packercruising

Thank you for this wonderful review/log! Sounds like it was a great cruise. Might I ask who was the Cruise Director?

I had no clue, so I defer to Crew News, whose knowledge of all things Zaandam is unsurpassed. The Cruise Director of Zaandam is currently Andy Knox. :)

In case you are not already following his "Almost Live..." updates, here is the linhttps://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2636979k,

 

More staff officer’s names thanks to the repaired interactive screen in the Explorations Cafe:

Captain (corrected): Ane Jan Smit

Staff Captain: Andrew McDonald

Food/Beverage (corrected): Andreess Noemeyer

Chief Engineer: Wilco Otten

Guest Relations: Francis Tolentino

Cruise Director: Andy Knox

Executive Chef: Pedro Lontoc

Ocean Bar Piano Player: Alejendro

Bringing this to the top because someone asked me who the Cruise Director was and I had no clue. :)

Just watched the Endicott Arms and Hubbard's Glacier:)

 

LOVED seeing such a great pic of my Hubby:) Thank you for that. He hates it when I used to try and get one of him...

 

Absolutely Gorgeous pics:)

 

Thank you for sharing!! Now to wait somewhat patiently to see more:)

 

Joanie

HA! I caught him unaware! :cool:It was a pleasure talking to him during the cruise.

Excellent! You had very favorable weather.

The Blue Ice comes out in the glaciers better when it's cloudy, which it looks like it was!

Those came out better than I thought they would. Just had a Smart Phone, but it is 16 mp, which is better than my camera.

HUBBARD GLACIER!

https://cruisingmemories.shutterfly.com/alaska/438

Ooops, another typo. I believe a "naturist" is someone who enjoys being in the buff. :eek:

 

Indeed we had a good naturalist on board this cruise. But few were up to skinny-dipping on this cruise - though there was one hardy soul in the aft pool every day - Polar Bear swim or not.

:p:p:p:cool: Good thing she doesn't read these things. :o

Thanks for sharing your photos of "our trip" too - no one needs to be disappointed if they can't get into Tracy Arm as we were on this cruise, since Tracy was still blocked by ice. We saw some tremendous calving on our alternative choice - Endicott.

Oops, did I spell it wrong? We had never been to Endicott before so we were happy. :) Really appreciated the Naturist on board.

Lovely photos. Thank you!

Thank you! More on the way. I don't really have them sorted out yet. :)

First installment for pictures. All photos will be uploaded to a shutterfly share site. I don't think you need to be a member to view.

ENDICUTT ARMS!

https://cruisingmemories.shutterfly.com/alaska/397

That was there this past April.

Any idea how long the dry dock was?

Here is the link to both MDR and Lido Market menus by day:

 

http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/specialty-2/specifc-cruise-lido-and-mdr-menus/hal-alaska14-day-2018-menus/

 

Here is the link to the MDR/PG Breakfast menus (have not changed in many years:

 

http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/here/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/DRPG-Breakfast-Menu.pdf

Thanks for the updates. It was nice meeting you.:cool:

Interested in this info as well. We are planning a February sailing.

Any time we are in Seattle, we have used Alreadytheretowncar. We have used them to get from the airport to the hotel, hotel to the pier, etc. They can arrange tours for you.

I don't know if they are still in service or not.

Glad you had a great 25th anniversary dinner.

Maybe it is the same company. Totally reliable.

BTW Chihuli (However you spell it) Gardens and Glass is fantastic and not to be missed.

Got caught up with your reports.

Thanks for giving us your impressions of the ship.

By now you should be home.

Looking forward to your pictures.

In Detroit with a 3 hr layover for a less than 1 hour flight to Green Bay. We will stay overnight and then pick up our puppy dogs in the morning, if they will give them back. :)

We had two wonderful days in Seattle and had supper at the Crab Pot by Pike's Market. Loved it! We can highly recommend the Best Western Executive Inn. The only thing I would mark them done on is their lack of knowledge of area transportation. Seattle has a rail system, trolleys, HOHO and buses. What they do have, and don't tell you about, unless you ask, is a fantastic shuttle service. It is a Lincoln Town Car. And it is punctual.

Tip, if anyone has to Space Needle in their plans, fergetaboutit, at least for awhile. Lots of construction. We were there for about an hour and spent at least 45 minutes of it standing in lines. Then when you do get up there, it is packed, because a lot of it isn't open.

We like RCI and hope to do a Caribbean cruise on them this February. We sailed them for our Australia/NZ cruise as well as Norway and the Baltics.

June 4 Monday- Disembark. Disembarking and Customs was abreeze. We stayed in the stateroom until our tag color was called and had notrouble leaving the ship and getting our luggage. A taxi was right there totake us to the hotel. We had checked in online yesterday and they had a roomready. Perfect view of the Space Needle!

General Impressions;

Stateroom

· The cabin is small, but very well organized

· The curtains are nice and dark, which is goodbecause the sun stays out late. There is also a curtain between the bed and thebalcony for added darkness. Finally there is also a curtain between the bed andthe hallway. The shuttle to downtown costs $12 round trip, so it is not withinwalking distance from the pier.

· Lots of storage! Room for the luggage underthe bed.

· We had a tub/Jacuzzi and a shower. We neverused the tub, but the shower was nice.

· There are dispensers of body soap, shampooand conditioner by the shower, which will probably be just fine for most of theguys but not so much for the ladies.

· Our cabin came with a pair of Bushnell binoculars,which really came in handy for the glaciers.

· We still had the small tv and DVD player,which didn’t matter since we only had it on for announcements and weather.

· We also had a robe and slippers provided.

· 1 week in dry dock is not a lot of time tomake upgrades. There are still only 2 120 outlets and they added a lamp with aUSB port. We brought a small extension with 3 outlets and 2 usb ports.

· There is a small ice bucket, which they willkeep filled if you request it.

· Bring your own night light as they are notprovided.

· If the people in the cabin next to you happento be a little bit hard of hearing and like to leave their TV on, you will beable to hear it too.

· We were in cabin 7055, which is just belowthe Lido Marketplace. Very noisy late at night and early in the morning. Deck 6would probably be a better choice. There are only two balcony decks.

Ship

· Small ship makes getting around easy. It alsolimits your options for most venues.

· Lots of activity for pretty much every hourof the day.

· The entertainment at 8:00 and 10:00 weregenerally very well done.

· Pretty ship (aren’t they all?). The organstill plays at noon on sea days.

· We went to the Main Dining Room 3 times andthe service was so slow and bad that we quit going. We have come to find out thatseveral people share this opinion.

· The food has been very good. This seems to bean improvement over what people have been saying about HAL food the last coupleyears. The variety is very limited and at night, 25% of the buffet gets takenover by a pay restaurant.

· Very limited deserts, but they always had icecream!

· Happy Hour every day from 4:00-5:00 at OceanBar and the Crow’s Nest. Buy one drink and get another for $2. They try hard tomake sure everyone gets served. Very well done.

· The internet worked quite well. We got thepremium package.

· We love Anytime Dining, usually. On thisship, it was virtually impossible to make reservations for our preferred time,even when making them days in advance. This is the first time we have ever hadhad a problem with Anytime Dining.

· This is a good itinerary and I can easilyrecommend it.

· At every port, getting off the ship and backon was no problem.

· I would not recommend HAL in general. It haschanged a lot since we last sailed them.

· We probably will not sail HAL again unlessthey have an itinerary we are interested in that nobody else offers.

June 3Sunday- Our last port, Victoria, B.C. First settled in 1843 during the reign of Queen Victoria, hence the name. Its nickname is The City Of Gardens.The population is approximately 78,000.

The temperature today is in the 50s with a predicted high in the 60s. We can go out on the balcony without a jacket! Our port time today is from 2:30-11:00 pm. Around 9:00 this morning the captain announced we would be passing some humpback whales, on both sides of the ship, but they would be closer on the Port side. Sure enough, there they were!

We got pins today, congratulating us for moving up a star level in the Mariner Society Rewards Program. We can’t quite figure out why, as we should be two days short, according to our calculations. We haven’t done any specialty dining or spa treatments. They don’t define what eligible purchases are.

I might have to change the diet plan to Pint of beer with lunch”plan. We never eat lunch at home, so it will be a miracle if I do not gain at least 5#.

We were supposed to dock at 2:00, but there was a Princess ship pulling out of that dock so we were about ½ hour late. No problem. Again, we are in port with NCL Jewel and this time Seabourn Sojourn is also in port with us. Seabourn is one of those lines where, if you have to ask you can’t afford it. Nothing but suites. Only got into the 50s today, but pretty nice anyway. It was drizzling when we got off the ship, but cleared up. Nice and sunny in the evening.

Well, this is it until I can post some photos. I will post some general impressions tomorrow and try to answer questions if you have any.

Happy 25th Anniversary.

Hope you find a good place to celebrate in Seattle.

Lynette has a nice place picked out near the Best Western Executive Inn.

We got our 2 star Mariner pins today! Whoopee! You have to be 5 stars.

Gee the time passed too quickly.

I remember when HAL used to give maps for all the ports.

Have enjoyed your reports.

Have a safe trip home.

When&Where for today says to pick up the port maps at the Shopping desk. I must have missed that. They used to place them in the stateroom.

Tuesday is our 25th Anniversary, so we are spending a couple days in Seattle before flying home.

Thanks for reading the reviews!

June 2 Saturday- Sea Day. Time to start packingto disembark. Temps in the 40s maybe gets up to 50. Mostly cloudy most of theday. A good day to tell cruising jokes. 1st time cruisers may nothave heard any of the stale Cruise Director jokes, like the lady that asked ifthe elevator goes to the front of the ship, What time is the midnight chocolatebuffet, do the crew stay on board at night, etc.

A lady is at the pool bar and asks for awhiskey and water, with just one drop of water. The bartender thinks it is a bitstrange but does what she asks. Turns out it is her 80th birthday sothe bartender buys her a drink. She orders a whiskey and water with just onedrop of water. Because it is her birthday, other folks buy her a drink as welland she always orders the same thing. Finally the bartender just had to knowwhy she always orders a whiskey, but only one drop of water. Well she says, atmy age, I can hold my whiskey.

Okay, these are from various sources;

· If I have an outside cabin, will I get wet ifit rains?

· What do you do with the ice carvings afterthey melt?

· Asked of a ranger on an Alaskan cruise; Howfar above sea level are we? He looks over the railing and says, About 6 decks.

· Public address announcement on the second night of a seven-nightcruise: "If anyone is driving a green Taurus with Virginia LicenseBVK-743, you left your lights on."

· A magician on a cruise ship had a wonderful act making thingsdisappear. The problem was that the captain's parrot began watching his act,and soon learned how each trick was performed, and the parrot would give thetrick away. The magician would make some fire and some smoke, and makesomething disappear, but then the parrot would yell out, "It's in hisother hand", or "It's under the table", much to the chagrin andfrustration of the magician. So the magician began changing the things that hemade disappear, even though he had a new audience every week, just to confoundthe parrot, but the parrot kept figuring out the trick and giving it away. Themagician soon began to hate the parrot, but he could do nothing to him, becauseit was the captain's parrot. Then one day, just as the magician was startinghis act, the ship struck a submerged object. There was some fire and somesmoke, and then the ship sank. The magician struggled up through the water tothe surface, gasping for air, and managed to grab onto the end of a woodenplank that was floating in the debris. Then he looked up, and to his totaldismay, he saw the parrot, feathers all wet and bedraggled, standing on theother end of his wooden plank. For hours they drifted, staring at each other,neither one saying a word. Then finally, the parrot spoke, "All right, Igive up. Where's the ship?"

· Does the ship generate its own electricity?

How far was the town from the pier?

It is a 20 minute ride on the shuttle, whatever that translates into. :):)

Great reporting! Thanks so much.:D You seem to be making good use of your balcony and having good viewing. Which side of the ship are you on? When we have done the one-week trips, it doesn't seem to matter, and although we did a one-week Vancouver to Seward cruise many years ago, I don't remember which side we were on....

We are on Starboard side. The side to be on headed north. Or it would have been had it not been cloudy or foggy every single day until we got to Anchorage, where there are really no scenery shots to take. In 2005 we did a land/sea cruise where the sea portion started in Seward and ended in Vancouver.

Sure don't like the sounds of the long lines for the shuttle buses.

I think we went faster using tenders.

That's what I told Lynette.:cool: I would have rather tendered. Good thing we have been there before. One thing I don't like about HAL, if there isn't a Diamonds International in port, they don't provide you with a map and useful information.

In an earlier post, you mentioned that the shower water pressure isn't great. Has that been an issue? I fear 14 days without a well-functioning shower! Also, in the dry dock upgrades to the bathrooms, did they do glass shower doors? Or is it still a shower curtain? I ask only to mentally prepare myself. Thanks!

If you turn on the water for the tub, it comes out full force. There is a pressure adjustment for the shower, but it makes no difference where you set it. The water comes out slow.

We are on deck 7 and Roger is on deck 6. Both have a large viewing area aft and there are places you could sit, if you want to. I was surprised at the lack of people on both decks when the ship was perfectly positioned. Deck 6 is definitely the preferable deck and if I knew then, what I know now, we would have booked there.

I hope your weather for Hubbard is as nice as what we had!

Thank you very much for your reports! We will be on this cruise next month. Your report on Hubbard Glacier really got us excited!

Have a great cruise! I hope the weather is as clear for yours as it was for ours.

June 1 Friday We are in Sitka today until 4:00. Docked right next to the NCL Jewel. Temp is 49 degrees, with a high of 56 expected. In terms of land area, it is the largest city-borough in the U.S.,with a land area of 2,870.3 square miles and a total area (including water area) of 4,811.4 square miles . Urban Sitka, the part usually thought of as the "city" of Sitka, is on the west side of Baranof Island. The current name Sitka (derived from Sheet’ká, a contraction of the Tlingit Shee At'iká)[6] means "People on the Outside of Baranof Island, Sitka was the site of the transfer of the Alaska Purchase in 1867. ( this part was from Wikipedia)

We take a free shuttle in to town. It is provided by the port of Sitka and we share it with the Jewel.The lines for the shuttles are ridiculously long and slow. Both our line and the NCL line. A stark contrast to other ports where you need to shuttle in to town. You get herded like cattle, kind of like embarkation day, but embarkation went a lot faster. They obviously do not have enough shuttles to accommodate over 3,000,which is what the combined total for the 2 ships is. Not even including the staff that gets to be ashore. Also, there are two ramps to climb just to get to where the buses are. Luckily, there is a nice visitor center up there was well, with lots of shopping available.

Good day to review our photos from yesterday J, and get photos of the ship. The main show was a combination of thecomedian and the Motown singer. Not quite the day yesterday was.

This is a good point to let you know there will be parting thoughts (kind of a summary), once we get off the ship and photos once we get home.

Do you see whales from the ship at any point? I have not scheduled a whale wAtching excursion bc I really don’t want yo be on a boat during port days. I also don’t want to miss out on seeing whales...

 

 

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We saw one, but it was not close enough to count. When are you sailing? I am not sure when they head south. We saw lots of them when we were on the excursions in May 2005. not so much when we went in August.