lyndarra

On my recent Alaska cruise there was no checking prior to boarding, it was business as usual. Today there was this post on HAL roll call for our cruise. "Message boards on another site are indicating many people got sick and tested positive for COVID-19 on our cruise or during a land portion afterwards. I personally felt there were a ton of passengers on our land portion to Denali who were sick and not masking. There was so much coughing and hacking on the train and bus tours, where we were stuck together for many hours, that it seemed inevitable to get sick from them. Alas, I tested positive for COVID-19 the day after my flight home. I'm thankful I wasn't sick during the trip. The most disappointing part was just seeing so many fellow travelers not care about getting others sick, not bothering to mask, etc." This was a surprise to me as I did not notice anything untoward during the cruise. Our post cruise tour was independent but same itinerary. We were on the same train to Denali but different car and different bus for Denali Tundra tour. We were also in different accomodation as were some people we met off an X cruise.

The Komodo tour we did in January was a private tour, not ship. It was organised by another cruiser through the HAL Roll Call.

Pink beach is on a different part of Komodo. We booked a Komodo tour that included lunch on a boat as we motored to the island where we spent some time snorkeling. Equipment was provided the snorkeling was very good. I was very surprised to see a beautiful beche de mer. Surprised at its bright blue and also that it had not been eaten - yet!

G'day all. I got back this morning. I spent a very pleasant day touring Vancouver with Lyle and his delightful wife Lynne. Lyle is as nice a bloke in the flesh as he is on CC. As Lyle mentioned we had a nice lunch. Mine was washed down with, IIRC, a peach IPA. We had a coffee stop (hot chocolate for Lyle) in the afternoon at a popular but nice waterside coffee shop before they dropped me at the airport. Wonderful to experience of XCanadian hospitality (sorry, I have trouble remembering names of places).

You must have a pre-booked tour to visit Komodo. It is strictly policed and the tour operators require government approval and registration. You cannot go ashore and wander around on your own. That's how it was as recent as January this year.

We saw a moose this morning near the Denali Visitors centre. It was crossing the railway tracks and was following a popular walking track. We were in a bus at the time but couldn't stop for photos as it, the bus, would have been on the tracks.

My wife and I were here in 2015 and we were lucky enough to see both east and west side of the mountain. The bus driver today said that it's a 1 in 3 chance to get a clear view.

My first post in a while.phone SIM still not working and was having problems with ship dial-up wifi. The predicted storm arrived to coincide with disembarking on Sunday. Our off time was 6.45, which we ignored as our bus wasn't due until 9.30 but we had to get off before then. Rain was coming in horizontal and the covered walkway from ship to terminal didn't have much effect but was better than nothing. There were several hot air blowers aimed at passengers as they entered the building. It's a long ride from Whittier to Anchorage but the closer we got, the more the weather settled. We had an hour or so to spare before boarding bus to Talkeetna. Have had no spare time here in Denali until now. Arrived 6.00pm yesterday to find our hotel shuttle had not arrived to pick us up. All other buses had left and we were left standing in the car park like shags on a rock. A local volunteer noticed our predicament and organised for a staff driver ti take us up to the Grande Hotel. We had booked Cabin Nite for 7.30 that night (which is an out of town venue). We only had time to check into hotel and board the bus to venue. It was a great night of entertainment. Back to hotel about 10.00pm but no time to socialise as we had to be ready by 04.50 next morning for bus to Denali Tundra tour. Tour was great but not as long as normal due to road damaged by a recent landslide. We saw bears, a moose, many caribou, ground squirrels but no dall sheep. Oh, we also got to see Mt Denali is bright sunshine, free of cloud. A wonderful sight. We were back at hotel by 11.00am. Been to town for lunch and now resting.

The captain said we should expect a storm from SW tonight and possibly rain tomorrow.

Do people walk at that time in the morning?😁 Too cold for me.🥶

We have just docked in Whittier three hours early due to a passenger's medical condition. Will be disembarking from about 6.30 in the morning.

My FIL had a Gladstone bag which he used for a while when he was a bookie at the dogs. It was de rigueur for bookies.

Cruise is almost finished and so far weather has been excellent - no rain. We dock in Wittier tomorrow. I decided to bite the billet and take out HAL internet "Surf" package. It doesn't seem to be as easy to use as it was on Westerdam last January but it may be just me. Internet is very, very, very slow - dial up speed. No complaints about service or food. In LAX I managed find a shop selling SIMs so I bought the only one they had which was a LycaMobile which gave me 12 gig of data, usable in US and Canada. The stupid SIM only seems to work when it wants to. I have only just figured out using my phone to access CC so I'll try and post a pic or two after we get off as we will have a few days in Alaska before returning to Vancouver.

An nary a thought anywhere here for the crew that have to endure an unsafe workplace.

@Blackduck59 I have two free days in Vancouver on 16/6 and 17/6. I fly out 2225 17/6. Tony is leaving on earlier flight 17/6. My email is CC name @gmail.com.

You'll have liquefaction where you have a soft or sandy base plus water combined with tremors. The water table where I am is about 1m. 7 day Inside Passage cruise on Nieu Amsterdam 7 day Alaska tour Anchorage - Fairbanks.

My insurers, Shannons, are on the ball. After informing them that I was leaving Oz tomorrow, they had my Home assessor here yesterday and the car assessor has been in touch and organised for everything to go ahead on my return. I've already heard back from the assessor and will be receiving a cash payment for the deck damage. This is due to the fall of the roof being insufficient and will need to be rectified by myself. Its something I have known for some time as my house was built with poor footings over swampy ground back in the fifties. This has resulted in some sinking and moving over the years which was not helped by the Newcastle earthquake (liquefaction) in December 1989. I have had pier work done to stabalise things but will have to lower the outer deck supports to increase fall angle before I replace the sheeting (with colorbond - no more hail holes). Re liquefaction issue. The council now requires massive, deep piers for all new constructions in my area.

With less than a week to go before flying to Alaska I thought I had everything sorted. Then came the hail storm last Friday. Since then I've been trying to lodge claims (home and vehicle) and trying to get assessors in before I leave. Damage has not been too serious but at my age I'm not about to start climbing around on the roof checking for cracked tiles. The solar heating mat for the pool is full of holes and will need to be replaced along with the polycarbonate sheeting over the back deck. My son was lucky. He lives one street away and last Wedenesday he picked up his new Subaru BRZ. He decided to drive it to work on the day of the storm. Where he works (Downer EDI Cardiff) did not get hail and he was able to park the car in one of the huge (train) workshops. My two year old LDV van was in my driveway and felt the impact of hundreds of hailstones.

Recent thread.

Has no one considered a ship or more based in Darwin from where they could do year round B2Bs catering for the northern hemisphere cruisers? A benefit for us would be if packages could be offered with discounted return flights from/to capital cities as is done with Oz half circumnavigations. There are plenty of ports in SE Asia and beyond. I reckon it would have merit.

I have never worn a coat or tie in MDR on so called "gala" night or any other night. On one HAL cruise I was loaned a coat by the maitre'd but didn't have to wear it, just hung it on the back of my chair. I usually wear a pair of slacks or clean non holey jeans and a collared shirt, even Hawai'ian sometimes. I was pulled up once going into a HAL MDR wearing shorts, t-shirt and thongs but I explained that I was only going in to let my travelling companions know that I had returned to the ship.

I you're calling in at Wellington and Auckland, a visit to the Weta Workshops may ease the pain from not seeing Hobbiton. https://tours.wetaworkshop.com/

That's interesting.

Not wanting to highjack (sorry), I have a 14 hour transit in LAX before flying to Vancouver. To kill time, is it possible to book some kind of tour at the airport?

I don't understand the infatuation people have of the royals. Much the same as I also don't peoples' infatuation for football clubs or F1 etc, etc.. It goes well beyond just having an interest in such things.