joekerstef

Hi everyone - I apologize, I've been on CC for about 10 minutes in the past week and this thread had dropped down further than I made it through the postings. Anyway, thank you all for your perspectives, particularly of "midwestern" vs. your own perceptions of the HAL brand. I just thought midwestern was such a weird way to describe it; if your only perception of the midwest is stereotypes ("corn", "farms", "fly-over country", "flat", "square", "boring", etc. however unfair these ideas are to actual midwesterners) then a brand so described probably won't seem all that appealing to you. Why not just use adjectives that you feel accurately describe the brand? it's not like you need a long list, so it just seems odd to me to try to hinge your brand on a single term that connotes different things to different people. I'm not entirely certain how I would describe HAL myself, although the suggestion of sophisticated seems on the right track. Hardly how I would describe myself though.

Looking forward to see what happens tonight (starts at 9 eastern, fifteen minutes from now as I type this) and seeing what you think about however Holland America makes an appearance in tonight's program.

Non-political post, I promise!

So for the final task on this season of Celebrity Apprentice, the two finalists have to come up with an ad campaign and a 15 minute variety show for Carnival brands, specifically Carnival, Princess, HAL, and Seabourne. Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corp., when contrasting these four brands called the HAL type "midwestern, although not necessarily living there" which honestly not being from the midwest myself I'm not really sure what he means. By contrast, Princess was southern California polo shirt. Carson Kressley of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy fame, who is helping on one of the teams, immediately piped up "I've been on all the dam ships!" which I found amusing (I would love to run into him in the Crow's Nest at happy hour). Anyway, this will play out tonight and next Monday night. Right now the teams are on Ruby Princess doing photo shoots for their campaigns. It'll be interesting to see what they come up with and how they portray the brands and what Mr. Donald thinks of their efforts. Am I the only person watching this? Curious what anyone else thinks.

On the recommendation of our beverage steward, I had a Miami Vice that was very good (the first time I had it; second time not so much; think they made it wrong). It's part pina colada and part I think strawberry daiquiri. Was not on the cocktail menu that I saw.

Did the 14 day last year. We docked at all ports including Icy Strait Point (very nice new dock) and Sitka. We were the only ship in port at all stops after Juneau. As others have already suggested, check the who's in port website to see if this will be an issue for you.

You might try a PCC on Monday. I know the PCC I use only works M-F. Perhaps the "seasoned" PCC only work during the week?

I agree that HAL's website is not user friendly!

Our PCC is quite good and works Sunday - Thursday.

Took the 14 day from Seattle last year. Highly recommend it.

* Scheduled for Tracy Arm, couldn't do that due to ice, but we went up Endicott Arm (right next door) and saw Dawes glacier instead. Really nice.

* At Juneau, you can travel over to Mendenhall Glacier easily. I thought it was rather disappointing, but hey, it's a glacier (if you can spring for it, maybe do one of those helicopter landings).

* From Anchorage, there is an excursion called 23 glaciers or something like that. Do that. OMG, lots of great, closeup views of glaciers.

* Then you get Hubbard Glacier. Huge, lots of calving, and as someone mentioned, there seems to be more blue ice there than at the other glaciers.

When we embarked on Maasdam last June, there was a gallon of distilled water sitting there on our table waiting for us. Except we had not ordered it even though there was a receipt on it with our cabin number. We returned it I think to the cabin steward, and I told my mother to check her account for a charge. Sure enough, next day there was a charge on her account (I thought it was around $4), and she had a heck of a time getting the front desk or accounting or whoever to take it off of her tab. They insisted that we had ordered it.

Congrats! I look forward to the day when I'll be able to take advantage of last minute deals as well. Enjoy your cruise and have a wonderful anniversary!

The photo is taken by HAL staff. It is embedded in your card so that when they scan you getting on and off the ship they can make sure it is you ;)

actually jacqui, i meant the one they take before they let you on to the gangway that they try to sell you later on. perhaps i should've said "welcome aboard photo." :D

also, welcome aboard @hsmama! i'm sure you'll love your Alaska cruise on whichever dam ship you're on. if you haven't already, take some time to go through the (very lengthy) "new to HAL" thread which is a sticky post at the beginning of all of the messages. there's a lot of useful info in there, although since the thread began a while ago, I think some of it is dated, but I found it tremendously helpful for tips and tricks and what to expect for my first HAL cruise last year.

@Hsmama: From your other posts.... are you looking for specific info for Seattle to Alaska?

If this is indeed the case, we found boarding and disembarkation in Seattle to be an absolute breeze. We were at Pier 91 just before 10:30 as I recall and were on board in less than 45 minutes. One of the biggest holdups was the taking of the embarkation photo (grr).

The Royal Caribbean crowd was really fired up. I suppose three extra hours of sail away beverages will do that. A lot of air horn action from here on land, despite the brutally cold 62 degree F/17 C temps. Being from Maine, this is still shorts weather, but the locals are bundled up.

now i would love to see a picture of the floridians huddled together for warmth and snuggled in their warm parkas in the face of such frigid temperatures.... [looks at snow outside window]

Behemoth moving.

that ship never ends! nice closeup of the rock wall....

checking in for the late departures. watched zuiderdam arrive at aruba this afternoon. do enjoy these webcam in the winter. :)

Nieuw Amsterdam didn't leave until 11pm last night. Would not surprise me if Eurodam left later than 9. Such a terrible situation.

Is the NA still docked? Haven't been able to see it on the webcam.

Yes. If you scroll down from the webcam view, there's a map on the left showing the port traffic. If you zoom in to FLL, there's a long blue ship in port, that's NA. You can hover your cursor over any of the boat/ship icons to identify. I prefer vesselfinder, but it's the same idea.

I wouldn't drive from Boston, especially in the winter months. I-95 can already be a mess. Just think what a little snow around Baltimore, Washington, and Richmond would do to it.

 

We were considering driving from Raleigh next month but I booked a flight this week.

I've been following along quietly since not much going on on the cam, did see Princess leave a few minutes ago.

Anyway, I just want to concur with geoherb on this. I'm from CT so very familiar with the drive from the RI border down to south of DC. Actually doing it next week, exhausting. This morning in the DC area we had approximately zero snow (a dusting or less in the immediate area) and there was a massive truck accident that closed three out of four lanes of 95 south halfway between Baltimore and DC for a few hours during morning rush. The DC beltway is always a crapshoot. And 95 in virginia down to richmond is usually a hot mess any day of the week at almost every time of day. We are expecting snow overnight with higher accumulations to the south of DC. I promise you, people in this area cannot drive in rain, never mind snow. Personally, I'd avoid making that drive if at all possible. If your flight is cancelled, can you maybe do Amtrak to NYC and then hop the train to Miami? Or drive as far south as Lorton, VA and take the Autotrain to Sanford, FL and drive the rest of the way to FLL? Just a thought.

We have found that a 7 day cruise is unfulfilling. Just starting to relax from the craziness of preparation and travel and it is time to go home

Have to agree with this (and unfortunately my next cruise is seven days, but it was that or nothing). I like 10-14 days as a "break" but i was ready to go back out for two more weeks at the end of our alaska cruise last year. I'd love to be able to take a longer cruise. Still trying to figure out how I'm going to be able to take more than three weeks off for PanCan in 2018.

Bon Voyage and thank you for your blog! Watched you all sail off tonight. I got to tour Amsterdam in 2007 in New York when a friend of mine did the WC. I have a few years yet before I'll be able to partake. Have a wonderful adventure!

Hmm I could use my tax refund towards a solo cruise....

oh boy, the single supplement on a world cruise *ouch* :eek:

guess i'd better start saving now.

nice lit view in the port everglades cam (especially if you're not into the bokeh look of the ft lauderdale cam right now).

Bon voyage to all the world cruisers! (and to the virtual tagalongs too)

Underway!

*drinks virtual champagne* :D

Ridiculously excited for a voyage that I'm not on....

Here's another question--what time is muster? The usual is something like 3:15 for a scheduled 4pm departure. Really if you go any later, you're starting to interfere with dinner and bedtime. Also I completely agree with scrapnana, i don't care if the airplane lands right on the ship, no way do i want to cut it that close and risk missing my world cruise! that's nuts.

Out of curiosity why do Grand Voyages leave at night opposed to leaving at 6 or 7?

I would guess that part of it has to do with the tremendous amount of luggage they have to screen, way more than a regular cruise. probably more spiffing up of the ship for the WC too.

We had a salmon bake on our Alaska cruise in June. As I recall, it was lunchtime by the Lido pool. I don't remember which day of our cruise though (we were on the 14 day itinerary). There was pea soup offered, I want to say that was on Hubbard day. There was also a seafood chowder one day, which may have been during the salmon bake.

Thank you Peter! Probably won't make it for Zuiderdam, but hoping I remember to stop by for Amsterdam!