Glaciers & Volcanoes with Bill & Mary Ann - 25 days on the Eurodam

Report # 1 GettingReady to Fly to Seattle September 21,2018 Friday Warm and sunny 92 degrees

Well, here we go again, for a much anticipated 7 day Alaskanjourney, followed by an 18 day trip to Hawaii and back to Vancouver. Gosh, it seems like we just got back into ournormal routine from the world cruise. With so many projects planned and unplanned, we have been most busy allsummer. Although one fire was fairlyclose to us, we did live with the horrible smoke for weeks from the rest of thefires in California. Knock on wood, allseems back to our usual pleasant almost-fall weather.

So we plan to fly to Seattle very early tomorrow morning,join the Eurodam, and be off for seven days in Alaska. Ports will include Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan,Victoria, and scenic cruising in Glacier Bay. This, the glacier portion of the cruise.

Then we continue back to Vancouver, Victoria, with 5 days atsea heading towards Hawaii, and the volcano portion of the trip. Even though we will not be sailing near Konaand the lava fields, we think we will be close enough to claim the volcanopart. The ports in Hawaii will includeHilo, Lahaina, Honolulu, and Lihue, Kauai. Then we will sail 5 days back to Vancouver where we fly home on October17th.

This will be our second cruise on the Eurodam, whichoccurred last year around this same time. We lucked out to have great weather last year, so we keep our fingerscrossed for the same.

We will miss the start of the fall colors here, but restassured, the leaves will be waiting for us to clean up!

To be continued…..

Bill & Mary Ann

Report # 1 GettingReady to Fly to Seattle September 21,2018 Friday Warm and sunny 92 degrees

 

 

 

Well, here we go again, for a much anticipated 7 day Alaskanjourney, followed by an 18 day trip to Hawaii and back to Vancouver. Gosh, it seems like we just got back into ournormal routine from the world cruise. With so many projects planned and unplanned, we have been most busy allsummer. Although one fire was fairlyclose to us, we did live with the horrible smoke for weeks from the rest of thefires in California. Knock on wood, allseems back to our usual pleasant almost-fall weather.

 

 

 

So we plan to fly to Seattle very early tomorrow morning,join the Eurodam, and be off for seven days in Alaska. Ports will include Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan,Victoria, and scenic cruising in Glacier Bay. This, the glacier portion of the cruise.

 

 

 

Then we continue back to Vancouver, Victoria, with 5 days atsea heading towards Hawaii, and the volcano portion of the trip. Even though we will not be sailing near Konaand the lava fields, we think we will be close enough to claim the volcanopart. The ports in Hawaii will includeHilo, Lahaina, Honolulu, and Lihue, Kauai. Then we will sail 5 days back to Vancouver where we fly home on October17th.

 

 

 

This will be our second cruise on the Eurodam, whichoccurred last year around this same time. We lucked out to have great weather last year, so we keep our fingerscrossed for the same.

 

 

 

We will miss the start of the fall colors here, but restassured, the leaves will be waiting for us to clean up!

 

 

 

To be continued…..

 

 

 

Bill & Mary Ann

Have a great trip,we are doing the Asia Pacific this year,very excited. We will see you onboard the World. Sandra and Allan

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Hi there!!

Enjoy every minute of your cruise. We will be sailing along with you. ;p

I just checked the port schedule. We are both in Victoria on 9-28 but we leave before you get there. :(

Bon Voyage!!

Denise and Howie, too

Looking forward to following along with you once again!!! We will be joining you for the “glacier” portion of your cruise. Safe travels and we will see you in Seattle tomorrow!!

You're more than welcome to attend our M/G in the Tamarind, Tuesday, October 2nd, from 11-12.

There will be about 50 of us, we'd love to have you, your world cruise thread was legendary!

Bruno

M/G Organizer

Eurodam 18 day Hawaii

9-29-18 to 10-17-18

Sounds like a wonderful cruise.

Thanks for taking us along.

Bon Voyage!

Looking forward to your reports.

Wow! Will finally be on the same ship with my all-time favorite bloggers!

Sounds like a great getaway. Looking forward to reading all about your cruise. Hope you have a great time!

Enjoy your adventures. Following !!! [emoji924]☀️

Yay, another cruise! Thanks for taking us along with you.

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

Glad to see you again! I followed your Thread last year, enjoyed it so very much. We did the same Eurodam cruise this year in May. So much of what you shared helped us tremendously in planning ours! Thank you and Enjoy!

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Have a great cruise

Happy and safe travels! Looking very forward to your blog. :-)

So happy to be joining you virtually on your cruise. Thanks for all your efforts.

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Glad to follow along! Again:cool:

Report#2 Embarkation Day September 22,2019 Saturday 67 degreesand partly cloudy with drizzle Part #1 Of2 43 Pictures

Getting up at 2am, werealized that it was going to be one very long day. Our limo arrivedat 3:30am sharp, and we were off for a traffic-free ride to the San Franciscoairport. Since it was Saturday, there was little traffic.

We wondered how busy theairport would be at this hour. To our surprise, it was quitebusy. Our first stop was checking our luggage, after we did thepainless kiosk. Remember the days when the agent at the counter didall the work? Now you print your own luggage tags, pay for them, andgather your boarding passes. Now all the agent has to do is weighthe bags, and point you to the security checkpoint.

This time we did notluck out and get the TSA approved passes. So the shoes, jackets, andbelts had to come off (how rude), and not only the computers out of the case,but the big camera had to be double checked outside of the bag. Atleast we had time to spare.

A shared breakfast wasperfect at the nearest restaurant. The coffee sure tasted good bynow. And the gate was right next to this café. We boardedaround 6:30am, and were flying after 7am. In a couple of hours, wewere landing in Seattle after a smooth flight with cookies and coffee.

Since we have done thistrip several times, we knew how to access the waiting area for the bus transferto the ship. Besides the Eurodam, the Ruby Princess, and the NCLBliss were in port. We understand that the Ruby was headed for a drydocking, but we cannot confirm that. One of the freeways was closeddown, so the alternate route took us longer to get to thepier. Almost an hour’s ride, it was OK, because we had arrivedearly, and the ship may not be ready to let us board.

Even though there weremany people, we never waited long in a line to get checked in. Ofcourse, there is a priority line for suites and 4 & 5 star Mariner members,which was moving quickly. By the way, we did not have to fill outthe health questionnaire this time. Truthfully, how many people will admit thatthey are ill when boarding anyway?

So we got the wonderfulwelcome with an escort to bring us onboard. She delivered us to thecruise director, Towanna Stone, a former Miss Tennessee USA, noless. She gave us a proper welcome, then turned us over to Tataniafrom Guest Relations. Finally, she escorted us to our room, whichwas ready and waiting for us. We certainly appreciated this perk,since no one else was allowed to enter their rooms yet. Maybe thesuite folks, but that was all.

The head of housekeepingfollowed up with a visit, along with our room stewards Erik andHenky. Every single request we had made prior to the cruise wascomplete. All we needed to do was relieve them of the “towel animal”duty, since we have seen them all. We figure this would give themsome extra time to do other things.

Time to go in search offood before an invitation to the Mariner Society welcomegathering. Pizza, of course, was on our minds as a light lunchoption. The Lido, as expected, was getting quite busy by noontimeanyway. On our Eurodam trip last year, we remembered the pizza to beexcellent, but today was a bit of a disappointment. First we hadCaprese salads, then shared a Margherita pizza at New York Pizza at the SeaviewPool. The crust was paper thin, almost resembling a wafer-likeconsistency. Pre-made? We’re not sure, but it was not thesame as they had last year……more bready-like we are used to. Perhapsthis is a good thing, because we are trying hard to keep the calories withinreason this time.

We did check out thesandwich section in the Lido to find that the array of sandwiches weredisplayed open-face, so we knew what we were getting. Again, weshared a torpedo sliced beef roll. Very good and fresh as well.

Back in the room, someof our luggage arrived, and we took the time to stash our stuff. Weheaded up to the Crow’s Nest, but realized we were in the wrong place for theMariner party. It was held in the Billboard Onboard instead. Truthfully,with all of the cards and invites we had piled in our room upon arrival, it’sno wonder we got it wrong. Anyway, we were in for a bigsurprise………two friends from previous cruises were sitting right there beyondthe receiving line with the Hotel Director, Glenn Cowley. By theway, Captain Eric Barhorst, is the master of the vessel, but was not present bythe time we arrived. So our unexpected meeting with Johnny andYvonne, both Dutch, was really like homecoming. They have been onback-to-back Alaska cruises, and will be on this one we aredoing. Always fun to catch up on our travels the last few years.

Muster was at 3:15pm,with a warning: be there, or you don’t sail! It was well organizedand as brief and precise as we remembered. Moving about 2100passengers with this drill is a feat in itself, as we understand this sailingis fully booked.

Back in our room, thelast of our luggage had been delivered, so we stashed it all with room tospare. We could not have gotten by with less than three pieces ofluggage, although we did spot some folks boarding with eightbags. That would have been us 20 years ago, we have to admit.

Dinnertime came for usat 8pm. One of us was soooo tired, it could have beenskipped. Heaven forbid we miss a meal. Snacking on thetrays of lovely food that was gifted, along with room service cheese plate, wepolished off the bottle of champagne while enjoying the sailaway from ourveranda.

A fellow named Dede wasour waiter, even though the sign said we had another waiter. Manytimes, these guys are switched around between sailings. Soup andsalad would have been sufficient, but we added a pasta and chickenentrée. Proud of ourselves, we skipped the bread and evendessert. Hope we can keep this up for another 24days. During the meal, we had several visitors, including the diningroom manager, head waiters, and a familiar beverage assistant from theAmsterdam. All of these fellows knew our names, and greeted usproperly. We swear there is a photo of us posted in their quartersso we can be identified personally. You know, like a wanted poster.

Sure was nice to climbbetween those fresh, crisp sheets while experiencing the rolling of the ship aswe sail north to Juneau. We have a list of questions for the guestrelations people, but tomorrow will be soon enough to figure it allout……especially the internet, which has changed since we lastsailed. Be back tomorrow with more info…..

Bill & Mary Ann

Great start.

Glad you arrived safely in Seattle.

Bon Voyage and I look forward to following you on your adventures.

Chris

Following along too. Have a wonderful time.

Beautiful sunset pics (on your blog). Thanks for posting

Following:) Have a wonderful cruise!!

I was just on the Inside Cabin blog and clicked on your site to see what was up next and was so happy to see you were cruising again. Looking forward to your review and photos.

Following along. Love your world cruise blog.

Report #3 SailingTowards Juneau, Alaska September 23,2018 Sunday Mostly cloudy, sprinkles, & windy 70 degrees Part #1 of 1 14 Pictures

Our first day at sea with nothing to do. Yeah, right. Our day began with breakfast in the dining room, which began at 7:30am,not 8am as we are accustomed. The staffis so friendly once again, and we found another buddy, a head waiter, Mega,from the Amsterdam. He had gone homelast April, at the end of the world cruise, then was deployed to the Eurodamthree weeks ago. He greeted us with goodnews that our favorite dining room manager, Philip, may be going back to theAmsterdam after all. Hope that is true,since he has made the last two world cruises a most pleasant dining experience.

We had a list of questions for the guest service folks, sowe headed that way to attempt doing some internet work while in theatrium. Hands down, so far this newinternet service has been the worst ever. Perhaps it is where we are located (haven’t we heard that before?), orthere are too many people using the system. Blah-blah-blah. So the helpfulguest relations fellow attempted to send our file, and succeeded to send itfour times, sorry about that. Last year,the internet worked with minutes, now it is by packages, unless you have afreebie perk, which gives you minutes that are converted to gigabytes. Confusing? Yes, but who cares if it works better? So far, it is our humble opinion that it is not better. Maybe tomorrow, when we are in Juneau, itwill be a different story……we will let you all know.

For those who may want to know, you can still get meclizinetablets, complimentary, at the front desk. Also, we requested a newspaper be delivered to our room in the morning. Not a problem. Nothing in the way of gifted shipboard creditis cashable, as some of it was in the past. Spend it, or lose it. Been theredone that. Learned our lesson. Lastly, our account will carry over from thiscruise to the next on to Hawaii.

The Canadian declaration cards were given out for all tofill out for Victoria’s visit on Friday. A detailed description was included with the card, so filling it out wasa breeze. For those going home onSaturday, the disembarkation options were also given to all. Port Valet is offered in Seattle, where youput your luggage out on Friday evening, and it will be delivered to theairport, and end up at your destination city. There was no charge for this service, only the airline baggagefees. It is a wonderful service, whichwe have used many times in the past. Ifyour bags happen to be a little over-weight, you are not charged extra. As for us, we will be in-transit, and do nothave to worry about this until October 17th. And so ends our work for the day.

Time for lunch in the dining room. Soup, salad, and two mini burgers were justenough. Dessert? No thanks. We figured we would attend the complimentary wine tasting, and indulgewith the cheese and fruit plate. So at2pm, we joined the small group, and happened to take two seats next to ourbuddies, Johnny and Yvonne. Whatluck. We sipped and savored the twowhite selections, but did not care for the reds. Actually, we never drink wine, but do enjoythe presentations, good cheese, and fruit samplings. Wines promoted today were Danzante PinotGrigio from Italy, Dreaming Tree Chardonay from California (our favorite),Frescobaldi Castiglioni Chianti from Italy, and Cuarto Domino Lote 44 Malbacfrom Argentina. The malbac was thefavorite of most folks.

Time for a quick walk of over a mile on deck three in orderto stay awake. It was windy, cool, butstill pleasant. You could count thewalkers on one hand. It takes threerotations to equal a mile, and most folks were doing about one time around. The shops are on this deck, and that’s wherewe found most everyone…..in the stores. Looked like bargain basement bonanza with all of their sales. We suppose it is the end of the Alaska run,and they are trying to clear out their stockpile. Tickets were being handed out for a drawing,and the line was really long. Great wayto get people into their shops.

Other things to keep people busy included purchases in thephoto shop. Something was differentabout the layout, but it wasn’t until dinnertime that we discovered why. The Eurodam must have gone into dry dock andhad some re-modeling done since last September. So a crafting corner has been added, as well as computer shopping forphotos. Package deals are availabletoo. During a further conversation witha familiar photo gal, we learned that the Navigator phone option also haspossibilities for purchases packages. Thisdepartment has really been modernized….a much needed change.

Other apparent upgrades we saw were the removal of a glassstaircase in the atrium. We alwaysthought it was an accident waiting to happen anyway. And on deck one in the same atrium, a minibar was removed, replaced with tables and chairs. The future cruise consultant has a differentlocation, and it is where the shore excursion desk used to be. A very congested area, now the shore ex islocated in the Crow’s Nest, we think. New carpeting throughout the ship has the added ship direction pointingforward. Hard to get too lost.

We enjoyed catching up on another series in the Game ofThrones on our stateroom interactive TV. Such as improvement from the old-fashioned TV’s on the Amsterdam. Dinnertime was formal, oh excuse us…..gala. Most everyone dressed the part – the men insuits or tuxes, and the ladies in sparkles. There were a few hidden t-shirts under a jacket, and yes, we did spot acouple of men with baseball caps. No onewas turned away that we saw. We hadsoup, salad, shrimp cocktail, and mains of rack of lamb with a bakedpotato. Deciding to pass on dessert, werelented and shared a slice of lemon meringue cheesecake. Good choice…..really tasty.

Since we are at a table for two, there is no waiting betweencourses, so our meal moved along quickly. We certainly miss our buddy, Barb, but she would agree getting out after10pm some nights was a bit much. Takinga walk outside was not a good idea. Infact, it was so windy and slightly rough that the outside doors on deck threewere roped off. Strolling through theshops was a better idea, then off to our room to catch one of the natureseries. We love this TV format with somany choices.

And better news, the clocks went back one hour tonight as weget closer to Juneau. Works for us andthe crew also.

Tomorrow we will be in Juneau around 1pm, and away from therolling seas we hope.

Bill & Mary Ann