BTimmer's Almost Live Downunder 2022 - (10/2/22 to 12/6/22 on the Westerdam)

[aliaschief]

Great pictures. We love Kauai and our deeded time share is on Poipu Beach. Thanks for sharing.

[Btimmer]

As an update, we've made it past the turnaround point which took about 4 hours.

 

[canadianbear]

4 hours ago, Btimmer said:

Before this cruise and in over 650 days of cruising we had never experienced a helicopter medical evacuation.  Now we've had two.

 

We’ve never experienced being on a ship with a helicopter evacuation only once we had to stop at an unscheduled port for a medical evacuation but not helicopter.  
 

Good luck and hope no more medical stuff!  

Enjoy following along & your photos, especially snorkel ones.  
 

 

[rkacruiser]

2 hours ago, canadianbear said:

We’ve never experienced being on a ship with a helicopter evacuation

 

I experienced this once off the coast of Norway when the Eurodam was sailing towards Iceland.  The front decks and public rooms were cleared of people.  The Bridge cam showed what was taking place on the bow's open deck.  And, having a veranda stateroom in the area of the forward elevator foyer, we were able to see a bit from our veranda.  Quite interesting to observe.  

[canadianbear]

5 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I experienced this once off the coast of Norway when the Eurodam was sailing towards Iceland.  The front decks and public rooms were cleared of people.  The Bridge cam showed what was taking place on the bow's open deck.  And, having a veranda stateroom in the area of the forward elevator foyer, we were able to see a bit from our veranda.  Quite interesting to observe.  

I’ve seen videos that have been posted on helicopter evacuations and that’s good enough for me!   I do like how the Captain announces an update if the person is doing well.  

[rkacruiser]

2 minutes ago, canadianbear said:

I’ve seen videos that have been posted on helicopter evacuations and that’s good enough for me!   I do like how the Captain announces an update if the person is doing well.  

 

I do not recall the Master of the Eurodam giving us an update.  But, I agree, more information would be appreciated.  (But, remember:  the PR rule on a ship regarding ship's personnel's response to a guest's inquiry is "Happy, Happy".  

[canadianbear]

2 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I do not recall the Master of the Eurodam giving us an update.  But, I agree, more information would be appreciated.  (But, remember:  the PR rule on a ship regarding ship's personnel's response to a guest's inquiry is "Happy, Happy".  

Exactly.   When I took our daughter on a partial Panama cruise a few years back we had to make an unscheduled stop outside of Acapulco-hovered out at sea & a boat came to get the patient.  The next day the Captain said he wasn’t sure we’d make it back on time in Ft Lauderdale but on a side note he said the patient was doing very well so that was good.

[Btimmer]

Just now, canadianbear said:

I’ve seen videos that have been posted on helicopter evacuations and that’s good enough for me!   I do like how the Captain announces an update if the person is doing well.  

I watched and filmed the first evac off Port Angeles in day 2 of the cruise.  For this one, it was dark and a prone position was more comfortable.

[canadianbear]

On 9/25/2022 at 7:13 AM, WriterOnDeck said:

Time, I, too, can't wait for this cruise to start! And it's always good to hear that someone else will be posting along the way! I'll be blogging at www.WriterOnDeck.com. Do you know if anyone else on the cruise is blogging?

 

See you soon!

Just remembered you were blogging!  Thanks for doing this-was just reading & looking at your photos.  

[Lido deck main]

Hi Tim,

We were on a 10 day cruise in September Vancouver to San Diego and various other stops then return to Vancouver.  We had two helicopter medical evacuations on that cruise, never before in over 300 days had we had that and had two in 10 days.  Before we even left port in Vancouver there was medical attending to a passenger sitting on the lido deck.  I am thinking as we were all locked in for the last three years, we all want to get going travelling regardless of our current health status.

[Btimmer]

Today the Captain held his "Ask the Captain" session.  It was totally packed and he spoke for over an hour giving the typical electronic tour of the ship but also some photographs of the cleaning of the hull in a drydock session in Portland, Oregon before the resumption of its cruising. He then entertained questions.  A young person asked a question that stumped the Captain.  That question was, "Why is the bridge called the bridge?"  He offered to research it and report back.  Naturally a number of questions revolved around the two helicopter medivacs.  He noted that he was in telephone contact with the US Coast Guard every 30 minutes as the evacuation plan developed. In the first one at Port Angeles, the helicopter was too small to take the companion of the medically challenged guest off the ship.  For the second one at Kona, they first wanted him to return to Honolulu, but because of a shorter distance to Kona and less fuel consumption, he persuaded them to fly to Kona, refuel and then do the evacuation off the coast there.  In this case both the wife and the patient were both evacuated by helicopter.

 

Then, after the hour of presenting, he did a further Q&A session in front of the stage for another 40 minutes.  This is the most time I have experienced having the Captain spend time like this with passengers on any ship we've sailed on.

 

Tonight is the Orange party in the BBKing lounge.  I've got a bunch of Orange to wear, so we'll see how it goes.

 

Tomorrow is the Captain Neptune ceremony at the aft Lido pool and it should be a lot of fun.  

 

This is really turning out to be a fun cruise and we are totally enjoying ourselves.

[USN59-79]

One thing about helicopter evacuations from ships; they aren't always simple.  When I was on my first ship, a seaplane tender, we were off the California coast and a sailor needed a medivac.  A helo landed on the aft of the ship, he was in a stretcher and secured inside the copter along with a corpsman and the pilot.  As they took off the rotor just touched something on the ship and disintegrated.  The helo dropped to the ship and slipped over the side.  Unfortunately, it sunk with the patient still aboard; the others were able to swim out when it hit the water.

[Btimmer]

I was reviewing my screen shot of the return track for the second medivac, and I can see where the course headed for Honolulu but altered to head for Kona.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

2 hours ago, Btimmer said:

Today the Captain held his "Ask the Captain" session.  It was totally packed and he spoke for over an hour giving the typical electronic tour of the ship but also some photographs of the cleaning of the hull in a drydock session in Portland, Oregon before the resumption of its cruising. He then entertained questions.  A young person asked a question that stumped the Captain.  That question was, "Why is the bridge called the bridge?"  He offered to research it and report back.  Naturally a number of questions revolved around the two helicopter medivacs.  He noted that he was in telephone contact with the US Coast Guard every 30 minutes as the evacuation plan developed. In the first one at Port Angeles, the helicopter was too small to take the companion of the medically challenged guest off the ship.  For the second one at Kona, they first wanted him to return to Honolulu, but because of a shorter distance to Kona and less fuel consumption, he persuaded them to fly to Kona, refuel and then do the evacuation off the coast there.  In this case both the wife and the patient were both evacuated by helicopter.

 

Then, after the hour of presenting, he did a further Q&A session in front of the stage for another 40 minutes.  This is the most time I have experienced having the Captain spend time like this with passengers on any ship we've sailed on.

 

Tonight is the Orange party in the BBKing lounge.  I've got a bunch of Orange to wear, so we'll see how it goes.

 

Tomorrow is the Captain Neptune ceremony at the aft Lido pool and it should be a lot of fun.  

 

This is really turning out to be a fun cruise and we are totally enjoying ourselves.

Here is a long snd interesting answer to the bridge question.  
 

https://themaritimepost.com/2021/01/video-why-the-command-center-of-a-ship-is-called-bridge/

[Btimmer]

Just now, The-Inside-Cabin said:

Here is a long snd interesting answer to the bridge question.  
 

https://themaritimepost.com/2021/01/video-why-the-command-center-of-a-ship-is-called-bridge/

Thanks, Pete!

[Btimmer]

Just now, Btimmer said:

I was reviewing my screen shot of the return track for the second medivac, and I can see where the course headed for Honolulu but altered to head for Kona.

I showed the track to the Captain and he confirmed what I thought.

[Btimmer]

Tonight was the Orange party.  It was well attended in a packed BBKing Blues Club.

our orange

 

[jeh10641]

On 10/6/2022 at 10:51 PM, Btimmer said:

Tonight's entertainment was Cantaré performing songs from Stage and Screen.  It was the world public debut of this set. They were really good. It was so good that we watched both performances.

 

 

We've seen this group on other ships and they are a favorite of ours.

Hi, Tim,

We saw them on Rotterdam last December. They were awesome then as well.

 

Jim

[mooseridge]

Thank you BTImmer for your great coverage of your trip!  Question for you.  We just returned from a 2 week Alaska cruise on the Niew Amsterdam.  We love Alaska & go often.  Our favorite thing is watching/seeing the whales.  Alas, we didn't see one!!!  A first for sure.  We were told majority had already left for Hawaii where they will have their babies before their return. next spring.

 

Did you see any whales please???   

 

mooseridge

[mooseridge]

Thank you BTImmer for your great coverage of your trip!  Question for you.  We just returned from a 2 week Alaska cruise on the Niew Amsterdam.  We love Alaska & go often.  Our favorite thing is watching/seeing the whales.  Alas, we didn't see one!!!  A first for sure.  We were told majority had already left for Hawaii where they will have their babies before their return. next spring.

 

Did you see any whales please???   

 

mooseridge

[Btimmer]

Just now, mooseridge said:

Thank you BTImmer for your great coverage of your trip!  Question for you.  We just returned from a 2 week Alaska cruise on the Niew Amsterdam.  We love Alaska & go often.  Our favorite thing is watching/seeing the whales.  Alas, we didn't see one!!!  A first for sure.  We were told majority had already left for Hawaii where they will have their babies before their return. next spring.

 

Did you see any whales please???   

 

mooseridge

In Kona, our zodiac driver said the first whale sightings were about 3 weeks ago but the majority were still in transit. On that zodiac trip, our guide spotted a spout off the Westerdam's stern, and we searched for it in vain.

 

We did two ALaska cruises this past summer and I only recall that we only saw whales out of Juneau on a whale watching trip.  On a repositioning cruise from Sea-FLL a year ago in September, we had several whale sighting in Mexican waters.  As the guides always say, "Sightings are probable, but not guaranteed."

 

We've also done a number of Alaska cruises, and the majority of the time we haven't seen whales.

Edited October 14, 2022 by Btimmer

[rkacruiser]

20 hours ago, Btimmer said:

Then, after the hour of presenting, he did a further Q&A session in front of the stage for another 40 minutes.  This is the most time I have experienced having the Captain spend time like this with passengers on any ship we've sailed on.

 

Who is this gentleman?  He needs to recognized for being guest friendly.  And, particularly for helping guests that wish to learn more about their cruising experience.  

[Btimmer]

Today we had the shellback ceremony where the polliwogs (those who had never crossed the equator) were 'tried' by King Neptune and bowed to or kissed the fish. We were actually 4° north of the equator and are expected to pass it tonight at midnight.

 

A marlin

Polliwogs drying in the sun 

Kneeling before the 'jury'

Getting the meringue treatment

Judge, King Neptune, and his queen

Washing off

The King and his mermaid

 

 

 

[Btimmer]

The Captain just announced masks are optional fleetwide for the crew.  He just came through the Lido maskless with a huge smile.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

4 hours ago, Btimmer said:

The Captain just announced masks are optional fleetwide for the crew.  He just came through the Lido maskless with a huge smile.

great news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!