TheAccidentalCruiser

4 pm is the time you sail. All on board (the time you must be on board) is usually 1/2 hour before - so 3:30 pm. There is always a sign as you leave reminding you of the all onboard time and it is also in the daily paper.

Normally you will be docked and cleared at the time of your arrival. So, you can usually leave the ship at your arrival time (ie. 8 a.m.). There can be delays now and then if the ship needs to be cleared. It's usually just a few minutes.

Arrival time = scheduled docking time = the time when there's a gangplank out and passengers are generally free to leave the ship.

Some time before that = time when the captain and the harbormaster and whoever else mess around with paperwork until the ship is cleared.

Some time even earlier = time when the ship physically pulls into the dock and gets tied to it.

Am I getting that right?

This may be a dumb question, especially since I haven't seen it asked elsewhere on CC. If my itinerary say that we'll be in port from 8 am to 4 pm:

Does this mean that the ship expects to dock at 8 am, or that I can plan on leaving the ship at 8 am?

If 8 am is when the ship is scheduled to dock, when should I expect to be able to go into town (assuming we're docking and not tendering)?

Is 4 pm when I need to be back on the ship; or 4 pm when the ship actually casts off its lines and sails away - and I should have been back by around 3 pm?

Thanks :)

Thanks to everyone for all response and votes, and my apologies for having let this thread get away from me a bit.

Regarding Jeans:

The Fodor's Alaska Cruise Guide, 2014 ed., says "Passengers are requested to refrain from wearing jeans in public areas after 6 pm," (paraphrase: I already returned the book to the library). It's a family cruise and we have a table in the MDR, so I'll be in there pretty much nightly.

That, and I generally prefer to avoid annoying people (& my thanks to RuthC for speaking up and saying jeans after 6:00 pm do annoy her). If I'm going to annoy someone; it should either be 1) unanticipated and accidental on my part, which happens more often than I'd like; or 2) entirely deliberate on my part, which happens very rarely and only when the annoyee has been behaving so badly that attempting to annoy them out of it seems the best & only proper response.

So you can see how I need to save up my annoyance allowance for when I really need it. ;)

Regarding Door Signs and Controversy:

Suppose a cruise newbie came to CC; saw a unhappy reference to "door signs," whatever those are; and so searched the boards using the term "door sign." She might easily come away with the idea that door signs are controversial. :)

She might even be someone who realized that people who come to internet boards often do so to voice their opinions; while people who go on cruises usually to do to relax, have fun, and maybe even meet people not entirely like themselves. But she might still infer that such a monsoon of opinion online might reflect a drizzle of similar opinions onboard, and she might be the kind of person who generally prefers to avoid annoying people.

(And sooner or later, she might get tired of referring to herself in the third person. ;))

Regarding Sign Size and Attachment Methods:

Size-wise, I'm thinking of getting the sign printed as an eleven-to-twelve inch circle (or cut to a circle from an 11-12" square).

Does anyone know whether the doors on the post-dry-dock Vista-class ships are magnetic?

My board searches haven't turned up definitive answers. My current plan is to get one copy printed on a sheet magnet; and to also have 2-3 copies on paper, along with some blue painter's tape, as a back-up (I am a little worried that the sign might get stolen).

Regarding huge ships sailing through flat inland farm fields:

It's one heck of a sight, and must be even more startling in Egypt.

Around Sacramento, it seemed like the ships were usually monster-sized barges loaded with huge piles of sawdust waste from CA's timber industry, bound for Japan to be made into (I have no idea, but definitely something). Ah, I can almost smell the tomato fields now... ;)

All of the above is still pretty minimal, considering how many people go on a 1 week cruise with a huge suitcase plus a carry on suitcase plus a garment bag plus a tote bag, LOL.

If it were just the clothing, I probably wouldn't need either suitcase, but there's all that other stuff:

- French press, coffee, & thermos for hot water

- binoculars

- camera

- extra photo memory card

- 2 OTD shoe organizers

- sea bands

- power strip

- spare batteries (AA)

- duct tape

- post-its

- zip-locs

- superglue

- bungee cords

- first aid kit....

... And the list goes on. I have got to stop reading "Cruise Must-Have Packing Lists," or the weight of my luggage may sink the ship. ;)

Over all I like the sundress/monokini/twinset plan. (I kind of have that as my base plan.)

I think your overall concept is good, but a couple thoughts:

If I'm out all day on an excursion, especially one that involves hiking or similar, I really prefer to be able to come back and change for dinner. Without pictures, it's hard to envision outfits that are suitable for hiking AND going to dinner, so depending on the actual pieces, I'd consider maybe one other outfit that is strictly for evenings...something that mixes and matches with your 'gala' pieces so you can get a few different outfits out of that combo. And/or..... also make sure your assorted shoes work with all of your bottoms. That way you have more options for combining things for either daytime or evening in case something doesn't come back from the laundry on time. Maybe this is already the case (all bottoms work with all shoes) but again- it's hard to tell exactly how dressy or how casual your various pieces are. "Gray slacks" could mean super casual, cargo style gray trekking pants or it could mean dressy, tailored garbardine trousers, LOL.

Thanks. I'm thinking that probably what I will do on excursion days is change into the next day's outfit and try not to drop a plate of pasta in my lap. :)

Except that won't work if the next day's things aren't back from the laundry yet. Hmmm...

....Yeah, you guys are right: I think I'd better add a third pair of slacks, just to have some wiggle room (and pasta-dropping insurance ).

I could wish they were tailored gabardine trousers. :) My budget runs more to Land's End chinos, and these are what I'll be taking: http://www.landsend.com/products/womens-mid-rise-chino-trouser-pants/id_302509?sku_0=::AG8. Colors are black, steel gray, & the freshly-added warm khaki.

(FWIW, a lot of my stuff is from LE. Long-sleeved tee shirts are a vee-necked verion of these: http://www.landsend.com/products/womens-shaped-layering-scoopneck-t-shirt/id_302534?sku_0=::FEB in black, navy, and a rich berry color which seems to no longer be available. Short sleeved tees are both similar to http://www.landsend.com/products/womens-shaped-layering-scoopneck-t-shirt/id_306955?sku_0=::Y6M in a two different shades of heathered navy. Fleece vest is this: http://www.landsend.com/products/womens-100-everyday-fleece-vest/id_296742?sku_0=::VXL in that "rich berry" color, and jeans are: http://www.landsend.com/products/womens-mid-rise-boot-cut-jeans/id_302515_57?sku_0=::Y8K in "heritage indigo wash.")

Everything does work with everything else, with the exception of the Gala Night fancy skirt and the hiking boots. ;)

I don't see a poll, but I see nothing wrong with the door sign you are proposing. Quite tasteful.While we don't do door signs ourselves, we don't judge those who do choose to do them ;)

It took me a few minutes to get the poll posted, but you should be able to see it now.

I know door signs are controversial. I personally find that many of the door signs I've seen photos of reflect a sense of taste and aesthetics that differs widely from my own, but I like the concept itself. Enough that I'm thinking of making a door sign for my upcoming (first ever) cruise. It will also be my 87-yo Mom's first ever cruise, and I'd like to do what I can to make it special. That and Mom does get tired sometimes, and a little extra help knowing which room is which might not hurt anything.

Unless it does. I don't want to outrage or offend my fellow cruisers (I've already altered my initial wardrobe plans to avoid jeans after 6 pm), so I'm soliciting opinions on what I hope is a reasonably tasteful door sign:

I've attached a poll to this thread: please vote, or leave a comment, or both. Thanks.

(PS. The ship in a wheat field references an old family story: Mom grew up on a wheat farm in Kansas, and lived in many different places before our family moved to the agricultural area around Sacramento in the California Central Valley. One day we were driving somewhere amidst some huge fields of wheat. We came up over a rise, and there halfway to the horizon was a huge ocean-going cargo ship apparently just sitting in the middle of the wheat fields.

We were all surprised: the Port of Sacramento had only recently built canals large enough for such large vessels to come the 90 miles inland from San Francisco Bay. But Mom's basic sense of order was briefly affronted - wheat fields were just about part of her DNA, and her DNA knew that ocean-going ships do not belong in wheat fields. She got over it, of course, and we saw many more such vessels across wheat and tomato and sugar beets fields during the time we lived there.

But when I was thinking up how to do the door sign, I figured I'd put our cruise ship in a wheat field for her.)

4 people in the cabin?:eek:.....are you packing so few items because of that or are you just a low maintenance packer?

 

I have been to Alaska multiple times and never needed any kind of boots. Did fine with a walking shoe/sneaker.

I do want the hiking boots though, even if I may not strictly need them. I tend to want to go places where it's muddy or rocky or the footing may be bad, and it's always better if my shoes are up to that sort of thing. :)

There are also a lot of non-clothing items I intend to bring - top of the list being my own coffee, French press, and stainless steel thermos - that will take up suitcase & cabin space.

The (hopefully) Un-Confusing Post:

Okay so, I’m not really going to be wearing a Monokini on Monday. It would probably help if I told you what I am planning to wear. (If this doesn’t sound like what I’d want for the Caribbean, that’s because I’m going to Alaska. ;) )

Sunday’s isn't-a-Sundress: berry-purple long-sleeved shirt, black slacks, grey cardigan, blue paisley scarf, low-heel dressy grey suede booties.

Monday’s non-Monokini: grey-blue long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, grey cardigan, purple ombre scarf, black sneakers.

Tuesday’s not-a-Twinset: black long-sleeved shirt, grey slacks, berry-purple fleece vest, blue ombre scarf, hiking boots (with grey rain jacket & black rain hat for Juneau shore excursion).

Almost-Dressy Gala Night Outfit: dressy lavender-purple designer sweater, grey skirt, low-heel dressy grey suede booties.

Lounge/Sleep/Emergency Back-Up Wear: two dressy-ish short-sleeve blue tee shirts, blue fine-gauge sweater, two pair black velour pants.

Outerwear Not Already Mentioned: Long Purple Fleece Jacket (doubles as shortie bathrobe), 2 pair fleece gloves, warm knit snow hat.

Twenty-seven pieces by my count. Twenty-eight if my old (one-piece but definitely not a monokini) swimsuit still fits and I decide I want to bring it.

Haven’t figured out how to do less than three pairs of shoes: hiking boots are needed for shore excursions; the dressy suede booties are a compromise between Gala Night & rest-of-the-cruise functionality; and the sneakers are needed because 1) they aren’t boots, and 2) they have elastic speed laces and can double as slippers.

It’s not that I think everything has to match, it’s more that (outside the realm of scarves) I am a very boring dresser. The dressy gray skirt mentioned is one of very print garments I own; and almost everything is blue, grey, purple or black (there is some high-hot-summer-beachwear stuff that’s a little more exciting, but it’s not coming to Alaska).

I may not need to wash everything every day, but I don’t want to be stuck not being able to. Alaska is a muddy place, and I’m very bad about staying on the paved parts of paths. Neither am I so graceful that dining room accidents are all that unlikely. :rolleyes:

And while I could wash things out in the bathroom sink, and probably will wind up doing a few, that’s not really how I want to spend my fun vacation time. I’m also tall enough that working at bathroom-counter height tends to make my back hurt. Plus, I’ll be in a quad with three other ladies of a certain age, and expect demand for the bathroom to be pretty high.

I guess the question I was really trying answer in with first post was "If I do wind up with two days' worth of outfits in the laundry at any given time, how can I arrange it so that I will have at least 1 clean shirt and 1 pair of pants that I can wear?"

No one wants to wind up out in the Northeast Pacific Ocean on a boat with a few thousand of their newly-made closest friends, sitting in their cabin staring at five clean shirts while realizing that all their pants and skirts are in the custody of the laundry staff. :cool:

Thanks again for all your interest and responses.

I think you're cutting it a little close to the bone here. I think you need a little more. For example, you've allotted yourself only a bathing suit (at least I think that's what a monokini is) for Monday's clothing. You need some "real clothes" to wear to meals and you need a cover-up to go with the bathing suit.

Thanks so much for your concern, which I found very sweet. However, Hoyaheel was right in saying that I won't really be wearing the one-piece swimsuit known as a Monokini, but that "Monokini" was the name I used to keep track of the outfit I was planning for Monday.

My initial post was confusing, for which I apologize. I was confused while writing it; and, while writing it helped me to resolve most of my confusion, I'm not sure reading it has the same effect on others. :confused: :o

see this thread which is one of the stickies:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2165032

 

also, discussion of board policies is against the rules.

I should apologize: I thought I had read the rules, but I guess I hadn't read them all carefully enough.

It was "a snap" to land on the beach and pick up an Alaskan Brown Bear??? - You're a better man than I, Gunga Din.

 

Haw, good one. Now you got me going on another war story about that beach. Every once in a while an ocean going vessel will lose power and end up on the beach. That is the end of the vessel. That part of the North Pacific has one banzai-pipeline rolling in after another. Sometimes an ocean going barge will end up there too, after the tow line snaps and the barge drifts free of the tug. Usually in a storm.

One time that happened to a huge rail barge. It was left to the elements, with all the box cars still attached to the main deck. I was doing a friend a favor, I had airline passes so flew down to Yakutat and picked up a Super Cub for him he just bought. I was taking it back to Anchorage. Very beautiful day, the Cub had big tundra tires on it, I was cruising along just a few feet off the beach and here comes this gigantic high and dry barge. I decided to circle around it, then land and try to figure a way to climb up and investigate the box cars, way up high on the barge deck. As I made my first pass, a very huge brown bear rolled out of one of the open doors on a box car. I slowly inched the throttle forward and continued my journey. Always wondered how that bear got up there.

Wow. Talk about your Close Encounters of the Ursine Kind.

 

I, once upon a time, saw a Kodiak bear on the other side of a sizable valley, through binoculars. The visceral part of me still quails at the memory of being a mere two or three miles from a living being so extraordinarily big and and destructive and intelligent. This was at the Kodiak Island Dump, and the bear was having great fun ripping apart a three-seater sofa just about half as long as it was. The reason I know the approximate distance because I immediately started quizzing my guide about just exactly how far away that bear was.

 

I can't imagine having a bear like that pop up out of a box car at me, much less while I was sucessfully handling a small plane at low altitude. (Of course, being that you are the intrepid Gunga Ken, I assume you just scooped the bear up under one arm and popped him into the cargo section next to all those Japanese fishing floats. ;))

You're welcome.

 

Somewhere on the Vivienne Files is exactly what you're trying to do -- three complete outfits that blend in together.

 

Which ship? The cabin walls are metal. We use hooks and clips for some things (jackets, papers, hats etc). Oh, bathroom walls have issues with magnets.

The Oosterdam, May 7 to Alaska. I am planning on using lots of magnets, so thanks for the tip about the bathrooms!

Okay, Newbie Dummy question here:

Why is it that we may not name The Site Which May Not Be Named (but which seems to rhyme with "AL-Hay acts-fay")?

Getting the third or fourth "free" isn't always tied to your star level, we've had one of the kids (over 18, so not a child) in our cabin without charge on three different cruises, starting with our very first HAL cruise.

Yeah, one of my impressions was that HAL was happy enough to get two extra bodies, with their two extra wallets, onboard without having to give up any extra cabin space.

That possibly in combination with our request for a cabin as close to the elevators as possible: Mom is limited in mobility, but also hard of hearing, so what's not to like about elevator-adjacent? ;)

(Yes, I am planning to bring earplugs. :cool: )

Yakutat Bay is huge. Twenty miles across the front. Looking at it, high land mass to high land mass, from out in the ocean a bit, it is over thirty miles across. Almost two hours of sailing time to cross.

 

I recall the first time I became aware of that. I had a charter to Yakutat from Cordova. I was cruising along the beach, maybe only 100 feet above it, since you spot Brown Bear on the ocean beach all the time and sometimes back then those big Japanese glass balls, that they used to float their mile long gill nets, you would see. Often times it was a snap to land on the ocean beach and pick one of those up. All of a sudden there was water everywhere, with icebergs here and there. Man, even at 140 knots it seemed like forever to get across with a single engine aircraft.

(Oh, you meant the Japanese glass ball fishing floats... ....nevermind.)

If you have no other excursions booked, go first thing. We walked right on. We also purchased the ticket on the ship - on our ship same price and you could return it for credit if you didn't use it. When we came down the line was LONG.

 

Then later in the day after our excursion we went again. And again at that time, no lines. We were late in the year and the shop had nice prices - reason for second trip.

Thanks. We are planning to go as soon as possible after our ship docks at 1pm, but if the lines are too long (we will be the third cruise ship into Juneau that day), it sounds like we could make a strategic retreat and try again later.

We used AJ last year when we did an Alaska Cruise. He was prompt friendly and courteous. He got us to and from the ship and knew the back roads. The "5", OK I'm from Tennessee we call thing I-40, I-24, was bumper to bumper he jumped off the "5" and got us to the ship on time. Not sure where we were but it was a lot more scenic than the "5" anyway. He took us by HAL headquarters even, no free drinks there just like the ship :(. He'll get you to the ship and back to SEA which is all I care about. We've done the UBER / LYFT and have been surprised when we got the surprise bill due to "peak time" and all, AJ gave us a price and that was it, no surprises. GO AJ!!

Happy Sailing

Jim

Glad your experience was so positive, and very glad you got to the ship on time! :)

Yes, but for four stars and above, we've been fortunate to have the 3rd and 4th free (just taxes) on many of our cruises. So, it can be compellingly economical to do so!

I suspect that is the case with us and our quad (especially since the escalation from picking which one of us was going with Mom, to all three of us going with Mom, was oddly quick and painless). Not sure exactly how many stars the family member handling the booking can boast, but they do talk about that HAL as a "favorite" line and Alaska as a "favorite" cruise...

Yes, you can ride it up and down and up and down--though the lines might get in the way of such a plan.

Thanks. That's just what I was wondering about.

Yeah, I thought that lines would have to be the limiting factor. (Although maybe we'll be lucky and Mt Roberts will be socked in with fog, and Mom & I can soar up and down through the mists while everyone else has the good sense to go do something else. :cool: )

Thanks, Venn. I do have back-up in that my "almost dressy" Gala Night pieces could be subbed into everyday wear (worst is that I could wind up wearing my dressy designer sweater with blue jeans), and I'll have a couple pieces of night/lounge/workout wear that could be subbed in as well.

Sadie, thanks also. The "whatever's clean" idea is sort of what I'm going for here, but I had to work through the outfits and days to see if could get away with 6 core pieces (for three separate combos) instead of 13. I'll be sharing a quad with three other people, so space is at a super-premium.

Have heard very mixed reviews about ship's laundry, some bad, some good. I'm figuring I'll pay my money and take my chances. (And keep delicate and/or hard to replace things like the dressy designer sweater well out of the ship's laundry stream.)

Thanks for the link (er, maybe this would have been better posted there...)

Interesting idea and not one I have ever thought of, but I think most people wouldn't get it and you'll spend a good chunk of time explaining. But maybe do an ocean blue with an accent finger on each hand having the navigation lights?? Ring fingers? But hey, I'm all for eccentric!

 

I'm doing French on my toes and have long sculpted gel nails in the "coffin shape" that will have a V French with maybe some gems added.

 

This is what I'm considering.

 

 

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I like the idea of just doing one accent nail in red/green, and doing the other nails in more customary nail colors. (At least on my hands. Toes I'll go whole hog with :) )

PS. Oooh! Pretty Nails!!!

Yes. It's really $7 per cabin, per day. And, things that need to be ironed, like shirts, come back pressed.

Okay - tell me how crazy this is:

For my cruise, I'm seriously considering getting the nails on my right hand and right foot done in green (for starboard navigation lights), and my left hand & foot done in red (for port navigation lights). Fun and cruise-ey? Or too esoteric/nautical/just plain weird?