Jump to content

Bimmer09

Members
  • Posts

    8,933
  • Joined

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

Recent Profile Visitors

9,980 profile views

Bimmer09's Achievements

5,000+ Club

5,000+ Club (4/15)

  • "Live from...." Rare

Recent Badges

  1. Thanks Joe. We've visited Seattle twice before , each time for a week of attending the Opera there. I've always had a rental car so we could visit Mt St Helens and Mt Rainier and Dungeness. Snowsqualmie Falls too. We'll just do a day or two either side of the cruise, I imagine without a car. The last time we were there was 2001 and the environs were taking a downturn due to people sleeping rough. We always stay at the Inn at the Market hotel by Pike's Place Market.It has a great deck with fire pits overlooking Puget Sound. Good eats nearby. Chihuly gardens is a must. We always stay at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and Chihuly is part of the draw there . We've done 3 Alaska cruises so far. One from Whittier to Vancouver and two from Vancouver to Whittier. We've never been tempted by a Seattle round-trip.We'll look forward to Ketchikan again in 2026 on Noordam and we'll do a cruisetour some year that will hit Skagway and Juneau too. We've landed on a glacier in a helicopter, flown over Misty Fjords in a float plane, sailed Misty F in a fast boat, seen bears up close in Ketchikan, seen eagles from the Chilcoot river near Haines, enjoyed whale watching with Harv N Marv twice, sled dogged in Juneau, done the White Pass railroad in the luxury car and regular cars. We've been to Butchart Gardens near Victoria. Alaska is our jam. I learned to ski on Grouse Mountain in Vancouver and spent a day on Whistler Mountain I'll never forget. I'm very British Columbia friendly and have friends there. We are never tempted by Hawaii or the South Pacific-we're not beach lovers really. I would dream of Norway before I'd dream of Bora Bora. We will next cruise the Caribbean-this Christmas on the Rotterdam which is our HAL tester. It will be much warmer than Chicago and the cruise will be as much about the ship as the islands.I have a good feeling about the prospect. Thanks for the helpful links. Norris
  2. April 2026 Alaska cruises aren't listed yet on either HAL or Princess sites. B2B =great idea. Norris
  3. Thanks Jim. We were in Amsterdam early June 2023 to join the Celebrity Apex to Iceland. We had 4 great days of being tourists and dining around the clock. went to the Opera, Rijksmuseum, Rembrandt Square, Flower Market etc. We stayed in the Centrum district on a canal. In a Radisson. We'll do 4 more days split around our NS sailing June 15 2025. We've already picked out a different hotel which overlooks our favorite eatery seen above (called De Jaren cafe). It's next to Hotel de L'Europe which you must have seen on your visit. Thanks for the consideration! Norris
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. LOL Joe- we eat at West Deck when in Aruba. Next visit December 25 2024 on Rotterdam! Norris
  9. 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
  10. Joe (and Pam) thanks for the video links! Looks like i'm going to be busy reading today! Cheers, Norris
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. 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
×
×
  • Create New...