been rain, not much wind. 

[scubacruiserx2]

11 hours ago, Boytjie said:

We made it home safely, it was a rather bumpy flight especially approaching the New York area. 
 

It was raining hard and there was a long line for taxis and no taxis. We opted to take the Airtrain/Long Island Railroad and got soaked getting to the local Lyft ride. 
 

HAD to unpack since the luggage got wet. Now finally time to sleep. 

 

We're glad that you got home safely . Sorry about the luggage . Living in a rainy and hurricane zone one thing that we always carry in the outside pockets of our luggage is large trash bags . We pop them over the luggage , pull the handle through a hole that we make and roll our luggage . It's worked for us .

 

 

[Boytjie]

1 hour ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

We're glad that you got home safely . Sorry about the luggage .

 

 

The contents did not get very wet but along the edges and zippers there were some damp spots on clothing.

 

Great tip, BTW!

Edited August 22, 2021 by Boytjie

[Cajuntraveler]

On 8/14/2021 at 4:04 PM, Cruizer Diana said:

The reason I ask is that the last time we sailed from this dock (Aug 2919), the Lyft ride dropped us a bit of a walk to the luggage drop area. The driver was not allowed to take the taxi lane.

I'm just catching up on reading this thread so don't know if you got an answer.  When we disembarked the NA yesterday, I noticed the Lyft/uber pick up area was a good way from the terminal.  The sidewalk is not covered so it would be a rather long walk in the rain dragging suitcases. I did see some people waiting for rides under an awning closer to the terminal.  We used Seattle Express for our return trip to the airport.  Their van was parked near the terminal entrance.

[aliaschief]

9 minutes ago, Cajuntraveler said:

I'm just catching up on reading this thread so don't know if you got an answer.  When we disembarked the NA yesterday, I noticed the Lyft/uber pick up area was a good way from the terminal.  The sidewalk is not covered so it would be a rather long walk in the rain dragging suitcases. I did see some people waiting for rides under an awning closer to the terminal.  We used Seattle Express for our return trip to the airport.  Their van was parked near the terminal entrance.

Upon embarkation we got a wonderful porter who worked for us in our best interest. After clearing the terminal there was a short delay waiting in line for a cab right outside terminal.. He chose to stay with us to ensure we got a metered cab!

 

He stated maybe around $40.00 to $50.00 to airport but we were staying at Marriott Waterfront and it cost $11.80 plus tip.

 

I have to say the employees at the Seattle Cruise Terminal were the friendliest and best I have ever encountered.

[rkacruiser]

After a wet luggage experience arriving in AMS for a Eurodam Baltic Cruise, I have tried the dry cleaner plastic bags idea.  I found them difficult to use; reduced my ability to use the "nooks and crannies" in my luggage; and when unpacking on the ship, my tux was the most wrinkled it had ever been after unpacking.  Not a fan of this idea for soft sided luggage.  If I need to replace luggage, it's back to hard sided for me.  

[RuthC]

7 hours ago, Boytjie said:

@RuthCIIRC you are in Rhode Island. If so, I hope you are safe in the storm since that seems to be where it made landfall. In NYC it has just been rain, not much wind. 

Thank you for asking! 

Yes, Henri made landfall in Westerly. The south coast of the state, especially the western half, was hit hard, with power outages, flooded streets, and a water surge. 
I'm central in the state, and had a rainy day, with some sustained wind. Nothing to be concerned about. 

For such a small state, it's unexpected we could have such different experiences with the tropical storm. 

[Boytjie]

Day 6 on the NADM: Ketchikan.

 

Woke up to being docked in Downtown Ketchikan. We had breakfast in the Lido and headed out to meet our excursion on the pier. We arrived there about 10 minutes early and were surprised to be the last ones to arrive! Soon we were in the minivan and on our way for the Exclusive Coastal Cruise & Oyster Farm with Ocean-to-Table Tasting (I wrote about the excursion earlier)

 

 

On the drive there we saw the NCL Encore sailing toward sit's docking location, Ward Cove, about 7 miles north of Ketchikan. We also learned that Ketchikan measures their annual rainfall in feet, the average being 12.9 feet! 😮

 

Were were back at the ship around 1 PM and walked around a bit, strolling on Creek Street (did not see any salmon), then through the The Stedman–Thomas Historic District and ended up at the Sourdough Bar. Our excursion bus driver told us that it is sort of a museum of Ketchikan ship wrecks; pictures of local ship wrecks cover the walls.

 

Back on board we grabbed burgers and fries from the Dive In and downed it with Alaskan beer. So good!

 

Soon we were on our way heading for Seattle, I grabbed a blanket and sat out on the balcony. The very noisy neighbors did not stay on their balcony that long, perhaps my loud "SHUT UP" drove them away. They only seemed to be able to communicate via yelling. Soon enough I doze off for a nice nap.

 

It was time for coffee and as we were walking into the Crow's Nest I noticed that we were turning. I assumed it was due t a bend in the channel but the captain made an announcement about the need to turn back to Ketchikan due to a medical emergency that could not be handled in the in the medical bay and with a sea day ahead the patient had to get to the hospital in Ketchikan. After a while he cam back on to announce that the Coast Guard was arriving and that the patient would be transferred and we would be on our way again.

We ad been hanging out with Dan and Chris from Wisconsin all tis time and they joined us for dinner in the Dining Room. The duck breast was the best I have had on any ship. As has become my custom, I had the no-sugar-added dessert, an almond cake. Once again, it was delicious.

 

Richard and I decided to hit the casino but the roulette table remained crowded so after feeding the slots a few bucks - and getting some back, for a change - we headed to the Gallery Bar for our nightcap(s). Aelread was delightful behind the bar as he helped us sample more of the whiskeys and bourbons that that qualified under our Premium Beverage packages.

 

So ended another fine day on the dam ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 23, 2021 by Boytjie

[Boytjie]

Day 7 on the NADM: At Sea.

 

We woke up to calm seas and less low clouds, soon the sun would attempt to come out.

 

We did not plan much for most of the day. We whiled away some time playing Bananagrams in the Crow's Nest. A woman asked us if we were playing Scrabble so we explained what Bananagrams was. She asked us if we minded if she joined us, and we said we did not. So we played a couple of games with Patrician and she was hooked. She told us that her husband liked to sleep late on cruises and her family did not care for playing games, so she was happy to spend some time with us.

 

We had sent out a bag of laundry on Thursday and it was back in the cabin when we returned from the Crow's Nest, neatly folded or on hangers (first time I saw that).
 

We also received two tiles! We have only received tiles on our 2008 Zuiderdam cruise (our second dam cruise); after that they no longer gave them out on our charters. 😮 I did get a tile when I visited @Copper10-8 on the Maasdam in New York and I scored a Eurodam Inaugural tile from the Hotel Manager on our 2009 charter cruise on the Eurodam.
 
At lunch time we headed straight to the Asian section where Indian food was featured. It was really good! Most days when we ate lunch in the Lido we went straight to the Asian section; it was consistently good. There were even Indian desserts.

 

In the afternoon we attended the "Ask the Captain" event on the Mianstage. Captian Baijens talked about the bridge and general ship operations aided by slides of the topics touched on. He then answered questions from the audience.

 

We returned to the Gallery Bar at 5 PM, the unofficial LGBTQ+ meeting time and location (it dropped of the When and Where after Day 2) and had a cocktail with the two couples we connected with at the first gathering. We toasted Joe and Jeff on their 30th anniversary before they left to have dinner in the Tamarind. We arranged to meet Skip and Arthur for dinner in the Dining Room and scored another table at the window (as we did all cruise long!)

 

We wandered around a bit after dinner and it was very quiet - people must have been packing. We noticed that the casino was closing up early and did not get a chance to play some more roulette. We had a last round of drinks served by Aelread, cashed out and headed back to our cabin to pack. Always a sad time on a cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

Indian lunch in the Lido.

 

 

Ask the Captain. 
 

Edited August 23, 2021 by Boytjie

[Boytjie]

Disembarkation Day.

 

Our friend was picking us up at the ship and wee were going to have breakfast with him before he would drop us off at the airport. We arranged to meet him at 9 AM.

 

Since we were heading to breakfast off the ship, we got our last coffees at the Explorations Café; the beverage package still worked. We strolled through the Lido to see if anyone was around to say goodbye to, but  nobody we met were. We found Adi and Gondo, our cabin stewards and thanked them for everything they did for us.

 

Since we only had carry-on luggage, we were free to disembark anytime between 7:00 and 9:30 AM. We packed our final things and and left the cabin at 8:45 AM. There were no lines and we were in the passenger pick-up/drop-off area by 8:55 AM.

 

We were sad to leave the Nieuw Amsterdam but also happy to have spent a week on the ship.

 

 

Edited August 23, 2021 by Boytjie

[Cruizer Diana]

   On 8/14/2021 at 2:04 PM,  Cruizer Diana said: 

The reason I ask is that the last time we sailed from this dock (Aug 2919), the Lyft ride dropped us a bit of a walk to the luggage drop area. The driver was not allowed to take the taxi lane.

 

23 hours ago, Cajuntraveler said:

I'm just catching up on reading this thread so don't know if you got an answer.  When we disembarked the NA yesterday, I noticed the Lyft/uber pick up area was a good way from the terminal.  The sidewalk is not covered so it would be a rather long walk in the rain dragging suitcases. I did see some people waiting for rides under an awning closer to the terminal.  We used Seattle Express for our return trip to the airport.  Their van was parked near the terminal entrance.

 

Thank you Cajuntraveler. That is how I remembered the Lyft/Uber pick up area--a long, uncovered walk from the terminal. The good news for us is that our neighbor will drop us off and some friends have just booked to join us on the cruise. They have offered to drop us off at home. 😀